Epic Off-The-Grid School Bus Conversion

Many of us dream of living a life of travel and adventure, but it is also very important to have a place to call home, a place to retreat to at the end of the day and a space that we can truly call our own, that is exactly what this The following couple have created for themselves the transformation of an old Schooley into a beautiful home on wheels. Hi Francesca, how are you right? Guderian. Pleased to meet you. You get a nickname. How about it's a pleasure to meet you? This bus looks so wonderful. How did you two?

I decided to live in a

school

II, so it started with a documentary we watched about a couple who was traveling around the United States and one night, late on the couch, they looked at each other and said, "We can do that" and after we sat down. We were at it for a day or two and a month later we had the bus. What really inspired you to dive into that kind of lifestyle? I think it was a couple of things that we didn't really need. space that we had in our house in Chicago, we liked the freedom to explore and go on adventures and I think we felt like we were stuck, you know, with work and life, and this was kind of an outlet to take. and try a couple of new things.

I think we were honestly miserable at his job at the time and it was our way out when we met. Everything was career-oriented. I mean, 60+ hours a week saving money, you know what I think we had. adventure in us all the time we would love to hike, walk the dogs and go out on the weekends anyway, but if we could only know, make that the focal point at the center of the lifestyle, I think we both We would like that, yes. the fact that we can just get up and go anywhere we want, you know, most people work their entire lives saving this huge nest egg in hopes of traveling when it's finally time to retire and, personally, you know that we've seen our grandparents get to that point where they have the money and the time, but they don't have that energy anymore or you know they're old enough to do it and we might not have the money right now anyway, but we definitely have, you know the body and the energy and we have the time and you know the money will come and go so we'll find it as we go but now we have the other two pieces of the puzzle and now tell me about the bus because this it looks like this.

Cool, it was a real

school

bus, in fact the kids that rode on it in North Carolina were on commission, we actually found it at an auction, so first of all you can say it's much bigger than a school bus normal, so we have a raised ceiling there and then everything you see on the ceiling allows it to be off the

grid

, not that we are always off the

grid

, but it gives us options like where we are today in the mountains, we have five 100 watt solar panels, which is more. which for us and then you can see the fireplace back there we also have a wood stove so when it gets cold here in Colorado we are completely off the grid we just have to get some firewood and we can heat it up nice and what do you do with water?

So we have an 80 gallon tank there, that's probably the only reason we have to return to civilization once we run out of water or food, yes we're going to fill, empty the tanks, but other than that, 80 gallons can go a long way and it looks like you have plenty of storage space here on the outside of the bus as well, this was one of the few school buses that came with it. Some of the others are pre-built there, you have to do the addition yourself and he said this was nice instead of storing all the solar power and the batteries and everything else inside the bus, it's all here, which left us much more. there was space inside and we didn't have to pay extra to install containers or anything like that, so we specifically looked for a bus that had these containers, so how long is the bus so that it is almost as big as a standard bus? ?

You can go, it's 38 feet long, seven and a half feet wide and then it's got the 20-inch raised roof, so it's pretty roomy inside. Well, this bus looks absolutely ready for adventure and I can't wait to see what you have. done inside, can we check it? Come on, okay, thanks, this looks great. I love all the stone work you've done in the entryway. Yeah, I mean, we have stone in the back of the bathroom and I just wanted it. like they all flow together and the first thing you see I don't want them to be bus steps I want this no I love that it's a bus I don't want anyone to know that there's a bus standing inside Here right now this certainly feels like a home and not like a school bus and there are some really cool things you've done to help make that happen like the front of the bus where you turned the entire dashboard into a couch which is a great idea yeah and it was actually super easy and It was our dogs' idea, so we were driving and our dogs kept coming up and sitting out there, looking out the window, and I was like, well, they need something comfortable to sit on and so I made a DIY cushion, throw it there and covered the blanket on top, I put some pillows and I was done for the day and then you still have your driver station here, tell me about this, well I wish I could tell you I had the comfortable air seat, but that was a budget thing, maybe it's coming soon, but that It's my position, we try to hide it when it's just the homey feeling so it doesn't actually feel like driving the bus again.

That's what it is, but that's definitely where dogs like to sit. Sometimes McGee likes to get right on the driver, so you can think of him as the driver, that's his chain, and then here you also have a really nice, comfortable couch, yeah. This is probably much larger than most people who ride school buses will ever go. It's a 10-foot sofa and can be opened to form a huge bed, enough for two humans and three dogs. Otherwise we can have people spend the night with us on the bus. Also, yeah, cool, and it looks like you've built in quite a bit of storage space in there too.

Yes, one of the nice things about the lower bins was being able to put a lot of the solar stuff outside, we keep all our stuff cool. There's water here so when it's cold in Colorado and some of the other places we travel it doesn't freeze so that way we still have good access to the water and then under this half couch there's just storage space the clothes for the games, whatever we need. and now tell me about your kitchen because it looks great, it was probably the most important part for us, it was big when we got our first house and it was definitely going to be the centerpiece of the bus.

We like to cook and we spend a lot of time in the kitchen and when we were in bed we knew we needed a very long kitchen, a lot of counter space, and we were going back and forth about what kind of refrigerator to make and we wanted a spacious one, so that this type The kitchen of our dreams came with the refrigerator underneath, much more cabinet space. The original design was going to be, you know, a traditional refrigerator, but as you can see, we have a huge countertop, a big stove, basically a normal apartment-sized one, and you.

