WE ARE
HONEY
ANGELA
THE HUMMINGBIRD GIRLS
The Full Story
We set out to build our dream tiny home; build eco friendly and repurposing materials. This is a Skoolie Build on a limited budget with an artsy flair (because hey, we are arteests!).
We saw inspiration online. People were out there converting school buses and we got inspired!
We had a low budget yet we also wanted comfort.
We planned on using repurposed materials and use solar to power our comfy home.
First step was getting the bus and we found a non running one and traded a tired 2006 Dodge Minivan for it. Since it wasn't running there was towing involved and yeah, that gets expensive.
But we were the proud owners of a 20001 Thomas Built school bus. She was a 25 foot beauty but we had to find us a new or rebuilt Cummins Diesel engine. Calling around to diesel shops in southern California was eye watering; we were quoted $20-30,000! No bueno amigos; wrong neighborhood!
These people didn't seem to understand that we were on a low budget tour and we begin to research this challenge. We found an engine with only 40,000 miles on it (which is probably just broken in) and it was located on the east coast. We bought it, shipped it and found an affordable installer.
While we were waiting it was time to start an epic paint job! Inspiration came from the hippies of the 70s and the Ken Kesey Furthur Bus. These free thinking nomads are our ancestors!
If they could do it, so could we!
We went back and forth on what she would look like. When in doubt, camouflage is always a good option.
And so a camo themed design was born.
In southern California you can park your Skoolie anywhere until someone calls the cops ( which happens to us a lot for some reason), so it's important to at least look like you have some money. We didn't have a shop to work out of but we could pull behind a Home Depot; buy a combo set of power tools and get to work.
When security asked what we were doing, we simply explained we were making sure their products worked.
Security would promptly ask us to test them elsewhere.
We sourced discarded wood from home remodels as we decided on a comfy country home theme for inside the bus. We found bundles of tongue and groove pine from the returns at Lowe's. We scored some amazing redwood flooring from a remodel. We even used old pallets from behind furniture stores.
Here's our bathroom with composite toilet:
Pull out back bedroom and leather couch in front room folds into another bed:
Glam kitchen with stainless backsplash and puck lighting:
Hidden flatscreen monitor on a lift in living room. Pull out table is a skimboard some rich kid left at a Malibu beach (thanks, rich kid!).
And to stay eco friendly we added solar panels and lithium batteries to power our fridge, phones and lighting:
Added some outdoor blue LED lighting for fun!:
All in all, things came together through hard work and creative use of sourced materials. We are now taking her on the road living small but living large adventures. To quote Dr. Suess, "Oh, the places we'll go!"
We would love to share our Glam Skoolie as a rental or sell her to fund our next project. You can experience this lifestyle firsthand and see if it is something for you.
Honey and Angela are co creators of an amazing Children's Picture Book series available now:
Let’s Work Together
Get in touch so we can start working together.