TRANSFORMING A SCHOOL BUS INTO AN RV | PART ll

One of my most popular posts, with several thousands views, is on TRANSFORMING A SCHOOL BUS INTO AN RV.  People find this subject so fascinating!

What my husband and I learned when we were considering this project was that school buses are a wonderfully safe vehicle to convert. They are kept in optimal maintenance condition because they are transporting children to and from school each and every day. The side metal panels are also heavily re-enforced in the event of a collision.

If travelling is something your family likes to do, converting a school bus into an RV, may be a fantastic DIY project that the entire family can enjoy. 

We were very fortunate, when we purchased our bus (for $500.00) what a deal, that all the seats had already been removed. Yeah!!  This is one of the most labour intensive jobs of this entire project.

Just like designing a space in your home you should plan the layout carefully dividing the space into various sections.  Our bus was 40' long and our layout plan included a sleeping area in the rear of the bus, a bathroom area, a kitchen/eating area, a living area and the driver area at the front of the bus. 

We didn't install or wire an electrical source for our bus since it was parked at our property and not used for travel. Our bus was used as a safe way to camp and sleep without having to worry about bears having us for dinner.  However, if you are travelling with your bus, you will need an electrical source to power appliances.  Other necessities include a stove, sink and refrigerator and of course a sleeping area.

Installing solar panels on the roof to power the bus and appliances is definitely the way to go to create an eco-friendly bus.

Converting another school bus or possibly an Airstream, I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them, is definitely a project that we would like to tackle again in the future.  We certainly learned a lot from our first fantastic experience and really had a blast!  

Here are a few fabulous school bus and Airstream interiors with some great ideas to get you started just in case you are thinking about trying this fun project.

If this is camping, I'm in!!

Airstream Interiors by Christopher Deam  

  

  

Rachel Horn and husband renovated this Airstream with Style   

photo - Pinterest

photo - Pinterest

photo - Pinterest

photo - Pinterest Architecture student converts bus into cabin

How about you. Is this something that you might consider trying?

If you would like to read Part 1 of TRANSFORMING A SCHOOLBUS INTO AN RV you can find it here.

Soulier Design Studio specializes in Sustainability and Eco Friendly Design and Products http://www.soulierdesignstudio.com   

"SLOW LIFE" IN THE MALDIVES | KICKING BACK ON THE WEEKEND | MAY 27

I have connected with so many exciting, interesting, creative and like-minded people these last few years since I have been actively engaged on LinkedIn.  These new friends have truly enriched my life!!

One lovely friend that I have started to chat with regularly, introduced me to ECO TOURISM.  Eco Tourism is defined as, "responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people." according to (TIES, 1990) The International Eco Tourism Society.

My friend wrote to me to tell me a little bit about herself and her role as a design intern at this resort in the Maldives of which she provided a link. I had no idea that what was in store for me on the other side of that link was this incredibly beautiful world known as Soneva.

Everyone's vision of paradise is individually unique but this is definitely mine. Everything about Soneva is mind-blowing. I mean everything.  All I can say is Wow, Wow, Wow!! 

On this kinda chilly, rainy May weekend, I would certainly prefer to be Kicking Back at Soneva for sure.

In 1995, on the deserted island of Kunfunadhoo in the Maldives, Eva and Sonu Shivdasani built their home and Soneva Fushi. Living an environmentally responsible lifestyle and building a small villa here, became the foundation of a very successful business model of resorts, spas and world-class hotels. As their website states, "Soneva was the first 'castaway' resort in the Maldives, pioneering a trend for back-to-nature luxury holidays."

I love their philosophy (Slow Life) and their passion for the Environment.  SLOW LIFE" stands for (Sustainable-Local-Organic-Wellness Learning-Inspiring-Fun-Experiences). Soneva's resorts are responsibly constructed by the use of sustainable materials,  recycled waste materials while consciously conserving water or preserving ecosystems; doing their part to reduce their Carbon Footprint. Soneva, hires the local people, buys local products and utilizes sustainable business practices to support the local community.

I could go on and on about this wonderful place but I really must show you some pictures so that you can see what I am raving about.            

Without further ado ...  

Photos - all courtesy of Soneva

I wasn't kidding was I??

