This Rhode Island Family Is Renovating An Old School Bus & Taking It On A Road Trip

July 28, 2020 Patty J

This summer my family and I are updating an old school bus and taking it on a road trip across the country.

We’re both excited and scared.

Once we got our bus safely back to the workshop, it was time to rip everything out and remake it to suit our needs.

At that point, the bus was still something of a stranger and we knew close to nothing about renovating one. (Boy, did we get schooled!)

First, we ripped out the seats and the floor. (This required a mix of tools and brute force! Also, ear plugs because the angle grinder we splurged on to remove the bolt heads helping hold the seats in place made so much noise.)

Then, we started closing off the windows and painting the exterior.

Painting a bus is a lot of work! It took our entire team and a 15 hour day to complete sanding, washing, taping, and the actual painting. (Most of the job is prep and my husband kept reminding me of THAT about every 5 minutes that day.)

Next we tackled the interior, removing the original ceiling panels and adding insulation.

Finally, we had our blank canvas, one that we could use to create something completely different that would be both comfortable and home-y for our family.

Update: We are so much closer to our goal of getting out on the road now that our bed, the kids’ bunk beds and the bathroom are all framed out.

We have also roughed in some of the electrical, finding some 12-4 mc kicking around the shop and using that to bring 2 circuits from the inverter in the storage cabinets to the kitchen and bedrooms. One circuit will be for the water heater and the other will be for everything else.

Our big green bus is so close to being done!