Home can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people in the
United States. The average home is 2,600 square feet,
whereas my home is 160 square feet.
Today I'm going to introduce you to a woman named Randy who calls a renovated
school bus
her home and the name that she's given it is just as colorful as its exterior.
This week's video is brought to you by Humless solar power on the go.
Hi, my name is Randy and I own Ellen Degener bus.
Thank you Shannon.
I was living in Seattle. I had the apartment. I had the great job.
I had so many things going in my Seattle world,
but I wanted to go tiny to have a smaller mark,
to not be run by cost of living the rent,
by insurance, by all these other things that go into living the standard life.
I mean even for a box of an apartment in Seattle,
you're spending $1,000 or more.
So for me it's definitely saved me a ton of money every single month.
Some of my family members definitely thought I was a little off my rocker and
other ones looked at me and like you go girl, this is you.
When they step into her and see the work that has gone into it, they get it.
Okay Randy, now we see where you're going with this.
And they see me flourishing and kind of coming into myself to a bigger and more
full level of myself through this and see the joy that it brings and the passion
and the work that goes into it.
Ellen Degener bus, um, became her name because Ellen is my hero.
I love that she brings goodness to the world and loves life and embraces it and
finds joy in it without bringing other people down. She's my hero. Um,
and my dream would be to travel with Ellen or to travel for Ellen and do amazing
good deeds all over the country for her.
So it seemed natural for me to name her Ellen degener bus. All right,
so this is the inside. These are plastic ceiling tiles.
They were part of the bus when I bought it.
I bought it from a woman that had started the conversion, had most of it done,
but then I got it home and basically gutted it and made it into my own style.
I have the cubic mini wood stove.
I bought the fan for it and this has been a game changer as far as distributing
the heat throughout the bus is designed to heat a 40 foot bus,
RV boat and minus 25 on the inside. So it's been plenty for me.
This is the futon that I have and it pulls out to be a second sleeping area
and I love this size. It's from Ikea.
People that are staying with me don't have to like be climbing over an area to
get in and out underneath here is where I have all my electrical and I'd have the
batteries that I'm going to use for my solar panel mounted underneath the bus
for me, this is my home,
this is the place that I want to keep and keep nice and continue to improve.
So I don't personally have a budget for what I'm willing to spend.
I would say where I'm at now price-wise invested into Ellen could be about
13,000 including the bus
and here I have my cooking area.
I have a convection oven that I'm going to be installing just around the corner.
I have an induction top here and this is wonderful because it doesn't heat up
the entire bus. It keeps it cool in here and only heats the surface.
Tell me about this countertop. Oh we just did this.
I was hesitant because I had a laminate one and it just didn't have that rustic
feel that I love and so I found this wood actually at Home Depot and I liked it
because it still had the texture that I love the colors cause I'm trying to find
the balance between times of different wood textures, colors and styles.
Boyfriend helped me do this and I love it.
I still need to finish it with a little bit of poly but there's always something
going on in the bus world of projects and then underneath here is all of my
plumbing and water. I have a 20 gallon hot water heater,
40 gallon water tank, which is been plenty for me up to this point.
And then this is all reclaimed wood that I've got from my parents.
They built a bar area in their home and had a bunch of extra woods,
so I was able to salvage that.
I am a hairdresser and I love what I get to do for a living.
It's a little more challenging to do that on the road as far as a main career
because you do need the stability to retain clients,
but I still feel like I'd be able to do that. I'm also an artist, so for me,
I plan to do a lot of craft festivals and and barter fairs and all kinds of
stuff to utilize my talent on the road.
That will be my primary funding for my travels and adventures
so this is going to be ultimately just my clothing and shoe storage is one of
the biggest closets I've ever seen. I feel so spoiled by it.
I'm so excited. Even have room for hanging clothes. Yes.
This side is going to be where I build in. Um,
the convection oven that I have,
I'm going to have cubbies down this side for more kitchen storage,
pantry storage since I don't have a lot up there because of all the plumbing,
taking up the under counter space, anybody that's done the tiny house living,
you're constantly changing and evolving and taking it apart and making it
better. So yes,
today it is a plan to be all storage over here and then the nature's head I just
got last weekend and so that brings a whole new level of projects for me because
I'm going to build a toilet room back here in the bedroom area actually on this
side. Then I'm going to build an indoor shower area on this side so they will be
parallel to one another and selling this and creating a smaller version of this
back here. It will have two benches that close in on the middle.
And what I like about doing that is that I will be able to open this door here
and drop my deck that I have and have two seating areas that combine into a bed
to enjoy more of the outdoor feel over here.
This was something that came with the bus and I actually had grown to love her.
Like you could see her from the bathroom you walk in and it just kind of sets a
mood for me. So keeping her,
these are those curtains that I was telling you about that are excellent for
insulating the windows and I highly recommend these to anybody and I put these
tabs on there so I can close it into the window when I close it.
I bought these at Joanne fabrics.
They are made for insulating windows and I just cut them,
cut them down to size. They're a little spendy.
I think it was like 30 bucks a yard worth it.
It did have skylights.
The previous owner I believe made them or had them in,
but she was from Arizona so they didn't have the rain that we have here in the
lovely Pacific Northwest. So they were flat on the top and um, leaking,
which I didn't realize until I was putting the floors in.
So I'd started the floor process and stopped and the next morning I come out and
there was a great rain and I had water underneath all of my flooring because of
the skylights. So everything stopped there. I ordered these off of, um,
easytopsworldwide.com.
So I was able to get the exact size I want and have it domed so that there's no
standing water on it. So I sanded the whole roof down, primed it,
and then steeled it all in with liquid roof so that everything was sealed and I
have no leaks since because of that,
it was incredibly important for me to do all as much by myself as I could,
so that if something goes wrong or goes down,
I know the foundation of what it takes to make it work and that I've done it.
I know it's done right versus hoping that somebody else has done it right.
I never drove anything this big.
I didn't even test drive it before buying the bus.
I flew to Arizona with my sister from up here in Seattle area and bought it.
And the next day when I owned it,
I drove for the first time and it drives like a dream. My sister,
who will not drive anything larger than a Ford focus drove it and did it like a
champ. You get some funny,
amazing reactions and you get those ones that roll their eyes,
Oh those hippies and then you get the other people hanging out the window.
It's, it's so fun. It's so fun. And it's great to make people smile.
I love that part of it.
These are awesome too because they hold 50 pounds, these hooks, each magnet.
And when you live in a like metal box,
what could be better? Awesome.
So I will typically hang a curtain up here just because you lose a lot of heat
with all the windows up here.
So these definitely have held up really heavy insulated blankets.
And how nice is it that you didn't have to put holes in your ceiling?
If I can avoid that at all costs. I will.
Alright, so out here,
this is a plug in for the water to be filled and then this is the exterior shower
so I can have outdoor shower with a popup tent.
The paint job was done by the previous owner.
She paints really cool skulls and and other paintings and stuff,
so she's really neat. Eventually I will have to redo it, but I,
I'm enjoying it for now.
I love the positivity. I'm all about it.
If you have a dream you can make it happen.
It's scary at first to think about making everything combine and fit in here
because there's times when I've looked at myself and been, I've lost my mind,
but pushing through it, it's so rewarding and I have no regrets.
Ellen Degenerous is my hero.
Having her name keeps me inspired to do what my ultimate goal is and not get
carried away and sidetracked. I want to do amazing things
to make the world a better and more beautiful place.
Ellen degener bus. She's my baby and she will be my home.
Tune in soon for more travel and tiny house videos. Until next time.
See you guys later.