Solo Female Vanlife - She built a TINY HOUSE inside of a PINK BUS for just $9k!

hi there welcome to my channel where I take  you on tours of unique homes and showcase   stories of people living alternatively in today's  episode we're going to meet a traveling artist   and graphic designer who built her own tiny  home on Wheels inside of a pink bus this is   the longest I've been in a house in my entire  adult life I'm so happy with this bus in this   tiny tour Rita's personality really shines not  only through her artwork but also through this   Unique Home that she's curated herself and if  you like videos like this one make sure that   you subscribe and hit that notification  Bell so that you know every single time   we publish a new episode but right now let's  Dive Right In and take a tour of Rita's bus make this house hi I'm Rita this is Anana this is  dragon and this is my home Wilbur before van life I was living in an apartment  in Dallas I worked on the engineering floor at   a software firm I thought that it was the type  of job I really needed to have so that I could   keep climbing the ladder and getting the job that  would eventually make me enough money where I was   impressed with myself or that my family was  impressed with me or something I could work   remotely sometimes so I would just like take my  Jeep I'll take these road trips pretending like   I was still just at home in Dallas and just not  telling anybody that I was living entirely in   my Jeep living out of a two-door Jeep Wrangler  with two dogs and sleeping in a hammock every   night trying to work at a whole corporate  job was like probably not really going to   work forever so I wanted a rig that I could tow my  Jeep behind and that I could have a whole desk at   I spent five weeks and two days building the  bus in a parking lot of a masonic temple and   there's like 50 old men that would just  like come in and out of the parking   lot being like what are you doing today  Rita while I wrenched away on a pink bus   this is the Bible of an engine this is a Ford  Bible mine is clearly very well loved and very   well used but I don't think I would have had  the confidence to do it if I didn't have this   book and I've learned so much about it that  I feel like I could confidently rebuild this   bus even better again total cost of the  bus was just under nine thousand dollars   I've been living full time on the road for  almost three years now I'm so happy with this bus welcome to the outside of Wilbur he is a Ford  shuttle bus he's a 2001 Triton V10 he's about   14 873 pounds and 20 feet long eight feet  wide he gets about 10 miles per gallon and   it doesn't really fluctuate much with him Towing  my Jeep or just rolling with him alone Wilbert   came disgustingly moldy green and white when I  got him I painted Wilbur pink it took me about   six hours to do from start to finish including  sanding and all so Wilbur's first set of doors   were the traditional bus doors and they had the  handle that pulled and opened the handle on mine   broke when I was driving 65 miles an hour and  the doors just opened up and let trash and dog   leashes and a couple other things out into the  highway I am a big fan of this front door I got   this from a Habitat for Humanity for 60 bucks  the front door actually just fit perfectly   so when I first got on the road I lived in  my two-door Jeep Wrangler for six months   this was part of my kitchen build I will set  this thing up in the morning and have coffee   outside sometimes I like that I was able to bring  a little bit of the Jeep build into the bus build so this area is just a lot of extra storage  for me one of the features I love about this   bus is how many doors it has it came with  a wheelchair lift in the back out here and   I love that these doors open up so it's  just like a huge open space and just so   like light and Breezy on a good day like this  this is also where I shower I have a shower   tent if I'm in like a more public setting  or if there's like a lot of campers out   I have a camp Lux propane water heater here I keep  all my shower supplies here it's 12 volt and it   turns on and heats up pretty quickly I can take  this off or I can just stand under it and have a   shower outside I have a six gallon water tank for  this and I'll get four good showers out of that so we're in the back of that of the book I love  to collect stickers from places that I've traveled   a lot of these stickers were from when I was back  in the Jeep and I knew the entire time when I was   collecting all these stickers that one day I'd  have a rig that I would put all the stickers all   over the back so I weighed my options pretty  heavily on how I wanted to get onto the roof   I didn't have a ladder for the first little while  on the road and I ran into a problem of not being   able to get onto the roof where all my solar  panels are so I drilled a couple holes in the top   of the bus I think they're like three inch long  bolts with eye hooks at the end and I just hung   this little ladder down here which is so cute and  I kind of thought it was like a temporary 15 fix   but it's been a couple years now and it's really  cute and it works pretty well and then I'm able to   also store my my bike on the back of the of the  door here which is really convenient it's on my   roof I have 400 watts of