The bedroom is filled with cardboard boxes. Some are half-full, while others have been taped shut and marked for their new home.
In the middle of the room, Judy Logan sits in a pink bonnet while nursing her six-week-old daughter. Her husband, Addison Logan, watches from his gaming chair as the couple prepares for a life that will look very different from the one they know now.
In just over a month, their Cape Town apartment, with its walls, running water and suburban stability, will no longer be their family home. Instead, Addison and Judy will move into a vintage camper van with their eight-year-old son, TJ, and their newborn daughter, Lani Moon.
The couple are known to more than 466 000 YouTube subscribers as The Logan Fam. Their decision to leave conventional housing has attracted strong reactions from friends, followers and curious viewers, many of whom have questioned why they would give up a stable home for a cramped vehicle.
But for the Logans, the move is about time, family and the chance to explore South Africa together while their children are still young.
The lease on their apartment ends on the last day of November. From 1 December, the family plans to live full-time in a 1978 Bedford CF camper van that they bought on Facebook Marketplace for R110 000 after negotiating the price down from R120 000.
The total project is expected to cost about R350 000. That figure includes a new motor, an automatic gearbox and a completely rebuilt interior. Even after the upgrades, the couple say the project will cost a fraction of what a new motor home would cost in South Africa.
The timing has been difficult. Lani arrived a month early, on the night before Judy’s planned baby shower, leaving the couple with less time than expected to finish the renovation.
Despite the pressure, Addison and Judy are continuing with their plans. They have already secured discounted access to campsites around the country, mapped out routes to Durban and the Eastern Cape and committed to daily livestreams documenting their life on the road.
Some friends and followers have asked why the couple do not use their money to buy land or a house. Addison said their answer was simple: they do not want to wait until life has passed them by before they begin exploring.
“Land is still going to be there; it’s not running away. What’s going to run away is the time you waste being stuck and not exploring,” Addi says.
A Facebook Marketplace discovery
Addison found the camper van after months of searching online. He saved searches for “camper”, “RV” and “caravan” and checked listings every day until the Bedford CF appeared.
The vehicle came with a history of its own. The previous owner’s late father had taken the camper on trips with his wife for years. After his death, the vehicle was left parked outside the family home, and his daughter found it too painful to see it there.
The family eventually decided to sell it. When they met the Logans and learned what they planned to do with the vehicle, the atmosphere changed.
“They felt really happy because it was going to a family that was going to enjoy it,” Addi says. “It was a meant-to-be thing.”
The couple are now rebuilding the entire interior themselves, working from plans prepared by an architect. The replacement motor and automatic gearbox are expected to cost between R100 000 and R150 000. The interior work should cost less than R100 000.
Reliable Wi-Fi is also a priority. The family needs a strong connection for TJ’s schooling and for the daily livestreams they plan to broadcast once they begin travelling.
The Logans considered newer second-hand motor homes, but the prices started at about R800 000. Addison said those vehicles did not have the family layout they wanted and were designed more for holidays than permanent living.
“they don’t lay it out for a family of four like we wanted”, Addi says. “They lay them out more for vacation, not living style.”
Judy has a clear idea of how the new family home should look. She wants the interior to be comfortable and attractive, with a soft design in shades of nude and brown.
“I want it to be homey still,” she says. “I want it to look cute and comfortable because I’m also going to be shooting my content separately.
“I want other creators to relate to staying in a caravan and to make it a thing in South Africa.”
The family’s home will be small, but Judy wants it to feel warm rather than temporary. She also hopes their lifestyle will inspire other creators and families to see caravan living as something that can be part of everyday life, not only a short holiday.
Preparing for life with a newborn
The decision to move into a camper would be challenging under normal circumstances. For the Logans, the situation became even more demanding when Lani arrived earlier than expected.
The baby made her imminent arrival known at 2am on 31 July when Judy’s water broke. At first, Judy thought she had wet the bed and tried to hide it from Addison because she was embarrassed.
