Hey guys,
I'm getting all settled in to my new parking spot here on Whidbey Island in
Washington. If you miss that video, make sure to check it out.
So a few weeks ago I went to a tiny house festival in Eugene, Oregon.
I met a lot of interesting people and a couple of people who are new to the tiny
house movement.
So today's video is introducing Jordan and Sam and their new adventure bus.
So without further ado, let's take a tour.
We are Jordan and Sam page and we travel in Addie the adventure bus.
Addie the short bus adventure.
Sam is a physical therapist. When he was in graduate school,
he found out about traveling physical therapy.
And so that's how we're able to travel now cause he takes contract jobs around
the country.
And so I got a job working remote last year and so now I can work from anywhere
with wifi.
We found people probably on YouTube that were building houses out of buses
and we were really intrigued by it
and we started taping off a section in the loft for like, alright,
this is what will happen. The bus 200 square,
we had little construction experience before this. Um,
my dad's a contractor so we had access to every single tool our heart desired.
But other than that we did the majority of the work.
Well we actually finished the build just over two weeks ago and have been living
in the bus full time for two weeks so far we really love it.
You have like these realization moments where you're making a full breakfast,
like in a rest stop in a new state.
But I think what's been most surprising is how much the bus is home.
When we wake up in the morning,
we make coffee and when we binge on Netflix at night, like it's,
I mean it's still our home.
We just happen to be somewhere else every day when we do it.
This
couch we've actually had for about four years and we went back and forth on what
we wanted to do, the couch so many different times,
but this one was so comfortable.
So we just took the legs off and built the base,
which has these little click locks in it and then tons of storage.
So we've got two of those. We still wanted to keep the facade of the school bus.
We kept most of the windows, especially here in the front, actually,
Sam's mother sewed these curtains,
so these actually have reflex material inside of them.
They're tied up on these little hooks here.
You can roll them down and then they work as curtains and we weren't totally
sure how well they would work, but they work really well.
So it's about the blackout material on the back and then the flex and side.
So on the other side we have the builtin bench here.
This is kind of my little reading nook. You'll notice the Harry Potter pillows,
and so we just have a cushion that my mother-in-law also sewed.
Then underneath of course we have lots of storage, which was super helpful. Um,
when we first were building out the bus, we were so worried about storage.
Um, but now I think we have way more than we even need. So I guess that's good.
So this is the cubic mini grizzly, um,
wood burning stove. It is not fluid out yet.
So when we go visit family back in Kansas where we're from for Christmas,
we will put the fluid in it. This is penny.
She runs the household. We adore her
and this was actually a desk that we had in our old loft when we lived downtown.
We just took the legs off of the bottom of it and attach it to this track
system. So then we can actually raise it up to a standing desk if I want to.
And then this part actually folds down.
So then it's just a flat surface as well.
So it's a really good multifunctional piece for working or eating or whatever we
need it for. And then these chairs we also had in our old space, they're clear.
So for a tiny space you can kind of look through them and it makes the space
look bigger. And not as cluttered.
So most of the bus is custom built so what we decided to do prefab cabinets and they are
super,
super nice because they've got the slow close so it's really nice.
And then a Sam included these to help keep them shut while we're driving
cause we didn't have these at first and we would take a corner and it would
fling open. So we're trying to,
you know like with the curtains and the drawers and everything,
we're just learning as we go and figuring out what works and what doesn't.
And so that's worked so far. So that was good.
We do actually have granite countertops in here,
which is not very common in like tiny houses and schoolies but Sam's dad is a
contractor and he had this leftover granted from a job and us as if we want it.
And we said yes of course.
And we wanted a fully functioning kitchen as much as possible.
So we did do a full gas range as well as a stove.
And then we do have cabinets up above
This was an Amazon find,
actually the brand is winter and so it is temperature controlled on both sides.
So we can make both sides of fridge if we want to,
if we decide we don't need the freezer as much and Sam is actually a homebrewer.
