One day several years ago, during pre-pandemic normalcy, I walked in the house from being out and about somewhere (remember when that used to happen on the regular?!), and Mr. Dink told me he had a crazy idea.
Well actually, what he said was that he had a great idea that I was likely to think was nuts. He wanted us to buy a fire truck, turn it into “a place to live on wheels,” and travel around the country. I repeat: in a fire truck.
Yep, he was right, I thought this idea was bonkers.
At first, all I could think about were the Hess trucks my little brother used to get from our grandfather for Christmas that made so much noise and drove me bananas, especially the fire truck one. A headache was coming on just thinking about it.
Mr. Dink has had a lot of wild ideas that never come to fruition, or that he forgets that he even had when I remind him about them, so I thought for sure this was one of those times. I thought this would all just blow over and he would never mention the fire truck again.
Well, Mr. Dink is a carpenter by trade and, much to my surprise, a thorough researcher. Turns out, he had done A LOT of research about this idea before even telling me about it, which I now know is a good sign that he is really serious about something. (Side note: he once gave me a whole presentation on why he wanted to buy a John Deer tractor because he knew how serious I was about spending money wisely. Turns out, I am a really good influence!)
You can probably guess how this goes, but he started bringing up this new fire truck idea almost every day, telling me more about it and reasons why I should get on board.
After a month or so (and, thankfully, after he had moved on from the idea of a fire truck to a school bus), I must admit, I was pretty hooked. We were already pretty avid campers, so the thought of touring around the country in our own space that we didn’t have to set up and take down every time we wanted to go somewhere else felt like pure luxury.
And so the dream began.
The bus and financial independence
By the time Mr. Dink told me about this fire truck bus idea, I had already gotten off the hamster wheel and was well on my way to figuring out that I wanted to slow down when it came to work. I was also already solidly on my path to financial independence because I had been a saver for most of my life. I loved the possibilities the bus life created, just like the options financial independence and having F-You money give you!
I also knew that I had plenty of possibilities when it came to work and living on the bus. At the time that the bus seed was planted, I was working remotely as an editor, and so I knew I would have options if I wanted to work on the road. Now that I am a medical writer, it would be a little bit harder to work on the road, but not out of the question. Plus, I have the option of scaling back to part time work, or going back to editing work. Basically, I feel like the possibilities are endless when it comes to working and bus traveling (thanks in part to the pandemic making working remotely even more popular!).
The real takeaway here is that the bus dream fueled my goal of downshifting from work even more. As I was new to life off the hamster wheel and having more time to discover passions outside of work, I had been just starting to think that working 40+ hours per week until age 65 wasn’t a plan I wanted to keep. And the bus dream helped solidify that reality in my mind even more.
Putting plans into place
I’m not going to lie, a huge part of the reason I was able to get so excited about this bus plan is because of Mr. Dink’s excitement. Because he is a carpenter and is good at what he does, I have no doubts whatsoever when it comes to his ability to build us a house in a school bus (mainly because he built us our current house).
It brings him so much joy to think about building out this bus. The seed was planted for this bus dream about 3 years ago now, and since then, it has been all research and planning. First, of course, was a death of the fire truck idea and the birth of a bus as the means of travel. I, for one, am quite happy with the shift, because I would actually like to take part in driving the bus, and the thought of driving something the size of a fire truck scared the crap out of me. But a bus? Now that I can get down with, especially with the smaller size we are looking for (more on that below).
I also can’t even tell you the number of different floor plans he has created, and the number of iterations of the layout that we have gone through. And I’m sure we’ll go through plenty more, since we don’t even have our bus yet!
The key things we are looking for in our bus
While we’ve gone through many iterations of the actual layout of the bus, there are 5 key things that we know we want when we consider buying our bus.
- School bus: This may sound obvious, but it is actually a pretty important one considering that we started out with the idea of a fire truck. You wouldn’t believe the number of vehicles that folks have turned into a living space on wheels. We feel we’ve considered pretty much everything at this point (the next iteration after the fire truck was an ambulance!), and we’ve settled on a school bus. Not a shuttle bus, or a city bus, or a sprinter van – a school bus.
- Diesel engine: Another huge reason we decided on the school bus is because of the diesel engine. Most school buses are powered by diesel engines, which are known for being reliable, durable, and safe. They are also known to last much longer than other engines like gasoline- or propane-fueled engines (bonus: our neighbor is a diesel mechanic).
- Length: We feel very strongly that we do not want a full-sized bus, which would be too much space for us, but we also don’t want the bus to be too small (otherwise we would have considered a van). To reiterate, I am VERY happy about the hard NO to the full-sized bus, since this adds to the drivability in my mind. When you see buses for sale, there are often very rarely measurements (eg, length) included in the specs. Thus, Mr. Dink has figured out that going by window number is the best way for him to gauge the length of the bus by pictures along. Given all the floor plan layouts my husband has gone through, we are currently looking for a bus with approx. 6-8 windows. This would allow us the ideal space for all of the areas we want to include in the bus (eg, bed, kitchen, bathroom…).
- Headroom: Mr. Dink has also discovered that not all buses are the same when it comes to head room. Since school buses are typically meant to transport children, standing room is less of an issue, and many buses have adequate headroom in the front of the bus for the driver, but less where the kiddos ride. Headroom (we are both approx. 5’9”) is very important to us, as we are looking to upgrade from our hunched-over stance we currently have to take all the time when we are camping in our tent. So, apparently there are some key things to look for in pictures of buses to tell if they are likely to have better headroom than others. These include window height and the way the roof looks from the outside (very scientific, I know). Obviously, nothing will replace going to see the bus first before we buy.
- Price: Mr. Dink has looked at likely upwards of a million buses online over the past 3 years, and so he has a pretty good idea of the range of cost at this point. Ideally, we are looking to purchase a bus for approximately $5000, which is doable based on our research, but we would be willing to go up to $8000 for the perfect bus with all of the right specs for our needs and wants.
And there you have it. Pretty basic, but those are our 5 ideals when it comes to picking the perfect bus for us.
The best part
And the best part about our plan to buy and build out a school bus to travel the country?
We’re in no rush.
We’re in no rush because we’ve taken steps to design lives that we love as they are NOW. We know we want this for us eventually, but we don’t stress about it. We know it will happen, and we can take our time, because we don’t need the bus to be happy. We’re happy with our lives now.
And this “no rush” attitude to our bus dream fits perfectly with our slow pace of life and our slow path to financial independence. The bus is our big dream we know we’ll achieve, but for right now, we’re taking our time because we don’t need the bus to be happy and fulfilled.
The best part about that is that we can take our time finding the right bus for us.
Next steps
Even though we’re in no rush, we of course still have a plan, even if it’s a slow plan. So what’s next for us along our bus path? Well, we need a place on our property for the bus to live once we buy it. We currently don’t have the space in our driveway.
What we do have, in the backyard, is a pool. Yes, we live in Vermont where there are approximately 2 months of pool-worthy weather in the summertime and yes, we have an in-ground pool (it came with the house). What we don’t do is use this pool much, at least recently. I take all the credit for the idea of filling in said pool that we never use so that we can have the space to park the bus. So, our plan that we’re working on right now is to fill in our pool, so that we can park the bus where the pool used to live. Win win!
So there you have it: how the bus plan came to be, and where we are with it today. Stay tuned! The next post about the bus will be all about how we said goodbye to the pool and said hello to the new dwelling place for our soon-to-be bus!