Family Of 6 & Their Custom DIY Raised Roof Bus Conversion Tiny House

[Music] [Music] hi we're the hancocks and this is hope the adventure bus come on in one of the kind of unique things that we ended up doing in the bus i think compared to some other designs was the loft originally i had some really crazy ideas to put it on uh you know lift some sort of a lift mechanism so it could go up and down and then you know reality hits and that was just a little more complex than what we were ready for i've got most of most of my books up there you'll notice we've got a lot of books on the bus that's something that is just important to us we love love love books so they are everywhere and the skylight something that we added not too long ago and that was a really nice addition it was originally the emergency hatch and ever since we've gotten the bus we really struggled with some leaking coming in through small cracks and so finally we're like why don't we just take it out and put a skylight in i really love how much light that brought into a lot of the other builds that we saw where they incorporated a skylight in so definitely not something we regret we like it a lot we do put a reflectix up there if it gets too hot and that that helps with any heat otherwise you know on a beautiful day like today where it's 60 degrees it's just lovely so we have long legs and our kids are very athletic so they have no problem and we have no problem we just step up onto the the table there and then use the handle the handles really important for me so i can hoist myself up but uh one of the extra benefits of the skylight is actually that i can sit up without bending over one of the things that we knew we wanted to put in the bus for sure was the wood stove and we spent a lot of time looking at different options and ultimately ended up going with one out of the uk this is called the cyclops and um we we liked that because it had the bigger flue pipe and um just wanted to make sure it was good enough size that we could also get a pot on it so it's kind of nice the kids get a kick out of warming up tea or uh you know put a pot with some cinnamon on it or something like that we also use it for dry clothes occasionally so it's nice but it puts out a lot of heat and we we really we like it a lot so this is kind of our school obviously homeschool so this is our school section and we've got a table here you know with a six-year-old especially it's important that she has something that's kind of to her level so we made sure that that she would have this space the table here can flip up and then we've just got a little slide out board there so she's she likes to eat here too it's just a great great little space for her and then underneath here we actually have a printer and that's on a slide so we can slide out a printer and then just other sort of things puzzles and pencil sharpener that kind of stuff so it's handy to have and then all of our curriculum shelves and assorted other things microscope and robots and and then on the other side here we have a built-in shelf and with a couple of slides and you can see super organized but uh just just all those odds and ends that you've got to make space for that it is nice to have you know a stapler and a three-hole punch that the things that we use anyway i would say for us the the transition itself from a 13 1400 square foot home to i don't even know what the bus is 36 foot anyway 36 foot long um something like that maybe 280 if you count the law right but that part really wasn't hard for us we we like to be together we want to be close um i guess we like each other so the space wasn't so much of a transition it was the build itself while living in it that was uh very tricky was definitely a big change the house is i used to have a lot more space so it took a while to get through the dishes were really hard too wash them rinse them off put them on a rack and then we get to dry them and put them away but the whole process takes like two hours primary issues with the bus is trying to find space for everything that you and or your family needs limited space limited options that's so we thought but as we got into the build we figured out that there are some things that we needed slash i needed i work remote i have an i.t job i have calls with some of my partners in india russia all times of the day and so it was really hard i first started on the couch that didn't work and then i would move to our car in the front seat of the car that didn't work and so we decided we weren't really using the front of the bus for anything so we decided to use the driver's seat as my office basically so we constructed a wall um so this is my office when i have video calls which is rare they don't get the whole view of the whole bus and all the crazy going on behind me um it is kind of funny because being on the farm every once in a while the russians will say something about the goats or the chickens outside so i'll open up the window and show them but you know it's it's nice i can wake up i start fairly early in the morning and not disturb anybody in the bus you know sit down i built a a desktop that i use my laptop on um and then there's some of course storage behind the the driver's seat just for other odds it ends for work but mainly that's what the front of the bus is for um is just my my office work area and it's nice and quiet enough for