We're Hitting The Road Alone In An Empty Bus - Solo Mom And Baby - Semi No Build

So I've been cleaning Minion out for the past, I don't know, hour. And Minion has been, there is, or was very, very, very dirty from descent. I still have a little bit of cleaning to do. I'm really just trying to get all the dust out before I start moving stuff into the bus. Um, for the last hour, I have been cleaning Minion out and getting it ready to be moved into. It's pretty dirty from descent, but I think I've done a pretty good job of getting all the dust out. Um, and Amber and I are going to be taking Minion across the country. The past few months have been really difficult for me, um, being a new mom and not having a real support system here. It's really just me and Isaac and I don't necessarily ever get a break from Amber. I'm with her 24 seven. Isaac is really trying to get Brewster built so that we can get it sold and start on the big bus because that's going to be our home right now. We're kind of in between homes and it's not like the best situation and I don't have, um, I just, I don't have a support system like I there's days where it's just really hard and I just wish that I could go to my mom's house or like go visit my sister or my friends and I just don't have that here and it's been really tough on me mentally. And, um, in turn, I think that's been kind of tough on Isaac and it's just not an ideal situation right now. And so, um, Isaac and I spoke and I am originally I got invited to gutted. So the plan was to just go to gutted and come back and Isaac and I were talking and he suggested that I go ahead and just, I'm already pretty much halfway there or less than halfway there. So just go to Texas and spend time with friends and family. So that's the plan. Um, I will be driving to gutted the event and then after that we'll be able to slow down a little bit. Um, cause I'll kind of be in a hurry to get there. I don't necessarily have, um, I've have, I think five days to get there and it's a whole day drive. And with Ember, I don't know how it's going to play out. And so it'll be a bit of a rush to get there. But once the event's over and we start heading South, um, we do have a couple of specials or we have a special stop along the way. But I think that being able to slow down, it'll be a lot easier to travel with Ember. And by then I'll kind of get a sense of like when she needs to stop and you know, stuff like that. But I want to be able to have those moments where we can, you know, go for a hike or just to go hang out by the lake. And she and I can bond together in nature. And I think it'll be really good for my mental health, for our relationship, for Ember's development. Um, that's just kind of where we're at. So I'll be on the road for awhile cause once I'm done in Texas, I'm not sure exactly what route I'm going to take to come back. And then we'll stop in Vegas to visit his family too for a bit. And so we'll be gone for at least a month of October. So I am preparing Minion for us to live in for like a month when I, I will say though, when we go to Texas, I won't necessarily be living in Minion. I'll have places to stay, but while we're on the road, this is what we're going to be in full time. And as you can see, it's empty. And so I got it ready, cleaned everything. And now it's time to start moving things into the bus. So these are the essential items that we'll have to get us by. And I'm not necessarily going to move in like our clothes and anything and everything just yet because we're not leaving just yet. So that'll be done next week. So for now, this is just like bare bones, essential everything that we're going to need to get us by while we're on the road. For example, what toilet are we going to have? How are we going to power anything? What bed am I going to sleep on? Stuff like that. How are we going to stay warm? Um, I will mention that I, the ceiling is bare metal right now. So later, uh, or actually early next week or this weekend, I am going to be framing the ceiling and I'm going to insulate it with Havelock wool and just string it because I don't plan on putting the ceiling up just yet because we still have to, um, install the max air fan. But just so that it's better insulated for us while we're on the road to stay warm and to stay cool. I'm going to go ahead and get that insulation up just for now. And then the walls are done and insulated. The floor is done and insulated. So that's the only thing that really needs to, for me personally, I just want to get it done. So those are a couple of things that I'll be doing next week. So for today's video, we are just going to, um, get the bus prepared for living. So let's jump into that. Um, you can mount everything. I just wouldn't put, so you can do the actual frame. Just don't mount it. No, no problem. And then just don't. So I usually glue the leg to the frame from the bottom. Just don't glue any of that. Just screw it because I'm gonna have to take the legs off, pull the frame out. I just need the dimensions. 48 by 75. 48 by 75? Just double checking. Okay. I use the HD. Take those off and scoot them over? Um, no, you need to cut them down. That cardboard sign will get you far, bro. So now that the bed and the bed frame is done, that was literally the hardest mission that I've had. And the bed's going to make it a little bit more difficult to frame out the ceiling. But I mean, it's not, not possible. So I'm not going to worry about that right now. That's going to be done in a couple of days. And I figure the next thing I'm going to work on is this toilet. They're going to see what it's about. So I got this compost toilet. It's called an Ogo and I thought it looked really cool. They sent me one and I think I'm going to like this more than the, I don't want to, I don't want to talk down on anyone's product. So I won't say, but I've used other composting toilets and I wasn't happy with them. So I'm hoping that this one works out a little bit better. So let's go ahead and open it up, get it set up. And I'm thinking about putting some foam board insulation down right here where the shower goes. But I'm wondering, I think this has to be vented outside for it to work. So I might use that hole. I don't know. It's just a thought. We'll see how it goes. And for anyone who's going to comment on my breathing, because for some reason people always do, I literally just worked my butt off. I'm sweating and yes, of course I'm out of breath. I just like basically got my heart rate up quite a bit. So let's get this toilet open. Oh, that's helpful. So I'm just going to note here. How did I just open it? Okay. I don't know that I'm going to actually get this hooked up because we are limited on power. So I think for now, I'm just going to leave this stuff in here in the composting part and only use the urine diverter. But so far, I really like the size of this toilet and we'll be using it all the time. So that being said, I'm not going to be using the composting part. I