He Turned His Childhood Dream Into This School Bus Home

As a kindergartner, I was asked for the first time, what do you want to be when you grow up? And a lot of kids would say astronaut or teacher or doctor. And I didn't necessarily want to be any of those things, but I knew that I loved my bus driver. So I said, I want to be a bus driver when I grow up. I don't think I thought it would look like this. I thought I'd be driving kids around the same way my bus driver did. But fast forward to when I was a college student, sitting on the couch, watching a show on HGTV about tiny living. And this young couple is living in their converted school bus. And I was struck by the idea that that was even possible. And that five-year-old that wanted to be a bus driver came rushing back. I obsessed over it. I wrote about it. I drew about it. I brainstormed what my hypothetical bus home would look like and feel like and what it was capable of and all the different bells and whistles that it might have. Until eventually, I was thinking to myself, OK, I'm going to die thinking about this idea. Or I'm going to take a leap and do something about it. And I did something about it. Now, living in my bus full time, traveling the country, I am a bus driver. When you're designing a tiny home on wheels, every space has to be multi-purpose. And this space right here is a perfect example of that. When I was first designing this space, I actually wasn't thinking about the couch and the TV first. I was thinking about the booth and a standing workspace. We designed it so that it could do all of the above and serve as a spot for our guests to lay their head whenever they come over. This couch can really configure itself in four different modes. We're in couch mode right now, kind of like a daybed pulled halfway out. It pulls out further to this edge right here and also goes in more to create more space on the floor. The booth itself can sit two or four people, depending on if the benches are pulled out. There's also storage underneath both of them. And then over here, we have a standing workspace and a hidden TV. This entertainment center was built for so many things. You can see that it's storing books and tchotchkes that we collect while we're traveling. What you don't see is the time that I spend working here, popping up the TV to watch movies. Also, the fact that it hides a wheel well down here and it's got a hidden toe kick drawer right here for some additional storage. After four years in here full time, two with Sierra joining, we absolutely spend the most time in this space and it does everything for us. It feels like we're right at home, chilling on the couch, watching the TV, sharing meals over the booth, standing working. We do everything right here and it works out just like it would in a regular home. We love to cook. Been cooking most of our meals for the past 15 years. So when it came to designing the kitchen, I knew there was going to be no compromises on the space or the quality of our finishes. Got a quartz countertop, apartment size appliances, gas range, which was a big one for me, workstation sink, and you don't have to compromise the things that you want in your kitchen just because you're living tiny. And because you're in a small space, you might actually be able to afford doing the high-end finishes on a smaller scale than you would in a full-size home. We've got a cambria quartz countertop, a nice Krause undermounted workstation sink, plenty of space in there. You can do anything. We've got the dish drying rack and a cutting board. Got some Moroccan zellige tile on the backsplash. My grandma's from Morocco and I wanted a little piece of her in here. And between the upper and lower cabinets, I honestly have more storage than I know what to do with. I got a junk drawer just like anybody else. And this guy tilts out for a little sponge storage as well. If you're designing and building out a tiny kitchen like this one, there's a few things I learned that I think you might benefit from, and you may not necessarily see them on the surface. Number one, we put everything on this side to kind of balance the weight across the bus. The tiny wood stove is over here and even though it's tiny, it weighs a lot, just like this quartz countertop. So putting them opposite kind of helped distribute the weight. The gray tank also sits right under the kitchen and the shower is on the same side. So to plumb everything easily to the gray tank, put it all on the same side. This side of the kitchen is where all the good stuff happens. This is where we cook. We've got a four burner gas range. It's hooked up to propane, so it does cook a little bit quicker, but I've come to appreciate that. Oven is the same story. Got a microwave up here. Between these two and the fridge, it's a full Frigidaire set, just apartment size. So instead of 30 inches wide, it's 24 inches wide. We've got a Vitamix here. We're a big smoothie house. I love a smoothie and I love breakfast. So we cook breakfast in here a lot. We've got a sliding trashcan drawer, which is really convenient when you're chopping veggies and you just got to scrape some stuff off. And we're not missing out on anything in the small space. The kitchen still feels very big. In fact, at the bus fair, we hosted a big breakfast potluck. There was probably four cooks in the kitchen. And while we were mindful of each other, I