[Music] Hi I'm James and I'm Maddy. Did you say secret trap door in the bunk room?
Or a king sized bed with a baby hammock? What about a driver's seat that converts to an office?
Welcome to our video house bus tour we hope you love it as much as we do. We would love to hear what you think, would you live in a house bus?
Let us know in the comments, hit that subscribe button and get ready to see how chaos and creativity
collide in a tiny space that's big enough for a great adventure. Hi I'm Maddy, welcome to our house bus. I insisted that we have a bug screen because I hate mosquitoes and sand flies,
this is amazing it's magnetic so when the kids are going in and out it just
automatically closes again it's fantastic, highly recommend. This entrance brings us to the
middle of the bus, so we have a wee (small) mud room at the entrance here we have kids jackets and
hats and shoes down the bottom and then over here we hung some hooks up for
James and I bigger longer jackets and extra hats as well. Through here we have the kitchen we decided to go with an L-shaped kitchen we spent a lot of time looking at kitchen designs And I really loved the L-shaped and I really wanted a green kitchen so I got those two things thanks to my husband We have cupboards up the top we've got tea and coffee,
breads and cups, medicine, supplements, first aid Do I even open it? It's my husband's utility cupboard, as he likes to call it.
It does need some more organization though so we'll close that one. We have a full size gas oven here, it is awesome it cooks roast lamb,
roast chicken, full dinners for our family of eight no problem. The sink I love this tap it comes off it's got the spraying
bit you can move it all around to clean big pots. Pull out drawers that are soft closing,
so herbs and spices, wine, juice, bottles go down the bottom We've got dish cloths and tea towels and rubbish bags.
Can drawer, corner cupboard It keeps all of our big pots and pans, bowls everything we need for cooking in a regular kitchen it fits in there. And actually we haven't had anything break or smash with travelling,
it just all kind of stays in there which is awesome Baking and cooking utensils in here, plates, bowls, cups,
Tupperware, plastic containers. We have a magnetic knife holder, when we travel we take all the knives down and
put them into the top drawer over there. Just in case because we don't want knives going flying or
dropping on toes I use this broom handle holder for my rolling pin which works
perfectly because it doesn't really fit in any other drawers We've got the full size fridge up here, veggie drawer
and then it's a pull out freezer down the bottom that's like a chest freezer style That's awesome oh and an ice maker! Pantry, again all of the things are pull out drawers apart from the top shelf and
that kind of holds all of our bigger bulkier like packets of chips and snacky food I've got like all my baking stuff flour and oats and then down the bottom
is rice and salt and any other sort of bigger baking bags that don't fit in those drawers Up here is our very full but this is kind of pasta, dried goods and cereal I saw a really cool idea on Pinterest for turning the
toe-kick space into drawers, so we got that done and this is a really big one that pulls out
It's got my glad wrap and baking paper and some cookbooks in there and then this one down here has got tuna basically just actually cans of fish
in that one but it's extra space but things have to be small to fit in them. We have two bins here which is great and then down the bottom in this cage
we've got potatoes and onions it's open air storage for them A little kitchen stool which is very easy to open that's because I can't reach
the ceiling fan up there so I have to stand on the stool to do that Chopping boards, sunglasses, scissors, brush and
shovel, things like that all fit on there which is awesome and we hang our mugs, we've got a little
portable smoothie maker, coffee and actually our little kettle hangs up here when we're traveling,
fits on perfectly If you're thinking about bus life or van life we just want to
encourage you it is possible with some determination and some hard work you can do it too. Subscribe to our channel
in our future videos we're going to share about how we got here, more about the construction
and how you can get here too. So then we come through to the lounge another reason I liked
the L-shaped kitchen was so that we could have an L-shaped couch this area fits our family it's
very cozy, but it's lovely we love it, when we've pulled up to a beautiful spot and there's stunning views
out the window. The kids sit and read, we also eat our meals here we have a table that's stored
here, and that just sets up in the middle here and we sit and eat, and we have seven seat belts
on here so the kids can choose to either travel in the van with me or they can sit in the bus
and travel with James. We just added this shelf in in our latest leg of the journey which I absolutely love.
