Recently bought 4-window short bus-partial conversion

[S0ManyQuestions]

Hello all! I am so happy I found this place and am excited to share my story. I purchased my Bus back in January and have been so overwhelmed with a lack of direction and knowledge of the previous builders plan and current installations. I have made a few posts here already mainly seeking electrical help, but I have yet to make a formal intro! Forewarning, I am a scatterbrain and that will be evident in this upcoming long, poorly organized, grammatical nightmare that is this post, apologies in advance. Heres my Story:

I recently moved an hour away from my hometown after graduating college to manage and run a new area leading home aid agency. I bought a house right before the market here went crazy so I have a solid investment in this place and working on it over the last year has thought me some valuable skills- also had basic home improvement skills from jobs as a kid helping the family business flip rental properties. Its a small modest home in a nice neighborhood built in the 80s. (I am blessed to have no debt from school and am very fortunate to have the job I have). My company bought and wrapped my vehicle - so I no longer had a car payment or had to pay for gas, but the only vehicle I had was wrapped in all company advertisements.

Being away from home and friends going all different directions, I have lost the will to travel that I had when big groups of friends would plan together back in school and prior to covid. Now its been two years since I have been outside the state of Illinois and with my big fur pup, I became very interested in ways to camp and travel with my dog and not pay for hotels or air bnbs with pet fees and such. I fell in love with van life and RVs but never really thought that was something real for me. I always thought as I progress further into my career and save id be the dad that buys an RV for the family and that was the extent of what I thought my reality could be. I always watch van/skoolie life videos and loved that lifestyle but just did see it being realistic anytime soon. I am a big fan of the youtube, "Mav". Who does truck camping, fishing, and outdoor adventure videos and he had a basic truck camping build that he saw basically the entire country with. I thought that was awesome and I needed a vehicle anyways so I wasn't always driving the company car and had more freedom to travel. As I was truck shopping, I saw an ad on the freaking cars.com website for skoolie living.com. I had jokingly searched school buses near me for sale and of course, the algorithm knew what was best ahahah. That took me down a wormhole of just looking at the really cheap conversions (buses and vans) and the super expensive ones. I then found thevancamper.com- which was where I was able to find the Bus I purchased.

The ad listed the bus as, "2002 Chevy Collins 3500 Dully 4 Window Short Bus". It was listed for $18,000 and located only two hours away from me here in south central Illinois. It was a partial build and the ad was almost too good to be true. The post stated the work was done by a gentleman in Florida who had to stop due to running into some medical issues, the seller bought the bus in Florida (Orginally a Georgia school bus) and brought it up to Illinois. The seller stated he lived in Chicago suburbs and storing the bus while living in a townhome was an unforeseen challenge and had to rid of bus. The ad stated the original owners post stated the work done was: " Mechanically went through extensive maintenance on mechanics: replaced front breaks, rotors, calipers, pads, fuel pumps, mass airflow sensor, fuel injector spider. Rebuilt/cleaned intake manifold. All new spark plugs and wires. Installed AC that would have come with Chevy Van and removed old bus AC unit. The interior build highlights are: Fully insulated(6.5 R), vinyl flooring, overhead cabinet storage on left side, butcher top kitchen counter and lower cabinet space, ICECO 12v fridge/freezer, domestic two burner propane stove already fitted in counter, decent sized sink installed, comes with restaurant style faucet (not installed), natures head composting toilet, sealed sunroof, hatch/sunroof replacing emergency exit, ceiling lined with aromatic cedar (extra panels included), bus driver seat was replaced with back transit van seat so two can fit upfront, outside cedar table,The bus has power everywhere. We wired the bus with 12 volt system that is directly wired through a fuse box to a 270 AMP Hour battle born battery that charges off the alternator when the bus is running through a Victron 12v to 12v charge isolator. victron Bluetooth monitor installed, breakers, 2 DC fuse boxes that all power in bus is connected to. 2 back cabin lights, 1 overhead cabin light, 1 front cabin light. Prewired power for fridge, stove and tracklights. Back up camera installed, included Kurdy shower system and pre framed full bathroom, 55 gallon water tank, fittings, and water pump"

