Stunning Raised Roof Bus Home w/ Innovative Design

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VIDEO DESCRIPTION:

Welcome to the Redwood Schoolie, a 1993 Bluebird Handy Bus converted into a cozy and sustainable tiny home on wheels. In this detailed tour, Kyle takes you through every aspect of this incredible transformation, from the initial $1,000 purchase to the final, stunning result.

Introduction to the Redwood Schoolie
The journey of converting this 28 ft long bus, which was once lost to the woods, into a beautiful home is nothing short of inspiring. Kyle, a custom home builder from Northern California, used reclaimed old-growth Redwood, adding a unique and historical touch to the interior.

Kitchen Tour: Maximizing Space and Functionality
Step into the kitchen, where Kyle and his partner have created an open and airy space. With a two-burner gas stove, a deep residential sink, and plenty of counter space, cooking on the road has never been easier. The kitchen also features practical storage solutions, including Home Depot cabinets and DIY upper cabinets built on the go.

Bathroom Design: Practical and Stylish
Kyle’s bathroom is a perfect example of maximizing small spaces without sacrificing comfort. The shower, built with standard residential materials, and a homebuilt composting toilet make this space both functional and eco-friendly.

Living and Sleeping Areas: Comfort and Utility
The seating area, located in the rear, doubles as a cozy living space and bedroom. The raised platform bed provides ample storage for water tanks, batteries, and other essentials. With 1,800 watts of solar panels on the roof, the bus can run an AC all day without worrying about power.

Innovative Features and Personal Touches
Throughout the bus, you’ll find unique features like a standing desk setup, a custom latching system for the fridge and freezer, and decorative elements made from reclaimed materials. Each detail showcases Kyle’s creativity and dedication to sustainable living.

Living Off-Grid: Sustainability and Comfort
Equipped with a powerful solar system and 100 gallons of fresh water capacity, the Redwood Schoolie is designed for long-term off-grid living. The bus’s on-demand propane water heater and efficient appliances ensure comfort without compromising sustainability.

Future Plans and Reflections
While bus life has been a fantastic journey, Kyle envisions a future where they might settle down and grow a bigger garden. However, the flexibility and freedom of living in the Redwood Schoolie make it an ideal home for now.

Join the Redwood Schoolie Community
Follow the Redwood Schoolie on Instagram for more updates, tips, and behind-the-scenes looks at this incredible bus conversion. Whether you’re considering a similar project or just love unique tiny homes, this tour offers plenty of inspiration.

Thank you for joining Kyle on this tour of the Redwood Schoolie. If you have any questions or need advice on your own bus conversion, feel free to reach out on Instagram. Happy travels and see you on the road!

