Floors

Fun Fact: Rubber floors in old school buses smell like stinky school children. Especially in the sun (the floors, not the children, although one can assume children left in the sun also smell less than fresh)

We went into this knowing Betty was no spring chicken. And she was an east coast girl, so that means snow and ice and salt. Add that all together and we knew rust would be part of the equation. We went back and forth on pulling the flooring out of the bus. Pros? It would allow us to assess and treat rust and start the build up from scratch. Also, see above in reference to stanky kids. Cons? It is a true pain in the arse. Also, current floor gives some strength to the floor of the bus. But not much.

We decided to pull the floor.

Some of the rubber mat pulled up pretty easily. Other sections left us with the belief that the builders of these buses are paid both in amount of screws/rivets used and gallons of adhesive. After hours of work, the floor of the bus is pretty much down to the sheet metal.

Our 10 year old has discovered the joy of demo. She loved using the pry bar to pull up the flooring and managed to not knock a sibling out cold. Wining!

On to rust treatment.

Betty Lou Blue

At some point in my life, I realized I wasn't normal. It took me several years more to realize I DIDN'T CARE!

Luck for me, I met a dude early on who also was a bit less than normal. Together, we made 4 children, who may or may not end up being normal.

We are the kind of people who, when others are planning a week in Mexico for spring break, we plan on fostering a litter of 6 kittens and maybe a puppy. When other spend hours on a perfect yard, we fill ours with a dozen chickens, a couple ducks, 4 rabbits and several different types of swings hanging from various trees. In the evenings, we sit on the front porch with a glass of wine and sing and play guitar/ukulele. Sometimes our kids "interpretive dance" to our music selection. We are THAT family.

The other day we noticed a family on a walk who we had seen walking before. We said "hi", invited them for a glass of wine on the porch and made new friends while our kids played tag. We talk to strangers...often. Our kids are not signed up for any sports nor do we care if they turn out to be athletic. We put being kind over being best. We value books over tv and video games. Our kids play long, elaborate games of pretend. We homeschool combined with fine arts school. We make cookies for elderly neighbors, invite all the neighborhood kids to play in our yard, take in stray animals and people. In the summer, we invite our friends kids to come over and make gloriously messy things, like hand made pasta and cheese bread.

I admit, when measured by the ruler labeled "American Dream" we might come up, well, just a little off. We don't want a bigger house. We are interested in more stuff and are looking to give away a lot of what we already have. I don't want a fancy job that puts me in the spotlight.

Which is why, when we told some of the friends in our life that we were buying a bus, they mostly just smiled that "good grief..." smile and changed the subject. Not to say people are not supportive, they might just not understand.

We have a childrens book called "Betty Lou Blue". It is about a little girl who is just a little different. People tease her, they are unkind, but when called on to help, it is the differences that allow Betty Lou to shine.

Betty Lou might be my hero.

                                               

We are now the proud owners of a 1998 Thomas International 3800 bus. Yes, a school bus. Why? Because we want to adventure big and live small. We still are not sure where this path will take us. Right now, we are building out the bus to be a tiny home on wheels. Maybe one day, we will live full time in our bus, named Betty Lou. For now we are enjoying the journey. We are learning new things, spending time together, dreaming big dreams of small spaces and wide adventures.

I will keep you posted on how things turn out!

Meet the Bus

Meet the newest member of our family, Betty Lou! She is a beast, with a DT466 engine and an Allison transmission. She came to us with under 200,000 miles (Big diesels like her can hit almost 1,000,000 miles) after being retired in 2014 from an east coast school district.

The kids were happy to meet her! We have been researching, talking, planning on this adventure for about a year and they have been patiently waiting to see what we end up with.

We were lucky to find this bus that already had the seats removed. While that isn't a task that requires a ton of skill, it can require a ton of TIME. It is just straight up hard work! She also came to us with some supplies gathered, so we have some various pieces of wood, a couple big tanks, some insulation and bits and pieces of tools. 

Step one? Get her parked and cleaned out. What a mess. We are luck to have a spot to work on her that happens to be close to a playground! The kids come with, help when they can, and play when the job is too dangerous or big.

Day 3 with our bus has been a success!