Sorry for taking so long to respond to your questions, arebelspy. Regaring our finances, no, we're not FI. We've spent the past five or so years paying off our massive student debt (mostly from law school), paying for our wedding, saving up a substantial college fund, maxing out our 401ks, and saving up additional funds for retirement, a house downpayment, and travel. We're using funds in savings for the traveling and anticipate working again once we find a new place to call home. However, given how we've set ourselves up, we will not have to work in the same type of of high paying, long hours jobs that we had more recently. We're still in the process of figuring out job stuff, since that will clearly come into play regarding where we move, but we're confident that if we like a place, we'll find a way to make it work.
I would like to work towards being FI once we settle somewhere. Clearly we could have gotten there a lot more quickly if we stayed in the high paying jobs, but that would have also meant working crazy long hours when our son is young, which we didn't want to do. We'd rather work for a longer period of time but have more manageable hours and be in a place that is more in line with our values. So, the search continues!
As for our costs so far, we've had three very different months. The first month was the most normal (no van issues and no staying with family) and cost us about $2,500. This includes our monthly storage fees, health insurance (high deductible), and our costs on the road. Once we're on the road longer and have more normal months to work with, I'll update you on whether we bring that number down or if it winds up going up due to not having a van to sleep in during really bad or cold weather.
As for the engine, we were cursed having a van with an engine that is notoriously difficutl to work on. A complete rebuild, which was necessary if we didn't get a brand new engine, would have run at least $8,000, but could have been more. A used engine was a similar cost, and a new was slightly more. There was no way we were going to sink that much into the van, so it's now been sold to a guy in Colorado who can use the van for parts or sell it to someone who wants to rebuild the engine in their spare time. C'est la vie!