Shot & Edited by – https://www.instagram.com/brian_bear_butler/

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the bus itself is a 93 Bluebird handy bus 28 ft long when I got the bus it was super cheap it was 1,000 bucks but it was grown through and just lost to the woods so we have all old growth Redwood hundreds of years old trees and I was lucky enough to be able to get enough to do this project bus life has been going so well that um right now I don’t see an end to it but I am imagine that at some point we’ll want to hey I’m Kyle and this is my bus the Redwood schoolie and I’m so excited for you guys to come check it out come on I had been building custom homes in Northern California for quite a few years and many of the old homes out there are made out of a lot of old growth Redwood so I had been picking it up piece by piece and saving it over years for some unknown future project that I was going to do with it so all this wood that you see in here is all Coastal Red Wood welcome to the kitchen our ideas for this space were just to have an open feel in here and also the light coming in from both sides to keep it light in here and also try to maximize our counter space which helps so much for cooking so in the front of the bus here we have a fridge and freezer with a flip up top to access the freezer [Music] we went with the two burer gas stove it’s really nice it’s working out really well for us but if you’re thinking about going with this two burer gas stove you just got to keep in mind that because of this space of the two burners it’s really more like having a one burner stove and with our goal of maximizing counter space we’ve actually put a a flip up tabletop on the other side that matches the height here so when we’re in here cooking we can switch from side to side do some cutting on one side when cooking’s happening over here things like that it’s been working out perfectly for us and after we’re done cooking and eating we have a nice deep residential size sink where we do our dishes and um we have 100 gallons of freshwat capacity that lasts us about 2 weeks on the road and uh my feeling about water capacity is that you want to try to just have as much water as you can if I could go back I would try to find a way without making the weight crazy or without any of that if if I could if I could find the space to put in another 100 gallons I would have done it these are just regular Home Depot bought cabinets nothing special about them they’re we have about 25 in of width to our counters here we have our upper cabinets where we store a lot of our dishes and things like that and this is uh the work that I’m probably least proud of in this bus as far as the craftsmanship goes because we needed an upper cabinet solution so these are just a table saw on a router out in a gravel lot but they have been working so good for their purpose and we were DES in desperate need of more kitchen storage before I built these to top it off behind this little vented cabinet door here is our on demand propane water heater this space has actually been working perfect for us there really isn’t anything that I would change we love the kitchen when we actually hit the road for the first time I didn’t have the shower finished at that time there was nothing but open framing in here so this again was side of the road buckets water from the buses freshwater tank all the power from the solar um and all this was done out on the road a lot of sacrifices were made in the space to make this happen and not only in the bathroom but in the kitchen and in the bedroom we really had to think about this and choose to have this shower the tile is done in the standard residential way there’s Hardy Backer behind redard thin set tile just the same as you would do in a house it’s a house fiberglass floor pan from Home Depot everything’s super standard and it’s been on the road for over a year so if you’re thinking about doing this I don’t think that as long as your walls are solid enough that you need to do anything special with your grout or tile or anything if it’s installed in the in the standard way it’s been working out perfectly for us hey so on this side we have our mirror and a little bit of basket storage here over here we have some upper cabinets again built on the side of the road just a table saw on a router um we have a homebuilt composting toilet here it’s working out so well for us we wouldn’t do it any other way the composting toilet uses the separat top and the urine diverter is running into our gray tank and then the solid side of it is just a 3G bucket when you do a big project like this and you’re Milling tons and tons of wood you end up with tons and tons of sawdust so for our composting toilet we use the sawdust that came from all of this Redwood that I milled and we have a lifetime supply of this waiting for us to use if you’re wondering how we get some privacy in here we do have a barn door that’s made out of a piece of Acacia butcher block and it’s all been working out really great when I got the bus it was super cheap it was 1,000 bucks but it was grown through and just lost to the woods at that time so it was a lot of work to get it back to a a safe Highway drivable State throughout the build we probably spent about $20,000 on this having the Redwood in here is so special because this is not something that you can purchase and um if you were able to find some that was for sale the price is just up to whoever’s trying to sell it and um I’ve seen prices on some of this old growth Redwood that is astronomical would have tripled or Forex our budget on this thing if I had to buy all this stuff overall with all the money we put in the bus probably is right around $25,000 and um it’s working out incredibly for us um we’re totally comfortable in here and uh we would do it again in a heartbeat so you may have noticed that there’s no seating area in the front of our bus it’s all kitchen up there and we decided to move the seating area to be back here with the bed but the drawback of it is is that when you have guests over and when people come and see your bus having that seating area in the front really makes it feel welcoming people don’t have to come so far in in order to sit down and have a conversation and it really makes people feel more comfortable when the seating area is closer to that front door this is the bedroom we have the raised platform bed we have our water and battery storage underneath and then we have uh some totes and some storage here in the front and then right behind the door here is where we throw our Dirty Laundry we have a big drawer here underneath our couch where we where we store all of our clothes the back wall here with our wall sconces gives us really good nighttime light those are kind of our dim lights for when we’re just back here chilling and reading all throughout the summer we’re able to run our AC all day long we have 1,800 watts of solar panels up top and that’s what allows that to to work out for us we’ve got our couch right here next to it and and this just draws the space together as a cool place to hang out and we still have a pretty open layout here no closets no