I want to tell you something that took me a while to be able to say out loud.
About three years ago, at the age of 33, I moved back in with my mum. Life had come full circle. I am pretty sure this is something called Saturn's return — still mortifying to admit it had come to this, but here we are.
The economic climate had made everything unmanageable. Bills and rent prices had climbed to a point that was getting completely unrealistic for me as a self-employed freelancer whose industry had crumbled. No contracts coming in. My only option was to move back home.
Two years of trying to make it work in Cornwall
The reality was that there was no chance I'd be able to get on the property market. It actually took two years for me to find a meaningful job in Cornwall. In the meantime I took on a few part-time seasonal jobs — Kitchen Porter and two cleaning jobs — knowing I just needed to get some money coming in. The problem was that these cost almost as much in petrol to get to as I earned from them.
So I made a decision that felt impossible at the time. I temporarily relocated to Bristol.
My friend Dan very kindly put me up and put me in touch with a catering agency. I got short-term contracts as a kitchen assistant and started taking on pub jobs in my spare time too. Very slowly, over about nine months, I saved enough to give myself some breathing room while I looked for work back home in Cornwall. Again.
Unfortunately, in Cornwall there aren't many employers who want people with degrees and a list of qualifications as long as your arm. They take one look at your CV and ask: why on earth are you applying for this job? Well, the answer is that I need to earn some money and I'm not so proud that I won't clean or wash dishes for a living to make ends meet. Needs must.
Why a van made sense
I saw getting a van as a step forward to freedom and independence. A way of facilitating being in my mum's house without wanting to kill her. A way of owning something that was mine, instead of paying someone else's mortgage and never owning anything.
After going to see an ex-commercial van with my friends Sam and Jade, I managed to convince both my mum and my brother to loan me the money to get Bertha. The biggest van I have ever driven. Mum thought I was crazy but it was the only thing that made sense — as I was single at the time, there was no way a mortgage company would look at me and think: yeah, she's a good bet.
Then I got a job. And then I met someone.
I finally got a job at a well-known shipping warehouse. It turns out they take on pretty much anyone as long as you turn up on time and can do the job, which was great for me at the time.
It was overwhelming to begin with — so much to learn — but gradually my on-the-spectrum brain grasped the concepts and processes. After a few months of working there, I happened to meet Talek, who waved at me one day. After a series of messages from me pestering him to go for a drink at my favourite beach bar, he eventually said yes. Unbeknown to both of us at the time, he would become my partner, co-builder and father to our currently unborn child.
We were so incredibly aligned. Talek was just about to buy his own van for exactly the same reasons as me. He too was back living with parents after finding exactly the same things. He too had looked at the housing market and decided it wasn't playing fair. We agreed to build the van together and make it our home.
The build begins
We had to save up for each step — MOT first, then any work to make it completely safe, then tax and insurance, which cost a pretty penny. We managed to start building it properly at the end of last year.
Neither of us had any idea how to actually build a van. We watched endless YouTube videos on van conversions, but nothing actually prepares you for how to fix things to the side of a van, or how to scribe plywood so it fits the curve of the sides. Nothing in the van was straight or level to begin with, which made it quite the headache. But we've worked around it — with Tilly's help of course.
Next week I'll be going into more detail about the build itself, how we overcame some of our challenges, and where we are at now.
— Wild Coast Mama