solar and I have it tied  back into my alternator too if it's ever cloudy or   something just like go into town go to a store  and come back and it's like charged for a day so this is my board since this is fiberglass  I was able to just like drill inch and a half   long screws into this and then I have this  little I think this is like just garage   Hardware but I love that I can see it right  out of my mirror it doesn't obstruct anything   this is my Jeep River I actually lived out of  her for six months before building the bus I   love this Jeep more than life itself possibly  more than Wilbur she can take me to some pretty   gnarly places and I just really love off-roading  I love driving her so she's pretty crucial to tow   behind Wilbur and have her with me all the time  so I flat tow my Jeep behind the bus but it takes   me about two minutes and 20 seconds on a fast  day to re-hitch all right so let's head inside all right so we're inside my bus now up at the  front we have kind of the cabin it really just   feels like driving a pickup truck with a giant  house on the back of it when you're up here   you'll notice my dashboard is pink and the  steering wheel and the door when I first   bought the bus it was like really sticky  and gross and weird up here I actually   just like rattle can spray painted  it and then I just have shoe storage   up here it's kind of just a catch-all for  everything when I first walk into the house so over here I have a little bit of extra storage  over my windshield when I first got this it was   just a lot of insulation and wiring I didn't need  most of that so I took a jigsaw to it and cut this   hole out eventually framed it out and I've been  able to use this as my library I had to build a   little platform on the bottom so that everything  could stay a little bit evenly but surprisingly   nothing really ever falls out of here so if  you look up you'll notice my ceiling is made   out of pallet wood I used a jigsaw and chopped  them all up I love the look of it being just so   ragtag and jumbled together I was a little bit  worried about how dirty they all were but it's   it's honestly worked out and my house smells  like Home Depot most days which is one of my   favorite smells works out pretty well so over  here I have my coffee station I am a big fan of   coffee it's kind of a routine in the morning I'll  usually have one of my friends over in the morning   we'll have coffee together and I have probably  five different ways to make coffee in the bus   I end up with all my coffee  mugs over here hanging up so as we come down in the bus is my art studio  and this is really the most important part of   the bus for me the biggest pain point for  me living in the jeep was not having a   study workspace enough storage for all my art  supplies stable enough power in a jeep to be   able to power my computers that I do graphic  design on and a place to put drying paintings   creating the art studio and the bus has been  one of the most fun and most changing things   about it I tend to switch focuses really  frequently I paint murals on the road so I   need enough storage for three huge Tupperware  containers and I need gigantic paint brushes   I need tiny paint brushes for my oil paintings  I do watercolors all the time and I've had to   have so much varying storage out here that has  really shifted around pretty frequently it's   been really nice to be able to create a space  that I can spread out as much as I want I can   be indoors but also have good lighting inside and  be protected from things like the wind and rain my my mom bought me this little cup holder so  this is one of the only like glass or ceramic   items in the bust that I have kept and I cannot  believe it's been held on for almost three years   with a little bit of Velcro on the bottom  and it makes me really happy she recently   passed away and it's so nice to be able to  like see a little bit of home and a little   bit of family on the road every day I have a  lot of random hooks around here that I'll hang   like wet pallets on and I also have a warning  for any of my friends who come into my bus not   to wear anything white or that they don't want  to get paint on because as you can tell for me   you don't last 15 seconds in this bus without  touching something that has wet paint on it into the back of the bus we have my bedroom living  room I have a couch down here during the day and   at night I can fold it out into a queen size  bed I don't always fold it out at night it's   more than enough space for the three of us you  can fit a good five girlfriends on the couch here   it really makes a nice open space for hanging  out in my art studio and I have friends in here   and I just absolutely love how many doors are  back here it really creates like such a living   room Vibe and during the day when it's sunny I  usually park my bus this way facing the Sun so   in the morning I can open my curtains back here  and like watch the sunrise through my windows   so I have my AC unit up here and it's not really  common that people who get shuttle buses actually   keep them in or ever get any use out of them  but I use mine a lot my dog is pretty elderly   and she can't really handle heat very well so I'll  just turn on my truck for 10 minutes run this for   two minutes the whole place has cooled down and