upper cabinets so it’s a big space and we would not do it another way we we really love this setup sorry to pause your video for a second one thing while you’re traveling you want to make sure it’s clean is your water come on in while I show you what solution we found while traveling you come across many different types of water sources and sometime they can be a little bit sketchy we came across the water drop countertop reverse osmosis water system and we really excited about this because there is no installation that is needed so right on the front screen here it has 4 oz 8 oz 1620 and all the way up to 999 o if you want to run and fill a large container of filtered water the other option is a variety of temperatures from 64° fah all the way up to 203° while traveling and you want some clean water I’d recommend this countertop Reverse Osmosis System for your Travelers you can get it on water drop filter.com all right and now back to that tour so we have all old growth Redwood window trims hundreds of years old trees and I was lucky enough to be able to get enough to do this project and as I was saving this old growth up in order to do this project right at the end right when I felt like I had just about enough old growth a tree got struck by lightning in our front yard and we were able to to pull it down Mill it up and then that gave me the opportunity to do all this Redwood tongue and groove as a Finishing Touch to all my old growth Redwood trim um I had to have a way to attach these blocks into the framing of the bus which is really best done by a very ugly screw so we I had a local blacksmith um make these special washers and lags these actually do not hold the the Redwood to the framing of the bus but they’re there to hide the ugly screw that does the thing about it that’s so special to me and the thing that like brings the feeling together is to visit the actual Redwood Groves that are still around and hiking around and just the magic that’s in those places the feel of being around all of these huge trees and um just knowing that I was able to pull it together into this space I just feel so fortunate to have it in here the the feeling of this space um knowing what this is and how magical it is it just lights me up every time I see it before bus life my partner Jenna and I were living in a mediumsized apartment with a lot of stuff and um she was working on her PhD at Oregon State University and it’s such a big and stressful push in order to make that achievement and get your PhD and it’s so stressful to do and um so we always knew that we were going to take some time off we were looking for a van we we considered building a van but we end the bus ended up just falling into our laps um one of my friends had it and offered it to me because he knew that I was looking for a a van to build and um so we’re looking for a van and ended up with a 28t bus did the roof raise thousands and thousands of rivets um so much work into it a bigger project um than I thought it would be but so achievable for everybody to do it um it really is doable on your own this is our standing desk setup that just uses a standard adjustable keyboard Mount that you could find anywhere the screen is mounted with just a standard monitor wall mount and uh it rides fine up there it we haven’t had any issues with it this is kind of our catch all when we’re coming in the door throw whatever we need there I have the original napkin drawing of my first layout for the bus uh hanging up here then on this side we just have a Shelf with power we have all of our little pens and everything that we need when we’re working at the standing desk here continuing up here our upper cabinets the this area is just for all office type stuff that helps us when we’re working here having the standing desk area up here was a bit of an afterthought because we were we’re trying to pack it in somewhere in our floor layout but having it up having it up here hasn’t been a hindrance at all it’s been working so good for us up here and it really just keeps it out of the way and um keeps the kitchen area open and and just keeps the the feel more free and open air in here in the back of the bus here we have our AC condenser up top mounted up top solar panels help to shade it um shading your AC condenser if you’re going to go with a mini split will help you to get a little bit better if efficiency out of it if that thing’s hanging out in the sun all day it’s going to be working a little bit harder we do not have access to our bus from the back door here instead this is where all of our solar components are mounted and um our battery bank which is under the bed is 10 Kow of storage we have 1,800 watts of solar panels up top we have a 48v 3000 watt all-in-one inverter which is more of something that you might find in an off-grid grid cabin build rather than a bus but it’s working out really well for us and it just gives us the freedom to not worry about power we run our AC all day and we never think about power every time I’ve come out here to check our battery bank it’s been 99% or 100% I rarely see it come off of that during the day last but not least we have 10 gallons of propane storage if you’re wondering what size your propane storage should be I would recommend going a little smaller you don’t need 40 gallons of propane this this 10 gallons of propane running our Stove Top and our water heater has lasted us over 6 months between fills living in a bus on the road is the perfect opportunity to revisit yourself you’re going to spend a lot of time in a small place um your surroundings are going to be different all the time and the things that stay consistent in this lifestyle are the people that are around um there’s two of us here living in the bus and it really Narrows your frame of view and and and you can really start to notice the things that you might want to change about yourself and the ways that you want to improve and it’s a good way to focus on things like that just to minimize everything else that’s going on so that you can focus on your own growth bus life has been going so well that um right now I don’t see an end to it but I imagine that at some point we’ll want to um get a little bit more stationary so that we can do other things that we’ve developed interests in as after you know just seeking and coming into contact with all these new ideas for us like we would love to have a piece of land so that we can grow bigger Gardens things like that and enjoy the Beauty and the security of of a single space for ourselves so I do uh imagine an end to bus life but um maybe it can still be around and um use it more like an RV at that time um but for me right now this is working out so good I don’t we don’t see an end in sight anytime soon thank you all for watching and uh if you’d like to see more of this bus check it out on Instagram at the Redwood schoolie and if you have any questions if you’re building a bus you can me message me on there anytime I’ll get back to you I’ll help you I’ll give you all the ideas and and all the experience I’ll pass it along to you just like the bus lifers that came before pass these ideas on to me I’ll see you on the road