what i need and we don't really use this front door too much just because of you know height trying to bend in coming through the the front door but it's here if we need it again if i need to go outside to show people in russia the pig or a goat or whatever they want to see it's nice to be able to pop out quick or the living room space one of my favorite things before i forget is actually the ceiling light that was something that i i don't know i just kind of had an idea again incorporating that reclaimed cedar branch and then i found some some covered electrical uh wiring i guess with the with little light bulb sockets to it so created our own sort of a chandelier light fixture and wrapped some barbed wire that they pulled off of the fence over there so kind of fun keep keep incorporating those farm things and really turn her into a tiny farmhouse but our our couches um we've we've got the the short one here and it does slide out so when we go to do like a family movie we like to pull everything out and everybody can just kind of spread out and snuggle together so that that'll slide out some it used to actually connect where this these two would come together and it would be one big bed but we did end up needing to change the cushion sizes just a little bit so they don't they don't come together perfectly anymore but that's all right because the dog needs to be able to walk through sometimes too and then we have some some drawers under both couches we keep some extra just kind of odds and ends right now this is sort of my extra pillowcase pillow cover linen and assorted other fabrics all the curtains and stuff i have repurposed from like curtains that we had in our home back in des moines so it was kind of kind of fun to you know both from a budget standpoint and also just bringing a little bit of our our previous home with us is is fun we're now to the point of the bus where we have a shower closet and we have the bathroom closet that's what i call it i don't know it just kind of stuck so the shower closet um seeing a lot of builds um you know we saw people with tile we saw people with pre-built inserts from you know lowe's home depot or whatever but we really like the look of the tile it seems to just brighten up the area and again light is important to us and so we decided to go with just a subway tile fairly simple just to keep it light when light comes in just kind of bounces off everything um really nice and the way that we angled the the the ceiling here was hopefully to help with any moisture come up and then being sucked out through the ceiling uh max air vent is kind of how we wanted to do things so again with space being a premium inside of the bus how you know shower curtains how where do we hang dry towels with again six of us in the bus we decided to go with this um double double shower deal here we built it out of just half inch water pipe that we got from lowe's just kind of pieced everything together and then screwed into the ceiling and we actually went with the double one so on the second one up here the top one done taking a shower we can just throw the towels right over here if we are all showering throughout the day on the back of the door here we actually also have hooks that we can hang up towels and to help them dry out as well uh as far as you know challenges being in a tiny space a plumber friend of mine who helped us it took a lot of problem solving and talking between the two of us to figure out you know how we're gonna do the drain into the into the gray tank and again how do we bring up the the water pipes into the wall um and then after that happened and of course starting things for the first time there were some leaks and so trying to get in a tiny space with just a hand and a little knife to to fix it was a little bit difficult but um all in all i think it turned out pretty nice nice and bright the bathroom i guess for me i think has been the hardest part of the whole build it's changed so many times i think we're on iteration 497 and hopefully it's done no more iterations um we again it we sacrifice a little bit of space in the bathrooms a little bit smaller so with the the toilet we actually went with a composting toilet so urine diverter actually diverts into a 50 gallon gray tank underneath our feet and then we have the compost toilet um the composting side that's just under here we've got you know just a little compartment here to have our coconut core for the composting toilet and then actually back behind this picture is our electrical fuse box or whatever you want to call it there so it's easy to get to in case there's a there's an issue and on this side we actually went with a ikea sink ikea you know a place for you can get anything for a small a small space so it's really nice we decided we went back and worked between not having a sink in the bathroom and using it just in the kitchen but i'm glad we did again six people you know washington's brushing teeth just every the days as they go on can get a little crazy so we just got a nice little sink here for the bathroom that people tend to use a lot and then again i did some built-in slide-out drawers for all of our needs you know toilet paper toothbrushes and all that stuff we want to kind of keep out of the light of day working on the road making money on the road we were fortunate where when we decided to to get the bus thinking how i