Best SKOOLIE TINY HOME ever?! Secret storage & epic kitchen

hi there welcome to my channel where I take you  on tours of tiny and unique homes and showcase   stories of people living alternatively today  we're taking a tour of a school bus that's   been converted into an incredible tiny home on  Wheels the design and Engineering that went into   this build is super impressive the owners have  thought of everything including a jaw-dropping   pantry two extensive work from home offices  and even some secret storage compartments   so be sure to stay tuned all the way through  this video because trust me you're not going   to want to miss any of the details and  if you like videos like this one where   we showcase incredible homes and people  living alternatively make sure that you   hit subscribe and that notification Bell so that  you know every single time we publish a new tour hi we are Josh and Emily and  this is Aurora the adventure   bus come inside and I'll take you for a tour [Music]   we were both working remote jobs and love to  travel so we wanted to be able to do that more   we knew that the lifestyle was for us because we  wanted to make it our own building a bus out for   ourselves was going to be the best option for us  from the beginning of our build it was really a   cool relationship Builder just being constructive  with each other and see how both of our creative   minds were going to come together we were both  brainstorming as we were planning out our build   of how we could have everything have a multiple  purpose we would talk things over but some of my   engineering background kind of came into play  there too we picked out different fittings and   fixtures and appliances then we shopped for  everything on Black Friday and we got a fairly   good discount on it about 10 to 15 on average so  that saved a lot of money up front but it ended   up being a couple pickup truckloads of stuff solar  panels and AC and toilet just everything for the   bus so that was fun we found the bus at AAA Bus  Sales we paid Seven Grand for it and a hundred   extra dollars to get all seats removed which was  really worth it the first portion of our bus build   we did in my uncle's heavy equipment shop so  we had access to lifts that could lift up the   whole bus in the air there's a lot of welding and  mechanical work and so I kind of had a background   on that to begin with the original purchase date  of the bus was about two years ago the last year   of it of the project we're living in it as we  built it so that takes a little bit more time but   it was basically our second job and our weekends  were almost always working on the bus [Music]   so this is a 2004 International re300 School Bus  it has the dt466e engine in it the transmission   is an Allison 3060. the bus is 40 feet long  and we just went over a scale and we are 35   000 pounds we have the 200 gallon water tank  we have I think it's an 80 or 90 gallon fuel   tank and then I have an additional 20  gallon fuel tank for the diesel heaters   our fuel account it varies a lot with the  wind but it's between probably six the low   end and 10 at the high end and that's towing  a jeep too [Music] for the paint job we did   an automotive paint it has the color and the  clear all-in-one it was a random orange color   out of the catalog but the cream is actually  case Power white so like the old tractors   for the solar we did 2 400 watts of solar and  racking it's pretty much the entire roof we   have three awnings that wrap around the bus that  keeps it much cooler than it normally would be the roof raise we did 18 inches we cut it  below the window so we kept the original window   locations split it right behind the driver's side  window and the front door and then just up top of   the front windshield that worked really well most  of my time was spent working on the under Bay I   cut off the original side skirts of the bus and  welded up and insulated and heated under Bay it   goes all the way across the bus between the axles  basically as much as I could fit in so this is all   solid from new framing we did our own service  truck door handles on the doors the water tank   that's on the passenger side I still wanted to be  able to gravity feed the water if I needed to so   the water's on the side so we have an extra  hose length so we can get to it pretty much   all utilities are always on the driver's side  that was one of the things that if I were to   do it again I would probably mirror the layout so  that all the utilities are still on the one side   up at the top here we have one of our tanks  we have three tanks on the bus they're all 40   gallons each and I have them tied so there's two  that are always black and then I have one tank   that's either gray or black depending on how I  have the valve set up with 120 gallons we can   last a week with showering every day using water  like you're in a house and two weeks if we're able   to actually drain our gray tanks so this is our  05 Jeep Wrangler we love this thing I ended up   putting a little bit of a lift on it that works  nice for the tow bar because it keeps it nice and   parallel for us and keeps the toolbar up but we  use this thing all the time the bus is way too big   to go off-roading with so this will take on the  trails and do whatever we want also rerouted the   exhaust so it's blowing up the side and that keeps  the Jeep nice and clean this is our 50 amp Shore   power hookup you can do 30 or 50. we use that  a lot when we're at families and friends houses   this is our electrical panel so we have everything  nicely labeled and organized easy to get to then   behind that is my battery storage so on here you  can see some of our batteries on that side but   we have a big inverter here from Sun gold  power it's a 240 volt split phase inverter   we have 680 amp hours of batteries at 24 volts  so it provides us plenty of power to run multiple   days and this is my little tiny garage space we  have a 12 gallon tank of gas that is tied into   our generator and then we have two propane tanks  that run our stove and our water heater [Music]   and then with the front door what we wanted to do  was just make one swing door so I used the same   hinge point