don't think we were running out of space or counter space the entire time. We've got a 20 pound fixed mounted propane tank. And while 20 pounds may not sound like a lot, I probably only fill that tank once, maybe twice a year. And we cook almost every day. This is where all the munchies are. Between the pantry cabinets and the sliding drawers up here, we got plenty of space for snacks. And this fridge and freezer from Frigidaire can fit your entire Costco haul. We spend winters in the mountains, so we got to make sure that we're warm. This tiny wood stove packs a punch. And between this and the in-floor heat, we are toasty all season long. I've been cooking in this kitchen for years and I don't feel like I'm missing a thing. Whether I'm cooking for Sierra and I, or we've got friends over, or we're hosting a potluck, this kitchen does it all. And I honestly like it better than previous kitchens I've had because here, everything is within quick reach. From start to finish, the cost of this bus was $175,000. And the reason that I chose kind of a bigger budget build is because I knew I was going to be living in it full time for quite some time. And I treated it like my first home because it is. So a lot of that cost comes from things that you can't see, but keep me living comfortably in all four seasons. In any environment, anywhere in the country, we're good in here. Things like radiant in-floor heat, the solar electrical systems, the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems. Not so much a necessary thing, but the roof deck was a big priority for me. I love going up there and bringing friends up there and that was not an inexpensive part of the build. The paint job, even though it's four years old, looks like it's brand new still. That was not a cheap part of the build either. A lot of this build was a collaboration between experts in their field. Skoolie.com, Custom Cut Woodworking, AM Solar. All of those hands helped bring this vision to life. That is why it costs what it did. And that's also why it looks, feels, and functions the way that it does. As far as monthly expenses, I think there's two to three major expenses that are unavoidable and probably going to be your biggest costs. Insurance, fuel, and camping. Obviously, there's discretion there with food and entertainment and clothing and all the things that you want to have. But as far as needs go, insurance, diesel, parking. There's plenty of places that you can park and boondock for free. But now that Sierra and I are more centrally located in Oregon, we do pay for some extended camping, especially in the winter months. Insurance, I pay roughly $250 a month through State Farm. They've taken excellent care of me and I'm very grateful for that. Diesel fuel, it fluctuates so much. And especially right now with costs the way that they are, we have been traveling less. But I do know we're about to take a trip to British Columbia and that is going to be an expensive drive there and back. Now, as far as camping goes, if you're looking for somewhere more established with amenities that you're going to be staying on a monthly basis, I think it's fair to spend $600 to $800 per month. Some places may include utilities in that, some may not. If you're looking for a single night or just a tank refresh or just a day pass basically at some of these campgrounds, 10 to 20 bucks seems to be about the average. But yeah, I think if I were to average out just those expenses, assuming you are staying somewhere that you're paying on a monthly basis, you're looking at probably $1,500 to $2,000 per month. If you're wondering how Sierra and I live this lifestyle and take care of our home, we both work full-time. Combination of youth mentorship in Bend through a nonprofit called Friends of the Children, my coaching and consulting business, her freelance makeup artistry, and side hustles here and there, things that we like to do but also like to get paid for. One of the things I love about the most recent chapter of bus life is being more stationary in Bend in the Pacific Northwest. I love this community. I love getting involved. I love riding around but not always in my bus. It is pretty big, so driving through town is not always the most convenient. One thing I have been enjoying lately is my electric e-bike. Makes it way easier to get in and around town and also it's a ton of fun to ride. And electric is the sponsor of this video. When I rolled through Bend for the first time, Drake Park, kind of this jewel in the center of town, really drew me in. I absolutely love going to that park and hanging out by the river but driving my bus and getting parking in front of the park is a pretty rare opportunity. I can easily hop on my electric bike though, ride through the park, meet my friends and hang out for the day. The bus only gets eight miles to the gallon, which hurts when it comes time to fill up. Riding my electric e-bike around town doesn't cost me any gas and keeps our Oregon air clean. Bend is also full of forest service roads that Sky and I love to explore but she's a runner and I am not. So I take out the electric e-bike and she chases me around. She gets the exercise, I get the wind in my hair. We love it. This bike has a 45 mile range which means I can ride it around town all day without worrying about recharging and Electric even has a setup that has 170 mile range which is crazy and