Tour of a Solo Woman Living in a Short School Bus

back to my next video today we're here talking to joyce and you are in a beautiful school bus i am five window bus 2008 well i guess the question i guess i always start with is what the world are you doing out here in the middle of the desert and school bus you know three winters ago i'm from the portland area greater portland area three winters ago like i know it used to just drizzle there it didn't rain and i grew up there and three years ago we had hellacious like downpour downpour downpour and i just decided i'm not doing this anymore so i uh organized things over the next two years to figure out how to cut loose and so do you still have a home base there in portland nope no no no i have i mean i have many students whose places i can park at and um i'm scheduling some you know doggy house sits and that kind of stuff in the future but um no i'm on the road this is it this and my honda fit and i have a teeny tiny little storage trailer parked in one of my students properties with like business boxes and that kind of stuff and so uh you're a teacher uh i'm actually a dog but really people trainer for the last like 24 years so i teach people to train their dogs and i teach a dog sport called canine nose work which i've actually been introducing people to on the road it's a blast and uh yeah so i'm living on 50 of my ex's base rate social security and a little bit of pension and 200 on the cheap and loving it so would you mind if i asked how much you're making uh about if that's two percent no no no that's fine no people don't talk about money enough um no i'm making about just under 2 000 with likes a little bit of money some people owe me that they're paying me back monthly and that kind of thing so about 2k but i'm not spending that much you know it's when i'm out in the desert and i'm not paying for land to that thing for that thing to sit on and i'm not driving every day you know i'm thinking myself as doing slow travel um i'm you know i'm spending maybe 1500 bucks a month about half of which is insurance which just kills me medicare the supplement the drug thing they make you do the doggy health insurance the car insurance the bus insurance is about 700 bucks a month and i've been on the road since november so just starting out just starting out what do you think so far i love it it's great i am i'm finding that well it's learning to relax it's like a process that is a hard one it really is and i've um i actually my brother lives in the san diego area so he has a friend that bought a three acre avocado orchard so i they let me park there and i dug out weeds for um you know 15 20 hours a week for four weeks that was great didn't have to go to the gym except to take a shower [Laughter] so because i got my exercise in and just because you wanted something to do because i wanted something to do yeah because i wanted something to do yeah actually that is surprisingly difficult because our lives we've been uh ruled by the clock oh yeah go go go go go go and all of a sudden yeah no problem there's nothing yeah it's true i was a physical therapist for about 25 years so that's schedule schedule schedule patience all day and then i started my dog training business and so i had classes scheduled and clients scheduled and the business end of it which i kind of suck at but you know the paperwork piece but i'm yeah so busy all the time so yeah it's different yeah that for a lot of people that transition is really difficult and you know the old saying that you know a lot of men retire and are dead within a year too yeah that's that symptom yeah yeah i think that's true yeah that's a syndrome that uh i can't stop yep and how are you are you getting through that i've been downloading a lot of netflix videos and um every night i'm watching something which is like totally new for me i'm just not a watcher but i'm getting used to it and kind of liking it yeah it's kind of fun and we're at the uh one of the women's caravan here and has that been pretty good oh it's been awesome it is a fabulous group of women um just amazing and you know all kinds of coming from all kinds of different backgrounds living in all kinds of different rigs but everybody's kind of looking out for each other but not being invasive and yeah it's been really really great i'm really really liking it tell us tell us about your vehicle and why you chose it and converting it and all the little details okay well it was kind of evolution in my head you know once i decided to do this i had a friend with a truck and a camper and i thought about that for a while and i really i i knew i wanted to be able to like leave camp and go somewhere without having to break camp every time and um i then i decided that wasn't for me you know i thought at first i thought i can drive you know i can drive the truck out from underneath the camper but somewhere in the process i realized i want to be able to get from my bed to the driver's seat and drive away if i am uncomfortable that became my bottom line and so i started investigating i knew i didn't want an a-class i didn't want that glass thing right in front of me so i started looking at b's and c's and [Music] i knew i wanted a composting or a urine diverting toilet i didn't want to have to deal with a black tank so i just somewhere along the line i decided i'm just going to make have my own made so i found the bus at actually um western bus in in a burb of portland and uh they basically you know sell buses to school districts and then get rid of the old ones and uh it's a chevy duramax diesel with uh it had 113 000 miles on it when i got it put a little money into the transmission i paid about 13 000 for it put a couple thousand in the transmission thousand bucks into getting um cruise control i sold my property which actually gave me some money to do this stuff right because i'd put a pretty good down on it and that was the other thing is i was in a lot of debt i'd started a business i didn't really market very well a side business to the dog training and i just wanted out from under all that so by selling my property which i really didn't want to take care of anymore anyway i was on two and a quarter acres um you know i gave me the freedom to to basically keep teaching because my students were like you're not leaving yeah i am but not yet and uh so anyway um so i bought the bus and i found somebody to um do the remodel and it's actually the only bus he's ever done but he had a few buses sitting on his property