It fits all of our books that we use on a daily basis pretty much so we've got our
Bibles and sort of family devotions up here. We've got plant books and remedy books for like home health
and then our current reading books that are our "read alouds" that we're doing or chapter books that the kids
are currently reading. On the end we've got Kindles and computers and then
just their school work and it's all labeled and organized nicely then a couple of baskets for
nappies and wipes and another basket on the end that just has like bibs and cloths and things
for the baby and that gets all tied down tightly with a strop things there that that so it's all
nice and firm when we're driving the headphones for the kids are on little hooks we just added
those as well which is working really really well we're trying to, as we go fine tune our organizing
because in a tiny space with lots and lots of little humans it can get messy very quickly
but we're getting there. We've got our window coverings for the bus which are amazing both in
summer and winter they are made from foam and then they just have the fabric and binding around
the edge they are stuck on by Velcro so we pull those off and we roll them up and they kind of sit like
this one is over here or we tuck them down behind the seat here. In Winter they keep the cold
out and the warmth in and in summer they keep the heat out in the cool in. We do have down
here with our table we have a foldable washing basket when we go to the laundromat if we're not
using the washing machine down there or it's a lot of washing to get through the kids put all their
dirty washing into the washing basket and it goes in the van. In the future this might be a nice we
spot for a fireplace, but we'll see. So under couch storage this is a question we get asked a
lot so on this side is all my bulk food storage so I do a lot of baking I love to bake bread so
I go through a lot of flour and it's a lot cheaper to buy 20 kg bags of flour than it is to buy 5 kgs
of flour so they get stored under here. They are a bit tricky to get into because of the Velcro. But we
lift up and yeah there's bags under there, extra paper towels. This area we've got extra laptops
computer bits and bobs this is a bit of an odds and ends storage it's the stuff that doesn't
really have a place anywhere else. This has the kids extra school books it has all of our art and
craft supplies. In this part here we've got all of our games all of our board games have been
repackaged into these Ziploc bags so they all stack up really neatly. Behind me is the driver's
area which turns into James's office but he will show you around there. So when the bus is not
set up in a driving position this is what it looks like as an office I just got this
little piece of custom plywood that I've cut here. Starlink internet, laptop, computer docking
station and yeah and this is me for a work position and it quickly converts back into a bus,
put the steering wheel back on and we can drive away. I make sure that these curtains are pulled
they come together so the kids know that when Dad's behind the curtain working, it better be
very important if they're going to interrupt me. Of course that doesn't stop all the interruptions
but it's a nice idea [Laughter] So coming into the back half of the bus we've got the master
bedroom behind this door which then closes to close off the hallway down to where the bun cream
is it's a king-size bed from wall to wall we didn't want to downsize on that so that's awesome and
it lifts up against the wall to access all the storage underneath. We've got big pull out drawers
they go all the way out. We have three drawers each I have another big drawer at the bottom
and James has storage at the top and then we have some hooks and things for hanging shirts or
dresses or just stuff that we need to hang up. We have some storage baskets up the top here
and I've got like my jewelry box is up here. We got the ceiling fan which keeps us nice and cool
in summer and then it has a cover that goes on. We got some books here and yeah baby's clothes stay
on that side more books, everything we need. One thing we've found with eight of us living in the
bus is shoe storage we just, no matter how many times we declutter or rearrange we're always
ending up with shoes at the entrance ways. So we've just put these two baskets down here
we've got one here for kids sneakers and one here with river shoes and sort of bigger adult
shoes in there as well as the shoe storage in here. So we've got our hallway in our bus coming
down here. I really wanted a a barn style sliding door and my husband delivered. This closes it's
a pretty color and it gives us privacy in our little tiny bathroom. This is the bathroom so we
have a composting toilet down here which honestly we actually really love there is no smell it's
got a little 12 volt fan that's going constantly and it's got a urine diverter in the front
so the weez (urine) gets plumbed down into the gray water tank and then number 2's are in a bucket
at the back and James empties that every 1 to 2 weeks. Saw dust for the composting toilet is
in this it pulls out there. And then this is our little rubbish bin for weez (urine) toilet paper cuz it
does not go in the poo bin. This is our shub area our shower and tub. High sides to mitigate extra
splashing it means our little ones can have baths and we've also got this, I love our shower, full size
shower, curtain pulls across. Shelves here for shampoo bath toys. Towels are stored up here flannels
and hand towels are up the top there as well as extra toilet rolls and Bin liners. Toothbrush
and toothpaste and a little cupboard here that opens up to hold bathroom things. The strip out and build of this bus was a huge project but to be finally enjoying
it actually living the lifestyle that is my favorite part. My favorite thing about the bus would be sitting
here on this couch and looking out at The View when we've pulled up to a new location. The back of the bus is the kids bunk room. I loved seeing bunk rooms in buses when we were watching lots of videos to see what sort of design we wanted
to do because there's a lot of house buses but not many house buses with lots of children, so we have six
children, we had four children when we started the bus build But we did plan for a fifth bunk bed because we wanted to have another
one at some point and then we had another one as well. So Evie sleeps with us in the hammock
but in here we've got the five beds so the two older girls are up the top and then we've
got Reuben and Maia in the middle and wee (little) Joash our 2-year-old he sleeps down the bottom here. Each of
