Her $20k DIY School Bus Build

foreign I decided to buy the bus and quit my job all within about 48 hours this is his favorite place in the entire bus total cost I'm probably in about 20 grand this hook you see here is hammock Hardware hi I'm Liv this is my best poppy let's go do a tour [Applause] [Music] welcome to my home this is my living room when I bought the bus it was already partially converted it was about 20 complete and the kitchen was already installed sort of and so this was the part that I started to tackle that was really like me figuring out how do I put things together for one and how do I put things together in a vehicle or two so I actually started with the closet and I ended up putting together the frame and then taking it apart three different times to try to re-put it together so I built the closet and then I just thought that it would be a good flow into like the couch which I have storage underneath and then a little like shoe rack here at the end of the couch which has now turned into all sorts of different kinds of story to have dog stuff in there my shoes and then just like odds and ends that I want to be able to quickly grab the couch cushion I poured my Blood Sweat and Tears into it probably took me 15 hours to make because I hand stitched every single one of these little gathers that you see I went in with an upholstery needle and I hand stitched and tied all of them so it's my pride and joy I absolutely love this cushion I wanted to keep the storage open in the top of the bus because I didn't want it to feel really like closed in or claustrophobic so I just had this idea to put a shelf that was going to go all the way across here and all of this stuff actually just always stays up here I have it velcroed down I have my little plants and then I it was really important to me to have a bookshelf and this little girl is like my bookend so I have a piece of velcro that the soft side up that goes all the way to probably here and then as I add books I can just pick her up and move her over so that the books stay exactly where they're supposed to be while I'm driving nothing actually even really rattles up here I got the idea for the curtains from another bus tour that I watched I don't remember whose it was but I just really liked how they rolled up so what I did in order to keep them straight across is I put little dowels in the bottom so that for one they're easier to roll up that way and then second they're not looking droopy and then I just made these little leather snaps I didn't use any like real curtain rod up here I used another just like a wooden dowel and then a little L bracket that I screwed into the framing that I put on the Windows here so I can't actually take them off but I don't know why I would need to so I think it's fine and I think they look really clean so that's one of my favorite things about them is that they just look like they belong exactly where they're at all of the fabric that I used for my curtains was actually clearance fabric so the front of the bus curtains in the back of the bus curtains are actually all different types of fabric but they're similar style so it kind of keeps this like cohesive look while still having something to play with visually a little bit which I really like so when I bought the bus the sink was already installed as was the countertops and then these cabinets were installed as well what I did is I had to frame out and add cabinet faces essentially under here to make it usable space I obviously added a stove top I did everything that isn't the shell of the kitchen basically I put my fridge actually on a drawer so it opens using these little hooks and then in order to get to it I can pull the drawer out and then open the fridge and get in and out of it that way the cabinet faces I got this idea actually from a tick tock I saw and they did this cane webbing and then framed it out and I just thought it was absolutely stunning and so I was like I absolutely I definitely want that in the best so I recycled the wood and then just like framed out the edges and then put this on hinges honestly my whole build process I think was hilarious because I did it completely by myself and I didn't have anyone to ask questions I just had no idea what I was doing the only thing I'd ever built was Ikea furniture so I think that they turned out beautiful and this is actually like one of my favorite things in the bus the cabinets up here are just super simple they're just on gas struts this is clearly where I keep like my dishes I have a pots and pans set that breaks down so the handles are actually like they come off which just makes it like way easier to store and then over here I have kind of just like I have spices hot sauces because I really love hot sauce and then I got this little thing from Ikea and it is just like a little drawer system that helps me to organize like toiletries and kind of thing like I have my toothbrush in here and then my food storage this is actually one of my favorite things too is because I have a ton of food storage and here here things jump out sometimes that's okay I added these little shelves in here and it like doubled the amount of space that I have so as you can see things aren't very organized but I never run out of flute so that's awesome the backsplash I got these um hand-painted tiles off of etsy I keep my knives on this magnet which I don't know if I would recommend it looks nice when I'm barked but oftentimes they fall off and into the sink so there's probably a better solution but it looks cute so and then I just have this little drying rack that sits in my sink for when I do dishes my sink is actually huge which I really appreciate about the previous owner putting in such a deep sink because it definitely is helpful for if I want to go a day or two without having to do my dishes they can just kind of sit low and nobody can see them and they don't make too much of a mess when I bought the bus they basically just had one of those like seven gallon blue water tanks that you see a lot in vans that just lived underneath the sink but I knew that I wanted to have more water than that so I have a 16 gallon tank and it actually lives underneath my bed I drilled a hole in this little side wall here to run the soft like PVC pipe through and then I have an electric pump because this opens all the way around and I don't have a shower in the bus I can turn the sink around and we can do an outdoor shower that way I haven't ever actually used it because I haven't really been in a situation where I really needed a shower and couldn't find a Planet Fitness but it's fun but it's there if I want it to be there if I need it [Music] thank you so my best life story is actually kind of funny and unique I decided to buy the bus and quit my job all within about 48 hours I didn't know that people lived in school buses until I found this bus on Facebook Marketplace and then I pretty much