Jasmine and Peter Grant have been living a mobile life, bringing them to Kelowna seeking a place to settle down for the winter.
The couple spent the last year traveling, starting from Vancouver Island and ending in Regina, Sask.
They came back to B.C. and spent 10 months in Whistler, where Peter is from.
And now, they’re looking to rent a space to park their van for the winter.
Jasmine said they want to be more city-bound to make it easier for them to go to and from work.
“Once the van is parked, we winterize it and it doesn’t move for the entire winter,” she said.
“We use transit to get to work and things like that.”
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She explained they usually find work in construction, cleaning, and hospitality.
Peter just found a job as a cook in Kelowna while she’s looking for employment.
But it’s not all fun, especially when they come into town and start looking for a place to park.
Jasmine said people have made comments about how they’re “killing the environment” by living in a van.
“But that’s not what we’re doing. We’re not doing it to try to kill the environment or eat granola. We work for a living, we’re just normal people,” she said.
“It’s just not what the stereotypical view on it is. Some people are really against it, I guess.”
“People say, ‘You can’t park here.’ Well, we’re going to park somewhere eventually,” Peter added.
He went on to say living the “van life” has been freeing in many ways, alleviating the pressure to make a lot of money to pay rent or a mortgage along with other home maintenance costs.
“Lots of people are paying 50 per cent and more (for rent), which is where we were. We’re perfectly willing to pay for space in your driveway,” Peter said.
“But we’re doing this because rent was just eating up so much of our money and we had no real life after.”
According to the couple, living in the van also means only buying the things they need, which has led them to live a much simpler life.
“I’m really happy doing what I’m doing. Until somebody gives a really good reason not to, I’m going to continue van life,” said Jasmine.
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