Just for fun, click the following link to see hundreds of interior photos of school buses converted into beautiful tiny homes. This link may or may not be permanent. If it doesn’t work then you can search for keywords Schoolie Interiors and find the same thing in an Image search such as Google Images. Depending on the search phrase you use, you’ll have hundreds of photos of bus conversions, van conversions, tiny houses, etc. at your fingertips.
The link above has images arranged in categories so you can browse interior images by Rustic, Hippie, Custom, etc. Copy and paste your favorites into a file for later reference. Look closely for features that you really like such as storage systems, window details, etc. This process will greatly help you come up with a practical design.
Thanks again to Richard for another good tip. He said schools typically sell their buses after 200,000 miles. You can buy used school buses for as little as $1,500!!! They’re extremely strong and well built, and therefore provide an excellent platform or basic tiny house structure. The shell is complete. You just need to finish it out. This is much easier than building something from scratch. Buses come in all different sizes. Search Craigslist or similar sites to find buses for sale. Please email us your suggestions for blog posts.
I now consider schoolies as a top choice for tiny houses on wheels. They are street legal, very sturdy, very well made. You wouldn’t have to tow it with a truck if you ever wanted to move it. They look kind of ugly to me but you could frame out the exterior and add siding to match any style of tiny house you want. And again, the main structure is done and it’s affordable.
I have to confess to being a little blind sided by this topic. For some reason I hadn’t looked into school bus conversions very deeply. I guess school buses seemed too big and costly and so I had a certain amount of bias against them. That went away in seconds when I saw all these beautiful tiny homes. Wow, some of them are really nice, very home like. Keep in mind you can get buses in different sizes including shorter ones that are less awkward to drive. This is a good example of how we can all benefit from contributions/suggestions for articles from others.
I wasn’t really aware this was a thing either, and I perform conversions for a living! Some of these are amazing, and I respect you for admitting that you hadn’t really looked into it that much either. It really opened my eyes!