Hello everyone!
I am very excited I found this community!
I'm still in the early planning and research stages.
I just started a savings account today to save up for buying a school bus. I am going to try to use my tax returns to speed up the funding process. As of right now, I'll have the funds to find and buy a school bus right around my birthday in May of 2022.
Seems like a long way off but I won't let it stop me! It will give me some time to research, plan, design, and prepare for when I do get my bus.
https://wegotschooled.com/2017/02/22...-to-buy-a-bus/ has some good tips, so I have started a Simplenote to start organizing my thoughts, ideas, resources, etc.
The Simplenote can be found at
http://simp.ly/p/cKCRxS if anyone wants to follow along on my journey.
I'm also planning on making a blog about the whole thing.
OCNIOS - The Origin Story
I was born in California and spent my early childhood in Oregon before being transplanted to Michigan. Over the years I've debated where I want to live. I hate the cold so Michigan isn't the most ideal state for me. I've looked at moving back to the West Coast but the thought of buying a home; I lost my first house in the last recession - terrifies me. I also can't stomach the idea of spending the kind of money required to own a home in most places. I don't want a giant mortgage, and I often change my mind about things. I don't want to be stuck living somewhere tied to a mortgage.
I don't really have a family to speak of other than a very loving and supportive mother (more on her later). Due to this, a big concern of mine from a young age has been retirement. I don't have really anything put away for retirement. I've never made enough money to be able to reliably contribute to a 401k, Roth, or other plan. I still do, Betterment.com has made it easy, but I'm only able to trickle money into the account.
I can't stand the idea of being locked into some horrid retirement facility I probably won't be able to afford anyways.
I also want to travel. When my family moved to MI from OR we drove across the country a few times. Being able to see places like the Badlands National Park changed my life. Living in MI is a stark contrast to having access to the ocean and mountains.
Living off the grid has also been something that has more and more appeal. With the world events being what they are, should a zombie plague erupt or our power grid go down, I want to be safe and secure.
Recap:
I don't make a lot of money.
I want to travel.
I want to prepare for living independent in retirement.
I don't want a big mortgage.
I am becoming more and more excited by off the grid living options.
Now, I am not new to the Tiny House movement. For a few years now I have pined over internet postings about Tiny Homes, Cobb Homes, and everything in-between. However, most of these options will still run you as much, if not more, than it would cost to buy a modest home in Michigan.
So, what to do!?
Enter the School Bus house. Good condition used school buses seem to run around $6000. Sadly double deck buses aren't common in the US so I doubt that will be an option when I am ready to buy. Still, if I can get something around the 80 passenger mark, I should have enough room to build a comfortable house - it is just me after all - and my future dog (more on him later).
Sadly, I have nowhere to park the school bus to work on it. Or, do I?
My mother recently purchased some property up north in Michigan. Right now it's an empty lot. Her and I are working to get a micro shed homestead put together on it for camping trips.
How serendipitous! Now I have somewhere to park my school bus once I buy it so that I can work on converting it to my future home!
I hadn't even realized how depressed I was getting in life thinking about being 32 and renting out a room in a condo. No judgement, but for me it left me feeling like I had no independence, and wouldn't - without going into massive debt. I felt like I had no good options for actually building a life for myself. Now I do.
I am thrilled to now have access to some property to park a school bus and work on converting it to my forever home once I can buy one.
Now to commence the research/planning!
Some big questions/wish list I have - the items may not be possible:
1) I'd like to make a semi-permanent homestead. I am hoping that once my home is ready to hit the road that I can find some land to buy somewhere to park it and set up my tiny homestead so I can have things like a greenhouse.
2)I don't want to get rid of my car. Another reason I'm hoping to find a semi-permanent location to 'settle down'.
3) See attached photo. I haven't decided if I want to do this as a garage, or just for expandable living space, or even how to go about it, but I love the idea!
4) I work in IT. My company is gracious enough to let us work remotely. So, I either want somewhere where I can use my unlimited hot-spot to get internet connection for working - or somewhere I could have a short commute to one of those rent-an-office type establishments where you can obtain hotel-like services for 'office space'. Either way, for my future in my tiny home to work - I will absolutely need decent internet, or easy access to it.
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