A Woman and Her Snake Share a Stylish (and Surprisingly Spacious) Converted Van Home
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Name: Jennelle Eliana and her white ball python Alfredo
Location: California
Size: 1995 GMC Vandura Explorer
Years lived in: 1.5 years, owned
Jennelle became a homeowner at age 19 when she bought this 1995 GMC Vandura Explorer in September 2017, which also happened to be her first vehicle, as well! Transformed into a very compact but cozy house on wheels, her baby-blue-on-the-outside, eclectic-and-pink-on-the-inside van is the perfect home base for her lifestyle right now.
Featuring solar power, a working sink, expansive clothes storage, and a spacious home for her white ball python Alfredo, Jennelle also did the entire van conversion herself (see a before photo here). Not too bad for a first-time homeowner!
Alfredo the snake lives in a small home within the van home, in a glass enclosure that’s warmed by Jennelle’s solar and battery setup (shown in the photo below). You can see more snippets of him winding his way through the van in the tour video above or on Jennelle’s instagram.
Jenelle works full time and goes to school part time, but she also finds time to road trip through her home state of California in her tiny home-on-wheels. She actually originally wanted to purchase a Sprinter van, but ended up buying this one on Craigslist for an “AMAZING price. The lovely elderly couple who sold it to me only used her to take their grandkids to Disneyland a couple times out of the year. It came fully stocked. Every button worked. They had the original Polaroid TV hooked up to a PlayStation. The motorized bed was still motorized. AC/heater was in tip-top shape and till this day I haven’t had any major mechanical issues. Her name was Dino before I had her painted blue,” she wrote in a caption on her Instagram.
You can help Jennelle “fill up her gas tank” by checking out some of the vintage clothing she has for sale. After watching the video house tour she made for us above, make sure you follow her on Instagram to see even more videos; she approaches #vanlife with a lot of humor and it’s very watchable! (This short video of how she gets into the van’s main cabin from the driver’s seat is a prime example.)
Thanks Jennelle!