2 techies quit their jobs and travel in a bus home

[Hercules]

ABOUT US

Posted by Alyssa on September 1, 2014

We’re Will and Alyssa, and we live to hike, bike, ski, and explore the world around us. We started this blog because we’re smack in the middle of an epic adventure: traveling the USA in a converted school bus. Outside Found is a place where we can share the adventures we have along the way with family and friends.

Who are Will and Alyssa?

Let’s start at the beginning! We met at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo after growing up in the mountains of Northern (Will) and Southern (Alyssa) California. After graduating from Cal Poly we moved up the the San Francisco Bay area to start our careers in tech and startups. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) we quickly realized that the Bay Area startup scene wasn’t for us. We loved pushing our limits in the outdoors, and living on the peninsula was seriously limiting.

Alyssa quit her job in April of 2013 and spent the summer hiking the John Muir Trail. Along the way she convinced Will to quit his job in order to form their current venture, a design and development studio called Camp Four Creative. Freed from nine to five restrictions, we quickly decided to sell all of our junk and move from Mountain View, CA to Boulder, CO where the tech scene was thriving and outdoor activities abounded.

The year we spent in Boulder reinforced that our amazing clients couldn’t care less what our physical location is, so long as our work is outstanding. It also taught us that there are few downsides to saying “Yes” and making a strategy on the fly as opposed to saying “No” and missing out on an opportunity. So… when Will approached Alyssa with the idea of “buying a school bus, converting it to a tiny house, and rolling around the country” it was an easy yes.

We spent the spring of 2015 converting the bus from a shell of a vehicle into a fully functioning tiny house.

The last character in this story is our awesome dog named Hilde (pronounced Hill-dee, also known as #hildebeast, Hilde Bear, or Little Bear). Hilde is a rambunctious Bernese Mountain Dog who is built for adventure. Here in Colorado she loves to join us in the mountains for hikes, short mountain bike rides, and backcountry ski days. We’re so excited to have her along for all of the adventures to come!

Want to make sure you get all the Outside Found updates?

We sure want you to! You can Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and Instagram to keep up with our latest adventures. If you want to get in touch, feel free to email us at [email protected]. Thanks for stopping 

[Hercules]

OUTSIDE FOUND SCHOOL BUS CONVERSION TOUR

Posted by Alyssa on July 8, 2015

Welcome to the Outside Found Bus Tour! We started this project in October of 2014, worked on the bus from March – July 2015, and have been on the road since then. The following is a tour of the completed bus. If you want to start at the beginning, visit our Bus Restoration Journal!

 

A quick note before we begin – the links on this page are mostly Amazon Affiliate Links. If you’re working on your own bus and find this helpful, we’d sure appreciate it if you would use these links to make your purchases so we can get a little kickback. Thanks in advance! 

The bus is a 2001 GMC BlueBird. We chose an old bus as our starting point for many reasons, the biggest being how affordable it was (only $5500!) and how much interior space we’d have (almost 200 square feet!) We worked for months before we actually built anything, planning and laying out our interior.

 

The Entryway

When we aren’t driving the entryway functions as our mudroom. With durable coin-grip flooring and plenty of easy to access storage, all manner of people hopping in and out is no problem. The driver’s seat is the original seat that came with the bus, recovered with an IKEA slip cover to match the rest of our cushions. More on that later! The light switches you see here run our 12 volt LED rope lights and outdoor LED Floodlights.

The entryway – we repainted & added storage in Spring 2016.

Driver’s Area – fan & tiny dash cam.

The Living Room

The living room, right behind the driver’s area, is a wonderful multifunctional space. On the left we have a very comfy couch with integrated storage underneath. On the right we either have open floor space (great for a big dog who likes to stretch out!) or a cute flip up dining room table.

Update April 2016 – new curtains!

New curtains up – pretty low profile!

New curtains down – great for keeping light from leaking out at night.

With the new sconces on instead of the overhead lights. Much better!

The Kitchen

The kitchen is by far my favorite “room” on the bus. In fact, it’s bigger than the kitchen Will and I shared in our first apartment together! We have everything needed for a delicious meal, including an Electric/Propane Norcold RV Fridge, two burner Atwood propane stove, and 6 gallon Suburban propane water heater.

Our tiny Breville Oven that gets stowed in the couch while we’re driving

Our pantry! Fits just enough food for the two of us and also serves as medicine cabinet.

The Office

The office is situated across from the kitchen so that the floor space inbetween can be monopolized by whatever activity is at hand. When we’re cooking, there’s enough room for two people to comfortably work together. When we’re working, we can stretch out and feel like we’re in a “real” office space. The dining room chairs double as our office chairs – when we’re driving, they stay in the desk stalls. Burly rubber feet keep them from sliding!

The office is also home to our solar power readouts. That’s right – the bus electrical is powered 100% by solar! Check out this post about living with solar for more info on our setup.

 

The Bedroom

The “bedroom” looks like little more than a walled in mattress, but functionally it is so much better. The bed is a comfortable 6″ memory foam mattress, complete with fluffy down comforter and pillows. Above sits our library, nestled in some floating IKEA shelves. Below lives a ton of storage and our Atwood forced air heater (for those chilly fall mornings!)

