Builds

Windows ended up being one of those topics I thought I could figure out in an afternoon, but the deeper I got into it, the more I realized how many decisions branch off from that one starting point. Remove them, keep them, tint them, replace them, seal the openings, frame around them for your walls, … Read more

Weight is the silent build killer. I can’t tell you how many forum threads I’ve gone through where someone posts their gorgeous finished bus and then two comments down, someone asks what it weighs, and the builder either doesn’t know or finds out they’re way over. This is one of those topics I spent a … Read more

The kitchen ended up being the single most complicated part of my entire bus build research. Not because any one piece is especially difficult, but because every decision branches out into three other decisions you haven’t made yet. Pick your cooktop and now you’re knee-deep in your power system. Choose a fridge and suddenly your … Read more

Living in a steel tube year-round means dealing with temperature extremes that most homeowners never think twice about. I spent months digging into every heating and cooling option people actually use in their bus builds, and the amount of conflicting advice out there is honestly staggering. Some people swear by one solution, others call that … Read more

Framing and walls are one of those stages in a bus build where everything you did before — insulation, wiring, plumbing — either gets protected or gets buried. I spent a stupid amount of time researching this because I kept seeing builds where the walls looked gorgeous on day one and then people were posting … Read more

Flooring might be one of the most underestimated parts of a bus build. I know I didn’t think much about it when I first started planning, figured I’d just slap something down and move on. But then I started reading build threads and forum posts and realized that flooring in a bus touches everything — … Read more

If there’s one part of a bus build that affects everything else, it’s the bedroom. Where your bed goes dictates your floor plan. How big it is dictates what’s left for everything else. And whether you sleep well on it dictates whether you actually enjoy living in a bus or just tolerate it. I spent … Read more

The bathroom was the part of our bus build that I spent the most time overthinking. And I don’t mean a little bit of overthinking — I mean weeks of going back and forth on toilet types, shower materials, waterproofing methods, and drain pipe sizes before I finally accepted that every single decision in a … Read more

Appliances were the part of the build where I went from casually planning to genuinely overwhelmed. Every single appliance connects to your power system, your fuel system, your weight budget, and your floor plan all at once. I’d pick a refrigerator and then realize it changed everything about my battery bank. I’d settle on a … Read more

I remember the exact moment I went from casually watching skoolie videos on YouTube to actually thinking, “I could do this.” It was a build tour of this guy’s 40-foot Blue Bird — he’d done the whole thing himself, no construction background, no formal training, and the thing looked like it belonged in a magazine. … Read more