am going to put a piece of insulation down right here. So let's do that real quick. It has been a long day. Oh, it's not going to work for that one. So basically for the curtains, instead of actually doing curtains, I'm just going to use reflectix and I'm going to Velcro these just straight up to the window, which these fit most of them perfectly. And then for the bigger ones, I'll just take a couple of pieces together, but I only had enough for three windows. So I have three of them. I have to go into town and get more reflectix for that. I kind of made shift, did a makeshift like cover for the front, which I'm going to put some insulation behind there and then I'll Velcro that as well. Right now it's just being held up by tape, which is not holding it up very well, but that is what we got done today. So I did three curtains, which are just the reflectix. I made the bed platform. I put my bed from Peach in here for now. We got our toilet in here. I use the box from the toilet. It had two of those boxes, those size. Those will be like my kitchen pantries. That will be my kitchen area. I'll probably have just a little cooler in here. No fridge. And then I have a camping burner that I'll use, a propane one. And then this is what I will be using for power. It is an anchor, a 757 I believe, power station. And that is how I'm going to have power. I have some solar panels coming for that. And then so like when I need to charge it, I can either charge it while I drive or I'm going to put the solar panels on the roof through the emergency hatch or hang them out the windows. So that's, I mean, when I was traveling in my van, all I had was a Jackery 1000. I didn't have a fridge or anything. So this is a little bit of a step up. We got a lot more room in here than I did in my van, but I'm going to call it a day for this semi no build. So next time you see the bus, we'll be finishing it of everything that I'm going to have done to it and moving in and getting ready to leave. So we are going to frame the ceiling. I'm going to insulate the ceiling and hold the insulation up. It's going to be have luck wool with string and then I'm not going to put an actual ceiling in because we still have to do the max fan and it's a whole thing and I don't have time and I don't want to install that right now. And the only other thing besides that is I'm going to be installing a diesel heater. So we have a Mr. Buddy heater and we have larger propane tanks in an adapter that I can use to use the Mr. Buddy heater. But I just, it's for me, I think it's easier to fill up, um, fuel for a diesel heater than it is to have to like get propane tanks refilled. So, uh, I'll be, I will be installing a diesel heater and the diesel heater heater will be run off of this power bank. And that's also exactly what I did in my van. Once I installed the diesel heater, I just used it with the Jackery 1000 and via the 12 volt and it worked great. So that's what we're going to be doing in here for heat. And this does have AC, but I mean when these are huge, huge windows with the windows down, it makes such a big difference in staying cool and being in the shade with the windows down, uh, I think we'll be fine as far as air goes. And then we also do have the emergency hatch that we can open and that also helps with the airflow. So with all the windows open and the doors open, like I definitely think that we'll be fine and staying cool. So we got our kitchen. I'll probably have a little cooler camp, stove, toilet, power bank, diesel heater, bed. And the only reason I did the bed platform because originally I wasn't going to is because it already is, seems a lot smaller and there's a lot less storage now that I have kind of a few things in here. So having the bed platform allows me to have a ton of storage underneath the bed so I can put like ember stroller under there and our clothes and stuff under there and I don't have to, it's not going to be in the way. So that was the main reason of doing the bed platform. And if you're wondering, and so I'm also going to be doing reflectix for the, all the windows in the back and then I'll probably do a cover for the back over here like I did in the front and maybe put some fabric over that just so it's not like straight reflectix. Just kind of give it a little bit of aesthetic. Um, but yeah, this is a semi no build. This is what we are going to be living in for the next month at least. So I am very nervous, very, very, very excited. But I do think that this is going to be very beneficial to my mental health and Ember's mental health and her development and she's going to be in nature every single day and we'll be out and just we'll go hiking and just, you know, live the life that I want her to live even though we can't right now because the big bus isn't done. We're still building it. Well Isaac is still building and stuff and I'm just losing my mind, not just being kind of in a bubble and not being able to go outside because of the air quality. It's so terrible. It's in the hundreds still today, but it's not as bad as it has been. It's been like between three and 500 over the last week. So for us to be able to escape that and go outside and kind of, you know, be active and then get to go see friends and family and everyone will get to meet Ember on my side of the family and then to visit Isaac's family on the way back. So, um, it'll definitely be, uh, an adventure for sure. And I'm not exactly sure how it's going to play out because Ember has never gone further than like being, I think two, a little over two hours in the car at a time. And she does great. So I'm hoping that I'll be able to drive at least three hours a day or not a day at a time, uh, during her naps. So we'll see how it goes because some days she does nap for a couple hours, but then other days she only naps for 30 minutes. So it's just something that we're going to have to fill out and work on as we go. But that is all I'm going to do for today. So I'm curious to see what you guys think about our expedition that we are going to be going on. I'm a little nervous, but very excited. I definitely think it's something that we need. And I know that my family's really excited to meet Ember. My mom's flying into Dallas to, to meet her and everything. And so it's just something I'm really, really looking forward to. So I'm going to go ahead and clean up the mess that I have made for today's semi no build. And then, uh, next time I see you, we will be moving into this bus. So very exciting. And we're going to be getting ready to leave. We're going to take off. We're officially going to hit the road and my heart and soul are ecstatic about it. So I'll see you guys on the next video as always. Thank you so much for watching. We really, really, really appreciate it. I love all of you and I can't wait for you guys to follow us along on this exciting adventure that we're about to embark on. So again, thanks for watching. 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