Her Gorgeous DIY $8k Mini Bus Tiny House - Lost Apartment - Found Freedom

hey i'm stephanie welcome to the dandy [Music] bus [Music] when i found out that i was i had to be out of my apartment by the end of the month and that i was probably going to be out of a job at the end of the month i totally panicked and had to think really fast about what i was going to do because of how kovid all played out that i even stumbled upon bus living if it was my mom who asked like you know how do you get out from under the fear decided that i needed to go tiny in order to get out from all the fearful what ifs of what could happen during this pandemic i decided i wasn't going to be controlled by fear and i wasn't going to be controlled by what else the world was going on that i was going to make my own way for peace and that's what this bus was about and what it came to be for me so i went with a 2005 gmc savannah 3500 i think it's a v6 it gets about 15 miles to the gallon and it's still small enough to be able to park in a normal parking space got a rooftop deck on top and the wood siding on the side i'm a woodworker by trade so i had to geek out on the wood and the little dandelion wood burned accent for the dandy bus so this is just a telescopic ladder i found it on amazon and if you are willing to spend the time to search for a deal you can find them this is normally like a 200 ladder but i got it because the box was damaged for 44 bucks like can't beat it welcome to the inside of my home so all in all with i did not have a lot to work with i had a little bit in savings and so i tried to cut it as close as i could for the vehicle itself was 3500 i got it off of facebook marketplace and then all in all with the purchase of the vehicle were right around 8 grand just under for the whole build and most of that came from being able to cut lumber costs with salvaging materials either through my dad's connection to construction and getting materials that were going to be thrown away from job sites all the the wood on the ceiling and the walls is all salvaged and just using what i could find and trying to find as many uses for for what i had on hand and that that saved a ton of money so it's it can be done if you have a budget it can be done so to start off with this floor is actually a hardwood it's hickory and i got it on marketplace for a hundred bucks because i only needed 100 square feet welcome to the kitchen it was super important to me to be able to prioritize hospitality and make space for cooking for people or having people over so the kitchen was a non-negotiable it had to be big i had to have plenty of counter space and oddly enough in 92 square feet i have the most functional kitchen i've ever had of any of the apartments i've ever lived in this is a hundred year old heart pine and it was saved from a house and they were just gonna throw it away my cousin saved it and now it's my countertop and it's beautiful the winters this becomes my heater pop this guy on turn the propane on and get the fan moving the heat throughout it and that was 20 bucks instead of like the 70 dollar mr buddies that goes and so since i use it for my heater i get about a month off the 11 pound propane tank in winter right now but it's also florida so i can get away with not having such a heavy duty heater so one of my favorite parts about building this bus was finding how cheaply i could do things while keeping quality so facebook marketplace craigslist any kind of repurpose or construction hookups you can get are a great help so these are all mason jars you just nail a hole into the top of the mason jar and then screw it up there with just a little bolt definitely have to say my mom and i built this this house was built by two women we did it in three months and it was an amazing experience being able to build this out with my mom here's my fridge just got you know fridge or freezer not a dual zone but it works runs really efficiently and then sliding doors just because uh you know in a bus everything's custom it has to be and this was a little ikea hack so these bins cost like under two dollars for each one and we used a router to drill some tracks into the wood so instead of spending you know 30 dollars on just cabinet hardware for each drawer plus building a box and a facing this was i knew it would be covered so it was a great uh budget friendly option that is super functional and everything's really quiet because there's just less metal when i'm driving down the road and then i have my uh fresh water and gray water i've got 12 gallons of fresh water and about seven gallons of gray use eco-friendly products you can dump your gray water uh wherever you need and so far it's just me and the rabbits so we don't we don't use a whole lot so this works well i did what i could what i could like bite off and chew myself and not having any experience never building anything like this ever it was important that i started somewhere that i felt confident that i could do this myself somewhat familiar with plumbing only to the extent that i've had to figure things out in coffee shops on the go but this you know putting this all together it's it's a huge learning curve so sticking with what i felt like i could process and that i was comfortable pulling off by myself and then as i meet people on the road and learn more that i could upgrade so everything that i built it can be upgraded as as i learn and grow in this bus life so i come from a long line of woodworkers and my mom is is a phenomenal crafts woman and she can build anything and i've grown up around that so when it came time to build a house she was the first person i turned to she has a workshop ready to go she taught me how to carve spoons and which is now how i make a living and um so together she and i in three months built this bus uh just the two of us my dad likes to say that he uh had nothing to do with it that he held up boards and brought sandwiches so it was you know just a woman-powered woman fueled project and i could not have done this without my mom it's it's incredible to have shared this project with her and to have had her uh help me take this space to a a far more higher level of quality than i could have done on my own so it was amazing i'll never forget it so the sink and the knife rack are both just ikea hacks the um round sink i love it's nice and deep good for dishes uh this little faucet i got on amazon for under 20 bucks it moves around and does what you need it to that little water pump there so this is the living room of the bus or the guest room when it needs to be i will start from this side over this is the rabbits area it was super important to me that they had a space that they could call their own they didn't choose the tiny life i did but thankfully it's really suiting them as well so we've got just their little area and under the couch is actually half of it is their litter box and their hay area they're a lot like cats they mostly just sleep and uh but they're way cuter so this my couch um most of the lumber from this was made from an old desk that was being thrown away so again salvaged materials and nothing a coat of paint can't spruce up and this back piece the backboard of the couch actually comes up and goes in the front to extend to make this a twin size cot for guests again because hospitality was super important i think the best advice that i got when i was building was to establish your values and your priorities of what is important to you in your life and important to you of having your home life feel like and look like and so i knew