Wouldn't you love to be KICKING BACK ON THE WEEKEND and living the "Slow Life" at Soneva Fushi too?

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

Please visit us at https://www.soulierdesignstudio.com

MOVEMBER CANADA AND THE POWER OF THE MOUSTACHE!! | IT'S A NEW DAY | Nov 4

It is simply amazing the power that a moustache can have!

We are one week into Movember. For those of you that are not familiar with Movember;  it is a global movement which encourages men to grow a moustache for the 30 days of November to raise awareness of men's health issues particularly prostate and testicular cancers as well as mental health challenges.
 

The Movember Foundation is focused on living with and beyond cancer, staying mentally healthy and living with and beyond mental illness.  Mo (short for moustache) Bros begin the month without any facial hair and then grow and groom their Mo for the remainder of November while requesting donations from family and friends to donate to this very worthy cause.
 

Mo Sistas are the women that support the Mo and encourage the Mo Bros in their lives. They participate in fund raising activities and do basically everything that the Mo Bros do without growing a MO. Some women have decided to grow their underarm hair in support of the Mo for the month of November. I applaud their dedication to the movement.
 

  Here are the official Rules from Movember.org 
 

1. On Shadowe'en (October 31st), the complete moustache region, including the entire upper lip and the handlebar zones, must be completely shaved.
2. For the entire duration of Movember (Movember 1st - 35th inclusive), no hair shall be allowed to grow in the goatee zone - being any facial area below the bottom lip.
3. There is to be no joining of the moustache to sideburns.  
4. Failure to conform to all of these rules may, at the discretion of the official Movember Committee, result in instant blacklisting and may void invitation to the end of Month festivities (this year lip-marked for Movember 35th!)
5. Movember Committee accepts no responsibility for lost jobs, rashes, food/beer encrustments or any other such mishaps caused to the wearer (or his partner) of a Movember Moustache. You grew it yourself.

  

Some Mo Inspiration...

 

photos | courtesy of Google

 

 There is still time to sign up for Movember. Register here. 

 

HAPPY MOVEMBER!!

Soulier Design Studio specializes in Sustainability, Eco Friendly Design, Products and Lifestyle http://www.soulierdesignstudio.com 

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

MONTREAL - GALERIE YOUN, GREAT FOOD, ART EXHIBITS | KICKING BACK ON THE WEEKEND | APRIL 25

What an absolute BLAST!!

I very much enjoyed an exciting trip to Montreal this past weekend with my husband and daughter.  We were invited to attend a Gala Event at Galerie Youn in downtown Montreal where my son, Jamie Bradbury's work is currently on exhibit. Jamie a Visual Artist, recently moved from London, England to Montreal and Saturday night was the Gala Opening for his show.

The founder and director of the gallery is Juno Youn, who also co-founded and directed SPIN Gallery in Toronto (Ontario) from 1999 to 2007 prior to moving to Montreal, Canada.  Galerie Youn represents several contemporary artists from around the world and participates in various art fairs and exhibitions each year.

GALERIE YOUN

Jamie's work primarily explores race, globalization and multiculturalism through the use of drawing, painting, sculptural installations, and writing.  He recently lectured at McGill University and will be participating in a conference at Oxford University in London, England in July and then he is off to a residency in Atina, Italy. Not long ago, Jamie was shortlisted for the Jerwood Prize curated by Photoworks. Some of his works are held in private and public collections such as the National Portrait Gallery of Canada. 

Jamie Bradbury - Visual Artist

Here is a couple of his pieces from the past few years that are not in his current Exhibition at Galerie Youn.
    

                                                                      Graphite (Pencil) on paper  

Learning from the Master - This watercolour painting is of himself viewing a spectacular piece in a gallery.

  

Fritz - Another watercolour painting

(Ok, I am a very proud Momma bragging about her VERY talented son !!)

Anyway, back to the event it was a huge success with a lot of media coverage and was highly attended despite the torrential rainfall the entire day and evening.  Fabulous wine, hors d'oeuvres, music and wonderful conversation with so many new acquaintances were the highlights of this spectacular night.

Unfortunately, this weekend very boldly reiterated that my 7 years of French study in school didn't stick; my French is totally non existent!!