immediately made the decision that I was going to do it I was super burnt out at my job I was a nurse for five and a half years and as a lot of people I think can understand the pandemic was just kind of like the cherry on the top of a cake for my burnout so yeah I was living in DC I knew I wanted to come back West because I'm from this area and I found the bus sought as an opportunity to escape so I just did it I actually didn't watch any bus tours or anything until after I had already put a deposit down on this rig so a lot of people I think research bus life van life a lot before they enter it and I did but only for like two weeks the front wall is purely for beauty purposes it doesn't really have any function other than this little like rack that I sometimes will hang my keys on and you know like a jacket here and there and a shelf for my plants and then an area to put artwork this is the same Cedar setting that you'll see kind of all throughout the bus I just stained it and I think that it turned out absolutely beautiful I was a little worried when I started putting this up because it was giving very like 70s basement Vibes but once I stained it it it just absolutely transformed it so yeah this is just like where my plants live they are also velcroed down everything is velcro and velcro is amazing it actually stays very well the electrical system was already installed when I purchased the bus the solar panels were already on the roof and the inverter and the batteries were already in this cabinet it was just like the original bus cabinet so I did rip off the sheet metal and make my own door or I actually just have in here like a power bank that's plugged into my inverter and then I have an extension cord that's kind of hidden and it just runs back behind my kitchen back toward the bed and that's where I charge my phone and stuff at night so the electrical system in this bus is not really impressive but it is absolutely functional and it works I just don't have outlets and I have never once found myself thinking dang I really wish I had an outlet definitely don't need to go like overboard on electrical stuff if you don't want to so in here I have two 100 amp hour batteries they're sealed lead acid batteries which I don't recommend honestly I'm in the works of trying to get them switched out for lithium I have a 2 000 watt inverter and then I have a charge controller in here and I have 400 watts of solar on the roof like I said other than wanting to upgrade my batteries I'm actually very very happy with it simple it works but just me in here so I don't need a lot the ceiling is just the original metal bust ceiling there's not really any particular reason and that I left it this way other than I just didn't think it was a priority so I just left the ceiling and I actually love it I love that I left the ceiling because it I was able to put the cedar up on the walls and it doesn't look like too much the white is just really easy and it is magnetic so I do have some magnets on the ceiling over there this hook you see here is hammock Hardware so I have two hammock swing chairs that I hook up when people are hanging out in the bus with me or when I just want to like relax and read so I can super easily pop them up and down I have had a ton of weight on this hardware and it's never even come close to budging they're one of my favorite things about the bus and there's also something that people always are like so excited about because the hammock swing is just cool another cool thing about having the magnetic ceiling is I found this magnetic tripod mount that is extremely strong it's actually kind of hard to pull off the ceiling and I screw my projector into it so I can hang up my projector screen at the front of the bus at the end of my bed which is what I normally do and I can really easily just move the projector around because it's not a permanent fixture this thing is amazing it was like 35 on Amazon and it's probably one of the best things that I found for the best because it's just so strong you don't have to worry about anything falling with it one of the things that I knew when I moved into the bus or when I was getting ready to move into the bus and building it was that who I am as a person is not changing just because I live in a vehicle so I prioritized a closet instead of a bathroom and I do not regret it at all because I have a lot of clothes and they all fit I don't have any issues with clothing storage currently it's just some plastic bins that have drawers in them um and then like hanging space what I want to do is build drawers inside so that when I open this door I can I can like have a lot more drawer storage in there underneath the closet I do have a cassette toilet under there so if I need to use it I can but I don't actually find myself needing to use it that often and yeah I am really happy that I went with a closet rather than a bathroom so up here is just where I keep my hair stuff and makeup and jewelry it's all just kind of tucks up back there and it is easy to get to but it's out of the way which I do really like and then I also have a full-length mirror on the front of the closet here I have more storage at the end of my bed and so this is a queen size mattress and I had about eight inches of extra space at the end so I built little like end of the bed boxes it spans the whole length from the closet to the end of the bus and it's where I can keep like socks underwear and then I have like a little electrical stuff storage in there as well I have a little Nursery shelf here which worked perfectly because it had um a bar across the front so it keeps things on that I use as like my little nightstand there's another little storage Nook up over here that kind of just functions as if I'm sitting on that side of the bed and I don't want to reach all the way across that I can again like put a drink up there or put my books up there or whatever but I've had plant up there before and it fell so never again because there's dirt all over my bed and then if I'm camping by myself or if I'm in an area where I have a really pretty view I can move the curtain all the way to the side and I have like 180 degree view I yeah I'm just I'm really happy that I decided not to cover those up I do have an AC unit it's just a window unit and it was previously installed when I bought the bus but that's what you see up here that little control is just the front of what would be in your house on the window unit and then the cedar just went like right over the top of it it's a little more Incognito that way it is not hooked up to my electrical system it has a power cord that just runs down um like through the wall at the back of the bus and I can only use it if I have a generator or if I have a Shore power hookup when it was really hot this summer I was kind of stuck staying at campgrounds because I needed to use the AC because of the dogs and I needed somewhere to plug in