hey there jenna here welcome to my channel where i take you on tours of tiny houses and unique homes
in today's video we're gonna meet one young family who built a school bus conversion tiny
home and designed the creative layout with their two young daughters in mind
but before we get started i'd like to thank this week's sponsor so we're inside my tiny
home now so i can talk to you about this week's sponsor blue land with blue land all
you need is a nickel size tablet to clean your entire home if you'd like to learn more about
this product stay tuned to the end of this video where i show you blue land in action
we're the mcgarrigals in long beach california and this is the bougie bus
the bougie bus is a 1996 thomas rear engine 40 foot school bus i don't have
any experience in construction i'm a mechanic by trade in the military so
i was comfortable knowing that we could buy the bus and i'd be able to fix anything engine
wise that went wrong with it i wanted a project whether lauren wanted me to have a project i don't
know but i wanted to be able to build something and have something to show for all my hard work
there's no 90 degree angle in here even if it looks like it is it's probably
88 and a half degrees and nothing is square so when you're trying to fit pieces together you
cut it it doesn't fit you carry it back out of the box cut it again come back in now it's too
short you got to cut a whole new piece like it was a it was definitely a process and i probably could
have built three buses in the amount of work that i did to build one bus but that's part of bus life
we bought the bus with repairs for 7 000 and then we put about 25 000 ish into it so the
total of the bus would be between 30 and 35 000. you always hear when people go on their first trip
that it like changes their lives and i did not think that would happen until we went on ours
and it was like almost a nuisance having to come home to like our large house
when you really experience it it's like why do we live this like chaos way that we live it's
so crazy sometimes it takes putting yourself in the situation to truly experience that
welcome to the bougie bus come on in
this is our living room we have designed it to be an l-shaped couch so that it can
pop out into a full-size bed if we have guests we also custom created these
quilt style curtains i learned how to sew so that i could sew these curtains since derrick built us
a bus from scratch we kept the original windows we really liked the light that they brought in
we installed recessed lighting on purpose the ceiling is not insanely high in the school bus so
the last thing we wanted was lights that dropped down while we were walking around in this space
and then right here we have our solar setup so we have a thousand watts of solar setup on top of
the bus and this is the entire control panel and so everything that has to do with the solar and
electricity is right in here this is our dining table it starts out popped down with a cushion on
top of it for a family room and then we pop it up when we're eating or we are parked in one location
which is why it's popped up right now we have these stools that go around we sit at the table
eat like a family we wanted to make sure that the bus was set up and built to be able to travel as
a family together with the kids safely in the car seats down here you can see the car seats
so we remove the table while we're driving and we buckle the car seats in they're literally drilled
into the steel that surrounds the wheel well so the same thing goes for this side our other
daughter's car seats under here it's right under this cushion it looks the same thing as over there
so we are now in the kitchen which is probably our most famous and unique space in the bougie bus so
much time and effort was put into this layout we have a very small kitchen so having a lot
of counter space was really important to us all of our drawers have soft closing so you can see
that with that drawer and then any cabinet that a small child can open up we have fancy little
child locks which this one also has slow clothes we have a apartment style oven it runs on propane
we chose a smaller fridge because we eat primarily fresh food eating that way food goes bad really
quickly so it was unnecessary to have this giant fridge that we don't really need so that's why
we have this size fridge this is also our pantry so then we move on to the sink we did a farmhouse
style sink when we created the layout for the bus we made sure that all of the plumbing was only on
one side of the bus so as we walk through you'll see that the sink and then the bathroom sink
and the shower all on this left side of the bus so that plumbing was only done that way
we hold a hundred gallons of water underneath the master bed and then as far as functional space
derek can be fully cooking with all this counter space and i could be doing the dishes
derek input the skylight i was like you just cut a hole in our school box
and he said it was scary but also so important for lighting in this space it truly makes the space
feel more open and it adds height to the ceiling right here this is our hallway to the bedrooms it
is super and was super important to us to make sure we had those different spaces to really
feel like we are in a home and then walking right over here you have the kids bedroom the kids bunk
area is possibly the biggest area and space in the bus and this was done on purpose because our kids
didn't choose the schooly life we did so we really want to make sure that they had their own space to
make home and be creative with so each space has a little cubby right here which i will open up
so it's a full cubby filled with whatever they want to fill it with they also open up this way
and store stuff inside like that both bunks do that they can grow and still fit in this space
we have seen a few buses where the entire plan and layout of the bus is gonna have
to be reworked as the kids get older and it was really important that their space would be okay
no matter how big they got whenever she's in the bus she wants to be up here reading or drawing
or doing school work it's really meaningful to her the next place is our bathroom which is everyone's
favorite topic when they ask us questions about the bus it is very intentional that
the bathroom is separating the kids space from our bedroom you still need privacy even though
you are living in a school bus the shower was made with duma wall we decided to go
with this instead of tile because obviously we're driving in the bus
so everything kind of needed to be made where like it was a little bit flexible
and then we have this wonderful little shelf here for all of our soaps as you notice me standing in
it derek cannot stand in this so he would sit here with the window open and kind of use the shower
like this we will eventually fog out that window but for now anyone parks next to the bougie bus
it's a good show so over here you have the toilet it is the number one question we receive
how are you guys going to go to the bathroom we have a composting toilet it is nature's head
and then on this side we have a little opening vanity where we keep our toothbrushes inside of it
here we have the master bedroom my personal favorite part of our school bus
down here we have a very large drawer where literally all of derek's stuff is closed socks
everything right there we have the only hanging clothes spot in the bus obviously when you're
traveling in a bus you're mostly doing outdoor stuff so we have very minimal hanging storage
master bedroom was designed all around having this little stairwell to get onto the bed
because we didn't want to be like being olympic athletes trying to get on top of our bed so here
all of these open so this is where a lot of my storage is this first box is all toiletry things
then you move on to my clothes in the next step and then also close up here
here we have another skylight we literally cut the bus open to place the skylight but as you
can see it adds so much light and really opens the space because we don't have a roof raise
right here we cut out another space for a fan
which is a game changer at night especially if you are in an extremely hot location
traveling with two small humans is hard no matter what vehicle you're in i do want to
say that if you think you can't do it because you have kids it's that much more of a reason to do it
it's so incredibly rewarding the experiences we get to create and have with our kids
our oldest daughter definitely saw the value of persistence
and what two years of hard work results in derek truly made the bus so comfortable and luxurious
that you feel like you are in a hotel in the wilderness i was able to create what
in my head i imagined it doesn't feel like you're in a bus feels like you're in a house
all right guys let's talk about blue land the sponsor of this video with a baby and a dog in a
tiny house i find myself cleaning all the time and i pay five or six dollars for one bottle
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four reusable bottles and i got four plastic free refill tablets all you have to do is
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savings but since blue land is sponsoring this video they're also giving you guys an extra 15
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