built perfect for the hardcore riders. The more I ride this bike around, the more I get the feeling it's very high quality, solid and built to last the test of time. These bikes are also affordable and Electric has a top tier customer service team that really stands behind their product. Go get yourself electric e-bike to start exploring and connect with your community. There's a link in the description. Click it. We might live on the road but we stay real clean thanks to this shower and bathroom. This shower has a standard shower pan underneath so it's not small even though we live in a small space. Underneath this teak insert got a 3x5 shower pan. We've got a Nebia Moen shower head. It gives a real spa-like experience. Some nice hot water thanks to our Rixon system. We've got 100 gallons of freshwater storage and 100 gallons of matching gray storage. On this side, we've got our composting toilet with a urine diverter. We've got a nice vanity with a vessel sink and a medicine cabinet so there's no shortage of storage in there. The reason that they're separated is because I didn't want a side hallway in the bus and also I hide both wheel wells by doing it this way. We've come to learn that when Sierra's in the bathroom or in the shower and I'm in the other it's kind of nice that we have separate spaces. Same is true whenever we have guests over and they want to be able to shower or use the bathroom without interrupting somebody else. So separating it was definitely the move. I like having the center hallway and also the way that the arches kind of came together with that center hallway. The last time I saw you guys was almost two years ago right before Sierra moved into the bus and since then there's been some changes to the bedroom. Anyways, so now the storage is his and hers. I've got these three. She's got these three. We share the shoe closet and most of the the armoire, the standing closet has become hers. In addition to the storage changes Sierra and I have made some changes to the bed. We added a memory foam topper and a bamboo pillow topper. Here I thought the bed was comfortable before but now we're sleeping real good in here. We also got a new comforter. This like velvety green one. She told me the gray one was uncool and I took that to heart. So now we have a cool one. This is where all the power is. On this side we've got six 200 amp hour batteries as well as a 5k inverter. On this side we've got all the relay switches, circuit breaker, charge controller, smart phase selector and some extra shore power accessories. I chose to have 1200 amp hours of battery storage because I don't have a ton of solar. I have 1200 watts of solar panels up on the roof but this battery bank is what really allows me to continue staying off grid as long as possible. I chose the inverter to support a system that could run the microwave, the air conditioner, even a vacuum all simultaneously without overloading it. Now if I were to do things differently I wouldn't change any of this. I think the only thing that I would do is add additional solar panels to the roof and there is space up there for me to do that. One of the things I love about my system is the 50 amp shore power service allows me to go to any RV park or campground and plug in with 50 amps or 30 amps. I have an adapter for that. I also have an adapter to plug into any standard outlet. So if I'm parked in front of a friend's house I can borrow a little power from them on there. Even though I mentioned I would add more solar if I did things differently I will say that I don't have a generator on board and in four years of being on the road I've never found myself in a situation where I'm in trouble with power. Maybe conscious of it but never out of it. If I was to talk to my younger self knowing what I know now and having the experiences that I've had especially those in the bus I think I'd tell them that it all worked out and you did everything that you said you were going to do but that it did not go the way that you thought it was going to go. I have been kind of in this journey towards bus life for a while now but I still got way more than I bargained for in the best way. Moved into the bus summer of 2022 just me and Sky letting it rip crossing the country over and over and having the time of our lives and Sierra comes into the picture moves into the bus in 2024 and since then we've been growing together. There's bits and pieces of her everywhere in the bus and I absolutely love that and now it feels like ours and not just mine. The bed is much more comfortable the kitchen smells twice as good the movie nights that we have are twice as fun like everything is shared in something that I really appreciate. Our careers have grown in such a beautiful direction our relationship has grown in a beautiful direction as well we just celebrated our second anniversary last night actually and I'm just so grateful for how my bus life has become our bus life and so much of the story has become intertwined with Sierra's. If you'd like to see how things continue unfolding for the two of us check out all the links in the description below follow Home on the Highway on socials or check out our website and if you're interested in myself or my business the links in the description as well would be a great resource for you I'd love to hear from you either via social media or directly through my website. See ya!