in a burb of the portland area and he was a really good researcher and um you know he did we had a whole carpentry shop set up and we just kind of put our heads together about a lot of things and um the design kind of evolved you know it's like i had you know the graph paper and all the little pictures of what was gonna go in it and that kind of just didn't really follow that but it just kind of fell into place i get 12 to 14 miles to the gallon of diesel that's amazing i know i came over the hill up four thousand feet and down into the desert valley um at 12 miles to the gallon pulling my honda fit wow so that's really good yeah i was pretty and i drive conservative you know not not when i'm not in the bus but when i'm in the bus it's 56 miles an hour is pretty much what i drive a lot of people find that they do their initial build and then they want to end up remodeling how have you been doing with yours uh well i've done doing little hacks um to you know make storage better and that kind of thing the bed was a little lower i might be happier about that but it's okay i put in a swiveling fully reclining passenger and a recliner seat i might have redesigned it to make a better place for that so nothing really major at this point i put a shower in that i haven't used um i figure at some point i might use it and it's a great space to stack storage bins you and everyone else yeah exactly exactly you know it's it's uh you know if you can get a shower for two bucks or five bucks in town and you know i've evolved over the last 10 years from a shower every day to one every couple of days to two or three times two twice a week maybe even sometimes once a week and i'm doing fine with that just wet wipes yeah exactly exactly that's really awesome yeah it is really all you need so i do have an interest in intentional communities and at some point i'd maybe like to land in an intentional community but still be able to travel all right so safety was really important to me security so um i i had these two little thingies put on here and i can actually if i'm on a slant i can run that through there so the doors don't open if my dogs are inside and i don't want them coming out and um and then i got this little cheapo lock if i'm going someplace like a short distance i can lock the door okay a lot of i can already hear people's minds turning at home aren't you afraid that someone will lock you in at night no no i don't necessarily wear this out there and i've got the other door i can get out of right and the back door and the back door and i'm more interested in locking them out than right yes and i just i don't know i guess i never even really crossed my mind but it's not something i'm worried about it's an issue in cargo trailers because it's the only real oh yeah but here you've got three so not initially exactly exactly the color on the outside is kind of still a work in progress but in the state of california and i think some other states it's not legal to have a bus be yellow if it's not functioning as a school bus so so i just started painting and i don't know this is just a roll-on this is yeah i just this is just roll-on exterior house paint i had this regular ladder and we just took two l-brackets and um bolted them together and bolted them onto the the ribbing there so and i've got a u-lock on there so nobody can steal it so i've got a ladder that i can get to the top on and then this is my um i had this port put in here so i wanted my gas on the outside so i had this mechanism put in that ports into the inside it's quick release and then i guess spiders like going up um propane holes so i just cut a hole in that uh rubber cork and that's when i'm not hooked up i keep the spiders from crawling up i see you've got some uh clamps on the side yeah yeah i have a luminet mesh which is sort of like reflectix only air can go through it so i hang that on this side i can have the windows open i can get a breeze in but it reflects the sun it works really quite well um i don't have air conditioning that's one thing i haven't figured out if i need it yet um my idea really is to follow the weather and not need it so my bike that i haven't ridden for a really long time is on just a kind of a rack that i got that is the kind that hangs on on a rv ladder um but we just did permanently attach it to the door and then um that's my garage so i've got my agm batteries back in the corner i have 35 gallon water tank behind this wall and then just bins and stuff so this is enough it's the name of my toad uh enough's toad because the name of my bus is enough e-n-u-f-f and i originally named it because it's enough it's big enough it's roomy enough uh i've got enough stuff in it i don't need any more than what's in it so you're towing a car and uh how's that worked out for you it's great i really like being able to set up camp and leave if i want to or need to and not have to break out damn break down camp at tows really easily i have a roadmaster hitch system for it with the quick release up front and uh there's been days where like because you can't back up when you're towing so it's a bit of a hassle but well worth it to you totally worth it and it's a great storage container you know it's got two dog crates in there so because my dogs are always created when we're traveling and i can stuff those full of stuff if i need to for those of you who are dog owners these are called breeze guards and i think they're as sturdy and safe as as anything you could have in the window i think if somebody was trying to break in they'd be as obvious with trying to get in through these as they would if they were trying to break a window and i can get across breathe in on my dogs if they need to be in the car while i run into the grocery store or whatever and um i like i would not be a dog owner without breeze guards if i ever took my dogs anywhere boy you've got a really nice home here thank you yeah i'm pretty happy with it show us around yeah okay so i've got my dog crates here which you know make a good platform this i already had this is a an orca cooler and it's for like overflow food and right now it's storage inside i like eating fresh food i don't want to eat out of cans so this is my dometic 12-volt refrigerator freezer that is enormous it isn't hardest it's like you know it's not even that's i've got that side on refrigeration right now this side on freezer i guess the freezer is pretty full but um what i have discovered is being inside the box is not all that great i am going to