Why we bought an old school bus

Just a few days before Christmas this last year, Todd and I bought an old school bus.

Technically it was always used as a church bus, but it’s got the yellow paint underneath. At 38 foot long, it’s all ours!

And barely fits within our Home Owner Association rules since it just fits on our driveway behind the front line of our house… we’ve become that neighbor.

We’ve talked for years about traveling the country, sometimes it includes selling our home and living on the road, other times we’ve simply wanted something better than our old pop-up for camping.

After the recession and housing market crash a few years ago, we began to realize that the “American Dream” we thought we wanted was beginning to change.

So we toured many different motor homes over the years but found that unless we DID sell our home and use all of our equity to purchase one, we wouldn’t trust those old (very teal) beasts for cross country travel. Last summer we went to look again and simply didn’t find anything within our budget that would work for our family or long term goals.

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A few years ago, my virtual friend Nina sold her house and moved their family into a converted school bus and I thought it was the coolest thing ever.

In the fall of 2014 my cousin and his wife decided to travel full time in their RV and I was so envious watching their travels.

While we were dreaming of RV life last summer, Todd approached me with the idea of building a skoolie (converted school bus) and I don’t think we’ve ever been on the same page so much in our married life. It blends my aspirations of minimizing my material possessions and Todd’s love of fabrication and building.

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We’re still not sure exactly how we’ll be using our skoolie, but we do know that it gives us possibilities that we now have the freedom to explore.

The possibility to travel more often and see the country.

We often weight the pros and cons of living in it full time for a year, knowing that some day we’ll do just this. Whether or not it’s in our immediate future…I don’t know.

Having a skoolie also frees us from having to buy a house the second we might sell ours (something we’ve thought about doing for awhile). This will give us an easy place to stay when in-between stick built homes, lessening anxiety to move quickly.

Our only goals right now are to have it finished this spring so that we can use it this year for travel and camping and to begin to minimize the things that we own.

It’s amazing how many things I now pick up around the house and realize I don’t really need (or even enjoy having) when I ask myself if I’d bring it on the bus. 

 

If you’ve converted an old school bus, or are thinking of doing it, I’d love to hear your story in the comments!