A Brilliantly Beautiful Bus Home & Sustainable Business For Life On The Road - Living Big In A Tiny House

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So first of all, can you just talk to me about what it was that inspired you to choose a life on the road? We've been doing life on the road for a long time. Since moving to Australia in 2018 from my side, I wanted to live the van life experience. That was a big thing. So I bought my first van straight off the airplane and that's how van life started really for me. Alex was here a bit before me. Yeah, and then we bought a small van together and started to travel for a bit. Yeah, we did two and a half years in a smaller van. Then we settled a little bit in Adelaide. When the time was right, we bought that big one and we decided to convert it the way that we wanted it to be for us personally and professionally in order to live on the road. Fantastic. So you're both from France originally, but you met here in Australia? Yeah, we met in Australia. And your bus here is very cool. Tell me about this. So it's a 98 Nissan Civilian. It was the next school bus. When we bought it, it was fully set with seats inside. How many seats there were? 22, 23? 22 seater. Yeah. And it didn't have that many kilometers. I think when we bought it, we had 193,000 kilometers, which isn't bad for a vehicle of that age. And the condition of the vehicle was really what made us choose that one. Yeah. Because it didn't have a lot of rust. It was working well. Brilliant. And did you do the conversion yourselves? So we had a friend who is a carpenter by trade and who helped us do all the wood stuff in the bus and who also helped us get all the certification for the conversion, the plumber and the electricity. We did all the finishes of the bus. So anything that needed like, for example, we installed the fridge. We did all the curtains. We did all the little shelves, the little things that was not a big job, but that made the bus a home. Yeah. And what is it that you both love about living on the road and this way of life? Definitely the freedom it gives you, because you can go anywhere and just stay there for a bit if you like it, or you can move to different locations. Yeah, definitely the freedom. It's basically carrying your home everywhere you go and having all that homely feeling, no matter where you stop. Yeah. I think there are so many people that love the idea of this way of life that just aren't sure of how to make it work, and especially financially. And you have found a really special way of being able to take your business on the road with you. Can you talk to me about that? It was a long work in progress. It didn't happen like that, for sure. So initially we moved to South Australia as part of an entrepreneur visa in order to launch a business in the circular economy industry. And we launched Australia's first plant straw, which was a by-product of the rye harvest, the stem of the rye. And we looked into the compostable packaging industry because of that product. That product was basically compostable by nature, but most compostable packaging in Australia were only commercially compostable. So we decided to launch a sustainable packaging brand for cafes and switching from that straw product to a range of other products. Now I would say our best seller is mostly coffee cups and coffee lids because in Australia we use 1.8 billion single-use coffee cups alone. That's a lot. It's a big number. So we thought that's a big problem that we want to tackle. So we really looked into that compostable packaging industry and moving on the road was for us a way to go meet the cafes that we work with, speak about sustainability to more cafes, meet composting experts, meet people who've done different versions of composting to see how it can be scaled up and how it can be adapted to different cafes based on where they are. So in 2021 was when we started talking about that project, about moving into a bus and being able to work from the road. And it took us about four, five years to make it work. Yeah, you hear of a lot of people that do e-commerce and that sort of thing living on the road but if you have a physical product like you do that's got to be a little bit more challenging. Yeah definitely that's why it took us so long to make it work. We wanted to make sure that no matter where we were going to be, whether it's in Australia or also overseas, the business was not going to stop. And so making sure that we had the right partner with us for the storage, for the logistics and make sure that our customer could be delivered our product at any time of the year was essential. And when we felt it was the right time and this was working well that's when we decided to go. Fantastic and now you can work from here. Yeah. Brilliant, living the dream. Yeah that's good. Yeah absolutely. What size is your bus? It's about seven meters long with the bull bar and it's about 1.9 meters large. So I would say we have approximately 14 square meters, maybe 12 or 11 that are livable if we remove the passenger and the driver seats and we can fully stand up in it. Great. Maybe not you. Maybe not you. We'll soon find out if I can. That was the goal like before we had the camp event we had a pop-top roof so we constantly had to pop it up and down and we wanted a vehicle that could actually have us walk in it. Yeah I think you've found a great balance with this between not being too compact that it makes life difficult but also not being so big that it makes your travel difficult. So you found the perfect mix in there. Yeah. Yeah. Well I would absolutely love to have a