Buzzfeed article: https://www.buzzfeed.com/matthewtucker/meet-the-brits-turning-to-unconventional-housing-to-save-on (https://www.buzzfeed.com/matthewtucker/meet-the-brits-turning-to-unconventional-housing-to-save-on)
'People are living in "tiny houses", timber woodland structures, and canal boats – and one YouTuber has set up home in a converted ambulance.' Has a van in there, too, of course.
David, the guy in the middle photo at the top of the article and his dog Billy, have an excellent youtube channel.
Nice article.
For a number of years, I had a combination of a cargo van camper, and a Caraboat, similar to the one that lady had, except mine had windows all the way around it. It was an unusual boat in that the trailer and the boat were all one.
It was light, bright, cheery, and 100% AWESOME. It's systems were simple and fool proof. It had a full kitchen, a wet bath with a toilet and shower, and both heat and air conditioning. It was the exact opposite of my dark, damp, dreary, and dismal cargo van which was always either too hot, too cold, or without power.
That boat was great, and everything was kerosene/diesel powered. Very easy to keep a comfortable temperature inside despite all the windows and no insulation.
The combination of the two did pose some problems though. While I was out in the boat my van would get broken into, and if the boat was left unattended it would get ransacked. Many boat launches did not allow overnight vehicle parking either.
One day when I returned to my boat after work, it was gone, and I was heartbroken, but that boat taught me so much about what I really wanted out of van life. Later, I met a number of very experienced van dwellers, and they all had many things in common. Mainly that their rigs were almost all nearly identical to that boat, except they were vans. Everything was simple but efficient. Lots of windows, but no solar panels, no roof vents, no insulation, no 12v fridges, and absolutely no propane. A few had kerosene fridges but most just used ice. Their house batteries were charged while driving or via a generator, just like it was on my boat.
My new van is a window van, and it too is set up very similar to that boat, and the vans of the other very experienced full timers, and I couldn't be happier.
I spent months on the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River, and a person could spend their whole life there on a boat. I caught fish to eat, and the excess to barter or sell for the other supplies I needed. (Food, fuel, and cash.) Boat life was great, but the combination of boat life and van dwelling combined, offered the best of both worlds. If I ever find another Caraboat, I would buy it in a heartbeat, perhaps better yet, a party barge type boat that I could just drive my camper van onto if it would be stable enough. Then my parking problems would be solved too.
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y128/seraph-sailing/ALIM0314.jpg)