They retired at 39… Living in a school bus tiny home!

Added: 2026-05-08

[00:00:00]We both retired when I was 39. I guess  you're we're both 39. Yeah. Live below your means and invest the rest and then just do  that consistently. Welcome to our tiny house on wheels. Everything really has dual purpose. The  neighbors thought we were crazy. They're like, "What are they doing to that bus  over there?" Will you join me?

[00:00:24]Make this house our tiny home.

[00:00:34]I'm Jeremy. I'm Kristen. And this is our 2002 Ford shuttle bus that we've converted into a  tiny home on wheels. Come check it out.

[00:00:45]We really both really like the tiny house idea and  we started going to tiny house shows. The star of the show for us was a school bus conversion. It  just seemed like a lower barrier of entry. It was more affordable and it just like really spoke to  us. I found it on eBay. It checked all the boxes and I said, "All right, let's do it." We bought  the bus in like 2017 and we were working on this like nights and weekend and it took us about a  year and a half to get her reasonably built out.

[00:01:16]We got married and we took this bus on our  honeymoon and we went around the country and it was an amazing trip, but it was fast. every day we  were moving and when we got done with that trip I was like I want to do that again but I want to do  it over like a year you know I want to go slower and really enjoy it. Right after that we started  saving like crazy live below your means and invest the rest and then just do that consistently and  that turned our 10-year plan into more like a two or threeear plan. Yeah. We both retired when I  was 39. I guess you're we were both 39. Yeah, the way I saw it, I was buying my freedom. We ended  up saving or investing over 50% of our income by keeping our expenses very very low. One of the  big things for us was not allowing lifestyle creep to take over. A lot of people when they get  that next promotion, they go buy a nicer car or a bigger house or what have it. Like we never even  we never bought adult furniture. We say like we still had the same furniture we had like right  after college, you know. Um and we just saved our money. That's basically what we did. Yeah.  Some of your stuff you found on the side of the road. Not everybody is in this sort of situation.  Not everybody has the opportunity to save over 50% of what they make. But I I think at the end of the  day, if more people knew that this was possible, people could change their lives for the better.  It's amazing. Yeah, we're blessed. We're free and that's an amazing feeling. It's been over  3 years now and I don't think I'm going back.

[00:03:06]We named her Destiny, which is short for  Destination Discoveries, which is like the Instagram where we've been capturing all of  the uh the adventures in her. So, of course, we got some solar on the roof. We've got just  over 1,800 watts. Over here we have our battery bank and a spare belt because you never know  when you're going to need that. But yeah, we've got like 400 amp hours of 12vt lithium. So  far so good. Those are the heated batteries cuz we we do do some winter activities like to go skiing  and whatnot. And this is what we call the garage.

[00:03:39]So, this right here, this is where we keep the  skis and the snowboards when it's time for that and have a mountain bike or two on hand. This  makes it a lot easier to get the bikes in and out.

[00:03:52]And you can just pop this off, pull it in. We've  got the tire back there. So, we got 50 gallons of water. It's our big water tank. A little propane  hot water heater. Little water filtration system.

[00:04:04]And this is just a standard RV water filter.  It's pretty basic. works good for us. We also have another filter that we hook on the any  hoses or anything like a pre-f filter before anything goes in the tank. And then our sticker  collection of all the the cool places we've been.

[00:04:19]We try to get stickers in any places we really  like that we've been around a little bit. This is our little 20-gallon propane tank which we  painted to match Destiny which is nice. We got the mini split air conditioner up there. This  is our little exhaust for the hot water heater.

[00:04:38]We've got a water fill here for the 50-gallon  water tank and then a ladder. It's mainly so that we could get on the roof and brush the panels  off in the winter when we're skiing cuz you you need to keep the the panels clean to make the  power. And then we just have two other little storage boxes that we've put under here. We carry  a grill and some tools and the the water hoses, air compressor, snow chains, little hatchet, all  the stuff you need on the road. We painted this in our driveway. It took us about three weeks to  actually paint this thing with doing the little the bondo and prep work and sanding it down. The  neighbors thought we were crazy. They're like, "What are they doing to that bus over there?" But  we used Sherwin Williams single stage automotive paint cuz I'm new. I've never painted anything  before. And uh having the ability to just, you know, put two or three coats of the same  thing on and call it a day sounded good to me. And it's held up well. We painted it in 2019,  so it's been 6 years. I think it's still looking pretty decent. This is just a vinyl decal. And me  and Kristen put that on and we did it together.

