Couple Transforms School Bus Into A Gorgeous Home On Wheels

But what could be so incredible to lure you away from your place in a stable yet stationary home? Well, the McVays’ vehicle house is a work of art, yet some would say they already led the perfect life. “We were classed as successful and should have been wildly happy, but we weren’t,” 34-year-old Tawny told British newspaper The Sun in 2019. 

She’s right, too — at least from an outsider’s perspective. Perhaps it was the couple’s trip to Rome that made them realize how restricted their regimented life was. Whatever the cause, they decided there was something missing from their lives, and they didn’t know what until they saw another family’s story. It sparked a fire underneath them to change their lifestyle in a drastic way. 

Tawny elaborated, “In early spring of 2018 we saw a documentary about a couple who converted a school bus into a tiny home. We did some research and put our house on the market a few weeks later.” It wasn’t just the house they sold, either — by the time they were finished, the McVays had auctioned off most of their worldly possessions. 

“Within two months, we had sold most of our belongings and had the house and our business under contract,” Tawny said. “We searched and searched for the perfect bus, finally found it, and with everything tied up, we bought the bus and jumped in.” They discovered the bus in question quite serendipitously from a big truck retailer. Yet their happy accident quickly turned into a disaster.

Initially, the 2004 school bus — which the McVays called “Oliver” after their beloved missing cat with whom they’d intended to travel — set them back $5,000, though their losses were almost considerably more. “Our house fell through two days before closing the deal,” Tawny revealed. “And the person buying our business pulled out.” So they were left with no money, no home… nothing. 

Tawny continued, “We had to move in with Mike’s parents, and it was a very taxing six months. According to the numbers we were a week away from bankruptcy.” At one point, Tawny was even on the floor in tears. Luckily their fortunes turned around at the last moment. Before the end of the year both business and house were sold, and converting Oliver began in earnest shortly after. 

So how do you go about turning an old school bus into not just a home on wheels, but one as beautiful as the McVays created? Well, they didn’t plan on taking a bus full of schoolkids with them, so the first things to go were the seats. Their Instagram account — titled “Since We Woke Up” — recorded every step of the journey. 

Renovating Oliver wasn’t an easy task, either. It took a team including, at various times, both the McVays, their two children, Tawny’s brothers and her father. To give you some perspective, it took a couple of days just to remove the seats! Apparently, Tawny’s son was particularly interested in the demolition side of things, and she cunningly put the young child’s love of destruction to use. 

“This kid is obsessed with the bus,” Tawny said of her son. “I think he’d live in it right now if we let him, but in the meantime he’s content to sit out there for hours at a time helping us tear it apart.” They didn’t stop at the seats, though. “I would have loved to skip that particular adventure,” the mom wrote on Instagram regarding seat removal.

The family also completely gutted the interior along with the seats, removing the walls and floor, too. They did all of this themselves, although they admitted that some of the work was just temporary until they could get professionals in. This was the case with their first paint job, for instance, which turned the yellow school bus into a lovely white. 

The couple replied to a comment on Instagram, “We used a special metal paint from Rustoleum that had primer already. We plan to get it professionally painted next year, so this was an interim measure before he gets super-classy.” This radical change of lifestyle seemed a lot of effort to go to when the McVays seemed to have had it all. So there’s just one question. Why? 

Apparently, it’s a common question people ask Mike and Tawny. “We get asked a lot why we made the decision to sell off almost everything we own to live in an old school bus,” they said. “The answer is pretty simple, really. Freedom. We had a beautiful life. A gorgeous five-bedroom craftsman in a lovely little neighborhood, a brand new car, and all kinds of little toys to keep us busy and happy. Except, we weren’t.” 

They continued, “We were working to pay for a house we were only able to spend one day a week at and a car we only got to drive to and from the gym because two weeks of the year was all we could manage to grab away for ourselves.” Then, the couple said that one day they had an epiphany. They wrote, “We suddenly realized how incredibly ludicrous it was, and made the decision that same day to change it all.”