could bring it up at work what am i going to do at that time i was going into an office every day how can i bring it up at work you know what's going to happen um literally the week that we decided i go into work one day and they announced that my job's going remote so i work it with i.t a lot of my team is in india and in russia and so they just decided we didn't have to come in anymore since i have people all over the world that i work with you know some days it's australia some days it's london so yeah i just it's a tech job anywhere i have a phone signal i can sit up set up and work probably one of the the luckier of us out here with making money i didn't have to quit um and actually it's been i wasn't quite sure how i was going to be in a bus with you know small space quarters and everything but it um it really isn't what i expected a lot of times they can't hear what's going on on the call i got a special mic on um on my headset so they can't hear something unless it's you know really really loud screaming or fighting right but again when something like that happens you know people in other countries they find it hilarious and i turn on the camera and i'll show them what's going on but just to have that eight to five or nine to five whatever monday through friday job and it's got someone's just it's just like just a normal job i guess right yeah don't have to worry about insurance and everything right so one of the one of the big tricks obviously with the big family and in addition to the coat uh conundrum is the shoe so a lot of a lot of families can identify with that it is really hard to try and keep to a reasonable amount of shoes for six people and this this was something that we put in pretty quickly as we were building out the bus because the shoes were everywhere so we've got everybody's got at least i think three pairs and um i was able to squeeze our key basket and everything on there which is really handy so just kind of nice come in the door get your shoes off and on on the shelf and that helps it helps a lot all right so uh the side door is actually our main door um i i like the idea of kind of switching up the designs and also maybe not having to go under the loft so often where i'm going to have to duck to come in so this is nice and we went ahead and put a pallet wood wall here so this is this is something you'll notice we've got a lot of reclaimed wood that we've used and some some cool hooks from tractor supply i feel like a lot of things have come from tractor supply in our house and but it's good so we've got two two different bars two different cook so that the kids can reach the one on the bottom so the kitchen area has definitely been through a transformation initially when we started building out the bus this was where we had some curriculum shelves so this this has always come out this far but we did have some bookshelves built in here we had a water incident before we had the the floor done and that required pulling things out and redoing them and we decided um it was a really great opportunity to kind of rethink what we had done and we realized that we we really needed more of a pantry space than what we had planned in so that we we went ahead and did that we we've got the berkey on a nice stand up here back up catch water system there and this is all kind of a dry sink top so it's all sealed in the event that there's any water spills we don't have to worry about the floors anymore but yeah we did i had the idea to use some hardware cloth try and keep the doors lightweight and kind of keeping with the with the farm theme and we've got the insta pot i've got some additional food storage at the back put a couple baskets for the potatoes and squashes off to the side there too which is great and then the the drawers on the bottom are actually kind of one of my favorite things i i purchased some vintage uh like an apple i think they're both apple yeah both apple crates and they had the really cool pictures on them and i knew i wanted to use them somehow in the bus eventually but i didn't know where and then when it came time to do this i was like that's what i have them for so that was really fun then this one's also really fun you can see this kind of cool relief i think it's called a relief of a young person with like a telescope or a telescope a light in a book and it was originally a bigger i'm trying to think what you call it like a side table it was a side table with a glass top and i purchased that just off of facebook marketplace because i was like that's really cool and again i need to use that in the bus somewhere and i had all these ideas and they just weren't working out and then eventually again with redoing this i was like wait a second i know now why i have this and so we put it on the drawer front here and this is where we keep our induction cooktop so it's nice anything that we can do to keep stuff off of the countertop is huge this being a little bit lower too helps the kids to be able to cook they really enjoy you know making eggs or making tea you know whatever it is that that they they're trying to help with is great so that's nice and then we just can push it out of the way when we're done we can even push it out of the way with one of the cast iron pants on it that's helpful and then we also have a slide out additional cutting board here which is great too the younger kids use that a lot