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Old 05-17-2017, 01:35 PM   #1
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Oklahoma
Posts: 36
Year: 1988
Coachwork: Bluebird
Engine: 454
The Justice Hoping Machine

Our project is also our tiny home; we moved in April 30 and sit on a portion of a 16 acre property in the foothills of the Ozarks. It is a 34 foot bus, 26 foot by 7 1/2 foot, and we have five children.

We constructed lower bunks out of bus seats. One faces forward, the other reversed. We use two extra seat cushions for the middle of the bunk, and have built lofts over these bunks for the younger children. The side rails for the uppers are 2 x 6 boards, with 1 x 2 supports, and 1 x 4 slats across. We placed 1/2 inch plywood on top for the platform.

The "master" bed is 45 inch x 75 inch. It is elevated for storage space underneath. The materials we acquired are currently 8 inches under the bottom of the windows, which is where we planned on placing the bed to begin with. As the bed is made from cheaply acquired materials, we are currently debating whether to modify this or keep it as is.

We are currently using a composting toilet essentially as a pre composter. The buckets are emptied into a compost tumbler. I have found the bucket and seat method more efficient than the more expensive commercial items.

Much of our kitchen currently sits outside, as the weather allows it. We are working primarily with salvaged materials, purchasing when the project needs to be completed and salvage cannot be found. We also have 90 watts of solar, not yet set up, but ready to deploy.

I encourage anyone who wants to follow our story to follow us at www.thejusticehopingmachine.blog, where we have pictures and video of what we are doing. The project will ultimately serve the homeless with food, clothing, and medical first aid.

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Old 05-20-2017, 10:23 AM   #2
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Oklahoma
Posts: 36
Year: 1988
Coachwork: Bluebird
Engine: 454
The slow forward progress of the Justice Hoping Machine continues. Today we will be putting in kitchen floor tile and building our second temporary shower, in our camper trailer onsite.

We chose peel and stick tile for the kitchen tiles because of ease of installation, but more important because of ease of deinstallation. We realize that modifications may be in our future within the next 6 to 12 months, so having the opportunity to do a remodel with relative ease is especially appealing.

So that will but us about halfway back on the flooring.

The second project is going to be the shower. We have a temporary camp shower, that is working nicely; the main drawback being that we seem to always pick up a number of twigs and leaves with every shower. We are not quite ready to put the shower on the Justice Hoping Machine at this point (we need bathroom shower tile and do not have the funds available for that), so we are building it in the nearby camper. We will still be using tarps for the walls because it is what we have available to us right now.

We have an extra bucket ready to be painted black and fitted with plumbing fittings so that our shower can more properly be called a shower. All in all, things are getting closer to the norm every day.
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Old 06-01-2017, 09:56 AM   #3
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Oklahoma
Posts: 36
Year: 1988
Coachwork: Bluebird
Engine: 454
One Month In

Yesterday marked a milestone of sorts: it officially marked a month of living full time in the bus.

We've made a little progress over the month; to start the month we only had a small butane stove; now we have a large 2 burner propane stove that can handle just about any cooking situation we throw it. The Butane stove is still our backup, but we haven't used it since getting the propane stove.

We have also made two changes in our shower setup; we started with a tent shower enclosure, but that was difficult, as the tarp floor was very slick, and it was hard to fully shower without something to grab onto. We were gifted a shower pad, and for two weeks used that, surrounded by tops, but the branches overhead loved to share their bark with our hair follicles, and it was less than optimal, but it worked. We now have the shower inside of an ancillary, and will be shortly cutting a hole in the floor of the bus to install it inside, where it should remain for awhile.

We have gotten used to using the composting toilet, and have pretty much perfected the balance of "brown/green material". Although it is not composting in the secondary composter as fast as we'd like, that owes itself to choice of material (we have been using wood chips, which break down slower; we are switching to peat moss) as much as anything. But there is much less odor than we would have expected.

We have also gone from two bunks and the rest of us sleeping on the floor to where we all have bunks. We have completed the flooring on 2/3 of the bus, and acquired a deck with stairs outside.

All in all it has been an exciting month, and it has encouraged us to examine needs vs. wants. We've had our good days and our not so good days, but are forging on. And we have a good deal of work to do between now and when winter sets in, but living full time in the bus, we are getting a better idea of what needs to be done.

I would like to again encourage you to support the campaign (link can be found on the blog, which is posted in my signature). We have a lot that has been done, but a lot that needs to be done. We would like to ultimately do the CNG conversion, as that would make a positive change for the environment, but that is among the last of our goals. For now, getting it road worthy in all 50 states is the main goal.
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Old 06-01-2017, 11:14 AM   #4
Bus Geek
 
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Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: Willamina, Oregon
Posts: 6,409
Coachwork: 97 Bluebird TC1000 5.9
Congratulations on your progress. Yes, want versus need. I have to remind myself that this is actually a form of camping fairly frequently.
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Old 06-01-2017, 11:54 AM   #5
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Oklahoma
Posts: 36
Year: 1988
Coachwork: Bluebird
Engine: 454
Intentional living

I decided to refer to it as "intentional living", as it isn't true off grid living. When we finish the project, we will probably on the grid as much as off.

But things we take for granted (sewage, running water, electrical) suddenly become something we're taking charge in the process -- which is something I find fascinating and utterly horrifying at the same time.

I keep running updates on the blog in my signature, and usually blog daily. We're about to get into topics like composting toilets and such, so feel free to peek in.
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