[00:05:45]We're still married, so that's doing pretty good.  And then I guess the last thing on the outside, we have a light bar, which is handy for those  forest roads at night. We try to get to our spots before sunset, but we don't always make  it. And that's real handy. And then this push bar. My brother and my family got that for us  for Christmas one year. My brother was like, "I've seen you work on this bus for hours and  days and years." He's like, "I hate to see you hit a deer or something and ruin it." So, that was  a present for Christmas from the family one year, and we love it. Yeah, it's nice. So, we put this  awning on here. This is a new addition. Well, we didn't really have a plan for how we were going  to mount it when we put it on or when we purchased it. It was a Amazon Prime Day deal or whatever,  and we're like, "Hey, let's get an awning." And then we didn't really want to drill holes into the  bus on the roof or anything because you're always worried about leaks. So, we figured out a way to  mount it, which would came out pretty good using these rain gutter mounts and uh and then kind of  uh strapping it also to the solar framing so it's secure. But the problem we're having is that I  can't quite reach it. So, we're going to have to figure out how we're going to put it up and down  without too much trouble. I don't really want to carry a ladder with me. I don't want to carry more  stuff. So, we're still working out the kinks. So, this was the original bus door. Uh we did have  a little help with this. Our our friend is a welder and he helped us. Uh we took the gas  there was two gaskets that used to, you know, be the biffold doors and so we removed the gaskets  and we welded the doors together. And then we just all the uh space we lost from the gaskets, we just  added this material here, which gave a spot to put a door handle. And uh now this is our door. And  we just these are just insulated window covers.

[00:07:35]I found I made them like this so I could take them  in, take them out if I needed to ever remove them, but I don't ever really need to see down there.  So they just live there. Eventually, one day I might just remove these windows and put sheet  metal over it and insulate it a little better, but for now that works pretty good. Welcome  to our tiny house on wheels. Come on in.

[00:08:01]Starting in the front. This is our his and hers  closets. So, we have folded shirts, pants here, and a drawer for miscellaneous items. Here is  the cockpit of our shuttle bus. We've added a rear view. It's a really a backup camera, but  we've wired it so that it's just always on and so it's a rearview mirror for us so I can see  who's back there, what's going on. I got this mirror right here, which is pretty cool. This  is the original bus mirror. I guess they can keep an eye on the kids, but I can keep an eye on  like if I hear anything like a cabinet opening or something like check on it, make sure everything's  okay back there. So, this curtain right here, this is for the winter bus life for when we're at  the mountains when we're skiing. In order to keep the bus warm, we've installed this curtain,  which we can pull at night when we're camped out in the uh the old mountain parking lot. We  even have these like little Velcro things right here. But this makes a world of difference  for trying to stay warm when it's, you know, -20° outside. This is how we keep uh the bus warm.  And we have a actually have an insulated kind of a similar thing that can go on this entire door with  magnets. So, this is actually our table that uh we can use for dinner or computer work, whatever it  is, and on we have it on a lagoon mount. They're very popular in like the van and bus world, but  we can sit like across from each other right here.

[00:09:25]Or sometimes we'll set up a computer there and  kind of sit next to each other for dinner. And uh or you can just you can swivel it. Sometimes we  just stick it out of the way up here. We used to have a cat. The cat couldn't see very well and he  would fall down the stairs while we were driving.

[00:09:39]So, we made the table so it fit perfectly  there. And then when we closed the door, uh, our kitty couldn't fall down into the  stairwell. So, that solved that problem. So, yeah, when we're not using it, the table basically  just lives right here. Our couch does pull out into a full bed, and we have plenty of storage  underneath. It's just two slats folded uh against each other. This folds down. And we do have three  legs for the right, middle, and left just for some extra support. And we do carry extra sheets for  anybody that wants to meet us at the airport.

[00:10:22]So, moving down here, um, we do have what we  call the electric chair. Our power station, our inverter, um, all of the fuses, they live  right under here. Oh, it's the electric chair.

[00:10:41]This is Mr. Newton. He's been our dog for  about 8 years. And when he was younger, he loved being on the bus. So he  would always hang out on it when we were building and whenever he sees  us start to pack, he always just runs up on the bus and he doesn't want to get  left behind. So this is his first home.

[00:11:07]This is our kitchen. We went with an Lshaped  floor plan just because we liked how it was cool. You know, we can hang out in the  kitchen. talk, cook, eat, and we really, really like it. Got a dormsized fridge  here, and it holds a surprising amount of food. We did have some extra space for  little mini pull out pantry. Right here, we just have space for knives, forks, and  other kind of miscellaneous kitchen items.