when they're helping with chopping up produce so that's kind of that and then we'll step up here one of the first things that we actually did was put this shelf up and it was a friend of ours who was working on his van build and he said something about using the branches to support that shelf and i love that he did that because that was definitely something that we ran with then and um that really cemented the kind of extra extra cedar aspect but for a while the the shelves were totally open and eventually i was like this is it just looks too cluttery and so we decided to go ahead and close them and i'm really glad i think it just visually looks a lot nicer i found some really cool pewter i think they're roosters rooster in the sun knobs i guess off of etsy and the the drawers just flip up like that so we keep our cooking stuff up here the oils the vinegars salt and all that we did decide to go ahead and keep the center one open i kind of just like the way that it looks and we've got like a snack basket up there so the kids can get into that easily when it's time for snacks which it's always time for snacks right so actually the you'll you'll notice there's the step up from the living room into the kitchen and then the bathroom space it continues and we actually have our water tanks under the the rise here i'm still not sure if that was a really great idea or not but my hope thought was that it would prevent them from freezing so no matter where we go we won't have to struggle with freezing quite as much as if they were on the outside underneath the bus so we've got um three 22 gallon tanks yep we've got three 22 gallon water tanks that are all hooked together and so they kind of i think there's one two and three in the center and our pump this actually front here is removable so we can get to the the water pump if we need to access that we've got all the fun kitchen stuff under there put the trash can and cleaning supplies and just all those things that you have to have a spot for and sometimes it's kind of tricky to come up with ideas creative ideas to get it out of sight out of mind we did go with ikea based cabinets we put in an ikea just a basic ikea sink thrifted the the faucet and one of the fun things that i don't i don't know how i had this idea but for the the drawer pulls over here i found this door knocker on etsy and i was like that's really cool it's got a farm scene in it with like a tractor and cow and stuff and so i i was like i'm gonna use that for for one of the drawer pulls just for something fun and unique and then just on it on a whim i kind of wasn't sure what i would do for the second drawer then and one day sat down and just had this kind of thought and was like if you go out and look you're going to find another one that matches that's a really weird thought stacy and you don't want to waste time on the on the internet so don't do it and it's like but no you really you're going to have to look you got to look and i just i was like okay fine i'll look but i'm going to be really fast about i'm not going to not going to lose two hours on the internet and sure enough there was a matching door knocker it's from 1984 that somebody had had put on i think i got the second one off of ebay and it was within budget and everything so i was really excited that happened to find a matching set there this is a this is a technically still an apartment size fridge it's 15 cubic feet which is pretty good size for a tiny house but we eat a lot of fresh produce so we need it and i'm glad for it i can't even imagine trying to have gone with a smaller one so it's good and then we we have the oh it's a an air fryer convection oven combo that stays up top and we do use it quite a bit when it's hot out you know in the summer we're trying to keep the heat out of the bus we will take it outside and just put it on a stool and cook out there so that works too but yeah otherwise our our dishes are over here we've got the extra cabinet and it's kind of nice to have a little bit of a backup counter space that that is definitely sometimes i wish i had a little bit more counter space but that what we have really is sufficient so so in this uh area between the the shower closet and the bathroom closet we is actually the dresser for my my wife and i we've got um up top here is where we have some extra linens and and um towels and stuff like that just a standard closet and then we actually built pull out drawers for for our clothes and again just some unused pieces of wood that i pieced together until i could crate and just uh glued and hammered and nailed everything together and you know it works um they are actually a lot longer a lot deeper than most um dressers i think we're at like 28 inches or 30 inches so we can put a lot of clothes in there um again just with being out we can have clothes for winter summer swimming everything we don't really have to change through anything much last part of the bus is the kids area we're actually right behind um the wheels and the and the shower after we stepped down off of the the great tank and the the water tanks just right behind the the rear wheels decided to turn this into the whole kids area again how many iterations we went through i don't know um having four kids they needed their own space we did recognize that that was needed and their space is basically their beds so they actually really enjoy