you asked me about remodeling i am going to elevate the lid um right now i've been keeping it open just because it needs to vent better and it sucks up less less uh so you know solar energy i've got seven hundred and um seven hundred watts of solar two big agm batteries um i love my sh above the shelf or above the window because shoe boxes fit perfect in there and i've you know added some other stuff to some other different things this is a chest that was a family thing that i really liked so we bolted it to the wall and um that is my urine diverting toilet which basically it's a square cat the boxes that cat litter comes in the buckets in the back with a big plastic bag in it and i bought from um actually from england uh um i can't remember the name of it i can fig i can get it to you but it's uh it's a urine diver diverter basically it's a big funnel that's attached in there hones down my p and i found a great big base at a thrift store that i think you know a big flower display would go in and you know i can pee for a few days in there so this uh is uh actually a futon frame that i had forever it does not pull out if somebody wanted to have it pull out and it could be revised to be made that way but i just kind of like the angle that it sleeps at and um that dresser drawer i found for 13 bucks at a habitat store and i happen to have the little plastic drawer bank so a lot of stuff just kind of fell into place this is really very inexpensive yeah it really is yeah it really is um this is an ikea cabinet set and i love my little spice drawer oh that is nice really organized yeah yeah it's uh and then um actually i have an instant hot water heater which is made for being outside but you know i just figure i'm going to monitor really well i did put a heat shield above it because it does blow a lot of heat out the top when it's running but and then i have these gas outlets here so quick connects maybe yeah quick connects i use a um a wave three um heater which i like a lot although when it was like 30 degrees it took a while to heat up i do have a couple little fans uh 12 volt pans one of the things i love about my bus is when i turn off the engine the 12 volt things still work and it's got because it's a bus it's got these two gargantuan house batteries that have nothing to do with my solar but that you know they used to run flappers and stop signs and mega lights and stuff so there's a lot of power in them and i can charge all kinds of things through my 12 volt for days on end and not um not lose that much battery charge out of the out of the two big house batteries right these have big alternators and fast charging yeah yeah yeah this is my shower it makes for great storage put the showers there yes exactly whatever exactly this is one of my recent hacks i've hung my dish drainer look at that it's got these these hooks are from uh the daiso store which is a japanese stuff store and i got in san diego and i've got a couple bungee cords in the back and they go out the window and hook so that i don't have to use up counter space it's clever this is my this is a swiveling passenger seat so it came with a seat belt the swivel base they actually had to make this little base for it but it swivels it around so basically i can fully recline and i can swing it around and have um have company and i call this my office i you know in case i'm still doing a little bit of work and just for personal business stuff and then this is another um this is another safety hack that i did which these these uh l brackets were um we bent them up gonna be really really safe i can put that bar in there and nobody's coming in no one's coming in nobody's coming in so i do that just for safety at night a lot of people comment on the flooring which is actually linoleum oh really that was a nice looking one yeah it's great looking linoleum i got a couple of these ikea trays because it just makes it you know i'm kind of one of those every flat surface is fair game kind of people so if it's in a tray it's easy to move so i um have that well it's a beautiful setup really really i'm pretty happy with it um dan who did the build his brother is a um has taken a lot of course work in boat building he's a sailor and so he did all the oak work it's beautiful yeah really beautiful yeah he did a really nice job very happy with it and i put these like these are just um bender board strips that i put up to cut just to cover up the um the aluminum look and my curtain rods fit really nicely right behind them which is nice you're planning to live this way for a long time you know what i'll tell you when i moved into my house i said i'm not leaving my house till they carry me out in a stretcher and then i changed my mind and left and moved into this now i'm thinking when i can't get up the stairs anymore maybe i'll think about an alternative but i'm really happy how much do you think you have all in is that they probably don't know uh you know i don't know i have kept all my receipts i haven't really totaled them up i'm thinking somewhere between 30 and 35k including the bosses including the bus itself absolutely and the engine work that i had done and that kind of stuff yeah i am starting to blog a little bit on my website it's joycesdogs.com um you know if i do any training i'll have that on there as well and i'm certainly open to doing house sits for people but um mostly i'm just vlogging about my adventure and um sharing you know what i'm learning and uh tell us the website again joycesdogs.com j-o-y-c-e-s-d-o-g-s com very good thank you well joyce i really appreciate your sharing your home with us it's wonderful my pleasure thank you so much really really amazing anybody can do it anybody can do it yes and you had some money to play with and you did it just the way you wanted yes exactly but you could still do it yes absolutely folks you could do this too you could start with a plain old cargo van or a cargo trailer a few two three four five thousand dollars do minimal build uh you could do this and do it well thanks joyce you are welcome my pleasure folks if you got anything out of this and i know you did like us on youtube subscribe to the channel hit that thumbs up button and we'll talk [Music] you

Channel: CheapRVliving

Views: 174,616

Keywords: live, living, car, van, RV, Full-time, nomad, gypsy, camper, camp, boondock, travel, snowbird, caravan, tiny, house, tribe, RTR, adventure

Id: sTCxyoJknOU

Length: 19min 19sec (1159 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 08 2019