that if i wasn't able to host people i mean again it's a tiny space i don't know how many people will want to take it up but it was important to me that i was able to have people over and for them to spend the night and journey with me so this slides out and again in tiny living everything has to have as many purposes as possible so it's also a coffee table again change up the vibe feel good change up the space all these curtains are insulated so when they're down they help keep the bus way cooler and it really helps keep the warmth in and gives a bit of a blackout effect which is making my mornings go way slower lately i knew from the get-go i wanted to go with open shelving just because it's such a small space that i didn't want it to feel too closed in and because the headspace also is so tight i thought it was really important to have as much open feel as necessary this isn't the most practical storage but you know you've got you've got so much other bulky storage hidden around the bus that uh it this this becomes more of a an artistic piece uh like this is way more functional but you know this this it's home so these these hold homey items that you need from day to day and just help the space not feel so like tight and closed in so i wanted it to feel really open which is also why i didn't cover up any of the windows so i might be paying for it in the summertime but i think for the feel it was it was really necessary to keep it as as open as possible so this is the back end of the bus and i'm so happy with the way the space turned out i've got plenty of storage here is my closet with all my solar generator is down at the bottom so i am operating now off of a 1500 x goal zero yeti that was a huge help of being in the tiny house community i first only equipped myself with 330 watts of a solar generator with a 120 watt portable panel and uh hadn't grossly underestimated how much solar i would need and was able to upgrade with the help of this community and helping me along the way so don't freak out if you don't know what you're doing at first you'll learn and then over here is my pantry and all my cleaning supplies at the bottom at first i thought i would only do some like halfway partitions and then as we just started building like needs were presenting themselves and i realized i would not have enough food storage without or close storage without these guys so you'll learn as as you're building the the build will instruct you what you need and these are just hooked together with magnets on the top and bottom keep it closed and they do really good with traveling so that all worked out well and then underneath i have even more storage this whole door comes off and slides up and under there's my toilet and i have more like heavy winter coats and summer stuff so you learn to have your closet more seasonally to accommodate for the small closet space and just some art stuff and all my workshop stuffs in the back but it's my bed area and it feels really good it's a full-size mattress and opening these up to wake up to some amazing views has just been the the biggest blessing i could ever ask for i'm so fortunate now they've been living in it i uh definitely confirmed all my suspicions that i would hit my head on this and have hit my head on this more than anything else in the bus but it pays off because this ac is hooked up to the motor and when i really need to cool off fast this thing pumps out so i'm so thankful i listened to all the forums that recommended keeping the ac unit because it has definitely saved me a time or two so worth having a permanent dent in my head i think got a magnetic curtain that goes up on the back uh to insulate those windows and um it's it's such a nice pod you just you feel so secure in your space at night it's it's wonderful so i've got these night stands on either side depending on which way i need to position my head if the bus is leaning a little bit but these just fold down and can be out of the way as needed or but i kind of like having them up all the time it's really nice to set my tablet on here and put my keyboard in my lap and just work or watch tv from here so that's been a nice feature to have i had never taken on anything like this ever my mom had all the experience building things and in turn i'd always been a part of her projects but never ever tackled anything like this ever ever ever uh it was youtube it was research it was knowing how to google the right questions to find the right answer um so i always tell anybody that comes on the bus like seriously if i can do this anybody can like youtube knowing how to ask questions using what you have and being creative with your resources i mean anybody can do it there's so many ways to build a schoolie and there's so many ways to like get your freedom so just go out and get it don't wait welcome to my garage pretty much it has uh more of the rabbit stuff they 80 of their diets hay so we always have a bunch of hay on the bus and my tools their litter the anything i need for outdoors and then the rest of the space is all of my wood carving tools and my pieces that i sell on my travels and make on my travel so that's that's majority of of the space back here is dedicated to that i have everything i need and that's a really good feeling to have i honestly do not think that without covid i would have been brave enough to take the plunge into bus life just made the decision and didn't really have time to consider whether uh you know tiny living was the right choice but it was the only choice and so i had to just commit to it and then commit to figuring out how to do it and i'm so incredibly thankful for the the way that life directed me to bus life and then it directed me to bus life i first bought a travel trailer and tried to renovate that and uh you know with covid the market was changing and prices were going through the roof inventory was disappearing and um so i had to kind of rethink my whole plan and and i was led to schoolies and had never heard what that was and the more research i did it just seemed like the numbers made sense and for me that's what what kind of made the choice for me and i'm i'm so fortunate and blessed that it paid off the way it has because this is by far the best thing i have ever done for myself ever hands down this is everything i needed this has been an open door to so much healing i've been looking for in my life and everything's coming full circle here and uh every day i just try and hold that close of like like like life is this good this of how good this life feels and just imprint that on on my on my heart and and just carry that because it's it's the best it's the best way to live i love when people follow along it's a great community to have both in person and online and you can follow me in the dandy bus at at and the underscore gray and you can follow my wood carving which is how you can support the journey and support what we got going on here at hold fast carving just trying to make heirlooms and pass them on for you and yours so follow us along if you feel like buying a spoon buy one but other than that like let's go let's go hang out outside like let's get out let's go have fun

Channel: Tiny Home Tours

Views: 847,962

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 house tour, tiny house build, tiny house nation, off the grid living, van life, van life solo female traveler, bus life build, van life build, tiny homes, bus life tour, van life day in the life

Id: QaRrzJIYrkM

Length: 17min 52sec (1072 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 07 2021