Newbie - in the Dream Phase

[Lovinglyblunt]

Hi Skoolie Folks,

Thanks for this awesome community of creative people!!!

There are a ton of reasons my husband and I dream about building our own bus house, I’ll list some of them here, and hopefully you can help me with the Reality because neither of us knows much about the mechanical or construction elements. We are young, naive, and have very little savings so are really just in the planning phase. I keep telling my husband that if we don’t allow ourselves to dream we won’t have any material for making goals in the future! So that’s what we’re doing.

What we’d like in a bus house:
Full-Time living = for us, probably a full size bus with roof raise
Excellent air quality = low/non-toxic materials
Off-grid capability = solar, composting toilet, etc.
Diesel engine with WVO conversion
Hitch for car towing? Anyone done this?

I would welcome info from folks who:
1. Can recommend best diesel bus models for skoolie conversion and wvo conversion.
2. Have experience with non-toxic building (I have had cancer and continue to struggle with chemical sensitiviy since chemo).
3. Can talk about financing options, ways to raise money, etc.
4. Knows of other members who have built similar projects, especially in the NE or NW (I’m a Seattle native).
5. Are interested in talking more in depth about our dream project because I have a lot of thoughts with very little action going on!

A little bit about Why a Skoolie? I’ve looked a lot at tiny houses and keep coming back to school buses instead of trailers because of the independence and versatility, a stripped school bus is a blank canvas and I find that very exciting. We are young and can’t imagine owning a regular house, especially with my chemical and mold sensitivities. I am seriously impacted by my living environment so it is very attractive to be able to control everything that goes into it. We may have to move a number of times for my husband’s job and I HATE moving. As difficult as it may be to downsize I would pay money AND give someone most of my stuff for the ability to not have to move for a while.

Eventually we want to adopt kids, so will probably have to settle down then, but until that day comes I’d like to travel together, visit friends and family and not worry about a mortgage. That’s the jist of it, but there are lots of other reasons we want to go Skoolie!

Best!