In front of the bed are two drawers for our day to day clothes, one for me, one for Will. More on clothes / laundry over here…

 

The Bathroom

The bathroom is pretty simple: a composting toilet and a teeny tiny shower.

The Garage

This is definitely the coolest room on the bus. Not only is it bright and covered with stickers, but it’s full of all of our favorite things: mountain bikes, backpacking, climbing, and kayaking stuff, and all of our outdoor goodies.

 

That’s All!

All in all, we can fit quite a lot into our little 200sq ft bus! If you have questions, ask them in the comments below and we’ll be sure to get back to you.

 

 

 

[Hercules]

Bus 5500 anta renovation ki oka 15-20k max. 

we pay mortgages, rents equivalent to 1000+ a month easily.

ilanti bus teskunte singles life enjoy and married kuda initial 1-3 years full saving and fun to travel around country before settling down in one place.

[JollyBoy]

ilantollaki medical insurance ela workout aitadi . out of state chala coverr avvav kada

[k2s]

26 minutes ago, Hercules said:

Bus 5500 anta renovation ki oka 15-20k max. 

we pay mortgages, rents equivalent to 1000+ a month easily.

ilanti bus teskunte singles life enjoy and married kuda initial 1-3 years full saving and fun to travel around country before settling down in one place.

 appatlo maa apice okadu tellodu adey pani chesadu. He was on road for 2-3 yrs, travelling in his own caravan, working remotely.. 

[Hercules]

17 minutes ago, JollyBoy said:

ilantollaki medical insurance ela workout aitadi . out of state chala coverr avvav kada

medical insurance aa vehicle insurance aa?

[JollyBoy]

Just now, Hercules said:

medical insurance aa vehicle insurance aa?

medical ey.. nuv each state tirugutunte.. epudaina accident aina.. leka health issue vachina ela pani chestadi 

[Hercules]

15 minutes ago, k2s said:

 appatlo maa apice okadu tellodu adey pani chesadu. He was on road for 2-3 yrs, travelling in his own caravan, working remotely.. 

single aite waste, working couple with a dog aite best. same pina couple laga aite inka best! Traveling on road, working remote, can camp any where and be out all year ante risky aina oka 1-2 years enjoy cheyachu aa nomad life.

Marriage ayyaka agam agam mortgage ki jump aye kante ila life enjoy chesi oka solid bank balance set ayyaka slow ga move avachu routine life ki, but it take two to work it out le. 

Mana db lo pade stories lo unde characters ki ivi work out avav le kani anu nikhil batches ki aite asal avav le

[dakumangalsingh]

Maaku antha stomata ledu ankul 

btw out of the box thinking maa valla kaadu 

[princeofheaven]

34 minutes ago, JollyBoy said:

medical ey.. nuv each state tirugutunte.. epudaina accident aina.. leka health issue vachina ela pani chestadi 

they take PPO health plan, most are valid in all 50 states. 

[JollyBoy]

6 minutes ago, dakumangalsingh said:

Maaku antha stomata ledu ankul 

btw out of the box thinking maa valla kaadu 

evadiki nachindi vadu chestadu vuncl.. enduku antha badha padatav neku out of the box thinking ledu ani 

[JollyBoy]

4 minutes ago, princeofheaven said:

they take PPO health plan, most are valid in all 50 states. 

gud 

[Hercules]

1 minute ago, JollyBoy said:

medical ey.. nuv each state tirugutunte.. epudaina accident aina.. leka health issue vachina ela pani chestadi 

BCBS lo edoka option untundi le as long as we pay they wouldnt care

[Hercules]

24 minutes ago, dakumangalsingh said:

Maaku antha stomata ledu ankul 

btw out of the box thinking maa valla kaadu 

uncle ne pay ki ne dialogues ki emana link undha, 3-5k bus, 10-20k renovation for a full fledged house. Nuv yearly katte rents ye 12k minimum untay, inka car rent gatra vesthe easily another 5k. Ade ilanti bus unte, ye city lo aina sare rv park lantidi patti park chesi motorbike o cycle o yeskoni podame, mast savings. Imagine if you can divert all those funds for a start up or a business of your dreams lol

 

more over wife husband working it jobs ante minimum take home after taxes 150k untay , bus ki pettina money emo kani you can buy 1-2 acres of land anywhere in america to park it permanently as long as you want to save some money for future purposes. Ade illu anuko mortgage ke 24k + per year padtadi motha

[k2s]

2 hours ago, Hercules said:

single aite waste, working couple with a dog aite best. same pina couple laga aite inka best! Traveling on road, working remote, can camp any where and be out all year ante risky aina oka 1-2 years enjoy cheyachu aa nomad life.

Marriage ayyaka agam agam mortgage ki jump aye kante ila life enjoy chesi oka solid bank balance set ayyaka slow ga move avachu routine life ki, but it take two to work it out le. 

Mana db lo pade stories lo unde characters ki ivi work out avav le kani anu nikhil batches ki aite asal avav le

Hehe