Living in the Bus!

Hello Lovely People.

So much has happened since the last post.  Life has been messy and so full (in the best of ways, of course!)  We have been swamped with bus things (never-ending) and summer vacation (road trips, camping, mountain biking, visitors from France, swimming in the lake etc.)  And then I encountered some computer technical issues (still unresolved :(!  If anyone knows how to reset a MacBook USB drive - please help me.)  So I'm here on tBOY's PC...

WE ARE IN THE BUS!

Yep.  You got it folks.  We are school bus dwellers :)!  How did we get here?  Let us recap in photos:

So.  As planned, the gravel did arrive the next day.  But...

it was the wrong type of gravel (of course!)  It was too fine.

So we had to wait until the next day to receive the right gravel :(! tBOY rented a compactor and got to work.  His arms were shaky after a couple hours with that machine - eeks!

And power came!!!

Our bus cleaned and ready for our stuff!

After the couch and chairs were moved in.

Some kitchen stuff put in.  And testing the lights and plugs.  They all work!!!  Phew :)!

View from where the bed will be at the back of the bus.

Bed put in!  Look at the view from our window.  We're right in the Forest!  We can touch the leaves if we stick our hands out the window :)!  (Well.  Almost.)

Our first night in the bus.

Our stove still has to be converted from natural gas to propane (hopefully next week).  So for now, we are semi-camping.  Cooking with our camping stove.

Most of our stuff has been moved in!  (The bed will be raised when tCarpenter returns so we can add more storage space - and then all our stuff will be on the bus!)

Everything fits in the kitchen cabinets and shelves (as planned and designed by yours truly!)

Tea collection above the counter.

The wooden cubbies fit nicely onto the shelf. Current paint job is: Circa 1990s done by siblings at ages 6 and 9.  I bought some fabric to cover and redecorate them (will post pics of the finished craft project). It's time for something new!

All the glass jars of goodies fit nicely on the shelves.

Front of the bus. 

As you may remember.  We had to build a wooden structure above the wheel well.  The couch is larger than the structure, so we needed to create feet for it.  We found 2 stumps in the Forest and cut them to fit. The bark matches the ones we used to cover the metal rods holding up the shelves :)!

Our coffee table converted into our kitchen table/desk.  Structure built over wheel well designed to maximize leg room (ingenious tCarpenter design!)

Front entrance.  Coats and jackets hung up and baskets above for storage.  tDog sleeps on the bench because she snores and the bench is the farthest away from us she can be!  We were initially worried about the snoring (as she used to sleep in a separate room from us).  But with the distance and the bathroom wall, she has not woken us with her snores yet!  The other bonus is that she is too scared to jump down from there, so there is no fear of her coming closer to our bed in the middle of the night.  We just let her down in the morning :)!

tBOY bolting the composting toilet in the bathroom.

I can't believe I'm going to say this, but... Thank goodness for our composting toilet! 
When we first moved in 2 weeks ago, we didn't have running water. 
All we had was electricity and this composting toilet! 
It has been wonderful.  No smells!

So that is us and the bus!  We now have running cold water.  The water heater has to be installed.  We have someone lined up for Tuesday - right when we get back from our camping/climbing trip that we are leaving for tomorrow.  This guy will also convert the stove to propane so we can cook!  

Oh.  And we did our first load of laundry today!  No leaks that we know of - phew!  The spinning was rather violent though, so we need to find a way to pad the floor and make sure nothing falls off the shelves whenever we do a wash!

Apart from living in and loving our new home..

We have been hosting tBOY's cousin from France by taking dips in the lake to keep cool...

Riding bikes and then eating lots...

Yum!

Going on a long & tiring (but tons of fun) road trip!

To meet my cousin for some crazy Oregon Country Fair silliness...

Where I got some lovely pottery for the bus!

And met many people who live in buses!  (These are our people!!!)

As I type, I am nursing a MTB injury where I fell on my face (going too fast LOL!) and having my lip ring pierce a new hole in my lip and getting the bead embedded in the new hole!!  tBOY had to perform surgery with the bike tool pliers to get it out - OUCH!  So I'm hanging out in our new home and marveling at how...

This...

