In today's video, we're going to tour a brand new school bus, conversion home.
And when I say brand new, I really mean it because when I arrived,
the family had just finished converting the school bus and they were getting
ready to move in and start their new adventure.
I think you'll find it really interesting to see how they designed the layout to
accommodate their two very young children, including an adorable bunk space,
a car seat area for when the bus is moving safety first and storage for
their impressively downsized toy collection.
I think it really showcases what you need and what you don't necessarily need
when it comes to raising babies in a schooly.
So let's take a tour.
Hi I'm Ben. Hi, I'm Mia.
We met in Seattle. Then we moved to Sweden for two years,
cause we were waiting for my green card.
When we were living in Sweden,
we built a tiny house out of a old job site trailer.
Unfortunately didn't live in it, but we sold it so that we could come here.
A Schooly seemed like the next thing for us to do.
Cause we wanted to see the country.
We're going to be living in the bus with our nine month old Nora,
our 23 month oldand our dog Desmond.
We purchased the bus while we were still in Sweden.
A couple near Albuquerque actually had bought it and started demoing and
converting it to a schooly. So we didn't have to do hardly any demo or.
It took us over a month and a half to decide how to do the layout.
We did so many iterations of it.
So that was a really tricky part of the build.
We worked on the bus and built the bus,
mostly ourselves with a little bit of help from everyone in the family.
Even help from the toddler even. Yeah.
It definitely helped building a tiny house before the bus,
just figuring out all the intricacies of a tiny space and all of the details
you have to think about. It was a lot more fun to work on the schooly actually,
This is sanctuary the bus.
We usually call him Frank he's a Thomas built MVP safety liner,
2001 with a engine. It runs really well.
We had some work done on it before we transported it from Albuquerque,
New Mexico. Actually we found it on Craigslist.
It was the best option that we found while we were in Sweden.
And we actually made the transaction while we were in Sweden and then picked it
up after we bought it,
we bought it for 11,000 spent maybe about that on the rest of
the build.
Frankl is.
31 Feet long, he was already painted white.
The previous owner removed all the windows,
put the metal panel over the windows and installed new custom
RV windows. We went back and forth with the color scheme.
At first we wanted an angled section in the front and then have the lines go
back. But we thought that Frank wasn't that complicated.
And he was kind of just a simple guy.
It actually took one weekend to paint it.
We had the help from my brothers and their partners and we taped it
off. Did the green and then had to wait a little bit to do the yellow because of
rain. I think it turned out pretty nicely.
This was actually the wheelchair access. It was a transit bus.
To begin with.
So next phase is putting a slide out deck and extend our kitchen a little bit.
Currently we have four panels. There are about 200 watt panels.
Each I built a steel frame that is connected to these stainless steel
rails on the bus.
And eventually I'll be able to tilt them by undoing bolts on either
side. Next phase is to add two more panels on the back.
So we have a little over a kilowatt of solar up there to charge our battery
bank and solar generator.
So we have a 75 gallon freshwater tank, um,
on the backside of the bus. And then on this side of the bus,
we have a 50 gallon gray water tank.
We have to just grill propane bottles, um,
for the stove and water heater, we'll never have to plug in.
We will have to buy propane and fill up on water,
but electricity will all be taken care of.
Like I said, we have a cat engine. I forget the sizer model,
but we had some work done on the radiator.
They rebuilt it. Actually, it was gunked up with everything,
spent almost 3000 to do some engine work.
I've never worked on a diesel this large, I've done some,
some mechanic work on smaller vehicles,
but it is a little daunting come on inside and we'll give you a tour
This is the control panel where I'll be spending most of my time.
I'm an architect and my wife right now, she's a copywriter.
So a lot of computer work, we can do that on the road.
The blue Eddy by max Oak sits nicely behind the driver's seat,
where at night I'll be using it to power my,
my laptop and two monitors, which I'm working on a desk,
sort of a, a desk that sits over the wheel with a keyboard here.
And that'll be nice not to draw juice from our main batteries.
And we can also take that outside for when we want to sit on a blanket and work
on the laptop. In
order to charge this,
you can either plug it into solar with the MC four connections.
And it's sort of an all-in-one charging system that has different components
that plug into it.
And you can plug it into a wall outlet or plug it in to a DC outlet.
We actually just finished constructing the bus and I actually use this to power,
a shop vac and a sander while we were doing the flooring.
One more thing I really like about it is that it's super lightweight, compact.
It's an all-in-one system,
so there's no complicated wiring and it fits right behind my driver's seat.
This is our solar cabinet over here we have the inverter
lithium batteries from a Nissan leaf there,
and then we have another stack down here.
It was really daunting initially when I was doing the solar research.
So we have three seatbelts.
Currently I have two more that I'm installing as well as D links for
the car seat connections,
but we'll have two car seats with the seat belts and anchor points.
We kept this really open so that everyone can see out the front while we're
driving.
We want it to go with like a natural forest inspired vibe and then kind
of the pink accents came from that.
Cause we just thought it was a really nice combination kids areas here.
We got kids toys, cloth, diapers, books.
They're actually both diaper frees. So that's really nice.
We don't have to worry about doing laundry in our tiny little hand powered
washer every day.
