Clayton Balabanov and wife, Theresa Davies, had ambitions of hitting the road after their retirement, but couldn’t quite find the mobile home that would give them everything they wanted to achieve their aim.
Balabanov and Davies had plans to spend the rest of their days driving around the scenic highways of Canada and the United States. But first, they needed to find a camper.
“I was not happy with the manufacturers’ units,” Balabanov, 75, told Insider in an interview. “They just didn’t seem like they would stand up to the year-round use, rather than just vacation use.”
It was then that the couple decided to build their own mobile home by buying an old semi-truck and transforming it into a home as comfortable as their actual home on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Balabanov also bought a used trailer and combined the two.
“So I bought an older one and then spent the next year rebuilding it,” Balabanov said, “brakes and engine, and all that sort of stuff.”
“It was empty, and I just decided to go at it,” he added. “I planned things out on a whiteboard and kept making changes. As I built, things changed as well.”
Overall it took hours, every single day, for five years before the mobile home was completed and up to standards. Balabanov even sewed in the curtains himself.
Davies, meanwhile, was in charge of collecting all the materials needed to complete the mobile trailer.
But while Balabanov initially attempted to save money by buying an old trailer and truck, they still ended up with a costly bill.
In total, they spent about $180,000.
The trailer has several rooms, including an office, a kitchenette with a microwave oven and a fridge, a loft bed above a seating area, an actual garage, a living room, a bedroom, a library and a bathroom.
“It’s a full kitchen, bigger than you’d find in most apartments, because we want to spend the rest of our life in here and we want to be comfortable,” Balabanov said.
“At 75, I’m not going to cram myself into a little, tiny kitchen trying to make beans on toast,” he added.
And if that is not enough, the space even has its own spiral staircase that leads up to the second floor and a hot tub.
“It looks awesome, and it takes up less space than if I put regular stairs in,” Balabanov said, referring to the staircase.
“For the tub, it made sense to buy one with jets. It’s not that big a difference [in price], so we might as well put it in,” Balabanov said.
The pair also built a mini movie theater, which they can stream using Starlink. The cozy space has a 75-inch 4K TV and a surround sound system.
“It’s so we can relax in the evening and have a nice movie for entertainment,” Balabanov told the outlet.
Meanwhile, Davies spends most of her time in the library.
“Theresa likes books. She decided that that’s going to be her main entertainment,” Balabanov said.
But like with most great things, great problems can come.
“This is our maiden voyage, where everything breaks,” Balabanov said. “So we’ll change things that didn’t work and enhance things that did work and polish up.
“And then we’re off to go across Canada.”
But after five years of working on the home, Balabonov admits that he maybe wished he didn’t spend so much time on it.
“That was five years out of my life that I could have just gone out and bought something smaller and less able and then gone out and spent that five years on the road,” he said. “But on the other hand, I really enjoyed doing it.”
But since they sold their family home and taxi business, they plan on staying in their semi-truck home for the long haul.
“You only live so long,” Balabanov said. “It’s absolutely guaranteed you’re going to die, so make the most of living between now and then. That’s what we’re doing.”