it they like changing it up we felt that it important that they have you know space again what space little space they had they could do whatever they wanted would so we kind of went with a different setup triple bunk bed with the youngest here i'll just start with hers again hers is just really low so that she can get in and out she's got her her shelf that she can put books you know trinkets toys whatever she wants to put in there um oldest sleeps here and again her stuff is against this wall she's got a couple shelves that she can do whatever she wants with so we felt that it be necessary that everyone has their own space that they could do whatever they would like to to do to it just to feel a little bit more like theirs this area here is more of a play area there's a shelf here that has baskets for everyone with a little bit more space for toys or whatever they want to to do with we brought along a record player from my wife's grandfather who passed away they loved this we listened to old records tammy wynette you know old country music we've got new songs you know radio they control it they listen to whatever they want and it's really fun to hear um you know one day they're listening to country music the next day they're listening to irish songs about goats from ireland so it's really been fun for them to to do what they want to next to the window we actually put a reading bench and at first we didn't think that it was going to be used a whole lot but they just love this they'll do legos up there they'll open up the window and yell stuff outside you know dogs are barking they'll yell at the dogs but they they really just love this area to get their legos their toys out plan the floor and again it's small enough space that it doesn't take long to clean up the last area again apparently kids need clothes to run around and play outside and so again some more built-in shelves with some reclaimed pallet wood and corrugated steel um finish here again space is a premium we just have a little bit of space for everybody but this is their closet and a lot of times i forget it's even here just because of the nice front that we decided to put on it we did we worked together uh we were creative and we all used our minds to did it we came up with a very barn but that's what i like about it is very creative what's it like being a teenager on a bus it's very frustrating sometimes when people are going nuts and i'm not just talking about my siblings [Laughter] [Music] or like never happens um one thing though i do like about it is if the i need help i don't have to go to several different rooms in a house or yell up the stairs for somebody i can just ask and they'll be right there um another thing that i like about it is being able to be together more than we would normally do in a standard home style family it's also fun parking in different areas where i can make new friends and it's very odd when if i say the night it just feels different walking up and down stairs and going into a real kitchen and turning on a fossil without having to fill the tanks first my favorite part about the bus is because we can travel we can go places and they really look nice they have good wheels fun part of living in the buses you're able to travel around and traveling is very fun you can see a bunch of new places a bunch of fun and friends that have are on in different states it's really cool to be not living on a bus what is it like to have kids in a bus um to be i mean and i feel like we're a little bit different too because it's not like it's just one or two you know to have we have four kids uh six to 13 and three dogs as well so i i don't i suppose it depends on the personality um of a person i thought i think how to afford it i thought that we would feel more cramped i i thought that we would be on top of each other a lot more than what we are so that was a pleasant surprise that even as a technically kind of large family in a small space it doesn't feel like it it is nice like nina mentioned where it's it's not hard to you know to find somebody you're not you're not trying to holler through a large home everyone's always close i will say that the dirt and the dust is a little bit different i i'm not sure if that's a a texas thing or a farm thing or a tiny house thing but yes the the house cleans fast but you can clean it every day and it's going to be dirty the next day so sometimes you kind of had to relax a little bit on that one whereas i literally like you mop the floor and turn around and there's stuff on it again and it just is what it is if you'd like to follow more of our life and adventures we are in on instagram under hope the adventure bus we would love to have you thanks for watching thanks for watching that's a wrap all right

Channel: Tiny Home Tours

Views: 538,337

Keywords: tiny house, tiny house on wheels, living big in a tiny house, tiny house movement, tiny home, small house, small spaces, small house design, alternative living, architecture, affordable home, off the grid, small space living, tiny house life, diy tiny house, diy home, tiny homes, tiny house living, skoolie conversion tour, skoolie bus tour, bus conversion tour, van life solo female traveler, off grid, van life, family rv living, family rv tour, skoolie roof raise

Id: eFFx-y7olIQ

Length: 32min 38sec (1958 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 31 2020