HOW TO TRANSFORM A SCHOOL BUS INTO AN RV

Bears became an issue at our vacant 5 1/2 acre property that we owned in Haliburton.  We just loved to spend weekends up there and had been roughing it in a tent.  I actually couldn't believe that I (I am a city girl to the core, high heels and all) actually stayed in a tent.  Roughing it to me is a black and white TV while staying at a Holiday Inn.  Anyway, we started looking at used RV's, trailers etc. to stay in during our weekend sleepovers and they were all filthy, rotting, moldy and just plain disgusting to be blunt.

My husband Joe suggested that we convert a school bus into an RV.  I initially thought that he was out of his mind but after some research discovered that this is quite a common project.  We started looking on Kijiji and Craigslist and alas found our RV in the rough and boy oh boy was it rough.

Here is an Exterior before picture

And Interior

Hey I wasn't kidding was I??????

We worked each evening for about a month and a half and finally finished our new safe from bears condo on wheels to place on our little piece of paradise.  Oddly enough our street name was Shangri-La and was it ever an oasis !!!!!! So pristine as is the rest of Haliburton and the Kawarthas. For those of you not from my area this is a very popular cottage area. We used all recycled materials that we found on Craigslist or garage sales with the exception of the kitchen tiles which we purchased quite inexpensively. 

Due to the Ministry of Transportations guidelines, we had to change the exterior colour from yellow as this was exclusive to School Buses. We decided on green to blend in nicely with the greenery of the trees on our property and after all this was a GREEN project.

Here is the interior very close to completion. For privacy we installed mini blinds for the windows.  This queen sized pull out couch is for overnight guests with our bedroom located at the rear of the bus.  The room directly behind the wall of the banquette is the bathroom with an envirolet toilet, sink and recycled dresser used as the vanity.  The kitchen is just opposite to the banquette.  

We would bring our laptop to watch DVD's or listen to music for those rainy days and for evenings. A propane bbq was used to prepare meals.

Many glasses of wine were enjoyed just sitting outside by the roaring fire enjoying life!!!!

WOULDN'T YOU AGREE, this is RE-TREASURING AT ITS ABSOLUTE FINEST? !!!!

This is a condensed version of our adventure, but if you are interested in the longer version please visit http://www.freewebs.com/lovebugproject  a website I created to document our Bus Conversion.

Soulier Design Studio specializes in Sustainability and Eco Friendly Design, Products and Lifestyle.  

http://www.soulierdesignstudio.com