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She Built a $13,000 School Bus Tiny House with her Dad


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With the help of her dad and tons of thrifty finds, Kaetlynn’s bus conversion came in around just $13,000 (including the cost of her bus!). She estimates it would have cost double that — or more — if she hadn’t had the time to wait for good deals or the perfect Marketplace gem!

Kaetlynn is a professional Ultimate Frisbee Player, but when she’s not practicing she loves traveling with her adorable Husky or cooking in her huge (for a bus house) kitchen. She chose more counter space over having a shower or extra clothing storage. What do you think of her bus?

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Her 25 ft. School Bus Conversion with a Full Kitchen

pro ultimate frisbee player’s $13K Skoolie

Images via Tiny Home Tours

I love the soothing green she chose for the exterior.

pro ultimate frisbee player’s $13K Skoolie 3

Images via Tiny Home Tours

You can see she has a long bench for all her cooking.

pro ultimate frisbee player’s $13K Skoolie 2

Images via Tiny Home Tours

VIDEO: Her 25 ft. DIY Bus Tiny Home Build for $10K

Highlights:

  • Lives with her adorable Husky
  • Sacrificed bathroom/storage to have a nice big kitchen
  • Secret dog crate under her bed
  • Mural painted by her mom!
  • Tons of reclaimed/restored/recycled materials
  • Took 1.5 years to complete the build
  • Her dad helped with a lot of it.

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Natalie C. McKee

Natalie C. McKee is a contributor for Tiny House Talk and the Tiny House Newsletter. She's a wife, and mama of three little kids. She and her family are homesteaders with sheep, goats, chickens, ducks and quail on their happy little acre.

Latest posts by Natalie C. McKee (see all)

{ 7 comments… add one }
  • vee
    June 1, 2022, 7:13 pm

    Another very inspiring story of a woman who customised her cool space. I was impressed with most of it but really liked that she created good ideas for her dog. Love the pet pantry, pull-out dog bowls, cool bed with a mural — etc. I get the wanting a larger kitchen and a smaller bathroom space!! As always, she had help from her dad as many others do as well. Just have to say — “excellent”!!!

  • Marsha Cowan
    June 2, 2022, 10:57 am

    Wonderful story and build! Lots of good advice, too. For those, though, who do not have access to a friend or family member with electrical/battery knowledge, or who do not have the money to hire someone, there are still ways to have safe and effective electricity by using port plugs for electrical needs. These 14 gauge short cords are used on boats. They simply go through the wall to offer a plug on the inside, and a hook up to power on the outside. You can use a three-plug outlet with them on the inside to hook up three electrical things at once. I have two; one on each side of my house with 2 cords that run to an electrical power source. You can use single burner stove tops, and heaters up to 1200watts with them, though I do recommend not using them at the same time as this may push the limits. Check your voltages and watts on your appliances (read the annoying tag) to know how much you can run at a time on one port plug.

    Goal Zero is just one example of all-in-one solar power that is plug and play. Solar panels on top, cord hooks to the combination controller/ battery inside. You hook up your electrical lights, chargers, etc. to the battery. With the right solar outfit, you can run an electric cooler as well as lights, fans, charge phones, etc. But if you can only afford a small unit for fans, charging, and lights, you can still cook on a butane stovetop, and get a tent heater like Mr. Buddy for heat. You can even get individual lights (or string lights) that have their own solar charger. Don’t give up on living in a bus or tiny house just because you don’t have means for ideal. You can get by nicely, and cheaply, without the traditional ways of doing things. I have for 8 years now, and still living it. I’m just saying. . .

    • Marsha Cowan
      June 2, 2022, 11:01 am

      One more thing, I got by without a frig for the first 3 years, then used very tiny ones that could run on DC power on a solar unit. Frigs are optional, especially at first.

      • Eric
        June 3, 2022, 4:29 am

        It’s fridge… not frigs, that’s an unmentionable act. ‘Nuff said.

  • Marsha Cowan
    June 3, 2022, 7:07 am

    Really? Never heard the term. It’s a shame that in our country (maybe around the world) certain groups of letters are given perverted or derogatory or contextual meanings, and then the rest of us are supposed to accept those meanings as real and not use those letters or words in their normal or original way anymore. Fridge is a shortened form of refrigerator. I’m 70, and in my circles, frig is a slang (and quicker way) for referring to a refrigerator, not a sexual act. In it’s context, it should have been easy to tell the difference. I refrain from using universally accepted vulgar words as a rule, but I’m not even going to try to stay on top of all the recent, low life, vulgar apparition of words used in many circles of our society today. Those circles do not rule our use of language.

    • Natalie C. McKee
      June 3, 2022, 11:32 am

      It really is fascinating how language evolves. We always used, “friggin” as an acceptable replacement for the f-word in situations of exasperation or frustration. Fridge, of course, was short for refrigerator. But even as a millennial, I’ve never heard it used to mean anything unmentionable.

      • James D.
        June 3, 2022, 3:01 pm

        Yes, there’s often a difference between standard grammatical usage and how people may use words as slang for alternative meanings.

        Frig has also been used as an alternate way to say fidget (now obsolete usage), or to make a temporary alteration, fiddle with, etc. for example. While, for at least part of the 20th century, frig or friges was the shortened version of refrigerator(s) and was even in some user manuals.

        However, people have used frig as a way to refer to the F-Word since about the mid 15th century and about the 1670’s also used it to refer to the M-Word… So at some point someone realized this and added the “d” to change the spelling to Fridge, which is what’s the common usage is now when referring to refrigerator…

        There are other such examples of spell changes, like the seed of Guizotia abyssinica that used to be known as the niger seed. While pronounced differently and only have one “g” the possible confusion over the N-Word was enough that now you’d see it spelled nyger or nyjer™, a phonetic spelling that dodges any confusion on the product packaging…

        Some words can also have unfortunate meanings in different languages, including some common names…

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