As mentioned, Saturday it poured rain the entire day and unfortunately we did not get out to see the sites as we had intended. It has been many years since I visited Montreal and I remember just loving Old Montreal and really wanted to visit again.  So we drove around Old Montreal site seeing which is by the way, sheer decadence for the eyes! I can certainly see why it is a major tourist attraction. Beautiful cafes, restaurants and wonderful shops line the gorgeous streets.

The architecture and cobbled streets are breathtaking and have been restored/maintained to preserve the look and feel of its days as a settlement. Many of the buildings date back to the 17th century. The lovely horse-drawn caleches or carriages certainly help retain the feeling of days gone by.  Simply Amazing!

Here are a few images that I snapped with my Blackberry this weekend, highlighting some of the exquisite Architecture 

 Enjoy! 

If you have not had the pleasure of visiting Montreal, I would highly recommend it but there are just a few tidbits of important information that I would like to share with you before you go........

There are no right turns on a red light, the green flashing light is at the end instead of at the beginning and I recommend, you will thank me for this one, that if you do not know how to speak/read French that you bring along an English/French dictionary. This will assist you in reading the parking signs that are everywhere. We ended up with a $53.00 ticket because we parked in a permit parking only zone. My husband was seriously ticked!!!

I actually cannot wait to return to Montreal again and this trip has inspired me to take up French. I signed up for Duolingo recommended to me by Jamie my son. You can learn several different languages in Duolingo. It is a very effective language learning tool which is completely free with no hidden fees.

So far, I have completed a french lesson each day since my trip and surprisingly, after all these years of not speaking any French whatsoever, I actually have retained more French that I thought.  Love it!!

à bientôt 

(Bye for now)

Soulier Design Studio specializes in Sustainability and Eco Friendly Design, Products and Lifestyle
Please visit us at http://www.soulierdesignstudio.com

FIRST DAY OF SPRING - WE WELCOME YOU WITH OPEN ARMS! | IT'S A NEW DAY | MARCH 20

OH yeeeeeeeeessssss, Spring officially arrived today at 12:57pm EST.
 

That is the good news, however, the bad news is that there is still piles and piles of snow in my back and front yards and it is still freeeeeeezing! Here in the Toronto, Ontario, Canada area, we have set some new records weather-wise with 89 days of snow this winter so far; apparently, it's not over. Old man winter just won't pack his bags. It has been a really long one and it has been exceptionally dreary.

Despite the white stuff all over the yards, one thing we know for certain is that beautiful sunny, warm days are peeking around the corner and very, very soon, after wearing them day after day for what seems an eternity, we will be shedding our heavy winter coats, boots, scarves, gloves and hats. When that day comes, I will be dancing in the streets!!

Since spring is a time of renewal, growth and new life, you will notice a huge positive upward, refreshing shift in the energy in your home by practicing this same shedding. I don't know about you, but I am itching to spruce up my home after the very long winter season with some spring/summer touches and bright vibrant colours.  I simply can't wait to store away the heavy winter throws, change up the decorative cushions from the dark earthy tones to ones with more cheery hues, add some fragrant fresh flowers to the tables and bust open all the windows for some fresh air.

Here's hoping that some springtime inspiration for your home will get you into the decorating mood!

Starting with some fabulous cheery furnishings......


I am crazy about this lime green banquette. photo courtesy of Google

Wow, this gorgeous rich orange velvet bed is a show stopper!

If you would prefer something with a more beachy, cool feel this amazing tufted bed is for you!

Now for a few accessories ...

Here's a great plum jar lamp topped with a fresh linen shade to add a splash of spring into your room.

A lovely and elegant Tortoise Glass Table Lamp

This brightly coloured throw cushion would brighten up any room

I just had to add this pillow. This was my favourite song when I was a little girl.  

This hand-tufted wool rug's pattern gives this piece an exotic feel, but it's neutral background allows it to fit into any decor. 

photo courtesy of Google

the most beautiful accessory of all; compliments of mother nature ...

Happy Spring!

All furnishings from One Kings Lane one of my affiliates.

For further information about these products, there is a picture link on this page.

Soulier Design Studio specializes in Sustainability and Eco Friendly Design, Products and Lifestyle
Please visit us at http://www.soulierdesignstudio.com