'I left Ireland to live in a converted van in Spain with my dog and had the time of my life'

A 27-year-old Irish man converted a van into a home in just four months for him and his dog Tezza.

Dean Maher from Tramore in Waterford is a mechanic and is currently in Spain working on repairing go-karts.

Dean said in an exclusive interview that he decided to take on the huge DIY project of converting a small van into a home because of his dog!

When Dean went on a ski-trip in Italy he had left his dog Tezza with his mother to mind but he said: "my poor dog was just depressed and looking out the window everyday waiting for me to come home".

"When I came home then I said right I need to find a way to bring the dog with me next time....I said I'll have to buy a van....so that was the idea just to be able to bring my dog away with me."

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The process of converting a van into a home took Dean four months to do himself.

Dean is a plumber by trade and said with that experience over the last six years he had a good idea of how to convert a van.

"It was actually a really fun situation, " Dean said when he was asked how he went about buying a van in the first place.

"I started initially by bringing my dog with me in my jeep.....but my dog hated it! She wouldn't settle in it at all and I ended up driving home from Dingle at like four o'clock in the morning".

"My neighbour beside my garage...I was telling him about it and he said 'no way I actually have a van in my field and it's been there about two years now'".

Dean said the van was fairly mossy and mouldy but he went out anyways and had a look and "took it away for €1,000".

He gave the van a good power wash and gave himself four months to convert the van.

"It's probably 90 per cent there...there's still a couple of things....but it's pretty much done...I lived it in Spain for four months with the dog off the coast in Spain".

"It was brilliant...but it was very hot. In Valencia in July it was 55 degrees....it was bad and obviously the dog was struggling".

"I just had to stay beside the beach and we would just be in the water throughout the whole day....but it was the best four months of my life". 

Dean said that Spain in his experience is very camper living friendly and can be very easy and safe to do.

"I met a 37-year-old Norwegian fella who has been living in his Jeep in Spain for the last four years just working remotely".

At the moment, Dean has bought a bigger van because the one he has now doesn't have a bathroom or shower.

Dean said that it's "terrible that the economy has gone this bad that people are looking at living in the back of vans as a way to live.....but from a travel point of view I think it's absolutely brilliant".

"It doesn't cost you any money really.....you just have to put diesel in it...buy a disposable barbeque....cook up at any beach anywhere and wake up to the sunrise".

"And your not fixed to one place.....if you have a big night out and you embarrass yourself you can just get up and move town!".