“I tried to hide it from Addi because I didn’t want him to know
I’d peed in bed,” she says.
When more water escaped soon afterwards, the couple turned to ChatGPT for reassurance. The answer made it clear that the baby was on her way.
“CHATGPT was like, ‘Oh, it’s time’,” Addi recalls. “So I’m like, ‘Chat is tripping, man, it can’t be!’.”
Even then, they were not completely convinced that the birth was imminent. They went to hospital without a pram, a car seat or a properly prepared hospital bag. Instead, Judy had packed outfits that had been used for a prank video the previous week, when the couple staged a fake birth announcement.
The joke made the real emergency harder to believe at first. But Lani was born a month early, leaving her parents to adjust to life with a newborn while racing to complete the camper renovation.
Addison, who adopted TJ, said fatherhood with a newborn had quickly become less frightening than he expected.
“I was super-scared to change nappies before I actually did it and now it’s like nothing,” he says. “Your parenting instinct just comes in.”
TJ has also embraced being a big brother. Addison said the boy often goes to the baby’s bassinet and tries to get Lani to hold his finger.
“He’s always going over to the bassinet and trying to get her to hold his finger,” Addi says.
Judy said TJ was already showing a protective and caring side.
“If I’m in the shower and she’s crying, he will literally run and be there and be like, ‘Mommy’s coming now’,” Judy adds.
Addison has tried to preserve the routines he shares with TJ so that the boy does not feel forgotten while the family adjusts to the new baby. Their regular activities include father-and-son skating trips and playing retro handheld games.
A new route through South Africa
The family has not created a detailed travel plan, but they already know some of the places they want to visit. Durban is at the top of the list because none of them has been there before.
They also hope to return to the Eastern Cape, revisit Hogsback and eventually travel beyond South Africa’s borders to Botswana, Namibia and Mozambique.
For now, TJ is most excited about meeting other children at campsites. Judy said he makes friends quickly and is likely to settle into the travelling lifestyle easily.
The family’s biggest practical concern is connectivity. Their plans depend on reliable internet, both for TJ’s education and for the livestreams that will form an important part of The Logan Fam’s online content.
“Hopefully the network keeps up with us, because the Wi-fi in Africa kind of sucks,” Addi says.
The couple plan to livestream daily life on the road, showing their audience the renovation, the travel, the challenges of raising children in a small space and the reality of moving from one campsite to another.
Building a different kind of family life
Before becoming The Logan Fam, Addison and Judy came from very different backgrounds. They met by chance in 2023.
Addison was raised in the United States by a strict father who taught him that hard work could help him achieve anything. Judy grew up in the Eastern Cape and later in Capricorn in Muizenberg near Cape Town. She was raised by her grandmother, who taught her the importance of love and nurturing.
In November 2025, the couple married in a traditional wedding that brought together Addison’s American roots and Judy’s Xhosa heritage.
Now they are building another shared project: a family life without a permanent house.
They are the first to admit that living in a camper van with a newborn will not be easy. The family will have less space, less privacy and a routine that can change with the weather, road conditions, campsite availability and internet connection.
But the couple believe the experience will give them something they cannot buy with a bigger home: more time together and the freedom to see places they might otherwise never visit.
Judy also hopes their decision will challenge the idea that caravan living is only for wealthy holidaymakers or older travellers. She believes more black South African families should see themselves represented in this lifestyle.
“Whites do it, but there’s no blacks that do it,” she says. “Now it’s pulling more attention because there’s a black footprint in it.”
The Logans are now working against the clock. By the time their lease ends, the camper must have a working motor, an automatic gearbox, a finished interior, dependable Wi-Fi and enough space for two adults, an eight-year-old boy and a newborn baby.
If everything goes according to plan, the family will begin their new life on the road on 1 December. Their first home will not have a conventional address, but their viewers will be following every kilometre through The Logan Fam’s daily livestreams.