Say what you will about tiny houses or other types of mobile habitats, but they're not exactly cut for large families. A couple with one or two kids can still make it work living on the road in a home on wheels, but a larger unit will struggle – unless they take matters into their own hands.
Taking matters into one’s hands means DIY (do it yourself) work in the world of mobile homes. DIY projects are a dime a dozen these days, with their numbers increasing as the popularity of downsizing and tiny living boomed. But even on this rather crowded scene, a build like this one is bound to stand out.
Digital nomadism, the developments of 2020, and the ongoing housing and financial crisis have fueled tiny and nomadic living, pushing them into mainstream and turning them into steady income for those practicing it. Anna and Jeff are no different from those in the sense that they're a young couple traveling the United States in a DIY build, creating content as a side job. Where they stand out is the fact that they bring along five kids, a cat, and a dog inside that same DIY build.
Tiny living has countless advantages and touted benefits you're probably tired of hearing about over and over again. For all its merits, there's one thing tiny living can't do: it can't do more with the space it has than it does. Put differently, you can only fit so many people and so many things inside a tiny home, or a skoolie conversion, or anything in between these two. So, how do you go about fitting in a large family of seven plus pets?
Photo: Instagram/Sweet Sweet Bus Life
One way is the Frankenstein way, and this is what this hybrid of a mobile home does. It doesn't have a proper name like other units we've covered before (though you can find it under Sweet Sweet Bus Life on social media), but it's an impressive one nonetheless: a former skoolie converted into a home, then turned into a rolling mansion by means of a second level that's actually a tiny house loft. This mobile home is a skoolie with a chunk of a tiny home plopped on top, if you'll allow a more blunt description.
Like many other DIY builds, this one, too, was a work in progress for a very long time, which means it's seen many changes and improvements over the years. It started out as a retired school bus Anna and Jeff bought in October 2017 from Chicago for as little as $4,000. It would spend the next two years in what Jeff describes as "phase one" of the construction, where it was turned into a home on wheels, but without the second level it now has.
In 2020, the skoolie got the tiny house addition to meet the requirements of a growing family. It already provided separate sleeping for the parents and three of the kids, but it needed more bedrooms because the family was expanding. You can't add too much to the length of a bus, so the only way to expand was to go upwards while being mindful of weight and durability. This is how the tiny house loft was added, offering two more bedrooms with a mini-split and a games room.
Photo: Instagram/Sweet Sweet Bus Life
In this "second phase" of the build, the front access door was closed off, and the interior was upgraded. The sofa on the passenger side got an L-shaped extension, and the driver's cab became more compact. All the seats on the sofa have seatbelts under the cushions, as well as storage underneath and up above in recently added cubbies and shelving.
The bus also has a full kitchen with Ikea furniture, a four-burner propane stove, a large fridge, and a washer-dryer combo. Depending on the time of day, the living room can be a lounge, a classroom where the kids do work (they were homeschooled at first, but now Anna does unschooling with them), or a dining room.
The hallway has three enclosed bunks, with the loft on top offering three more small rooms. Opposite is the bathroom with a Nature's Head composting toilet, a small sink with vanity, and a large all-tile shower. Also here is the only piece still remaining from the original bus: the large mirror that the driver would use to watch the kids in the back now doubles as bathroom mirror.
Photo: Instagram/Sweet Sweet Bus Life
The master bedroom is at the rear, with a king-size bed with gas struts for underneath storage and easy access to the engine. There's even room under it for a tunnel for the cat, leading to an automatic litter box. This is the kind of detail you tend not to pay much attention to when you live in a brick-and-mortar home, but it becomes a must when living on the road, or you'll be spending your days tripping over it.
The bus now offers a livable surface of 390 square feet (36.2 square meters) and something like a small bubble of private space for every one of the people onboard. The cost of the build was close to $50,000 in total but split in two and spread out across several years: $31,000 for phase one and $15,000 for phase two, plus the initial price of the bus. But the memories this bus helps make are, as that old commercial used to say, priceless.
Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends. Full profile
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