Frankly, I don't care.

[somewhereinusa]

This is something I posted on another forum in response to something about owning a bus isn't cheap.

I don't have very much money, never have had. Someone recently asked why I didn't just buy a motorhome. I may be plodding along on my conversion, but it's all paid for. I can wait until I have enough money to pay for what ever new project I am working on. If I had some kind of monthly payment that sucker comes every month no matter what. I don't even keep track of what I have spent. Who cares? It would probably scare me. It isn't fancy, there are a lot of the "fancy" buses/motorhomes that I don't care for. It does however, have things not found in a lot of the fancy units. I may spend more on trial and error and failed attempts trying to build something that I have seen and could have bought but, then again, who cares? I may drool over some cool thing that you have in your bus. Will I go out and buy one? No, but I may spend months trying to make one. I'm putting all of the things I've learned how to do in the first 65 years, into something I want to do. I do try to use the best of things that I can afford or make. I don't like plastic so, I try to make it out of something else. It might not be the best that YOU can afford, but I'm not trying to please you, or sell it to you. My bus sits in the driveway where I can see it out the bathroom window. Every time I look out there, even in the middle of the night, I think "that is really cool, I built that"
I have some systems that aren't the most efficient, I know that, I worked with what I could get or had and, they work. That pile of "junk" my wife occasionally mentions is getting smaller.

I don't see the wisdom of doing something a certain way so that it will be worth more when you sell it. I'm not doing it for them, I'm doing it for me. I don't sell things, ask my wife. I see TV shows where people have their house appraised then do some sort of remodel and have it appraised again. They are all happy that it gets appraised higher and are then told that they "made" x amount of dollars. Unless the appraiser hands them the new amount, they haven't made anything, they spent money. True, they may have added value but, if they live there ten years it will have to be redone anyway. Apparently anything over ten years old is "too" dated and couldn't possibly be left that way.

Dick

[EastCoastCB]

couldn't agree more.

[HolyBus]

I chalk a lot of their comments up to envy. Your comment about plastic hits home. I don't want to buy something that someone else designed and decided what was right. I want to decide and do the work so I know it was what I wanted and not something made of plastic that has to be resealed every year. Ever pull up next to Mr and Mrs Prevost at an intersection? I want a sign to hold up that says, "Got Payments?"

[EastCoastCB]

I pulled up next to Mr Prevost yesterday. I actually thought " Oh hell I wish I'd talked my parents into buying one of those when they got that gas rv on a ford chassis".
I do get your point though.

Thanks to the Mt Dora Art Show we actually has some really nice coaches and buses in town for the weekend. That Prevost was pretty sweet actually. It looked liek a brand new multi-hundred thousand dollar rig, but the owner had actaully made his own "bra" for the front with zip ties and corrugated plastic. I thought it was pretty cool!

[HolyBus]

That sounds like prevost envy! No thanks. When the banjos start, I don't want to be around one of those rigs.

[EastCoastCB]

mmmm i love banjos too.

[EastCoastCB]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1992-PREVOST...35482&pt=Buses
I'd sure like to be behind the wheel of something like this if needing to drive a couple thousand miles at a time. I'll likely not have that kind of cash anytime soon, hence the $2300 Ward.
I love my bus, don't get me wrong. I'm just saying that to me a bus is a bus, and if I were going to spend a whole lot of money, I'd start with a coach bus.

[Jimbino]

"I don't see the wisdom of doing something a certain way so that it will be worth more when you sell it. I'm not doing it for them, I'm doing it for me."

I couldn't agree more. Stupid-ass RE agents encourage you to paint and remodel for some phantom buyer of the future. Don't listen!

I will comment, however, that a young man of 20 can buy a home, remodel kitchen and bath, etc, increasing the value $250,000 in two years. He can then sell it and keep the capital gains TAX-FREE, then buy a bigger home, increase the value $250,000 in two years, and sell it, kekeping the capital gain TAX-FREE.

If he's married (not recommended) he can keep some $500,000 TAX-FREE.

Whichever you choose, it's much better than working for a living 9 to 5, and even better than restoring an old bus.