my  dogs are so much more comfortable they both really   love bus life inanna would be really happy as long  as there's a couch and air conditioning pretty   much anywhere she could ever go and dragon really  loves bus life because he gets so much exercise I really love having film photographs so I  keep this little Polaroid camera with me and   when I'm in a really special place or with really  special friends I love to take a picture a few of   my favorite ones have made it to the board I have  my parents house in Virginia Dragon swimming next   to a waterfall and bend and not on the beach so  I used to work with RPM 3D printing in Virginia   Beach Virginia and I did Wildlife Rehabilitation  with them and this was the first animal we ever   worked with was a possum named Jenny we built  a wheelchair for her so she was allowed to be   a disability Ambassador in elementary schools  so over here in the middle of the bus I have my   closet it actually started off as a bathroom  but like a lot of other van lifers who built   bathrooms or showers in their rigs it ends up  just being used for storage mostly there was an   entire functioning shower in here my toilet was  in here I think about a year ago I converted it   back into a closet since then I've converted  my toilet into a seating area and the shower   has moved to an outdoor shower it's pretty nice  though having hanging storage for all my clothes   I'm not really good at folding clothes so I love  having as much hanging storage as I have here   so coming up to the front of the bus we  have my kitchen one of my favorite things   about my kitchen is how many little tiny  spots there are that you can see my art I built this extra countertop here so this  expands it's really good for pizza night or   extra cooking space where I'm cooking with  friends almost all of my kitchen cabinet   the actual structure of it are all pallet wood I  kind of chose a little bit of the stronger pieces   I love having these little hammocks  throughout the bus because I can kind   of use it as a catch-all and have produce  up here that I can see really visually   reminding me like what I need to cook this  week that I should probably eat some fruit when I was considering what type of sink I wanted  and I was working on the build I took this Bucket   from my parents Farmhouse and I was just using it  kind of as a catch-all and like physically using   it as a sink while I was building and I kind  of grew so attached to it I was like there's   no reason I can't just cut a hole in the bottom of  this and use an RV sink drain so I cut the kitchen   counter to fit this it's really nice I can take  it in and out if I want to do something outside   with it and then my water storage is kind of  unusual I did initially actually have a real   sink faucet here and it works just fine but  I would occasionally when going off-roading   I would occasionally like get a leak and it would  like ruin my week and I really didn't like having   the giant water tanks underneath that I had to  physically move to empty or to refill so I feel   like this which holds two gallons and I just  refill it from tanks that I have in the Jeep   so I can take the Jeep back into town at any  point and refill all my water without having   to move the entire bus so one thing that is kind  of a pain point in the bus actually is my floors   there's a fuel pump hatch at the back of the  bus that I've floored over not knowing that I   would need to access that on a regular basis so I  think if I were to do it over number one I would   absolutely not floor over the fuel pump hatch and  then secondly I don't think I would go with lvp   again I had I had heard a lot of people that were  really impressed with it before but it's not very   waterproof it's really easy to damage them I'm not  in love with them I would probably just put like   shag carpet down next time no  just kidding I have no idea I hope that anybody who watches this walks  away feeling like they can do it if this   was what they want to do or if they want to  try something new nothing's really that hard   I don't recommend starting brain surgery  tomorrow but like short of that you can   probably figure out how to do anything  that you actually want to learn how to   do this is the longest I've been in  a house in my entire adult life I'm   so happy with the bus that I just kind of want  to rearrange and like give it a fresh redesign   if this thing absolutely died tomorrow and  I couldn't fix it I would probably just go   buy another one off the same lot that I got this  one from and start over do the same exact thing thanks for watching this week's  video please make sure to like share   and subscribe and I will see you soon  with another tiny or unique home tour

Channel: Tiny House Giant Journey

Views: 409,489

Keywords: tiny house giant journey, tiny house, Tiny houses, tiny homes, tiny house tour, skoolie, buslife, vanlife, van tour, van conversion, affordable housing, tiny houses, tiny home tour, tiny house movement, pink bus, pink skoolie, rita on the road, artist studio tiny house, bus life with two dogs, solo female buslife, solo female nomad, tiny house under $10k, tiny home under $10k, skoolie under $10k, skoolie life, skoolie home, nomadic movement, nomadland

Id: WimciX7w51Y

Length: 15min 40sec (940 seconds)

Published: Fri May 12 2023