So they began work on Oliver to find both home and freedom combined. The more they worked on the bus, the more they felt progress towards their goal, too. For example, installing a subfloor and insulation into their bus was a great step to making it feel more homely. That sensation only intensified when the real floor was in place.

Most of the McVays’ work is DIY — they even fitted the windows themselves. They described on Instagram how they considered three different window options: without glass or “opened”; with glass or “covered;” and completely obstructed, or “skinned.” Keeping them open obviously meant exposure to the elements and skinning them wasn’t appealing. But the middle option seemed just right… with one small tweak. 

Instead the couple covered the bus windows with tinted glass, making vision almost one-way from the inside. “Putting this on was a chore, but worth the effort,” they reported. “And not having to lose the aesthetic of the school bus windows from the outside in favor of metal was a huge plus for us.” All told, they had to cover 59 side windows, hence the challenge. 

Of course, the McVays were up to the challenge, especially Tawny. She’s actually the mastermind behind Oliver, despite people assuming her husband Mike is the DIY guy. “[People are] always a little shocked when I tell them the bus plan and design are all mine, and that a lot of what they see I helped build with these two little hands,” she admitted. 

And on the subject of DIY, the McVays designed Oliver to live as simple a life as possible. Alongside the windows, which let in and out a certain amount of heat, they went low-tech with temperature regulation. For instance, they made use of a Jotul wood stove, which they purchased for a mere $40 from a friend, rather than opting for expensive electrical heaters. 

Despite eschewing some of the trappings of modern life, the McVays do still use electricity. Even those who have chosen to live an off-grid or minimalist life often do. That’s where portable generators and solar arrays come in handy. In the McVays’ case, they’re using it to record their story and upload it to followers online to entertain and inspire.

They have plenty of pictures of their DIY journey, too. As soon as they laid down the laminate floor the McVays began creating the layout for their new home. It wasn’t long before they had the building blocks for several rooms, including the bathroom and bedroom. The latter was actually fitted above the bus’s rear engine block, unusual among similar bus conversions. Tawny just couldn’t bear to let the rear window go unused. 

The couple also installed appliances on Oliver. Tawny told The Sun the vehicle’s amenities include a “full kitchen with range and fridge, bathroom with a composting toilet, shower and washer/dryer combo… There’s almost 100 gallons of fresh water, two propane tanks and a solar system with 600W of panels and 600 Ah batteries.” But what about the exterior? 

Well, when they first got him, Oliver was the typical yellow of your average school bus — but as we previously hinted, the McVays wanted their mobile home white. Even this process inspired their social media viewers! “I’m planning on sailboat and or RV living and these pictures are motivating,” one follower wrote. “Just know that you’re making a difference to [the] people that view.” 

Back inside, work was progressing nicely on making Oliver look a little more like a home than a bus. And one of the best ways of doing that was adding fixtures. Once the McVays had installed their counters, the plan for the mobile home started to take shape. And although their concrete overlay only came later, the difference they made was still impressive. 

Sure enough, the time came when the McVays were putting the finishing touches to their masterpiece. “So the bus is so close to finished it’s freaking ridiculous,” Tawny wrote on Instagram. “Interestingly enough, it’s making me not want to post photos, because I want that ’TA-DA’ magical unveiling effect. There’s all these little projects to finish, but the groundwork is all there now. It’s a home. Our home.”

So where do you call home when you don’t have a backyard? The answer is simple: everywhere! The couple wrote on Instagram how they’re now experiencing the freedom they deserve thanks to their gambit. And they don’t regret a thing! But if the McVays’ story hasn’t convinced you to shed your old life so far, when you see the results their argument only gets stronger. 

When Tawny and Mike first got the bus they so affectionately called Oliver, it was just a rundown old yellow clunker. But after an incredible amount of care and attention he’s been transformed into the home of their dreams. By now you’re probably wondering how much they spent on renovations, right? Well, it cost $15,000. And they reckon it was worth every cent. 

