When we decided we were selling the house and buying a bus, Andy told me that the outside would be his and the inside would be mine. When I just gave him a dead stare, he went on to clarify that he would take care of the mechanical things and I could take care of the designing aspect…except for designing the mechanical spaces of course. We had been watching a lot of skoolie tours on YouTube for a while, and more were coming out all the time as people realized they didn’t have to be tied to an apartment or a house, and the cost that goes along with it, so I knew that it would be a great place to find ideas.

There was one particular bus build (Roll With It) that caught my eye because they built their hallway down the passenger side, and I hadn’t seen anyone do that before. That was the one thing that I had been picturing in my mind since we started the process because all the tours we had been watching had the hallway in the center, and the bathroom and bunks on the sides - or no bunks for kids at all. With Connor on the bus, a tiny bunk on the side is not an option, and I didn’t want a tiny wedge of a shower and a toilet where I bang my elbows on the walls. A hallway down the side fits our needs better and allows Connor a full bedroom, rather than a bunk. When we discovered how the storage bays and mechanicals were laid out underneath the area we planned to turn into the bathroom, Connor’s room and the bathroom traded places, and he got almost all of the extra space that was created to make walls line up with the windows that are already there.

You see, I was worried the whole time we were bus shopping about having windows that may not open and then needing to spend $1500 a window for ones that do open. I worried for nothing. Not counting the two windows at the front of the bus that curve down and won’t be opening (for some reason Andy thinks that having glass points hanging down at head level immediately when you walk off of the bus would probably be a bad idea…) we’ll have a total of 12 windows on this bus that open.

To me, that is going to be what makes this experience doable with three people. Being able to see all around, and having the ability to open all of the windows and have that airflow and the essence of the outdoors surround us, makes it seem so much more open and free.

I feel like I went off topic…anyway…

Now that we have a floor plan, and cabinets, and almost a finished living area floor, I can’t stall on making interior decisions any longer. Thank the Gods for Pinterest and the hours sucked into the rabbit hole trying to find inspiration for the inside. Now, if I could just stop being so picky I might have more pins on my board.

I have made a few big decisions. I found the marine vinyl we’re using on the walls on clearance for $4.50/yrd instead of $15.99/yrd, we’ve purchased our fridge, cooktop, kitchen sink, dishwasher, and convection microwave. We currently have a brand new toilet waiting in the living room at our rental, and I have a couple of faucets and Ikea bits stored down below.

The things that I seem to be having the hardest time with are the little things, the non-essentials. The things that can be done after we’re on the road. How I want to store things, what I want to put where, do I want curtains or shades, what about a rug, oh but we still need to pick out flooring, and what about a backsplash…

You’d think it would be easy, picking out what is essentially your dream home, because our space is so small, I can truly pick out furnishings and finishes that I normally couldn’t afford. I am NOT a fancy person, but there are some things I would really like to have in my home. I would love a range vent that comes up out of the countertop. I want a TV that folds down from the ceiling so it is out of sight-out of mind, I want my little bits and pieces to be in shades of blue. I want a fabric ceiling so the sound is softer, I want the nice, more expensive LVP flooring that I like because the space we’re flooring is so small we need hardly any at all.

Somewhere along the way, I started asking Andy for opinions and ideas about what he would like to have included. I didn’t want to do everything the way I like it and have him hate it, so I figured if he had some ideas I could tolerate we’d be good. It seems that though Andy claimed he didn’t want to have any say in it all, he had plenty of ideas; GOOD ideas. Not that it surprises me, but he had some ideas that I never would have thought of, and they’re some of the things I’m most looking forward to doing…but you won’t be seeing or hearing about those until they’re done.

To be completely honest, the best thing about this entire process so far has been all the time spent with Andy. Not just for his ideas.

When people have asked about the build and the future, so many of them have said to me “If you can make it through this build, you’ll be able to make it through anything!”. I just have to laugh at them when I think about how much fun we’re having, and how good this has been for our relationship. Next month is our 18th wedding anniversary. We’ve been together for 20 years. Trust me, we’ve been through our own fun brand of shit.

This? This isn’t something to make it through. This is fun. This is exciting. This is living my best life filled with love and light, and enjoying the hell out of it. This is the shit people should be living for. Not a big house and an even bigger mortgage to go with it, not a pretty necklace or red-bottomed shoes. Not an expensive car or a thousand dollar bag.

We should be living for the people in our lives and the things that we experience with them, and that is exactly how I plan to live the rest of my life. With love, and laughter, and light, with the ones that matter the most. Living my best life, with my best friend and partner holding my hand.

*The video below is all about our floor plan.