About Us
Hi there! We’re Phil, Ilo (pronounced eye-low) and Ninja – 50 somethings plus a sweet old pup on a journey to find our copper pot – something we enjoy doing that provides a modest income and still allows plenty of time to spend with loved ones, volunteer, play disc golf, hike and travel. We want to share our journey with you and inspire you to find your copper pot.
We’re on a 2+ year sabbatical from work and are converting our Ford Transit cargo van, Birdie, into a cozy living space. Our plan is to travel and explore different hobbies and crafts to find something we are passionate about doing or building to support our ‘work less, play more’ lifestyle!
How did we get here?
In 2017 we took an amazing car camping trip to Utah and one evening sitting by the campfire, chatted about how comfortable it would be if we had a small van with a bed and place to sit to get out of the weather. We love to travel and planned to take one and two week trips every year and thought a van would be the perfect solution. When we got home we started looking at converting a van and were introduced to Van Life through Youtube – we had no idea this existed! We liked the way the vans were custom and homey and the prospect of being able to build the van on our own was extremely appealing!
On the other hand, 2017 was not a good year. We lost several family members – two were in their early 50’s and taken by illness far too soon. My father also passed that year. He worked all his life and retired in his early 70’s and passed away a couple short years later from an aggressive form of ALS. We were hit with the reality that tomorrow isn’t promised and we could continue to work towards retirement in our mid-sixties and not be able to enjoy it due to illness or death. We needed a lifestyle change – we needed to play more and work less. We both had careers in product development and were working 9 and 10 hours days and at least a few hours on the weekends – we had become workaholics with little energy left for activities and hobbies. A lifestyle change was going to require something drastic and that was quitting our jobs.
Fast forward to 2020 – we were still working (a lot) but also holding on to our dream of a lifestyle change. We had been saving money, watching Youtube videos on van builds, and following van life and travel blogs. We were basically watching other people live our dream! During Christmas break we did a budget check and made the decision to forge ahead. In April 2021, we began the quest to find ‘our copper pot’!
How is a copper pot related to our journey?
When we started researching van builds and discussing our desire to have more time to do the things we really enjoy, we ran into a Youtube video about an engineer that found an old copper pot and restored it – he enjoyed the process and the history of copper pots and started a business refurbishing and ultimately making copper pots. He became really passionate about copper pots. This resonated with us because we had lost passion for our professional careers and wanted to do something different, vastly different. Building something with our hands was very appealing so we started on a quest to find our copper pot – something we are passionate about making or doing that will support our ‘work less, play more’ lifestyle.