A 100-Square-Foot Mini School Bus Is a Surprisingly Cozy Tiny Home on Wheels
Name: Cat Carroll, Aaron Colburn in Stu The Bus
Location: Currently Arizona
Type of home: 22-Foot Mini Skoolie
Size: 100 square feet
Years lived in: 1.5 years, owned
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According to Cat and her boyfriend Aaron, this 22-foot-long bus was all yellow on the outside, had all the seats inside, and even still had its wheelchair lift when they bought if off of Craigslist for about $6000. It would need a lot of work to become their home on wheels, but the couple was up for the challenge.
“We gutted it, built in a queen-size bed platform with garage space underneath, a bathroom with a composting toilet, an outdoor shower, a kitchen area with running water, and a refrigerator that’s powered by our solar panels, a storage pantry, and a large couch,” describes Cat in an article she wrote for Trail and Summit.
Along with all of the interior work of converting the bus into a home, Cat and Aaron also added solar panels to the roof and created a rooftop deck. And the whole exterior got a sage green paint job. After all of that DIY work and money spent (“The cost of the conversion was about $7,000, bringing our total investment to $13,000”), Stu the Bus was born! And Aaron and Cat have been living full time in him since April of 2018.
Describe your home’s decor style in 5 words: Nautical, functional, easy to clean
What’s your favorite thing about your home? We built it with our own hands, and it moves!
What’s your least favorite thing about your home?: No ice cubes or AC
What’s your best small space trick? Build in storage everywhere so everything has a place of its own. This helps eliminate clutter and makes the space feel bigger!
Thanks Cat and Aaron! Follow along with their adventures on Instagram, and read more about skoolie life and bus conversions with Cat’s writings on the subject.
*A previous version of this piece claimed the couple shared their bus with a pup, but that’s unfortunately not the case. Apologies for the mistake (is mercury still in retrograde?)