[HolyBus]

A family friend works at the following place. They gut, cut and customize Prevosts etc. for special clients.

http://floridacoach.com/

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by HolyBus

A family friend works at the following place. They gut, cut and customize Prevosts etc. for special clients.

http://floridacoach.com/

You get any help from that friend? Maybe get some deals on some scratch and dent parts??

[HolyBus]

I don't think so. He knows I have it but he charged me for the last work he did for me. Nothing they use would match my bus. Maybe water tanks.

[Veganvegabond]

Originally Posted by EastCoastCB

mmmm i love banjos too.

Dueling banjos or the whole "you're about to die in a swamp and become gator food" banjos?

@Dick, you're far from alone. As you said, there is a certain pleasure in building something yourself from scrap and/or free parts, even if it doesn't look like one of those fancy factory built RVs, but that is what makes a skoolie all the better. To me, a skoolie is an ever changing piece of art that just happens to be a home on wheels.

[EastCoastCB]

Both!
I grew up in the swamps.
Growing up rural has its advantages!

[Alan N]

We were filling up in Watson Lake BC and this enormous black and chrome thing pulls up to the pump next to us(swoosh). After a bit the electric steps come down (whiirr) and this older gentleman in coveralls gets out and looks at us with consternation. He pulls a rag from his pocket and starts walking around his machine wiping dust off the chrome all the while giving us and our bus strange looks. Now we had just spent a week in northern Alberta and the NWT (lots of gravel roads) and the bus was more than a little dirty. The man just kept looking at our bus and dusting his spaceship the whole time we were there. Finally as we were getting ready to leave he comes over and asks "Where did you get all that MUD?" Poor guy was worried, might scratch the paint.
I would much rather be free to go where I want in my hillbilly bus than have to worry about hurting the resale value of something that cost more than my farm.

[Veganvegabond]

Originally Posted by Alan N

I would much rather be free to go where I want in my hillbilly bus than have to worry about hurting the resale value of something that cost more than my farm.

^This. Also, do you have any pics of NWT? I've only been to BC and have only seen pics of NWT in National Geographic.

[somewhereinusa]

Twenty years ago I made the trip to Anchorage three times in a semi, at that time there was still 200 miles of gravel road. (It wasn't always the same 200 miles) I only wish I had taken pictures. I was hauling new van campers. I was the first to haul them up they used to drive them. They said I was the first to deliver one with out a cracked windshield. My truck however had 13 cracks in the windshield. Before I washed them you couldn't tell what color the vans were.
I hope to make the trip someday in the bus, taking a bit more time. From Nappanee IN to Anchorage is 8888 miles and I did it in 14 days. That's over 600 miles a day, some days it took 8 hours some took 14 or so. Best trips I ever made.

[nat_ster]

I have never cared what others think. Not in school, not now.

If I'm free to come and go, spend time with my few loved ones, Live debt free, ect, that's all that really matters. No debt = more time with the few I love.

I let my first wife convinced me to run up $200,000 in debt over the 10 years I was with her. I never wanted to, but she always had her own ideas. I was nothing but a slave. I worked 80 hours a week, 51 weeks of the year just to make the payments.

Paying that mess off is why my current bus is not done. I'm down to my last few $5000 payments and I'm debt free. I will never go into debt again.

Moving into my tool shed and living with almost nothing has helped speed up the process. $100 a month for rent vs $1600.

All in all who cares what others think. As long as you and your loved ones are happy.

Nat

[lornaschinske]

I look at the pictures of those fancy RVs (I think the "graphics" are ugly). I could not be comfortable in one. Too shiny, too "hard", too many mirrors, to many lights. Look like living in a nightclub. We had visited the kids for their birthday a few weeks before David died. After we had been back a couple of days, we were sitting watching TV and David looks over at me and says "I want to thank you". I asked for what and he said "For making this a home that is so comfortable to be in". And that is what self-converting is to me. I am not making a recreational vehicle. This bus is my home. I want to be comfortable and able to relax in it. It's not to impress anyone. I do have some nice things. But they would have been (and in some cases were) in my sticks-&-bricks home. It's mine. It may not be much by other peoples standards but it is free and clear and all mine. I owe nothing on it. Yes, it will end up costing a little more than I had hoped for. But I could not have bought a comparable manufactured RV for what I have in it. I'm home.

[Alan N]

[Alan N]