We bought a bus (a year ago)

 Yeah I know I am writing this in past tense, but just trying to catch y'all up in case you wanna know and I wanna document it (as much as possible)

Good afternoon! Chelle typing as Griselda is driving through South Carolina ( almost exactly a year after we bought our bus (April 28, 2020) SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED since then but I do wanna write down my memories of buying a bus and catching y'all up and reminisce myself :D

So, after a year of living together I KNEW that house life WAS NOT for me! or I at least needed something to be able to travel in with the doggies and more often (at the time we were both working weekend shifts so we had M-Th to do and go wherever we wanted :D) I was determined to buy a bus! We had been to every tiny home festival we could get to and even several RV shows (Griselda was convinced SHE wanted an RV~ and I was open to it just to get on the road~we can go into it later on all the reasons WE DIDN'T go with an RV) but we love anyone no matter how you travel/live :D just DO YOU and BE HAPPY! We are a no judgement zone over here unless you are an asshole then BIG JUDGEMENTS lol 

So, we found several buses we wanted to look at in our budget and planned a few days to go look at a few and hope to take one home. She had her heart set on one and I was NOT gonna pay what they wanted for a bus *bc my first bus I got for $1500! So I was APPALLED at some of the prices I was seeing lol.  anyway we headed up to Tennessee to see a bus :D We both loved it! lemme tell you why: all the seats were already out (minus one) flooring was already down, had 2 (TWO) Air conditioners! (my old one didn't and it got HOT while driving and I used two metal fans to keep it cool (it worked). It also had 30 amp rv hookup! and a ton of plugs to plug everything in like future appliances etc (my old bus I used an extension chord out of the window lol~basically to charge phones and for heated blankets or the fans). It was clean and started right off and road smooth during the test drive. Talked him down 2k and ended up paying $5500 for the bus (way too much still in my mind and wallet but HEY! we have a bus we both agree on lol).

So we bought a bus and took it down to the shop at the end of the street and had them check the fluids tires etc to make sure it would make the trip back to Georgia from Tennessee.  Mechanic was like oh yeah it looks great, will top it off with this and that and y'all are good to go. Well, heck yeah! Until they were pulling the bus out of the shop, it kept stalling and ended up needing an O2 sensor. And also finding out the bus hadn't had an oil change in YEARS ugh (so if you are gonna buy a bus ask and get some maintenance logs). Got that fixed and headed south. Stayed in a hotel ( I wanted to stay IN the bus *go grab an inflatable mattress and stuff but Griselda wasn't having that). So ran to a store for clean clothes since we were NOT prepared for all of this lol. Slept well and got on the road the next morning.

About 30 min down the road, I am following in the truck and I see the bus flashers come on and it slowing down and pulling over. And I am like oh no what?! So we pull over to a lil gas station and the serpentine belt was off and a lil booger to try to get on so we had it towed to a local shop where we also found out our water pump needed replaced along with something else we can't recall at this time. So got that fixed several hundred dollars later again. It was late so we ended up again at a hotel. And probably more clothes from a local store lol. The money we spent on this trip makes me wanna gag! But it was all part of the adventure right lol. We did finally get home with the BUS! We were so excited and so exhausted from this journey. We still have quite the journey ahead of us lol.

We took the bus to our local shop to have them look everything over again and replace tires and struts and thousands of dollars of repairs and upgrades etc to make sure this bus can make it safely across the country and back. The bus went back and forth to the shop many more times in our time for lil things here and there like a starter. battery etc. 

In between this we are planning our no build build. I wanted to just put what we needed in the bus because  neither of us had any experience in building. And I fully believe in LIVING in a space before making anything permanent. (Because so many people build out a bus/van before living in it and end up selling it or having to re do it bc it has stuff they never use or have to add things they didn't build in) LIVE IN IT BEFORE YOU MAKE ANYTHING PERMANENT! Throw bedding in there and a bucket and a weeks worth of clothes in a bin a lil folding table and LIVE IN IT! I can suggest when you do build in make sure you have somewhere for laundry and trash! :D (Lesson learned even after several rebuilds in this bus lol).

We got a metal frame from amazon and a mattress from a friend and a cabinet from Lowes and a counter top and a cheap lil bar sink. We used plastic tubs for storage under the bed and a camping chair to sit inside lol to start with :D The first purchase we DID make on the way home from buying our bus was our toilet that the wife INSISTED on having (thetford porta potty~which a year later we ended up having to throw away due to the seal not sealing and leaking when it was time to empty it) I used a bucket in my first bus and was happy to use a bucket again lol so we are now using a bucket~who knows if Griselda will want to continue this or not. 

So we bought a bus and it has BEEN an adventure since DAY ONE! 

What do you think? Ask any questions lol!!