I love the butler sink, it's very nice, we were big HGTV fans and when we saw the farmhouse sink we thought, well we can't have it in our house right now, we couldn't afford it, it will definitely be on the bus though , oh yeah, definitely, that's another interesting thing about downsizing and doing small things is that we've never really settled into our homes and we've never been able to show up in our homes like this and get everything we wanted and by doing so more little ones. We were able to make our dream come true. Oh, like I never get jealous or want anyone else's house.

I have my own so yeah yeah and look at that fireplace that's probably one of my two favorite things about the bus it's cold here. Colorado and having a real wood stove and being able to be off the grid is much more than what we needed for this small space, it heats up very quickly, which we appreciate, you know, you almost have to open the windows with the fire because it's your job, let's say the place is pretty well insulated, we have spray foam all over the bus and then these windows are our viewing windows specifically to trap heat and cold air depending on the season, but with that being said, it's cold here in Colorado and I see you have air conditioning too.

We don't run off the grid, so we have a generator only on those very hot days or for when we are plugged in. but it's definitely nice to have, it was a good splurge, oh yeah, and what do we have further back here, so this is our shower and our toilet, and the shower is probably my second favorite part, right behind the wood stove, and that's because they have vanilla. I don't know many other buses that have this. I don't even know if most people know this exists, but I'm super nerdy and spend a lot of time on Kickstarter and I don't know when this first came out.

I loved the idea of ​​the California project to save water and then we tried it and not only is it really economical and helps us save water for the bus, but it's an amazing experience to take a shower and it feels like a nice warm hug. I didn't say enough about this at first. I thought you really know this for a shower it's worth it yes especially living this lifestyle and the stone and tile work in the shower is so beautiful it was our first time and it could be ours. Last time we did it in the dead of winter and then I thought the box doesn't do it in these kinds of degrees so it wasn't smart so we had a hard time with it but we're really happy with how it turned out.

I mean, we love the masonry, it matches the front of the bus and it just flows with our whole theme in this house, so now we're really happy with how the shower turned out and then on the other side we have the composting toilet and the vanity there, yes, it's a little small, but it works for us. I mean, we've never done the blackwater tank and we didn't really want to do a blackwater tank, so we thought everyone By making the composting toilet, let's try this and we're done with nature's head and we're very happy to have the sink and cabinet complete, we have a nice big mirror that makes the room even bigger and then we have little baskets behind the composting toilet that we just hold our little towels to dry our hands and once again everything flows In the design.

I'm very big on design and everything that flows and what's behind the door, so a lot of people, when they see pictures on Instagram, I think this is where the bus ends, but lo and behold, our bedroom has a bedroom complete behind that is very clean. Yes, this is sort of our sleeping area and where we keep our clothes, but we probably spend most of our time awake. at the front of the bus, living in a school II like this and having the option of a room where you can close the door and have some private space must be very nice, plus it's just over 200 square feet, most of it At that point we're on the same page, but when we need time, it's nice to have your own room or a room to put the dogs in and having that door to cut it off is helpful, so how?

How long have you been living on the bus? I think it's been about six months and I want to say it was definitely a rough start, we started in the middle of winter, but after the winter went away, everything has been smooth sailing, the summers here have been perfect, we are starting to understand all the different things that can and will go wrong, but the first seven months have been fantastic and we don't see us leaving this lifestyle anytime soon. We work together and have been able to solve anything from the engine not starting and getting stuck on the side of a 14 or in the middle of nowhere to just building simple furniture that you know really styles and designs.

Inside we've learned about solar energy, plumbing, water, lumber, and everything else you know as a salesperson. I never knew any of this, so we really learned a lot and were able to address a lot of problems. the road and now let's talk about the budget, what was the cost of making this dream come true? So the materials, if you could do everything yourself, it would cost about $30,000 total, there were just under 60 of us and compared to owning a home in the Denver area or the Chicago area, this I mean , it's not even comparable and how some foundations will never give you options like this, without a doubt, once this has paid off 100%, it will really be the open road for both of us and we will see where. we can take it, I mean the bus and the little life, I mean, it really came about for all the reasons we talked about money, you know, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars ona house that you don't really need, that space that you don't need in a house that big, the space itself, not even just the money, you know, a 1400 square foot house where two of the rooms have never been moved to just boxes there, compared to 200 square feet of every foot that's being taken care of. and knowing where it is and the fact that you know we were in the suburbs of Chicago and since we grew up there, it's our home, our families are there, but there were so many adventures left in us that we would have to wait. for the weekends or for retirement and that didn't really sit well with us so to be able to put those three things together you know what bus life really means to us in the small life and I'm sure there's a lot more.

We'll find out as we go, but that was really the basis and foundation of why we really started looking at everything in the first place. Another big thing for me was that I am a big homebody and I like to spend a lot of time in my space in my house and so I wanted it to feel homey and be like us and the best part is that wherever we go, I can travel, we can go anywhere and I don't have to have the stress of where we are going to stay, I won't feel at home, my dogs won't feel at home, whereas in this space we are always at home, wherever we go, this It's like that.

A beautiful project. I really love the way they took this school bus and really made it feel like a home. Thank you very much for sharing a weak faith. Thanks for coming. Thank you. Nick and Francesca have done an incredible job building this. home this is a place where once you are inside you would never guess that it is old school and it is spacious, it is beautiful, it is stylish, but the wheels still mean that this is a home that is ready for a lot of adventures and I'm sure there will be a lot of excitement in the future for this couple.