as the original bus store basically  sandwiched the door with sheet metal and then we   put a normal household residential door lock on it  we also put a self-closure on because we're from   South Dakota and we didn't want the wind catching  the door all the time we also have a backup latch   for when we're in the bus and we want to make sure  it's secure for the evening and then to keep the   door insulated we have curtains that snap on  to the door we have a top and bottom curtain   so that when we're driving we can still have  insulation on the bottom portion of the curtain and then moving on we added storage into our  Dash so we have storage that goes underneath   the floor all the way to basically the midpoint  to the bus and that's where we keep our road   flares and the safety equipment and then we  have two apartments that have shoes in it   if we move further in we have our cats litter  box and his food and water dish [Music] so along with the cat area we also did storage  at the top of the dash pulled out the original   metal work and heaters and all that so we have  spots we can put glasses just random things as   we're driving along the road and then in front  of that we have all of our herb plants they're   just coming back from a winter in South Dakota  and Colorado so they're a little rough right now   we wanted to ride together when we're going down  the road and we didn't want to have another like   side seat or have her sit on the couch so we  used our Jeep's rear bench seat and welded up a   bracket and then mounted it onto an air ride seat  pedestal for like a semi truck I also redid the   whole dash I pulled everything off down to the  metal I left the gauge cluster where it was and   the transmission control module where it was it  was way too much work it took like four or five   weekends of just kind of fitting stuff together  because nothing square or true to anything else   so as we were putting the sheet metal back on the  bus after the roof raise I was up front and I saw   I was looking at it and went well why don't we  put a window instead of putting the sheet metal   back up so we put two panes up we normally drive  with this curtain down it's on a um electric motor so that will come and cover the whole front  window when we're parked when we're at a tight   intersection where the stop lights are really  close to the bus I can look up through that   window and see the stop lights it's kind of a  nice little feature but we also like it because   when we're standing in the bus we can still  look out the front window it's not lower down   going further back we have our couch our couch  converts into a queen size bed it also converts   into an L-shaped couch for when we have guests we  want to entertain a little bit in different format we used memory foam mattress topper  in the cushions that makes it soft   enough it's nice to sleep on as a guest bed   but firm enough it kind of holds up for sitting on  it as a couch and we sewed up all of the cushions   for the covers and it turned out pretty nice  then we have storage that just drawers and a   countertop and that's where our first wheel well  is too so that kind of covers the wheel well laptop set up here and then I can plug into these  two monitors but for my hobbies I like to dabble   in arts so I have an easel that I can prop up here  I have lots of storage for all my work supplies   so we both work remotely I work for a structural  engineering firm that's based out of Minneapolis   and I work for a engineering consulting company  out of Massachusetts we did not want to have   both offices in one area because we'd have four  monitors and it'd just be too much I like to be   very quiet you love to sing and sing along to  music so it's nice to be able to have our own   spaces you keep going back into the kitchen our  favorite thing that we have is our countertop   dishwasher it is a Farberware for us it can hold a  good day or two's worth of dishes and that is just   a luxury that we would not go without we love  our full-size sink we do a lot of cooking here   which is why we prioritize our kitchen space  so we knew that we needed to have a big sink   to do all of those big dishes so then likewise  we have a apartment size fridge it's a Dometic   Fridge what we love about it is it's an RV style  so those doors latch for while we're driving with our roof raise we were able to have enough  room for uppers without it feeling extra crowded   and so this gives us extra space for all of  those extra specialty cooking items which is   super nice and I do have a step stool to reach  stuff just in case because sometimes if it's at   the very back you end up needing it our stove is  a Greystone stove the one thing that we do wish   we did differently was get the deeper version of  this because with as much cooking that we do and   baking we barely have enough room to have a loaf  of bread rise in our oven with having a corner   stove there's a couple of spots that you can't  access with normal drawers so we have a liftoff   cubby where we store all of our really big bulky  things so in this one we have our backpacking   backpacks and then this corner one in the back is  similar and we have all of our specialty cooking   items like a crock pot and pasta machine our pride  and joy is definitely our spice rack for sure we   specially thought about keeping the spices in  while they're driving so they don't rattle out   but to access them we tip them up and out to get  them out and so we did the same concept on the   spice rack as the pantry and for our liquid  storage so lift up and out to access stuff   and it rides super super nice we really don't  notice any rattling while we're driving unless   it's a super bumpy road which is why we  added rubber bands around all of the jars   none of the jars if you buy stuff at the store  are going to fit together very nice so we decided   that the easiest way to optimize that was to  standardize all of the containers that they're in   we really enjoy having meal times together  so our pantry can flip up here and it latches   right here on this side or we can flip it all  the way up to access the rest of our pantry so we decided to keep the original emergency  