It was really nice to just be able to get rid of all of the plastic stuff that
people have given to us and all the stuff that they didn't really like anymore.
And just be very minimalistic with our Toy collection.
I think that I'm just going to be rotating toys, so I'll have some out.
And then when they get bored with those,
I'll put those away and bring out some new ones.
This is our dwarf stove from tiny and we're actually going to
stop by them in Idaho.
And that's our first stop because we're going to switch out the enamel door.
Cause we first got this one,
but then we felt like we needed something lighter for the space.
So they welcomed us to combine just exchange it. So it's not installed yet.
We're going to pick up some parts for it and all that stuff.
So the kids chairs,
they'll go here and hook onto this table and then this table comes up. Um,
and we have two bar stools that are going to go here.
All this wood paneling wood was actually in it when we bought the bus,
but we painted it all white just to make the space feel bigger.
So here's our kitchen. We have plywood cabinets and drawers.
Ben's dad actually made all of these cabinets from scratch.
It was my idea to use copper for the handles, but he made all this.
And I think it just, the Rose gold is a really nice accent to our kitchen.
And this is one of those farmhouse sinks that we got from IKEA.
And we actually got a lot of stuff from Craigslist and eBay,
like the faucet and the stove.
So the stove was actually in the bus when we bought it.
And I think that that's kind of where the green theme came from.
We built this just to have more counter space,
but it comes out. It does have four burners and a decent size oven.
So that's really nice cause we do a lot of cooking for the wallpaper.
I found that on eBay and I think that it really connects the space with the
green and the pink botanical theme.
I found the light fixture on eBay and I actually had decided somehow that I
wanted a magnetic spice rack. But when I looked at them, they were like $150.
So I DIY this just with a simple steel plate and some jars with
really strong magnets in them.
So it's nice getting stuff off the counter and we're actually gonna build some
shelves on this side too, and just have all of our Mason jars there.
I'm going to show you guys the rest of the bus, starting with the shower room.
We got this nice tile. We haven't driven with it yet,
but it's half inch thick tile and it's not going to crack.
My older brother helped me help me tie all this. And he thinks it should be,
it should stand up to the driving,
but we split up the shower room and the toilet room so that we could
have the refrigerator above the wheel well,
so we actually have this sliding door and the refrigerator is still on
order. So we should be getting it soon, hopefully before we leave,
but it's going to sit here and we're also going to have a shower curtain here
just to help with water.
We cut a hole in the side of the bus to add this
polycarbonate panel window.
We're going to have to treat it somehow for privacy, probably with, uh,
a frosted spray of some sort.
I ordered a 24 by 24 shower pan and we built
sort of a tub basin,
just higher sides on the shower so that we could watch the kids or Desmond our
dog Mia can even fit in there.
I can fit in there cross-legged but not very comfortably. Yeah.
So I can fit in the tub. It just won't be very comfortable.
I want to tell you a little bit about the floor material.
It's actually salvaged Cedar from my brother's neighbors fence that they were
taking out and he grabbed it. We mailed it, routed it to have tongue and groove.
And it really tied this together.
We have Nora's bunk and bunk up here,
both with, with sliding doors. It's not gonna help much with sound,
but it's mostly for after they go to bed,
we can have the doors closed and not bring in too much light into the space.
See, here, there's an owl with a forest. He really likes owls.
Shamana my brother's partner actually painted this.
She's an artist and she was really happy to have an opportunity to do some
painting for the kids. We may not be living in this full time in five years,
but if he gets too big for this,
the couch actually will pull out to a full bed.
It's not really good for a room for him,
but he'll have a place to sleep
Here.
Mia actually painted the whales for Nora's bunk.
So the, the mattresses and the doors and everything, that's all custom.
My mom actually sewed covers for the mattresses and it's just five inch
high density foam. Like I said,
we separated the toilet and the shower because of the wheel well,
we went through a lot of design iterations or options, um,
figuring out how to deal with the wheel Wells and how to get the bunks in the
bathroom. The refrigerator we brought the toilet room over here.
It's a little nicer having the vanity next to the bedroom. We
have a nature's head compost toilet that uses often.
He likes it. We have a double,
double sliding door.
I need to connect these two that they so that they slide together and stay in
the track.
The double was so that they could both stack here on this small section of wall.
This is our bedroom. As you step up Desmon,
our dog will be sleeping here. It's kind of our staircase. Also.
We thought it was nice to have this space that we could hang our legs off and
also get up on this really high bed.
Mia has pared down a lot. We kind of had to make some,
some decisions on clothing. The rest of our clothes are under the bed.
And under this step here,
Mia plays the ukulele and I'm hoping to learn how to play the
piano. She knows how to play a a ittle bit. A Hobby to pick up on the road.
Yeah.
I'm really excited to live in the bus with our kids.
I think they're going to have so much fun.
I think we're going to have fun with them.
The thing I'm most excited about with this journey is that I'm going to be able
to see the East coast as well as finding a place for us to settle down.
We eventually want to find a piece of land that our kids can grow up on.
And I think this will kind of be the next stepping stone to find a land.
Hope you guys enjoyed this week's video.
If you did make sure to share it with somebody who you think might enjoy it and
I'll see you next week with an all new video.