We transformed a van into a luxe home inspired by Tulum architecture. Now, we're going to use what we learned to build a tiny-home village in Mexico.

• Edden Ram and his girlfriend converted a van that TikTok users call "the most unique" ever.
• It was their first van build, and it took them four months to complete.
• Now, they plan to build a tiny-home community in Saladita, Mexico.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Edden Ram, 32, who got into the van-conversion business last year with his girlfriend, Nicole. Next, the couple plans to build a tiny home community in Saladita, Mexico. The conversation was edited for length and clarity.

I used to be a full-time travel and extreme sports filmmaker. I had the best job — getting paid to travel all over the world and film really cool stuff. But after many years in the industry, my passion just started to dwindle. I was doing the same thing over and over again in a different place.

There was a process over a couple of years where I did a lot of reflection as to whether I wanted to do this or not. It was really scary for me because it was deeply ingrained with my identity. But I slowly let go and opened myself up to new opportunities.

Now, filmmaking only takes up 20% of my time. I have almost fully moved into the van-building business.

My girlfriend, Nicole, who joined the business with me, is an artist. She does all different types of art: graphic arts, physical drawing, and she's a tattoo artist. She used what she knows about art and design to transform the van. This was just our first one, and our next plan is to do a tiny-home project in Mexico.

We lived in a house with van builders in San Diego while we were building and we learned from them

The opportunity to start in the van-conversion business popped up out of nowhere. Last summer, we met a friend of a friend in a Jacuzzi in Lake Tahoe.

He started telling us about his incredible van-building business. He told us, "I have a house and a bunch of other van builders live there, and they are currently working on vans or have previously worked on vans. There's a ton of knowledge." He invited us to live there and consult with the other van builders.

Nicole and I agreed that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and we should jump on it. Within four months, we moved to San Diego — into the house. We had already bought a van and started planning.

We sometimes worked 20 hours days to get the van finished in four months

We started in February with absolutely no experience whatsoever. No building experience; no van experience. Nothing like that.

We had to learn everything from scratch, which was extremely daunting. There are so many different things that you need to learn: electrical, plumbing, woodworking, design. All these things that we had no experience with except for fixing up our own places.

We gave ourselves four months to do this. Both of us were working overtime. It requires a huge amount of commitment and time spent learning. It was definitely one of the most intense things we've done physically, and as a couple. It was a super tough four months.

In my opinion, the number one best way you can learn a new profession is just directly from people who are already doing it — being surrounded by them.

We just kept getting stronger, and by the end we were working seven days a week for sometimes 18 hours, or 20 hours straight. We were so happy with the result because we really feel like we made something extremely unique.

We came in with a fresh perspective, wanting to bring something into the market that hasn't been seen before — that was in line with our aesthetic. We're really happy it worked out so well.

We took inspiration from other vans, tiny homes, nature and Tulum architecture while designing our van dubbed the "Concrete Oasis"

Our main guiding light when we came into this project was that we weren't going to take inspiration solely from other vans.

There is a very clear direction in the van-building world of how vans should look. There is obviously a lot of diversity, but they all follow very similar guidelines.

For us, especially Nicole, having the eye that she does as an artist and designer, we wanted to take inspiration from everywhere. Mainly from houses, tiny homes, vacation rentals, and nature.

We really love the Bali-esque, Tulum look: the cement, the dark wood, the neutral tones. That was our biggest inspiration.

We had a very clear color palette that we wanted to work with and Nicole really took the lead on that. She's incredible with conceptualizing it — putting it all into a very, very detailed inspiration board.

We ended up kind of honing in on this cement wood look, which is very unique in the van-building world, and it was really hard to pull off because, obviously, you can't just put cement in the van.

Nicole found a material called microcement. It's almost like a lightweight plaster that you put over wood that gives it that look, but it's also very flexible so it won't crack — and it's waterproof.

That was what really made this van stand out.

It's called the "Concrete Oasis." It really is a defining characteristic of the van. We accompanied that with the walnut veneer throughout. Then we added burlap and matte-black details.

The van-building community has been kind of blown away by what we've done. It's surreal and weird to be a first-time van builder and like everyone's kind of like, you know, freaking out about our van.

The top comments we're getting are "best van design ever," or "most unique van design ever." We're blown away.

After traveling in the van for three months, we just sold it

We finished in May and drove it around for three months.

We put it through its paces to see what worked, what didn't, and how we could improve things. But I guess the best thing, obviously, is the freedom a van provides. That's really the main reason why people move into a van.

It also frees you from a physical location but also from the attachment to things, to possessions. You're not living in a house full of a ton of stuff. Naturally, you let go of a lot of things and stick to the bare minimums.

You can park your home wherever you want.

We've done tons of exploring. We saw waterfalls, national parks, forests, and coastlines. It's been a really special experience because we've never really fully lived in a van before so it's pretty incredible.

But I will also say that our intention was never to live in it full time. It was really more for the learning process: Learn how to build and design — especially for tiny spaces.

We're amazed by tiny living, and plan to build our own tiny-home community in Mexico

So, last year, Nicole and I were traveling in Mexico. We went to this tiny little surf town called Saladita. It's a town on the Pacific coast, and we just fell in love with the place. We really, really connected with how beautiful it was and how it had an amazing surf scene.

We realized that there was a very strong influx happening. There was a lot of development happening. It got us thinking about potentially investing there.

So we looked into it — researched for a long time about the process of buying in Mexico, how safe it is, and then looked into actual properties there.

It was a long process. But, eventually, we found a piece of land in the town where we could build this project we had in mind. We want to create this really small boutique, tiny-home vacation-rental compound with a couple of tiny homes on it, a common area, and a pool. We really want to be able to create a super unique experience like we felt like that was missing there.

We're hoping to start on that early next year.