exit door it was a foot and a half shorter so   I had to extend it and add a panel in between I'm  glad we did all the work that we did on the store   because we use it all the time we will pull our  Jeep up beside the bus and unload our groceries   right into our pantry area so then we don't have  to carry them through the front door we actually   also have steps mounted on the side of the bus  so we can just climb up it's really simple to   use and coming back here we have our hallway and  we have our raised floor so we raised the floor   up a foot in the back half of the bus and  we have storage underneath the whole floor that's just enough room for a tall guy like me  to walk in the hallway without hitting my head   so in the office we still have all the raised  flooring there are some areas that are solid   floor because there's engine bay underneath  it This Is All Storage from here to here and   then below that that's all engine bay and I  have custom panels that will all pull off I   need to work on something then I have all  my construction diecast models that I had   from my previous job just something fun to  have back here they're all wired down so   they don't move which is great otherwise that'd  be a pain this is where I work my desk flips up   if I need to access I have my desktop is on one  side we have a drawer base and then just storage   on the other it's a very convenient office my  chair just rides right here I kind of gets locked   into place when we're going down the road then  underneath me right here we have our deep freeze   so we just have an apartment sized it's like a two  foot by two foot by three foot deep deep Breeze   so we have that and it kind of extends kind  of in front of the engine bay we have a really   good insulated wall and it stays nice and cool  doesn't run a whole lot but it's very nice to   have and then in front of that we have access to  the engine bay so this is where I can check oil   and do maintenance and we used a it's a fire  blanket off like from a welding supply shop   and that's just kind of our fireproofing and  keeps the sound and heat out of the the office so you walked through the bedroom but you  didn't get to see much of it what we have   in our bedroom is we have a queen size bed and  then the only utility that we have in our cab   is a 200 gallon water tank so that is what is  under the bulk of our bed on this front side is   where we have all of our closet stuff so we have  just these simple Cubbies to store everything   our bathroom is right in here but I want to  highlight our bathroom door so we still have   plans to add a curtain to it but we really enjoy  having the fact that it can close off the bathroom   or the hallway so we can latch it here and then  that'll separate our meetings if we are both   on meetings because our offices are separated  by the store so then as we go in the bathroom   we really love having the bathroom elevated  with the back half of the bus because under   this cubby we have a full-size laundry basket  where we can shove all of our dirty laundry   and then our shower we decided to sink down  to keep all the water within the shower pan   so the shower base is actually the same height  as the front portion of the bus and then we have   an adjustable shower head for Josh because he is  very very tall for our shower walls we ended up   doing a vinyl flooring tile and so the only thing  that we had to be extra careful about was to make   sure that the tongue and grooves were oriented  the right way so that water didn't collect in   them so you're extra conscious of how we were  going to install these tiles but so far they   are working great so with the RV style toilet  we have a black tank which we prefer so that   we don't have to take and dispose of anything the  actual sink itself we did a succulent planter so   it doesn't drain the best but we do love how  small and tidy it is for our space so behind   this door we have our control panel for the bus we  decided to put it behind a door because there's a   lot of lights and things you can't dim and it's  right near our bedroom so we want something to   keep the bus completely dark so inside the  door I made these custom they're aluminum   sheet metal that I mount to each panel into it  and these actually hinge out if I need to work   behind them but we have our charge controllers  the solar various gauges we have controls for   fans for central heating diesel heater controls  and then our inverter control down here [Music]   my perspective on things has definitely changed  when you start driving the country instead of   flying over it it's just so much bigger it's so  much more varied if you start traveling a whole   bunch you kind of get confused like okay what  state am I in now type of thing this lifestyle is   so surreal the people are so nice any person any  Walk of Life can do this it's very cool very cool   now despite all those differences of family sizes  and United by that love of travel and living tiny   and being more introspective of your relationships  and connecting with people and nature you can   almost always connect with anyone on the road and  everybody has done something very hard they've all   built something that they're living in everybody  has those struggles and can relate in that way   foreign thanks for watching this week's video  I hope you guys enjoyed it if you'd like to see   more schooly tours tiny homes shipping containers  or other unique homes make sure that you check   out my playlists and I will see you soon with  another tiny or unique home tour foreign [Music]

Channel: Tiny House Giant Journey

Views: 568,774

Keywords: tiny house giant journey, tiny house, Tiny houses, tiny homes, tiny house tour, bus conversion, skoolie, school bus conversion, bus life, Tiny House movement, Tiny House Nation, Tiny Houses, Tiny House tours, School Bus Tiny Homes, Bus Homes, Bus Conversion, School Bus Conversion, School bus converted into home, home on wheels, rv life, skoolie home, skoolie tour, skoolie conversion, bus roof raise, small space design, small space design ideas bedroom, minimalism

Id: WnaDkex0xm0

Length: 18min 54sec (1134 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 10 2023