How to Make Your Life Chaotic – Get a Puppy and Convert a School Bus

It’s safe to say that this spring was hectic. We worked on our school bus every chance we could, often running late into the night. We also got a puppy who we named after one of our favorite towns in Idaho – “Stanley”.

Stanley is a Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, a versatile hunting breed, and we are working hard on training him to hunt for pretty much any type of bird that you can hunt out west. He’s already a great retriever, but he still has a long way to go before his first hunt.

We planned on writing more frequently to update our friends and family about what was going on with our school bus conversion, but our lives became so chaotic that we just didn’t have time.

We aren’t done with the conversion but the bus is in a very livable condition. And it has a new paint job! We painted it white but we decided to leave some of the original yellow paint for trim around the windows.

More importantly, it has a bed, sink, shower, stove, and fridge/freezer that are all working great. Everything is entirely solar powered (plus propane for the stove and water heater).

We were able to get great deals on some very cool materials for the bus. The cabinets are mostly made out of bamboo plywood, which looks especially clean and simple. Here’s a photo before we added the last upper door and latches.

We also got ahold of some Shou Sugi Ban – cypress that is burnt on one side and then clear-coated. We used it for an overhead “niche” wall in the back above the bed, and also for a lot of the trim around the rest of the bus.

Here is how the inside of the bus looked as of a couple of weeks ago before we added the bed in the back. The flooring material is also bamboo plywood, but it’s and amber color while the cabinets are blonde.

We also managed to get a security camera system installed, a very loud alarm, 11 interior lights, an exterior light, a backup camera, and plenty of storage in plenty of cabinets. We even squeezed in a slide-out pantry cabinet in between the driver’s seat and the shower.

Here’s what it looks like most recently with the bed in the back and the windows blacked out for sleeping. The current window covers are temporary and my moms working on sewing the actual insulative curtains.

My most recent little project was to install trim around the emergency hatch and fan.

The bus still needs a lot of trim, backsplash, paint, a couple more drawers, and a few other things, but it’s mostly finished, and we will keep working on it here and there until its done.

If you have any questions or comments about our bus build so far, feel free to comment below.

Back to work!