So if he needs to stick temperature control one side to ferment the beer,
then he can do that as well.
And then it automatically comes with these locks on it so we can keep it nice
and tight while we're driving.
And then it does have the baskets inside as well,
so we can lift one up and have a little bit more space underneath it.
So we're up to where the wheel wells are. So, um,
we kept going back and forth on how we wanted to work around them.
We did raise the roof 15 inches,
so that helped a lot with being able to put the shower on top of the Wheel well
so we would still have head room. Um, and then,
so we had this dead space under here and we are both big wine-os
so we had to have a wine cellar in our bus.
So on this side we have some wine as well as like a little extra storage in here
and it does actually go all the way back in on this side.
We have the shower,
we got the shower tub because it contained water a little bit easier than just a
pan.
And then of course we do have pennies so this is a perfect little spot to get
her baths even though she hates them a lot.
Other side is where the toilet is.
So we had a bus warming party about a month before we left on our travels and so
we use the bathroom as the guest book and so everyone signed it.
And so it is really cool to go in here and just check out all of the awesome
things that people said. One of my favorite parts is, yeah, the guest book.
It's pretty cool.
When we were first getting started with the bus,
I said I need to have a bookcase somehow some way.
And so Sam designed this too, actually.
It goes into the wall and then we can pull it out on the tracks and it works as
a bedroom door as well.
So I can have my books and we can have our privacy and yeah, I love it.
And then actually at the bottom there is a little lock that we have. Um,
so we can lock it in place while we're driving.
And we have forgotten to lock it a couple times while we were driving and it
flung open. So now you remember to lock it.
The bed is a Tempurpedic. We, it was a non negotiable,
we were not getting rid of the Tempurpedic queen size,
so we made it work in the space.
We were able to lock the bed, especially cause we did raise the roof.
And so we actually have each corner on actuators and so we can flip a switch.
Okay. So as you can see, we can raise the bed quite a ways.
So this is where we have like a lot of our storage.
And then on this side is actually the freshwater tank.
It's all boxed in right now. Um,
but so this is where our freshwater comes from and you'll see in each corner
we've got these actuators.
So these are what actually raise the bed up to where it's at.
It is not the easiest thing to drive. It's fun to drive for sure.
But she's an older bus so she,
she travels a little bit on the road so you gotta be paying attention.
But it's a blast.
I think in another life I was a bus driver because I always have a giant smile
on my face.
I do catch people like taking double and triple takes,
like checking it out as we drive by.
And we do have our social media handles on the back.
So then we'll get random people messaging as like, Hey, I just saw you in Iowa.
I just saw you in Wyoming. And so that's pretty cool
Or we did get somebody that said you were going too fast
I'm like, lady, this bus is not going very fast.
So the original door actually opened, uh, bi-fold.
So we wanted a little bit more security with that.
So I learned to weld through this whole project.
So we welded the door completely together,
still functions like the good old fashioned bus door opens and close.
How did you choose the color? This is my favorite color for some reason,
and we were looking at a color index and this just came about.
Jordan also has a tattoo on her arm.
I have a garage as all good buses do
as far as electricity goes, we will charge off the grid.
We've got a very large bank of batteries, house batteries,
so we'll charge those. And truthfully,
we haven't been plugged in for about four days, five days. Um,
and everything's working fine.
You're going to have to read it. Okay. So again,
we did not write this, but we'd love it. So it's love of travel,
midnight shadows on a lonely Valdosta highway,
dodging tires and lack of sleep
clothed in creative wanderlust.
The earth is your playground as you listen to the ambiance of the road.
This is where you find yourself contemplating your coffee after the next cafe,
stop how many miles to Nashville
love stretched across the miles,
pulling you closer as you bond over shots of espresso and getting lost on back
roads. When your GPS goes out,
you carry home with you in backpacks and frequent flyer miles and you listen to
the earth and all the stories it has to tell.
David button is the authors. August 28th, 2015