Biggest Baddest Mess!!!

If you are here, it means that you are wondering how the bus is going!  Well.  The exterior of the skylights and over-bed storage is complete:

They are cedar panels on the outside.  Smells so lovely - too bad they are outside the bus :(!
Also.  The driver seat is gone (for now until we need it):

And the frame for the bathroom is up (this photo only shows that it is half up, but in fact the rest is now done):

A curtain rod will be built to go around our barrel shower bottom.  The toilet will be on the left side.  And the closet folding door will be the bathroom door and located in the middle of the bathroom.  The metal ribs on all the skylights and over-bed storage have been cut as well (again not reflected in photo).

As I type, tCarpenter is working away at making the cabinets in the workshop on the farm (where we live right now):

And tBOY is mountain biking in the Forest... but will then stop by the big box home building store to get wood for the cabinet trim:

As for me, I've been attempting to de-clutter in our current cabin.  Which just means making the biggest baddest mess ever!

My kitchen became a war zone!
Poor tDog had nowhere to go so she sat on a pile of magazines.

I was so determined to get rid of things when I began.  No sentimentality!  No reminiscing!  No mercy!  But this didn't turn out to be an easy task at all!  When we moved to the country a year ago, we (I) went on a de-cluttering rampage and did a pretty good job of it:

All this stuff was given to the secondhand store run by a women's cooperative

It took more than one trip with the car completely packed!

I even gave away all (most) of my books :(!  I LOVE books.  So the library is now my best friend.

Since we already downsized, there were only a few items that easily went into the donate or recycle pile. But the majority of the things that we never use were in the grey zone of: we-don't-need-it-now-or-often-but-we-will-likely-need-it-in-the-future-and-if-I-get-rid-of-it-now-I'll-have-to-replace-it-one-day-and-it-is-not-cheap-so-perhaps-I-should-hold-onto-it. How to determine what goes and what we make room for in the bus?  That is the question.  And it plagued me all day today :(!

So far this home building adventure is demonstrating to tBOY and I that we are not the home-building-type.  I think tBOY is glad to have his day job to finance this project so that:
1. tCarpenter can do what he is good at, and
2. so that he can go biking/rock climbing after work and on the weekends.

I would agree.  I'd prefer to stick to what I am good at rather than be a home building project manager/home building gopher.  But I'm grateful for the experience and an experience it is!  Perhaps if we were not on such a tight timeline, there would be more room for either of us to give some things a try... like building cabinets or putting in flooring, etc.  But as it is, we are rushed, so tCarpenter is more efficient than both of us put together.

I read about people who want to get back to nature and be homesteaders.  That is why they embark on their country home building projects. They want to be farmers: grow food, have animals, keep bees.  They spend their days on their land... in the dirt... seeding... planting... harvesting... feeding... milking... grooming their animals.  tBOY and I are not those people.  Yes, we are not city people.  Yes, we want to be in Nature.  But we have no desire to spend most of our day - everyday - tending the garden and livestock.  That is not to say that we are not interested in a small garden and tDog (because we are), but we want to do the things that we love - which used to be rock climbing and now is mountain biking!  The reason we want to be here is because we want to live in the Forest and be close to our natural playground.  By choosing this school bus as our home, we hope to reduce our cost of living (once the bus construction is paid off) and open up the possibility of working less and playing more :)!  Neither of us want a big mansion in the suburbs with an SUV (or two) and a big screen TV.  In fact, if someone gave that to us, we would immediately sell it and pay off the bus project and maybe buy a few fancy mountain bikes :)!!

We are not ready to unplug completely from the 'system'.  We are surrounded by farmers, artists, carpenters, musicians etc. who have carved a life for themselves that doesn't involve working in a corporation.  Yet we see the financial struggles and the long hours.  We know that one day tBOY will leave his corporate job.  For now, we support these amazing beings by buying their fruits and veggies, appreciating and purchasing their art, hiring their skills.  For now tBOY will continue to commute to the city 3-4 times per week.  For now I'll grow my business.  For now we will move into a school bus (a beautifully renovated one, that is!).