Whenever we tell new people about the bus, we always end up answering the same questions and getting the same confused looks. If you are building a skoolie or live in a skoolie already, then these questions may be all too familiar to you!

1. Why did you choose to convert a school bus and not just buy an RV?

This one is not obvious to most people because most people don’t browse RV and School Bus prices on their down time. Here’s what you need to know:

We purchased our 40-foot school bus for $3,900.00. It is a 2003, runs perfect, has 200k miles, and had all of its original features. We basically could have gone on to continue to operate this bus as a school bus straight from the dealership.

If you were to compare an RV of the same year and similar miles, you would immediately note a huge difference in price. Here’s a top of the line RV versus a lower end model:

That’s just the price of the RV as it is. If you ever walk into an RV, you may find yourself surrounded by bulky furniture in a dysfunctional arrangement, lack of thoughtful storage spaces, and tacky upholstery and decor.

So now you’ve spent maybe $65,000 on an RV with 125k miles and you still need to spend some more to renovate the inside.

So it made more sense for us to buy a school bus for $3,900 and build it the way we want.

Plus, school buses are way cooler.

2. Where do you plan to go first?

For a while, we didn’t have any travel plans for when the bus was complete. We had given ourselves one year from the date on which the bus was purchased to complete our project meaning our date of departure would be at the beginning of July.

We actually finished the bus mid-July, a total of 12 months and 2 weeks after purchasing the bus. We applied for workamping jobs and we were hired as camp hosts for a campground by the sea in Maine to start August 10th.

Now that we’ve done our workamping job for some time now, we decided that we really like it and that we might just travel from job to job from here on out.

3. How will you make money on the road?

Elle works online as a content creator for start up brands. She plans to continue to work online while traveling full-time. Jake will take photos and create videos about our journey while we’re on the road.

We also plan to take seasonal jobs while we visit different parts of the country whether it be crop harvesting or carpentry work.

4. Will the cats be coming with you?

YES. We are making special spaces in the bus just for the cats. We spend plenty of time with them and we know all of their weird quirks and habits. We are applying our knowledge to our design by making a space with each of them in mind.

5. Will the bus have a bathroom or shower?

Yes, the bus will have both. Recently we altered the design to eliminate wasted space and combined the bathroom and the shower so that they are part of the same room that we’re just referring to as the wet room now.

 

The toilet will be a compost toilet and we are going to make it fairly easy to remove and dispose of our waste when it needs to be emptied. However, this toilet is mainly for situations where there isn’t some other option. If we are in nature and we feel comfortable going outside, then that’ll do.

The shower will be a stand up shower of about 5’5” with a fancy shower head and fancy tiles. Tiling the shower is not in the budget for now, so we’re using our composting toiler and the campground showers.  We’re going to try to find a bathroom door solution that will work with our design and with our budget.

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  We enjoy blowing people’s minds when we tell them about the bus and show them pictures. These are currently our top five most frequently asked questions about our plans to live on a bus. I’m sure the questions will keep coming no matter how long we live on a bus.

What kind of questions do you have about #buslife ?
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