We present you the fruits of the McVays’ labor — Oliver’s interior! And it looks just as cozy as any stationary house you’ll see on the market. In fact it’s even more so, because the couple have made incredible use of the limited space a bus provides. They have every amenity you could wish for, including a TV and a creatively-shaped bookshelf that fits Oliver’s contours. 

And as you can see, there’s plenty of room for the family. In fact, there are hints of just how much Oliver can hold in the background. The kitchen is cunningly designed to follow the shape of the bus’ walls, and Tawny’s decision to “cover” the windows was dead on. Oliver gets plenty of light through the many windows, and his white color helps keep things feeling bright and fresh. 

The couple turned one end of the bus into a living nook and incorporated a steering wheel into its design. Not only have they kept the vehicle aesthetic, but they have turned its fixtures into a point of interest. And the McVays have ingeniously managed to balance the industrial elements with rustic designs such as the natural chest and wood burner-style heater.

The bohemian look runs throughout Oliver, and the McVays have even gone so far as to use traditionally outdoor furniture to compliment the style. For example, they have a hammock which isn’t just a handy comfort tool for their adventures in nature. It also doubles as a lounger while the family’s parked. It’s hard to recognize the driving area now. 

So what does a kitchen look like in a mobile bus home? Well, much like any you’d find in a regular house, of course! The basic plan for the kitchen has stayed pretty much the same throughout — even the travel map on the wall is the same. Still, everything’s been tightened up, the breakfast bar’s been given its top layer and now the map has many more locations charted on it. 

And as for the bedroom, remember when Tawny was so insistent on keeping that big rear window? She got it, and it’s everything she hoped for. Even in the bad weather, she can enjoy being close to nature without having to experience it first-hand. “We’re enjoying a beautiful rainy fall morning today,” she wrote on Instagram. “And the only reason I will be moving from this spot is to get more coffee.” 

That’s not to say there hasn’t been some remodeling done along the way, though. No one gets things done right the first time, every time. The McVays replaced their toilet with a concrete bathing space during the bus’ development. “We created the drain to hook up to a rain barrel so we could reuse the water in our future garden,” they wrote. “We use homemade soaps with natural ingredients.” 

Meanwhile, they moved the toilet to the opposite side of the bathroom to consolidate some space, but the end result was worth it. They explained, “We took out the bulky vanity that housed a washer/dryer unit, swapped the side of the bathroom our toilet was on, put in a smaller vanity, and created a built-in bathtub where the toilet used to sit.”

So now they have their ideal mobile home, what’s next for Tawny and Mike? Well, Tawny has written a book on her life-changing experience with the same title as their instagram account, Since We Woke Up. There was quite a setback when the first batch were misprints, but they were ready to ship just a few weeks later. 

Beyond that, the couple live their lives the way they had always dreamed! They travel from place to place in Oliver, living about as far off-the-grid as is possible for avid social-media users! One of Tawny’s posts reminisces “about that time in the desert I woke up before everyone else to watch the full moon set with my coffee as the sun rose behind me in a pastel sky.” 

That’s not to say a life on the road is completely smooth sailing, though. As Tawny told The Sun, “Every lifestyle comes with pros and cons.” She explained, “Having a home on wheels isn’t always an easy choice; it takes determination, as you have breakdowns and travel issues to deal with.” So have they encountered many along the way? 

She continued, "We’ve been very fortunate to not have too many problems while on the road. We have our Great Dane called Apollo to protect us, but thankfully the only thing ever going bump in the night has been the occasional wild animal when we stay in the woods. Sometimes it can be tricky finding somewhere to fill up on water or find a place to park the bus when we are visiting bigger cities.”

“Where will we go next?” she asked on Instagram. “Our answer is always the same — we don’t know. I’m sure we won’t live in the bus forever. We have always been people who prefer frequent change, and I’m sure that at some point we will want to move on to a new experience.” To The Sun she concluded, “To be honest, as the saying goes, we would rather die on an adventure like this than live standing still.”