To accommodate their new lifestyle, Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie renovated their Ford Transit Connect themselves. Petito wrote in aYouTubedescription that they “handcrafted [their] own tiny van … utilizing space with unique designs and features.” Glimpses of Laundrie and Petito’s van can be seen in their video, proving their efforts to make a comfortable and functional living space, and Petito can be heard saying, “I love the van.”
Petito and Laundrie were documenting their travels on their YouTube channel, Nomadic Statik, and their first video was called “VAN LIFE | Beginning Our Van Life Journey,” paying homage to the Transit Connect.
Another van traveler, Jaye Foster, met Petito and Laundrie on their travels, and “chatted for about 40 minutes, discussing the modifications they had made to their vans,” according to The Daily Beast. “They were ecstatic about their rebuild,” Foster said. He mentioned, too, that “she was so proud of the sink she had put in,” and that the travelers “were happy to show off their van.” Some of the modifications included a table to prepare food, a place to sit with storage underneath, bulletin boards, and lots of hung art.