October 2015 – The Big Bus Theory

After weeks and weeks of searching…hours and hours of research (we are now both bus experts) scouring government auctions, public forums and “skoolie websites”, and of course craigslist, we found our perfect bus! We knew what we wanted – a transit style, 84 passenger bus, with high headroom, and less than 150K miles. Unfortunately, this is what most other people want, and we have a very limited budget, so we figured we would have to buy a smaller bus, with more miles, that needed more fixing up. Because we didn’t expect to find a bus this soon we didn’t have our bus money yet. John called the owner hoping that he could make a good impression. John had a great call with the guy and sent him an email with our contact info and a little info about our plans for the bus. The owner was such a great guy and he really seemed to like us, after we had talked he agreed to hold it for us until the end of the week so we could get the money together.

We drove out (over an hour away) to see the bus and it was just as wonderful as we hoped it would be. We hadn’t planned to spend as much as we did on the bus but it was in excellent condition, it was transit style (this means higher headroom, storage underneath, and more internal space with the flat front). The previous owner had already started the renovation process by removing all seats, windows, and flooring PLUS the bus came with 3 water tanks, an air conditioning unit, a toilet, and other RV accessories! This made the bus a magnificent find and a good deal! We exchanged money and the title to the bus and the current owner offered to drive it to Plano for us next weekend. We feel so blessed to have found this bus and cannot wait to start construction on our new home!