The adventure begins!

This is the bus and life conversion adventure of Angela and Elizabeth.

Soma Summit 2012

The craziness began in October 2012 when we attended a retreat in Texas. We have been searching for a community that we weren't finding in Bloomington and we were on the verge of moving to a new place in an effort to find it. At the retreat, we found the community we sought. They weren't all from one place, they were from around the world. We decided we needed to be able to travel around the world to connect with this new community.



We came home we began discussing the barriers to the travel we wanted...and money was at the top of the list. We live simply, so the only expense we could eliminate was housing expense. But how? We need a home! I don't know how it started or why a bus got thrown into the conversation but it did and  it was on! By Thanksgiving we found a bus on Craigslist and the adventure began!

Us and Travis~the nice man who sold us the bus

The bus we found was 3 hours away so backup arrived and we were off. Angela's uncles Mike and John drove up from Kentucky to help us bring it home. John is a truck driver so we were excited to have his help learning to drive a big...long....bus!!!! John drove the winding country roads to the highway, and then it was Elizabeth's turn. It was really fun and surprisingly easy. She drove through Greencastle with stoplights and turns and traffic! We stopped for lunch at this little diner where we met some interesting characters. 

1st up~Uncle John

Angela behind the wheel

One woman was very excited about the bus and suggested we come back and leave the old men at home next time~ hahaha!  After lunch, Angela drove the rest of the way to Bloomington, including making a right hand turn at a stoplight, with a car sitting in the other lane! Perfect execution. We arrived at our destination and parked in a sweet spot on the hill over looking the 15 acre farmland! 

Mike, Angela, Elizabeth, John~The crew that brought it home!

Counters and skylight!

The bus is really looking amazing! We have added counters, walls, love, and a skylight! What?! Yes!

Long time friends Dean and Holly from Washington were visiting recently, and Dean wanted to help us with the kitchen counters. It is what he does for a living...so we said absolutely. We love the help and the sense of friendship and community it creates. We bought solid wood counters from Ikea and were ready.

Dean sawing the hole for the sink. And a cool shot of the
window frames.

He needed to make some inside adjustments.
He is sawing...inside...Angela is terrified in the back!

Look how lovely!!!

Angela and Dean building a wall.

We realized that the giant air conditioner that was installed in the ceiling pop up vent was leaking when it rained. So we tried to seal it with some heavy duty rv roof sealant. It did not work. So we decided to take it out and put in a skylight. It's prettier anyway and now we will be able to lay on the futon and look up at the stars at night! We are going to make an insulated cover for when it is too hot or cold that can fit up in the skylight. The air conditioner was a huge piece of metal, but we were successfully wrastled it out!

Angela having a great time trying to seal the leak!

Elizabeth's ass wrestling the air conditioner....

and winning!!! (this is looking up through the bus)

You can see the skylight here with the painted ceiling, counters, walls
oh my!!! it looks gooooood!

Elizabeth's mom helping us paint. Out with the teal
in with the red river bottom. Keeping it earthy~like us!

Power, floors, and insulation~oh yeah!

Soooo, posting on a blog is not the 1st thing we want to do after building a bus all day. Needless to say, we are a bit behind in posting. We have done so many things to our tiny home that it actually looks like a house, not a bus (I mean, it's still a bus, but it's cute inside now).

We are wired! We have outlets throughout the entire length of the bus. Thanks to Elizabeth's uncle John. Electricity is surprisingly simple!!! We ran many circuits to make sure and distribute the power so we don't blow a fuse everyday. There is one for the refrigerator, inverter, toilet, bathroom, computer etc, and one for the portable air conditioner that we will inevitably have to buy in August (more on that later).

Uncle John...wiring us up!

power!

power and plumbing..so modern!

We didn't know we were going to rip up the existing plywood floor, but when we found a big rotten patch of moldy wood, we thought it would be best. So we stripped it down to the original bus laminate. We didn't take it to the metal, which was the right choice for us. It was in pretty good shape so we went with it.

Crow bars, muscles, and yelling were required to
pull up the plywood that was screwed down.

Elizabeth Sawzalled (?) around the counter we were leaving in.

Angela ripping up the tiles to expose more tiles
to eventually expose the screws that we were
then unable to unscrew...thus the crowbars!

For the flooring, we knew we need insulation, because it is a metal box! We started with a moisture barrier that has a low R-value and then laid a foil backed underlayment that adds even more insulation. Then we laid the laminate floor. We didn't originally think we would do laminate, but then our friend was redoing a house and offered us the laminate she was ripping out...for FREE! so we said YES! and spent $60 total on the floor for the underlayment and 2 additional boxes of flooring. It was going to cost over $300~yay!

Both layers of insulation

See the styrofoam in between and the roll of Reflectix
waiting to be applied.

For the walls we screwed 2X4s into the frame of the bus to create a frame to hang 1/4" birch plywood. We used styrofoam insulation in between the 2X4s and then a layer of Refletix in between the styrofoam and the birch. We are hoping for warmth or at least not freezing!

The beautiful floor! and the amazing walls!

This is getting close to what it looks like now...there is more coming VERY SOON we promise!

On the Inside

Inside, before we got to work removing stuff.

When we were looking for a bus, we found this 1991 Chevy Bluebird that was already partially converted into an RV. This was appealing because we could reuse the parts inside rather than just cutting out a lot of bus seats. The design of the bus was not what we wanted, more like an RV than the tiny home we imagined.

Full size sink and rv toilet
mounted on a tiled
throne. 

The bed was in the back of the bus.

There was a pullout sofa, dining area, kitchen, LARGE bathroom, and a queen mattress and box springs. In case you were wondering a bus door is not really big enough for a queen box spring, but we (with a lot of sweat) got it out.

Many screws...this is not all we removed

We visualize the space being open and zen, but it was full of lots and lots of wood. Luckily it included a lot of supplies we could reuse for our project. So, when we got it home we began tearing out walls and sofas and walls and screws... so many screws!

Sawing out the poop hole.
Disgusting...it is someone
else's poop in there

Bye-bye toilet!

As we removed more items, the picture of what we wanted it to look like as our home got clearer and more and more things were discovered that needed to be removed. We thought we would take out a few walls and soon be on our way to building what we wanted, but that has proven to take more time than anticipated. 

This is the old bus heater hose.
We removed the heater because it was leaking
radiator fluid in the bus and there was a slight incident
where it exploded onto Elizabeth's face! (She's fine)

 The long winter has weighed heavily and kept us from jumping up early in the morning to get started. When it is 20 degrees outside, it is not much warmer inside a big metal bus. Now, spring is near and we are nearly finished removing the old and the building of our new home is beginning. 

Day 1

some walls down

More walls down

Now it's looking different!

Bed's gone, Toilet's gone...and we have lights!

De-Throned. 

Shelf in the kitchen gone.
Looking good!