Epic Off-The-Grid School Bus Conversion

so many of us dream of living a life of travel and adventure but it's also so important to have a place to call home somewhere to retreat to at the end of the day and a space that we can really call our own that is exactly what this next couple have created for themselves turning an old Schooley into a beautiful home on wheels [Music] hi Francesca how are you right Guderian lovely to meet you get a nick how's it going nice to meet you this is such a great looking bus how was it that you both came to decide to live in a school II so it started with a documentary we watched about a couple that was travelling around the United States and late one night on the couch kind of looked at each other and said hey could we do that and after sitting on it for a day or two we were all in and a month later we had the bus what was it that really inspired you to just dive into that kind of lifestyle I think it was a couple of things we didn't really need all the space that we had in our house in Chicago we liked the freedom to explore and go adventuring and I think we were kind of just feeling like we were in a rut you know with the job and life and this was kind of a way out to go and try a couple new things I think honestly we were miserable in her jobs at the time and it was our way out when we first met it was all career oriented I mean 60 plus hours a week saving money for you know what I think we had the adventure in us the whole time we would love to go for hikes walking the dogs going out on the weekends anyways but if we could you know make that the the focal point in the center of the lifestyle I think we were both in for that yeah the fact that we can just get up and go anywhere we want you know most people work their whole lives saving up this big nest egg of money with hopes of you know traveling when it's finally time for retirement and personally you know we've seen our grandparents get to that point where they have the money and have the time but no longer have that energy or you know they age to go do it and so anyway we may not have the money right now but we definitely have you know the body and the energy and we have the time and you know the money will come and go so we'll find it as we go but we've got the other two pieces of the puzzle right now and now tell me about the bus cuz this just looks so cold it was a real school bus actually kids riding in it in North Carolina was in commission we actually found it at an auction so first off you can tell it's a lot bigger than a normal School Bus so we do have a roof raised on there and then everything you see on the roof allows it to be off-grid not that we're always off-grid but it does give us the options like where we're at today in the mountains we have five 100 watt solar panels which is more than for us and then you can kind of see the chimney back there as well we do have a wood-burning stove so when it gets cold here in Colorado we're completely off the grid just got to get a little bit of wood and we can heat it right up and what do you do for water so water we have an 80 gallon tank in there that's probably the only reason we have to come back to civilization once we're out of water or out of food yeah we're gonna fill up dump the tanks but other than that 80 gallons can go pretty far and it looks like here on the exterior of the bus you've got quite a bit of storage space as well this was one of the few school buses that came with it pre-built in there some of the other ones you have to do the addition yourself and said this was nice instead of storing all the solar and the batteries and everything else on the interior of the bus it's all out here which left us a lot more room on the inside and we didn't have to pay extra to have bins installed or anything like that so we actually searched for a bus specifically that had these bins so what length is the bus so the bus is almost as big as a standard bus can go it's 38 feet long seven and a half feet wide and then has the 20 inch roof raised on it so it's quite spacious on the inside well this bus looks like she is absolutely ready for adventure and I cannot wait to see what you've done inside can we check it out come on all right thank you this just looks so cool I love all the stone work that you've done on the entrance yeah so I mean we have stone in the back in the bathroom and I just wanted it kind of to all flow together and the first thing that you see I don't want it to be bus steps I want this no I love that it is a bus I don't want anyone to know that inside it is a bus standing in here right now this certainly does feel like a home and not a school bus and there's some really interesting things that you've done to help make that happen like the front of the bus here where you've turned the whole dashboard into a couch that is such a great idea yeah and it was actually super easy and it was our dogs idea so we were just driving and our dogs kept going up there and they would sit out there look out the window and I was like well they need something comfy to sit on and so I just did a DIY cushion throw it up there and drape the blanket on top threw some pillows and call it a day and then you've still got your drivers station here talk to me about this well I wish I could say I had the comfy air ride seat but that was a budget thing maybe it'll come soon but that's kind of my station we try to hide it when it's just the homey feel so that it doesn't actually look like the bus again steering wheel is what it is but that is definitely where the dogs like to sit sometimes McGee likes to hop right on the driver so you can think he's the driver that is his chain and then you've got a very nice comfortable looking couch here as well yeah this is probably a lot bigger than most other people with school buses will ever go it's a 10 foot couch and it pulls out to form one massive bed enough for two humans and three dogs otherwise we can have people spend the night with us in the bus as well yeah great and it looks like you've built quite a lot of storage in there as well yeah so one of the nice things about the under bins was being able to put a lot of the solar stuff outside we have all of our fresh water in here so when it gets cold in Colorado and some of the other places we travel it doesn't freeze so that way we still have good access to water and then under this whole half a couch is just storage for games clothing whatever we need it for and now tell me about your kitchen cuz this looks so great this was probably the most important part for us this was big when we got our first home and it was definitely gonna be the centerpiece of the bus's well we like to cook and we spend a lot of time in the kitchen and so when we were lay out we knew we needed a very long kitchen lots of counter space and we went back and forth and what kind of fridge to do and we wanted a spacious one and so this kind of just was our dream kitchen going with the fridge underneath a lot more cabinet space the original design was going to be you know a traditional fridge but as you can see we have a massive countertop a big stove basically a regular apartment sized one and you've got to love the butler's sink it is very nice we were big HGTV fans and when we saw the farmhouse sink we're like well we can't have it in our house right now couldn't afford it it'll definitely be in the bus though oh yeah definitely that's another cool thing about downsizing and doing tiny is we've never really settled into our homes and we've never really been able to show ourselves in our homes like this and get everything we wanted and by going smaller we were able to actually make our dream Oh like I don't ever get jealous or want anyone else's home I got mine so yeah