minor inconvenience really not that big of a deal it's only 5000 BTU window unit so it is very small and you can see it on the back of the bus but it's mounted in there pretty solid and I've never had any issues underneath my bed is is Bo's bed this is his favorite place in the entire bus and this is actually where he spends most of his time he is always kind of been like a cave dweller he likes to hunker down underneath things so it was really important to me to leave that open for him so I just have the dog bed I have dog food under here I have a little bit more storage like back into the left that I just have bins with things that I don't need to access very frequently on the right side I have my water tank I have my propane tank and then I also have just a bin of shoes that like swap out winter for summer shoes that kind of thing the back side of the bed is my garage space and it's where I keep my tools I have a camping bin so that I just have like my hammock I have a floaty back there for floating the river it's just like stuff that you would put in a garage it all fits like very nicely underneath the bed on the back and then that door opens still so I can access it super easily get to it if I need to [Music] I bought the bus partially converted I was ten thousand five hundred dollars and I feel like I got a steal because the solar was already installed the demo was already done it was really set up to where I could live in it if I wanted to um how it was I didn't want to I wanted to finish it and fix it up but so ten thousand five hundred dollars for the bus including like the beginning stages of the conversion and then I didn't keep really close track of how much I spent but I can't imagine I don't think I have more than another ten thousand dollars into the bus total I did use a lot of like recycled wood I tried to I tried to like pull resources from things that already existed versus just like buying everything brand new so total cost I'm probably in about 20 grand for money on the road right now I work for a keto backpacking food company um it's just maybe 10 hours a week and it's just kind of to help keep me from pulling out of my savings the reason that I was able to buy the bus to begin with is because when I was 23 I bought a house right after I became a nurse I owned it for four and a half years and then I sold it last summer I never intended to spend that money on my lifestyle I always thought that I would reinvest it in a second property but when I hit the burnout that I did and I was so desperate for an escape I as essentially I actually talked to my grandpa and he really encouraged me to just be smart but do it and so yeah I was fun employed I was unemployed for maybe seven or eight months and now I work very very part-time I'm ready to start working again though and that's really what was the most important thing for me was to be able to reset escape from my burnout and depression and be ready to work again which I am so goals made for my door I took off the original bus door opening mechanism because it just took up a lot of space and I didn't want to have to constantly be crawling around it I reached out to Maggie who is now one of my very close friends with little home bus and she actually has the same type of opening mechanism it's a shed lock so to open it you just turn the door these doors are connected at the top so they open together when you do open it and then it's just pins that go into holes that I drilled in the top and in the floor so it's not the prettiest thing but it works pretty well the only thing that I really hate about it is that it does not lock from the inside so at night I have to come out here close it lock it and then go around and enter the bus through the driver's side door and then in the morning I have to exit through the driver's door come around here unlock it so I can let the dogs out I wish I could figure out a better way to do that but I just haven't figured it out yet it works for what it is the previous paint job was done so poorly that there was actually dark green paint all over basically everything that you see black here so I had to go through and repaint all of that black for the body of the bus and like the main paint I used bear alkyd enamel which is an exterior paint that is supposed to be really hearty and heavy duty actually called bear and ask them for advice on what type of paint to use and that's what they told me the biggest mistake that I made is that I did not properly Prime the bus I spent probably a full week on prep on sanding on repairing rust holes on everything you can think of except priming it when I started rolling it on and brushing it on it it was not covering well at all I actually ended up having to do five coats of paint on this bus so I do not recommend doing that the color is called tiki torch it's kind of like orangey pink and I I really like it because it's still girly while also being orange which is my favorite color these mirrors I took off and spray painted black I wanted everything to look as clean as possible I even like did the bumper I did the back bumper I did the wheel covers and everything that was like low I actually used truck bed liner for because I liked the texture and it just seemed like really hearty to me and it's held up extremely well so yeah I really am happy with that the back of the bus here I made these decals with a Cricut I went on canva and I just designed the flowers and then I used permanent vinyl and cut them out and put them yeah put them on the back there I thought initially about doing some kind of mural but I've seen it done so many times and I wanted to be a little bit unique so that's why I chose to do the window house [Music] for other people who want to do something similar live a similar lifestyle just do it don't let society's expectations of you and other people's discouragements keep you from something that you know deep down that is really important to you and that you really want if it's important to you and if you prioritize it you can do it and you will be so happy they're obviously going to be struggles there are things that aren't going to go perfectly parts of your build that are going to frustrate you to death but it's worth it and I would encourage absolutely everybody if you have any kind of like Wanderlust or desire to travel or any just like desire to slow down you should absolutely do it thank you so much for joining me on this tour if you want to follow along my Instagram is at live dot in the bus would love to have you along and see you on the road [Music] thank you [Music]

Channel: Tiny Home Tours

Views: 405,613

Keywords: tiny house, tiny house on wheels, living big in a tiny house, tiny house england, tiny house uk, 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, tiny home uk, diy tiny house, diy home

Id: exHxu-o3Cpg

Length: 22min 7sec (1327 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 03 2023