Bus Chronicles: Introduction
The 2021 Bus Odyssey: The Frizz & Her Namesake
-Our bus on the dealership lot, March 2021
Finding Our Bus
While the pandemic raged on, we hunted high and low for a bus we liked that fit our search criteria:
Full-size
Good condition exterior (no major accidents)
Engine properly maintained or recently inspected
We took our time and searched many sources to find our school bus. We spent about three months calling, test driving and visiting different dealerships before we found the one for us.
Where To Find School Buses For Sale
While you might think you have to buy a school bus straight from a school, in reality there are buses available all over if you know where to look. We focused our search in three main areas.
1. Facebook Marketplace
While there are varied opinions about utilizing Facebook Marketplace, we found several buses that would have been decent options for conversion. A few were not in our price range, a few were mid-conversion already, and a few were ready for the scrapyard.
- The Facebook finds had some interesting modifications
2. Local Ads in the Classifieds
We got lucky answering a handful of ads we came across in the local classifieds but ultimately, none of those buses proved to be fruitful leads.
Sourcing vehicles from classifieds (including Marketplace) also required us to develop an extensive list of questions, and things to lookout for while shopping. Since this was our first conversion project, we got many of our buying tips from a how-to skoolie build book written for beginners just like us.
3. Bus Dealerships
The most promising prospects, and our final purchase, came from dealerships specialising in buses and other used commercial vehicles such as church buses, metro buses, greyhound style coaches, etc.
We were actually looking at buying one of these motorcoaches the day we got engaged.
Finally, while searching out of town dealerships and their websites, we came across a walkthrough of our bus on Youtube of all places.
A bus in great condition, fully inspected with plenty of headroom for walking around inside without hunching over, and she was right in our price range. The bus dealership was in Seattle, WA!
We were in southeast Texas at the time, so we toyed with several options of how we could transport her back for conversion. Will’s dad was running a truck for a cross-country freight company at the time and offered to meet us in Seattle and caravan back together in case anything catastrophic happened along the way.
The dealership was wonderful and offered lots of helpful advice on “converting” the bus from a commercial vehicle into a “motorhome” for title change and classification for insurance.
There were several requirements to meet before we could have her title officially re-categorized. Mainly we needed to remove the majority of the seats, have a bed, a “contained toilet system” (we purchased a simple camping toilet for this), and we had to make sure that the words “SCHOOL BUS” were no longer visible anywhere on the exterior. Additionally, we removed the stop sign and traffic arms from the exterior before we drove off the lot in our new home!
The Voyage Home
It was an amazing maiden voyage for us bringing back our new home!
We stopped off at several state and national parks starting with Mt. Rainier! We crossed off places from our bucket lists like the Salt Flats in Bonneville and Arches National Park in Moab.
The Frizz
Safely back in Texas, we prepared for the next phase: DEMOLITION!
It seemed a daunting and never-ending phase for us newbies, and it was just the beginning.
The bus was already reminding us of our favorite motto:
“TAKE CHANCES, MAKE MISTAKES AND GET MESSY!”
And most importantly, HAVE FUN LEARNING SOMETHING NEW!
And thus, she earned her nickname: The Frizz. Our Magic Kool Bus.
She is a 1999 Thomas Built “Pusher” Flat-nose School Bus. She is full-size measuring 37 feet in length and is now painted the perfect shade of bright blue: “Adventure”!
Follow along as I share the tale of her transformation into our little traveling hobbit hole. The road so far has been filled with twists and turns and it’s not over yet!
Cheers to the epic messy adventure of converting this school bus into a tiny home on wheels!
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