yeah and look at that fireplace that's probably one of my top two favorite things about the bus it gets cold here in Colorado and having an actual wood-burning stove and being able to be off-grid that thing is way more than we needed for this tiny space it gets really hot fast which we're grateful for ya know you almost have to open windows with the fire because it's it does its job let's say that is the place quite well insulated it is we do have spray foam all throughout the bus and then these windows are our view windows specifically to trap the heat and the cold air depending on the season but with that being said it does get cold here in Colorado and I see you do have the air conditioning as well we do it doesn't work off-grid so we do have a generator just those very hot days or for when we're plugged in but it is definitely nice to have it was a good splurge oh yeah and what do we have further back here so this is our shower and our toilet and the shower is probably my second favorite part right behind the wood-burning stove and that's cuz we have vanilla I don't know many other buses that have this I don't even know if most people even know this exists but I'm super nerdy and I spend a lot of time on Kickstarter and I don't when this first came out I loved the idea about the California draught saving water and then we tried it and not only is it really economical and help us save water for the bus but it's an awesome experience to take a shower and it feels like a nice warm hug I can't say enough good things about it at first I was like really you know this much for a shower it's worth it yeah especially living this lifestyle and the stone and tile work in the shower is so beautiful that was our first time and might be our last time we did in the dead of winter and then I'm like the box don't do it in this type of degrees so that wasn't smart so we had a struggle with it but we're so happy with how it turned out I mean we love the stonework it matches the front of the bus and it kind of just flows with our entire theme this house so now we're really happy with how the shower did turn out and then over the other side we've got the composting toilet and the vanity in there yeah so it's it's kind of tiny but it works for us I mean we've never done the black water and we didn't really want to do a black water tank and so we just thought let's everyone's doing the composting toilet let's try this out and we ended up with nature's head and we are really happy with having the full sink and cabinet we have the nice big mirror makes the room even bigger and then we have little baskets behind the compost toilet that just hold our little towels to dry our hands off and it kind of just all once again flows in the design I'm very big on the design and everything flowing and what lies behind the door so a lot of people when they see pictures on Instagram they think this is where the bus ends but lo and behold our bedroom you've got a full bedroom behind there that is really neat yes this is kind of the bedroom area and where we keep our clothes but we probably spend the majority of the time up at the front of the bus living in a school II like this as well having the option of a room where you can shut the door and have a little bit of private space must be so nice as well it is just over 200 square feet most of the time we're on the same page but when we do need to time it is it is nice to have your own room or a room to put the dogs in and having that door to kind of cut it off does come in handy so how long have you been living in the bus now I think it's been a little six months now and I mean it was definitely a rough start we started in the dead of winter but after winter went away it's been just smooth sailing the summers out here have been perfect that we're starting to get a hang of all the different things that can and will go wrong but the first seven months have been fantastic and we don't see us stopping this lifestyle anytime soon really any problem we come up against you know we kind of work together and we've been able to solve anything from you know the engine not turning on and getting stuck on the side of a 14 or in the middle of nowhere to just building simple furniture you know to really style and design the inside we've learned about solar and plumbing and water and wood and all things that you know me as a sales guy I never knew any of this stuff and so we've really learned a lot and been able to tackle a lot of problems along the way and now let's talk budget what was the cost of realizing this dream so the materials if you could do everything on your own we're about $30,000 all-in we were just under 60 and compared to owning a house in the Denver area or in the Chicago area this I mean it's not even comparable and how some foundations will never give you options like this one has without a doubt once this is 100% paid off really it's just gonna be the open road for the two of us and seeing where we can take it I mean the bus and tiny living I mean it really came together for all the reasons we kind of talked about the money you know spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a home that you don't really need that space you don't need that big of a home the space itself not even just the money you know 1400 square foot home where two of the rooms haven't ever been moved into just boxes sitting there versus you know 200 square feet of every foot being taken care of and knowing where it is and the fact that you know we were in the suburbs of Chicago and granted we we grew up there it is home both our families are there but there was so much adventure left in us that was either gonna have to wait for the weekends or retirement and that really didn't sit well with us so to be able to put all three of those things together you know what bus life in the tiny life is really meaning for us and I'm sure there's a lot more we're gonna discover as we move forward but that was really the base and the foundation of why we really started looking at all of it in the first place another big thing for me it was just I am a huge homebody and I do like to spend a lot of time in my space in my home and so I wanted it to feel homey and to be like us and the best part is that everywhere we go I can travel we can go anywhere and I don't have to have the stress of where are we going to stay well it's not gonna feel like home my dogs aren't gonna feel at home whereas in this space we're always at home everywhere we go this is such a beautiful project I really love the way that you have taken this school bus and really made it feel like a home thank you so much for sharing a weak faith thank you for coming thank you Nick and Francesca have done such an incredible job with building this home this is a place where once you're inside you would never guess that this was an old school e it is spacious it is beautiful it's stylish but the wheels still mean that this is a home that is ready for a whole lot of adventure and I'm sure there is lots of excitement to come in this couple's future [Music] you

Channel: Living Big In A Tiny House

Views: 4,146,622

Keywords: living big in a tiny house, tiny house, small house, home on wheels, school bus, school bus conversion, skoolie, skoolie conversion, skoolie life, school bus living, mobile home, life on the road, off the grid, off the grid school bus, off the grid skoolie, tiny house life, tiny house living, small spaces, small space design, happy homebodies, off grid home, tiny house tour, school bus tour, skoolie tour, tiny house 2019

Id: uk2l5AVWycc

Length: 14min 35sec (875 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 27 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/BigUncleJimbo]

Wow it looks amazing on the inside