We bought an old school bus for £3k and transformed it into a tiny house-on-wheels and now live in it with our five kids
WHEN we think of what a home-on-wheels might look like, a caravan is what usually comes to mind – a school bus is not.
But for a family from Texas, a school bus is exactly what they call home after converting it to a functional family space.
In 2018 the courageous couple Jeff and Anna Batterton made the decision to leave their house in Fort Worth, Texas to live life on the road with their five children.
The couple purchased the 2004 International 3000 school bus for £3,100 ($4,000) before undertaking major renovations.
The Batterton family documented the renovation process using their social media name @sweetsweetbuslife and they often keep their followers up to date with how they now live life on the road while home-schooling their children.
The family of five said it took around two years to complete and evenings and weekends were sacrificed.
It was a family project with the Battersons children helping paint and sand.
Once the old bus seats were removed, the Battertons started by transforming the entire floor space after they had used 3D modelling software to get an idea on how things would fit and look before they nailed anything down.
Next it was time to build a functioning shower for the family but Jeff who is 6-foot-three quickly realised his height might present a problem.
Rather than living out his days folded in the shower Jeff decided to remove part of the roof and install a chimney-like add-on with a skylight to design a more spacious bathroom that he needed.
It wasn’t long after the family moved into the bus that they realised the kids were getting older and taller too.
With that the couple decided to build another add-on to the roof that would create another two bedrooms for the two older children, Aria, 11, and Jiada, 9.
The mum of five said their eldest child is 11 years old, and is “really tall” so the “space was not adequate” for her.
And that’s when they had “this brainchild of combining the tiny home with our bus”.
Adding to this her partner Jeff told Business Insider: “We needed to add more space, we needed more square footage, and we couldn’t build to the sides, forward, or backward, so, literally, the last option was up.”
So with that they got building their ‘tiny home’ extension on the roof.
The upstairs now has two carpeted bedrooms, adjoined by a gaming area in the middle which also acts as a quiet study space for the home-school children.
Jeff says its the perfect “private space” for the kids to “retreat” to.
Though it might look small in photos, Anna said that the kids don’t find it claustrophobic at all, and the oldest regularly choose to stay in their rooms.
To save space the couple built laddering steps into the hallway wall so that the older children can climb to access their bedrooms.
The younger children sleep downstairs in three neatly tucked away cabins in the corridor.
The old school bus still lives out its educational past life as the couple home-school the children on their travels.
Jeff says his children get to “witness things” they would learn at school, and are lucky enough to “see things most kids – and adults don’t”.
When the kids were learning about volcanoes they went to a volcanic field and got to see firsthand “their effect on the environment and everything around”.
Although their dream wasn’t cheap Jeff said it was worth every penny and they are following their family motto which is ‘do the dream’.
He said it’s “not necessarily simple” to ‘do the dream’ and said there will be challenges along the way, but just have to “push through”.
He added: “The payoff is so far beyond what you can imagine. It’s so worth it.”