So we brought a bus, a very large 11.5 metre long bus that used to be a coach in its previous life before being converted to a house bus. It is an older diy style conversion, with some great points that attracted us to buying it in the first place, and some not so great little quirks that will need to be changed before we can head off on our journey.
It has a nicely made kitchen which will need a new oven and stove top put in and we want a bigger fridge freezer than what it currently has, but apart from that it is great. It has lots of seat belts a major plus as we struggled to find one with more than one or two belts and we really didn’t want to have to convoy along behind the bus in our car. It also has two sets of bunks and a very large platform at the back for the main bed which when we brought it had a queen size mattress. So six beds for only the three of us, leaving us the option of pulling out one set of bunks and making room for the toilet that was currently the missing piece of our puzzle, the bigger fridge and to redo the current shower which does not look overly watertight. It also needs an upgrade of the solar system and we suspect a bit of work on the electrics. And a proper grey water tank as the current one is an old metal drum!
On arriving home with our new purchase I must admit to a few moments of, have we done the right thing?? But after a thorough cleaning and removing all the old curtains and mattresses it all seemed a bit better.
We had to wait a very long week before we got a mattress sorted for our bed and Olivers bunk and could spend our first night in the bus. Finally it felt like all our months of dreaming and planning were coming together!
Then after just over a week it had to go away for some mechanical repairs. The people that we had brought it off had lived in it at a permanent sight for around three years, it had been driven very little and had no mechanical work done on it in that time so the old girl needed a little bit of love. When we eventually got it back and took it for its COF (bus version of a wof) it failed on a couple of other things that the mechanic hadn’t picked up. So our plans for our first weekend away in the bus where interrupted.
Instead we spent the next week pulling out the spare set of bunks and converting the top bunk that we are keeping to a little play/reading space for Oliver. My lovely mother also made us lovely new curtains and covers for the new foam we brought for the seats in the lounge. We finished this all the day before it had to go back to the mechanics and now we wait not so patiently to get it back.
My Wandering Kiwi Family 