[00:11:42]Now, here we just put a curtain um and it actually  works really well. We have a pull out garbage and recycling and some shelves for additional storage.  And we do have just a bungee cord so while we're in motion, it doesn't um fly around. We have nice  storage under the sink as well for dog food and other items. And then this part of the counter  flips up and we have our twoburner stove and oven. Down here is storage for our pots, pans,  plates, cups, that sort of thing. And this dog bowl is also a drawer built into the toe kick.  So when we're in motion, that just kind of hides away and locks. We have a bunch of food storage up  here. Usually we organize it, you know, breakfast, dinner. We also built in um a really nice spice  rack. I love cooking. And then we also have a nice mount for our Berky, and this works really well,  too. And if needed, um this drains right into the sink. This wall art was something that we both  wanted. We really like the symbolism about the tree of life. um the connection to the earth and  also to you know a higher power. So um we got this it's um metal art and we just love it. I think  that it's a really good focal point for the bus.

[00:13:19]And then I should also mention up here um this  is where our um emergency hatch was. Um but we decided to take that out. It was leaking anyway.  And um we put in a nice marine hatch. So if we ever need to, this kind of opens up and it really  helps with a lot of air flow, you know, especially if we're cooking and it's getting really hot in  here, just to help the fans out a little bit. This is um an ottoman. It's pretty simple. It just  kind of unzips and then you'll get to see all my sweaters and things. And because it's also an  ottoman, um, I can put it up here and then if one of us is driving, the other one can kind of sit  next to us and, you know, have some togetherness time, look out the window together. Everything  really has dual purpose here. So, so this is a nice little built-in storage area here. Um, I  think Jeremy mentioned before we're big skiers in the winter, hanging out at all like the ski  parking lots and everything. So, this is where, um, our wet boots go right here. Um, and then we  have a nice little table for, you know, tissues, little knickknacks, things that we find on our  hikes and stuff like that. Over here, it was kind of a challenge in the design. Where I'm standing  right here is the wheel well, and we knew that we wanted to have a bathroom here. And we kind of  went back and forth and debated a little bit on what to do with the space. And we finally decided  to just raise everything up to be the same level as the wheel well. And we have really great floor  storage in here. One of the design elements of this bus that's I think is really cool um is just  how versatile the door behind me is. So, we do have strategically placed eye hooks here and here.  Um, and then also over here when you open the door using the hook and the eye, this can be a little  changing area if you have a wet bathing suit on, you just need to change really quick and you have  guests over. Um, and then it also can hook right here, just, you know, for ease and versatility,  changing the floor plan up a little bit. So, this is our bathroom. I just want to make a shout  out to my brother. He works construction and he actually saved some scraps from jobs and um, it  it really came out great. Um he gave us the white subway tile and this beautiful river stone here.  Um it's all held together with the flexible grout and you know it's really held up very well  um throughout the years. We also have some built-in storage here for shampoos and things  like that. This is um just the Nature's Head composting toilet. And then for extra privacy,  we do have some stained glass window film here.

[00:16:40]So, this is a little wood art I put together. I  don't know, I saw a bunch of people doing things like this on their bus and I wanted to make one  and this is what I came up with. But really, what this is is a door to the old laundry hamper and  some supplies. We have things like paper towels and extra toilet paper and uh laundry detergent  and stuff like that stashed away in there. And then this these are the controllers for our diesel  heaters. We have two because you know sometimes you got to swap it out. And then a switch that we  put on our water pump just in case we need to ever turn it off. We can just flip the switch for the  water pump. Oh, that down there. You need to have a carbon dioxide detector in a bus with especially  if you're running a diesel heater. Got to be safe.

[00:17:24]So this is our bedroom. It's a full-size bed. It's  pretty comfy. We have a couple windows in here.

[00:17:30]We have our mini split which is really nice for  sleeping cuz uh it keeps this space really cold, but also we have a couple fans we've put in to  help move that cool air out to the main area.

[00:17:41]So we have this fan and then this fan which we've  added and we can swing it like this and push the air that way. Um which has helped a lot with the  the cooling of the area. Um of course we got our little wooden ceiling. We have Kristen's bookshelf  cuz she likes reading. And uh of course this is my happy place, you know. Um but yeah, it's pretty  cozy back here. It's not the hugest bedroom, but it's it's comfy. These are some some marine  windows cuz this door was solid when we first had the bus, but uh running the fan, we wouldn't  get good air flow through here, but we can like kind of just crack these windows like this and  then turn the fan on and we get this nice breeze over us at night. And it's it's really nice and  it was a a big improvement for the area. So, these windows, we've placed them on the This is  what we called the garage door from the outside.

[00:18:32]This used to be the handicap wheelchair door,  but we've removed the lift and all of that. And this is the light switch for the bedroom right  there. And this is another one of our insulated window covers. We need to, you know, block out the  outside world. And we're uh we're all cozied up.

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