And this...

Has turned into reality...  Into our very own...  Teeny Tiny Home!  (Perhaps you are marveling too!)

Almost But Not Quite

Ah!  So many friends and family have been asking: "So?  Are you in the bus?!"  Of course not!  That would be too easy.  So why not?  Well.  Let's see.

1. It was raining cats and dogs all last week.  Which meant we couldn't level the land and add the gravel.  Luckily summer finally arrived.  So the land is now levelled but we still need gravel and a compactor.  Gravel will be ordered and (hopefully) delivered tomorrow.  And compactor?  Still trying to find one.

2. There is no power yet!!  We hired an electrical company to dig a trench, lay the cable, put up a breaker box and apply for permits... then the local utilities was supposed to connect the transformer and install the meter.   But they decided that a new pole was necessary.  So then we had to wait for the rain to stop (which it didn't for a whole week).  Finally the utilities company came and set up a new pole.  Then the electrical company had to come back and move everything that they had installed to the new pole (including doing more trenching).  So now.  We wait (again).  For the local utilities to come back to turn on the power.  They are supposed to come tomorrow (fingers crossed).  And then.  We need the electrical company to come back to connect the power to the bus.  And then we pray that the wiring built into the bus actually works (as we do not know that yet!)  So.  Candle light anyone?

3. We waited almost 3 weeks for the water heater to arrive (from Hawaii).  It finally did this week.  But.  It's not the right size!!  It's too big to put in the bus.  So.  We hope that someone (who?!) can help us build a structure outside the bus to house it.  Thank goodness it has been sunny and hot these days.  So.  Cold showers anyone?  Well... actually...

4. tPlumber is not available to finish the plumbing (that he couldn't complete without the water heater) until next week.  So.  No showers anyone?

5. We just realized that the gas stove that we bought and plan to power with propane is set up for natural gas.  So after a number of phone calls and many minutes on hold, we might have a propane kit which needs to be set up (professionally? = $).  So.  BBQ anyone?

Ah.  But let us not dwell on a few challenges.  Let us focus on what is going well!

The bus has been moved to a temporary location (while we await gravel and compactor).  And everything remained intact (i.e. none of the structures above the bus fell off!)

tBOY skillfully driving our big yellow school bus! 

tDog wondering where the bus is going! 

tBOY and I spent a lot of time sanding, filling in wood holes, varnishing (this is what happens when the entire interior is made of wood - sigh!)...

Me sanding the bench/chest

The little holes we filled

tBOY varnishing the shower

tBOY varnishing the cedar shingles on the exterior structures

And cleaning the bus.

Organizing all the tools, recycling and throwing out all the garbage (while tDog hangs out!)

Vacuuming all the sawdust (not so fun when you are allergic to dust!)

And it was finally time for the flooring.  This is significant as this means that the end is near!!!

Prepping for flooring

tBOY and tCarpenter spent 2 whole days doing the flooring

Looking great!

Much better to hang out on wood flooring than sawdust for tDog

As for the bathroom...

This...

is now this!
The cedar siding smells so lovely!  And tCarpenter spent over a day building that shower.
It ended up being a costly project because of its weird shape.
But we love it now!

Shower head installed.
Beautiful light coming in from the 2 windows and the skylight.
Now we just need to install the curtain rod tCarpenter made using copper piping.

As for the toilet side....

Here it is.
tBOY has to bolt it to the floor and we have to set up the fan.
Shelving will be added above the toilet.

Remember that closet door from the recycling store...
It is now the bathroom door.

Folds when it opens so as not to take up too much space.

Last look at the bus (for now)...

As for our current abode...

It is rather messy :(!

Can't wait to move out of here!

As for us.  We are a bit (ok... very) tired!  (tBOY took the week off for vacation, but so far he has spent 6 straight days working on the bus!)  But we are still smiling.  Tomorrow we might be sleeping in our bus - possibly without water, electricity, gas stove etc... But hey.  That's part of the adventure, isn't it!

P.S.  We are on our own for a little while as tCarpenter has left for a 3-week vacation today.  He will do some finishing work when he returns.  But for now.  We will be doing our own home-building-problem-solving...  Eeks!