the kids have two baskets each for their clothes so they just pull out here. Tops and bottoms
pretty much is how it's divided up and these were just baskets from Spotlight I tied string in
the middle to hold them together and James glued a bit of plywood on the bottom um to prevent wear
and tear and so that they slide more smoothly and they're awesome. This is the door we call it the
secret trap door it goes down to the kids toy room. So we've got bookshelves here we do lots of reading
each child has a shelf in their bunk bed and a reading lamp, they all sort of chose their
headboard design Ruben painted his himself and they love their little cozy cubbies (beds). The heater
duct comes and blows out here so in winter when we have the diesel heater going it's super
cozy and warm from both ends of the bus. We have the girls basket dresses for the girls are all
rolled up they each have a section there's three sections for Izzy, Lucy, and Maia. Nappies (diapers) and wipes at the back
we've got a few wee (small) toys for Maia and Joash we've got some dolls some play kitchen food and
a big box of hair ties. When you have lots of girls this is all the hair ties, clips, hair brushes, it
all stays in the pink sparkly box and gets tucked away under here. These netting pockets are from
the bus seats so they were the original ones that were on the bus seats sitting behind. We put them on
here and they work great. This is the washing bag and then each kid has a hook for dressing gowns the girls have handbags
and that sort of thing so there's a few hooks there. Thanks to this being a large tour
coach there's a lot of storage space underneath and we were really lucky when we bought this bus
the the floor was pretty much already flat. In a lot of buses there's like a channel that goes up
the middle but we had a flat floor and heaps of storage underneath. I've got diesel heater so
this is our heating in Winter and that diesel heater pumps into a central duct that runs up the
middle of the bus so the heat comes out in the living area and the bedrooms and the bathroom
that works quite well we got a backup generator so if we ever run out of sunshine basically
that's our reserve power supply when we're off grid and we just got rubbish bags and spare
fuel the vacuum cleaner stored under here and the waste water can be dumped out of this dump valve
but we also have a pump so I can dump our gray water through the garden hose basically so just
a matter of connecting the hose channeling where we want the gray water to go. Be it down a drain
and just turn it on so we can dump as long as we've got a long hose we can, we don't have to
move the bus too often for dumping if we're in a good location which is great. This is the
power bay I have a a box of spares which I keep on here. This is our power system so we've got
800 amp hours of lead acid which gives us about 300 usable amp hours. The reason for that is they are secondhand
batteries they came out of a cell tower they were a UPS backup. I got them really cheap I would
love a lithium ion battery bank but we just can't afford that right now so that works great
for us we got a multi-charger 2,000 W inverter and if we're plugged into sure power that gives
80 amps of charging into the battery bank and it also serves the shore power through to our
230 volt system. We've got two solar controllers we have 10 solar panels on the roof 150 watts each
giving us a total of 1500 watts solar and two solar controllers in parallel to control those and
then we've got a wee (small) DC to DC charger there as well so for when the bus is running we're
charging our house batteries when we're traveling. This is our Starlink
router so we have Starlink internet which is great we can be anywhere. Bottom of the South Island just
recently no cell phone coverage but we had awesome internet so thanks Starlink, great stuff! Under here
it's pretty simple we've got a mid mount engine so there's a Cummins Diesel in there. It's like an 8.3
litre turbo diesel Cummins six-speed manual and yeah so those are the bus batteries and the motor
in the middle so in the back here is my toolbox I like to be able to do odd jobs I've got all
my power tools, hand tools, socket set, wrenches screwdrivers, chainsaw, glues, oils, grease. Everything
I need pretty much so with my toolbox and my box of spear screws and fittings and things there's
there's not many jobs I can't complete on the road if we need to. Got to have the tools if
you're going to do the job. Also in the back here is access to the kids toy room you see we can
access from from their bedroom so that's their library and Legos, all underneath there too. So
this is the kid toy room from the other side they got a lot more space on this side just because
there's no toolbox great to see them playing or sitting in here reading cool day they'll have the
doors closed it's nice and warm in there and on a hot day we just leave the doors open and the
breeze flows through and they can be playing in there uh it's a great space and when we pack
up to travel we put our camping chairs and table and stuff in here as well so we've got a lot of
extra storage space for travel under here we have the laundry. So we got a full size 9 kg
Electrolux washing machine. When we're running off grid it's cold wash only but when we're plugged in the
washing machine heats its own water it's great to have that especially it's the number of people
making dirty washing in our home. Under this side I've got spare hoses and uh this is our hot water,
hot water system we've got two 9 kg gas bottles behind here we've got a water filter as well so this is
where we fill the water tanks from and any any filling we do goes through the water filter so all
the water in our tanks is always filtered 500 L of fresh water on this side 500 L of gray water
on the other side and down the back we've got another 240 L of gray water that the bathroom
runs into. We have lots of water but it's amazing how quickly we can use use it this our shore power
connection so if we're at a camping ground we can just plug straight into this if we're off- grid
and we need extra power then I just plug in the little Honda generator and that gives us all
the power we need thanks for watching our house bus tour if you enjoyed the video you're still
here watching give us a like we'd really appreciate that SUBSCRIBE and try and find us on social
media "Radiant Buslife" let us know if you have any questions in the comments below or if there's
anything else that you would love to see in our house bus. Remember the best roads are the roads
less traveled, and the best views are shared with others [Music]
[Music]