It sounded way too good to be true, but it was cheaper than all the trucks I was looking to purchase. I thought he was asking a bit much for the bus, he probably overpaid for it honestly and he seemed desperate to get rid of the bus asap. I figured I would email him offering him $10,000 cash and Id come take the bus out his driveway the next day. I sent that email thinking id get laughed off or hed take it as disrespect. i didn't really feel bad low balling knowing he wasn't the original builder and hadn't done anything to the bus himself but knew it was risky. Long behold he replies back. He stated that was way too low and that he had people interested and supposedly people were coming to check it out in the coming days. Mind you this is the day after Christmas around 8pm- so more than likely he wasn't busy at all- so I knew it was important i respond quick to him. If I was actually way far off, I don't think he would have responded. I responded saying I was offering him a cash, inspection free, quick deal. I know that in hindsight isn't the smartest, but as long as all the toys advertised were there and the bus ran good enough, it was a good investment. I have a good friend whos a mechanic and said he had rebuilt the Chevy 5.7L v8 and could easily help with any maintenance so I felt confident that if there were any engine issues- it wouldn't be a massive expense. Anyways, after I told him the convenience of the deal I was offering he became more interested. He stated someone was coming to look at it the next day and if better offer is made he will let me know. He also mentioned in that message that he couldn't take less than $15k. I replied saying that my offer still stands at $10k cash, quick and easy sale. He said he would let me know and again mentioned he couldn't take less than $15k. A couple days go by and I get an email from him saying that he could do $14,500k cash- next day pick up. I was super excited, as I honestly thought there was no way id hear back from him again. I had started looking more at cheap converted vans from the 90s early 2000s but when I heard back from him at that price- I started to think it was more realistic that I could end up with this bus. I countered back saying that I was stuck at $10k and mentioned the cost of new tires, alignment, and other maintenance things that needed to be done. As well as the convenience deal I was offering and coming to get the bus next day. This time, no reply for 24 hours. Hope started to flee and then as I'm getting ready to leave work the next day, i hear back and he says he could do $14,500 but that he really couldn't go any less than that. I told him I could do $12k, he quickly replied saying he isn't sure he can do that. I had gotten him to come down a good amount already. So I began to look into how much I could risk into this bus because I sure wasnt going to lose it as we were pretty close. I thought to myself, if I stripped the bus for parts and scrapped it in the worst case scenario, i could get half my money back at least. That thought was enough for me to come up a bit and just go all in. I told him I could do $13k but that was as high as i was willing to go and that when he realizes he wont get a much better offer anytime soon he can always reach out. He responded very quickly - thank god- I was extremely nervous when i opened it and he said that he thinks he could do that but then he dropped a bomb. He didn't have the title yet, he was still waiting on it to be delivered to him. His story seemed genuine though and he provided receipts that he wasnt full of **** and he wasnt trying to sell a bus with a junk title. Yet another risk, but I said that was fine and to get the title to me asap. He then said he has to talk with his wife and would get back to me in the morning. I was super happy to say the least. I was nervous as hell though and part of me hoped he emailed me in the morning saying he couldn't do it. But that was also part of me preparing myself for that possibility and to not get too hopeful. But when he emailed me the next morning saying I could come out that day to pick it up. I told him I would have to come out the next day as I couldn't get out of the office right then and there to drive two hours away. He agreed to let me come the next day, by this time, its a couple days after the new year. So its been about a 10day process since first contact. 10 day negotiation and I picked up my new bus. It was exactly how I thought it would be, smaller in person, but I'm small so not a big deal. I was excited to drive it back. It drove really good for having awful tires and noticibly needing an alignment. Steering wheel looks like its going left when bus is driving straight. Other than that the drive home was smooth and easy. Its 19ft so the size was nothing crazy and it hit 65 comfortably. Definitely loud and top heavy but that's to be expected lol.

Once I got it home, I was super busy with work and coaching wrestling, I didn't do much. I had spurts of doing things, always watching videos, but lacked motivation to really start working consistantly. Its been in my driveway for nearly 3 months now - finally received the title and all I have done is buy all brand new tires (6), built the bed frame, tear out the "bathroom" framing, and buy some remaining needed appliances (Chinese diesel heater and Excel tankless hot water heater). The new tires are a game changer and super glad I did that right away as it can now touch 75-80 easily. Since the initial high of bringing the bus home I've just been second guessing and feeling helpless with the build. Now that its warmer out here, Im much more motivated to put the hours in to complete the bus. In order to do so though I feel its the best investment long term to have electrical work inspected and completed by a professional. While I have learned a lot about the electrical side of things, it would take me a very long time to learn enough to execute all the changes and additions needing to be made to the existing electrical system. This is what ultimately brought me here.

I am hoping to find someone who can give me some guidance on quite a few things regarding my build. While electrical is a huge focus of mine with this build, I have tons of other questions and ideas to share. Pictures will be added to this post.

My Goal with the bus is to get it to 95% completed and travel ready by July-August. Meaning electrical completed, propane system installed, and fresh water system installed. While there is a lot of other work to be done, as long as all those are completed I can travel and work on it as I go. Hoping to go to the PNW for a trip in the fall and Colorado for the early winter. Id like to hopefully by next spring be in a position at work, where I am able to work from home/remote almost full time. I then would like to make sure the bus is fully complete and off grid capable. Depending on my financial situation and current economic climate- I would 100 % consider selling my house and living in my bus for a prolonged period of time. Or possibly even selling the bus and depending what I get out of it, also selling my house and investing in a promaster build 4x4 to go full off grid/remote. That all now seems realistic down the road for me- which is crazy. I never thought any of that was possible, but since I made the decision to buy a skoolie and got a once in a lifetime deal- its all possible. If I can give advice to anyone on the fence- do it. If you are afraid because you are on your own- look at partial builds. If you have the means, do it.

Alright, if you made it here, wow thank you! Below I will post a bunch of random pictures I currently have of the current state of my bus. As I do more I will update here as well. All critiques, ideas, suggestions, referrals...etc are greatly appreciated!
TLDR: impulse buys partial build- in over his head- seeking guidance- excited!