Home Ownership

On this blog I have written a lot about the value of a simple life, and the ability to roam, and taking life slow, and the value of having a roof over your head. Always a fan of putting actions into words I am stepping into the world of home ownership with my fiancé. Well, earlier this week we bought a house... bus...bus-house! It is 40 ft of Bluebird snub nosed goodness and we are very excited. We got it here in Austin from a man who has been converting it into a studio/ office space. As a living space it is about 80% there, as a completed project we are probably looking at 60% done, and as a great recycleable home project it is right on.

For years I have been interested in the mobile lifestyle, tiny houses, re-purposing useful materials, and auto mechanics. Recently these interests have taken me into the world of buses. There seems to be a whole web community of bus conversion enthusiasts called Skoolies who retrofit old busses into tail gating machines, book-mobiles, Recreational Vehicles, and even homes. Since Natalie and I met I have been teasing her about moving into a van or somesuch nonsense to avoid high cost rent, have a mobile house, and travel. After joking about the idea for a few months we found a beat up old bus for sale in Hico, TX and the race was on, we were going to get a bus. It is a brilliantly simple plan and offers us so much room to work with our hands, be creative, and express our world views through physical action.

As an experiment in simplicity the bus allows us to strip our lives and possessions to a very finite number. We have just under 400 s.f. to contain our lives from working, sleeping, and cooking to cleaning, entertaining, and recreating. Both of us are coming from relatively modest living situations and working to fit our basic needs and a few enriching extras into this new environment. Our goal: to be able to live and thrive in a healthy, functional, and above all tasteful rolling home.

We are working with friends to secure a place to park/live next year as newlyweds while Natalie finishes nursing school and I work as an outdoor educator in Austin, TX. After that the world is our oyster and will most likely be rolling out of town onto a new adventure. We hope to keep you all posted on our home owning journey on this blog. Stay tuned for details.

Peace and Love

Mike