Today we’d like to introduce you to Sydney Hungerford.
Hi Sydney, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Albert and I met in college, we were both lost as to our purpose in life and felt the need to pursue adventure and travel as a means of self-discovery.
One night we came across the novelty of #vanlife on YouTube and we were gone down the rabbit hole right away. We spent years researching, planning, and saving up for our dream. A year after our college graduation we were ready to buy our van. We were conservative with our van building budget because although we were excited for this dream to become a reality, we were intimidated with the prospect of living together on the road in such a small space. In Dec 2019 we drove the 5 hours to Atlanta to pick up our beautiful cherry red 2006 Dodge sprinter van. It had a lot of miles on it already and it was a low roof which wasn’t our ideal choice but it was clean, well maintained, and affordable for us at the time.
We got to work on the conversion straight away. Albert’s parents generously lent us their driveway to work in and through nights and weekends over the next four months, we built our first tiny home together. Despite the years of research and planning, we had no idea what we were doing, we had never built anything before let alone design an entire living space, electrical and plumbing system that would all need to withstand constant movement and environmental changes. We learned so much throughout this process and it was one of our favorite parts of #vanlife as a whole.
In June 2020 we were ready to hit the road. On our maiden journey up the east coast, our air-conditioning exploded taking the transmission lines with it and creating a mess of our coolant system. The van was in the shop for seven weeks and Sydney’s aunt and uncle gave us a place to stay and regroup while our home was being repaired. It was a discouraging setback before we had even gotten started. Once the van was repaired, we headed on to Michigan and we never had any problems with the van again. We spent the next 10 months traveling the west, visiting national parks and ski resort hopping, and sharing our story on social media.
In march 2021 we had, had enough of the low roof van. The life of travel had us hooked but the cramped living situation, in which Albert could not even stand upright, was too difficult for us to manage. We made the drive back to the east coast and sold our beloved van to another Charleston couple who was ready to pursue #vanlife for themselves. Shortly after selling the van, we picked up our current home on wheels, a 36′ 1991 Blue Bird school bus. It was too big to fit in a driveway so we went up to Maryland and spent the year living with Sydney’s relatives on their homestead building out the new and improved tiny home of our dreams. The second time around building went much more smoothly the experience of the first build really helped us smooth out the process and the end result could not have been better for us. Our new home is bigger than our last Charleston apartment and is designed perfectly for us and our lifestyle.
We finished the bus in December 2021 and have since moved out to Arizona to work with a professional van conversion company for the spring season. We have no idea what the future holds for us but the pursuit of the nomadic life has given us a sense of freedom and the ability to trust ourselves and our intuition to keep us on the right path for our lives. We are more willing to take risks and make mistakes as they ultimately always help us learn and improve ourselves. The nomadic life requires self-reliance and an ability to roll with the punches and tackle challenges as they present themselves knowing that there will always be more around the corner. We will continue to share our story in the hopes that it inspires others to deviate from the path that others may have set up for them and to pursue travel if it is something meaningful to them.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
From breakdowns, mechanical and mental, to bad weather we have had no shortage of challenges on this journey.
The first few months of vanlife, outside of the first major breakdown, went smoothly. It was falling so the weather was still lovely but by the time the end of October came around the snow started falling sooner and thicker than we expected. Many of our plans were canceled or cut short as a result. The first major lesson of vanlife was learned, how to pivot and remake plans on the fly when, not if, plans go wrong. We ended up spending a lot more time in cities than we had planned to in order to make money on the road. This meant spending a great deal more time in the van than outside it. The close proximity to one another in a space that was truly not big enough for us led to arguments fueled by exhaustion and a lack of personal space and privacy. Although it was a challenge at the time it has ultimately improved our communication and understanding of one another and brought us closer.
We chose to spend the majority of our time in the van, skiing. Which presented its own set of challenges; the cold, driving in the snow, getting dark at 4 pm, and being sore and exhausted more often than not. We knew going into it that living in a van throughout the entire winter in places that are far colder than anything we were used to would be an immense challenge. We had to abandon plans and flee south in search of warmer weather a few times which, at the time, felt like failing. We were putting too much pressure on ourselves to “do vanlife right” and pretend like the challenges we were facing weren’t taking a toll on us. Eventually, we were able to let go of this and learn to make decisions that were best for our mental health rather than best for entertaining our audience or impressing others.
Undertaking a massive building project with no experience, twice, also tested us as individuals and our relationships. Most of our friends and family’s reactions to us living/building a tiny home together were “Oh I could never do that with my husband/wife, we would kill each other” and frankly, I believe that. This experience has tested our relationship in ways that I think many would not be able to withstand and through it all, we feel so lucky to have found each other and that we are able to work together the way that we have.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Our first year of vanlife was a journey of self-discovery, we graduated college with no direction or career aspirations. Building the first van together, we learned that we really enjoy working with our hands and creating something beautiful in the physical world. While designing the bus we decided to dedicate the rear to an enclosed workshop for creating. Albert does wood carving and aspires to one day have a forge where he can create custom handcrafted knives, hand tools, and jewelry. Sydney does watercolor landscapes and pen and ink drawings for commission and takes custom requests for work, she specializes in nature, botanicals, and architectural works and hopes to one day expand into larger format paintings and ceramics. What set us apart is the variety of our work and the diversity of our interests. We don’t fit into anyone specific niche or style; we are adaptable artists and exist in a category of our own.
We are also willing to create custom tiny home builds upon request! We can help with any part of an existing build or create something entirely from scratch we also do consultations for everything from layout design, electrical and plumbing system construction, or just general vanlife advice.
We also create content surrounding travel and a freedom mindset on social media specifically YouTube and Instagram.
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
We could never have done any of this without the support of our family and friends. Alberts’s parents and Sydney’s aunt and uncle who have given us a place to work and a place to live many times over the years, and our friends who have let us park in their driveways and given us tours of the places that they are familiar with.
The people around us growing up who showed us that it is okay to pave your own path and that a creative eye can take you far in life. Sydney’s grandmother who taught her practical skills like sewing, painting, cooking, and gardening that made her confident enough to take on new skills. Professors in college who encouraged the pursuit of fulfillment over the pursuit of a career.
Pricing:
- $150 custom home watercolor and ink painting 8″x10″
- $25 custom sticker design 4″x4″
- $50/hr vanlife consultation
- custom build subject to consultation
Contact Info:
- Email: sydneyandalbert@gmail.com
- Website: www.sydneyandalbert.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/sydneyandalbert
- Facebook: www.facebook.com.sydneyandalbert
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/sydneyandalbert
Image Credits
Legare Hay