look inside the bus and see what you've done in there. Can we check it out? Yeah let's go. Let's go. Am I going to be able to stand up in here? Not quite but perfect size for the both of you. Perfect. We fit in well yeah. There is one side that has a bit more height because I think originally the bus is a little bit on a slope. Right. So it's been all flattened out but you can still see sometimes some people feel better here. But absolutely beautiful design in here. The timber work just really gives it that homey sensation doesn't it? Yeah that was the whole purpose. We wanted the bus to be converted like a house. Yeah. For us it was a bit of a must-have. Like we really wanted to feel at home no matter where we were and the timber was a great way to achieve that feeling. And it looks beautiful as well. We love the timber. It really does. What kind of timber is it? The floor it's a reclaimed floor. It's a Tasmanian oak and ceiling as well. And both those ones are eucalyptus wood. Beautiful. So a really beautiful celebration in here of those gorgeous native Australian timbers. Yeah definitely. We had to choose a native wood for sure. Yeah and tell me about the layout of your home. So we wanted to have a big kitchen in order to be able to cook. So we wanted a big benchtop with two foot prep areas. So that foot prep area and that foot prep area. That was important. We wanted a big sink because in our previous camper we had a small sink and never underestimate the usefulness of a sink. So we wanted a big sink to do the dishes and also to store things whenever we drive. We wanted a full-size cooktop and oven in order to cook everything that we were cooking at home. The idea was really to be able to do everything that we did before in our apartment but on the road. Speaking about energy, are you off the grid in this bus or do you need to plug into services? How does that all work? Absolutely we are completely upgraded. We have 900 watts of solar on the roof. We've got two big panels and we've got 300 amp lithium battery. So it keeps us powered all the time. You never have to plug it in the grid. Perfect. And what about water and gas for cooking? So under the bus we've got 175 liter tank fresh water and for gas we've got two gas bottles 3.7 kilo gas bottle. We can swap everywhere in petrol station. Usually it lasts us maybe a And we also have a 50 liter grey water tank under the bus. Fantastic. And then I see you've got this really nice little bench table here as well and some chairs. So what a great place just to sit and enjoy a meal and look out at the view. Originally we built that space as an office. So that's where I like to work. I like to work at a desk when Alexei is more of a sofa person. So that's working space and the sofa is his working space. But we also planned the area obviously to have meals and yeah do things where we could both be sat next to each other with the two chairs. So everything in this bus has at least two use. That was the goal. Decisions have been made around at least two use per things that we decide on. Otherwise it's not used enough. Fair enough too. Well Alex your office definitely looks like it's a lot more comfortable. This is a pretty plush sofa you've got here. Yeah it's definitely good. The sofa we've custom made it. So the cushion is actually a single mattress. So it has a good sitting foam and the cover has been made by Alexei's parents who used to have a business in, how would you say it? Apostory. So they've made the cover for all the sofa and the cushions for us. Did they come out here to do that or did they send it over from France? No we sent them all the measurements and they did everything back home in France. Great! Last year when we went back in France we picked it up. And luckily the measures was on point because it fits perfectly. Perfect! And can you tell me about storage in here? We didn't want to have a lot of storage that were visual in the bus. As you can see we left most of the window open and we wanted to have a lot of natural light in the bus. So we tried to really have storages hidden as much as we could. So storage we've mostly got those three drawers. Two drawers here. So that's mostly for clothes. So that's Alexei's clothes in here and my clothes in here. Then we've got storage under the kitchen bench for all the cooking stuff but also bathroom stuff in here, coffee stuff in here, plates, cutleries and everything. And food storage is also in here. Then under the sofa we've got a big storage for I would say miscellaneous things. So it's random things that we could not fit either in the boot or in our drawers. And we've got a small wardrobe just behind the fridge. Very tiny but useful. And then your sleeping area at the back of the bus just looks so cozy. Yeah we really wanted to have the bedroom separate from the living space and that's why we've decided on the arch because we really like the cozy feeling it gives to the bedroom. The bedroom is a queen-size bed that has slightly been shortened on one extremity so it fits 1.9 meters wide. There's no storage in the bedroom at all. It's just a bed and it's great. Yeah it is nice to have that little bit of separation isn't it? Definitely. And then the front part of the bus as well also creates this other nice little zone. I mean obviously important for when you're driving but even when you're parked up like this it sort of just creates another nice place to sit and take in all of the views. So the front part of the bus we can completely close it with the curtains. This way for example when we stop somewhere and we want some privacy we can just pull up all the curtains