Full Time RVing Workspaces: Technomadia

Names: Cherie Ve Ard & Chris Dunphy

Website: www.technomadia.com

Occupation: App Developers & Tech Consultants

Self employed running Two Steps Beyond LLC 

RV(s):

• 16′ T@B (teardrop trailer)
• 17′ Oliver (fiberglass ‘egg’ trailer)
• 35′ Vintage Bus Conversion (motorhome)

On the Road Since: 2006

2006 – 2008: T@b Days

In 2006 Chris set off solo in a tiny 16′ T@b teardrop trailer, and then we met a few months later. Cherie moved on board, and we spent 2007 experimenting with life on the road together.

It had solar power and wireless internet, but no fridge, A/C or bathroom. It was able to go lots of places most RVs can’t go though.

We were both working from the road, and struggled a lot with workspaces. The bed had to be converted from the dinette on a daily basis. This became a chore, especially since we had a bulky foam mattress topper that had to be stowed away as part of the process.

As a result, we worked a lot outdoors on picnic tables and such.  Which, after doing a few times – is not as romantic sounding as you might think. Bright sun? No back support? Bugs? Yeah. Makes a great picture, but working outside is really not a productive work day.

And we had slightly offset sleep schedules. It took just one night of Cherie having to sleep on the floor while Chris pulled an all-nighter to finish a project to convince us we needed a change.

2008 – 2011: Oliver Days

After our initial year on the road, we decided we needed something slightly larger where we could have some desk space and bed space that didn’t need to be constantly converted to be usable.

We found Oliver Travel Trailers, who had taken the Casita fiberglass egg layout and made it very high end, and was optimizing for off grid living.

We worked with Oliver to have one custom made for us, with ample solar, large holding tanks and cellular boosting equipment all built in.

It was a huge upgrade in living space – also giving us a full kitchen, bathroom and climate control! But yet it was still small enough to keep  us nimble to get into smaller campgrounds, go off roading and finding fun boondocking spots.

We quickly found that the side dinette was not as ideal for two people as we had hoped, it was just slightly too small. While it could fit two laptops, it didn’t leave much elbow room.

So often one of us would end up working in bed, or outdoors.

And, after years of working from a dinette bench seat, our backs were hurting. As our work hours increased with new projects, we just couldn’t tolerate it anymore.

We craved a ‘real’ desk with an office chair more designed for the ergonomics of long computer work days.

We had outgrown our Oliver, and it was time for something different.

2011 – Present: Vintage Bus

After 4 years on the road in super tiny trailers and hunched over laptop screens, we were ready for something better suited to productive work on the road! We spent a couple months looking at vintage buses that would be livable from day one, but with potential to remodel as we traveled to be our ideal layout.

We found Zephyr, our 1961 GM 4106 bus conversion.

Workspace Goal: To create a dual desk workspace that could handle two large monitors, two ‘real’ office chairs and with some separation between the spaces.

Starting place:

We took out the dinette and had a dual desk custom built for us by a handyman at a campground we found, repurposing the cabinet seen in the front of the coach above to be the center piece. Total cost of materials and labor was about $600.

Full details of the desk build

Current setup:

 

We left about 1.5 inches of space behind the desk for running cables and such. The monitors are attached to the desk via a custom made C-clamp system that damages neither the monitor bases or the desk. This allows the monitors to ride on the desk while underway.

Later had a slide out table made between the workstations to be used as extra desk space, eating space and a wine & cheese table.

We’ve been using this desk setup since September 2011, and have been super happy.

Here’s a quick video tour of the office:

And more information on our office setup:

Tour of our RV Office — Computer Monitors and Rolling Chairs in Motion

 

This profile is part of the Change Your Office View: Full Time RVing Workstations series – we hope that by sharing what others have been able to create in their RVs will help inspire you as to what is possible to work on the road.