and you can't see anything inside the bus. So the front space is great when we drive obviously but when we stop we try to push the driving seat forward so we have more space for the sofa. And yeah it's a great little space when we're driving. It's like a big cabin. It looks like a truck cabin really. And what about the bathroom? So we've done something a bit original with the bathroom. We have two different bathrooms. One is working the other one is still a work in progress. Okay. So the one that's working is an outdoor shower. So the outdoor shower is just an easy shower. We can just open the window pull up the shower outside and we have hot water obviously. We can have a shower outdoor. And we've designed a little bath under the sofa in order to build an indoor shower or be able to take a bath. Great. We've not completely finished that project yet. It's been a work in progress for some time because we're still trying to figure out the perfect way to make it work without splashing water everywhere. Yeah. It can be done because we've seen videos of people doing it. So we're working on what materials and we're doing some trial and errors. But the bath is functional. We can take a bath. You also need to be practical and we haven't found a practical way to set up the... If it doesn't take less than two minutes to set up and remove that's not functional. Yeah. Having a bath in here though is a definite touch of luxury. Yes. Once it will be done it will be amazing. And what about the toilet? So we decided not to have a toilet in the bus for multiple reasons. But mostly because traveling around Australia for a long time already we know that there is so many toilets everywhere in Australia. It's super easy and convenient to find toilets. So for us it was not an issue not to have any toilets. Yeah fair enough too. I mean you're completely right. There's definitely really good infrastructure here for all of that sort of thing. So if you can avoid needing to take up the space and having to deal with all the problems of plumbing or having a composting toilet or something inside the house, why not? And we've done it long enough to also realize it's not something that we missed really. Yeah. So it was a no-brainer. Fair enough too. And so how long have you been living in and traveling in the bus now? It's been a little bit over 12 months. We moved full-time in it March 2024. Yeah March 2024. Yeah amazing. And how far have you traveled so far? We went up to Cape Tribulation. That's the furthest we went last year. Great. That must have been such a cool trip. Yeah. I think so far we've done 25 000 kilometers with this bus. Yeah amazing. I think that Australia has to be one of the most amazing countries in the world to road trip because it's just so big, it's so vast and it changes so dramatically from place to place. Definitely. You can definitely see a difference as soon as you pass Cove Harbour. Yeah. The whole nature. The vegetation yeah. It changes all of a sudden and it's really nice. Yeah. What inspired us to build this home was to live a life that aligns with our values. We love being in nature. We loved living in the van before. We love the freedom that it gives to go wherever we want, whenever we want. I would say it's an achievement. It's an achievement because we worked really hard to get this. It's not something that we could afford when we started our business. We had to work other jobs to be able to make it work. So yeah it's a great feeling. We don't have to pay the rent. We don't have to... Just the lifestyle yeah. I would say mostly the lifestyle we get. But because of all the work we did to achieve that, all the work we did with our company to achieve this project. And can we talk about the cost that was involved in purchasing and then fitting out the bus? So we purchased the bus $17,000 Australian dollar as a school bus as it was. And the cost of fitting it out with all the different materials and everything equipment they've put in it cost about $50,000. That's a great result. So it's approximately a $70,000 project. Yeah. It's our first home actually. Yeah beautiful. That's how we see it. Yeah absolutely it is. And so now where's next on your travel plans? What's next for you both? We're going up. Well we're actually a bit late because it's getting cold now. But we're going up. The idea with the bus was to also follow the season. So we always live in a warm climate. So we're going up towards the Sunshine Coast and we'll stay there for a few months. We're also flying back to Europe for two to three months because my brother is having a baby. Oh that's so exciting. And we'll leave the bus in Brisbane for when we're away. And when we come back we'll probably make our way back south again. Fantastic. Great plan. Well I just think this is the most beautiful home and a wonderful lifestyle that you've created for yourselves. I love as well that you have been able to find a way of making your business work so well so that all of this becomes possible for you both. I just think that's really inspiring. Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful home with me. Thank you Bryce. Thank you. Marion and Alex have built such a beautiful home for themselves here. Not only a beautiful home but also an incredible way of life. One that allows them to live on the road and experience all that Australia has to offer. Make no mistake though, this way of life took a lot of work to make happen. Not only building this beautiful bus but also the business that makes everything possible and helps to fund their life on the road. I think that really is an incredible accomplishment.