@jess_and_jake

Gotta love outdoor date! @Jackery Store - Comment "SHOP" for a direct link or get the link in our bio to Jackery's Prime Big Deal Days: Up to 65% OFF! Of Power Out, Jackery On. #vanlife #skoolie #rvlife #skoolieconversion #vanconversion

The two of us live in less than 300 square feet of space, and frankly, sometimes it can get cramped. Luckily, we're often in beautiful new places. So today, let's have an outdoor date night with the Jackery 2000 V2. Currently, we're staying with some friends on their property, and they have some pretty cool amenities like this Batman. We set up some fun Halloween lights and plugged them into our jackery to make the game a little more festive. After I kicked Jake's butt at Batman and we headed up to our roof, which is one of our favourite spots on the bus. This area extended our living space by about 80 square feet, and in a tiny home, that's a big difference. We just love how close this area gets us to nature again. We set up some pretty lights, brought up some hot tea, and read our books surrounded by trees. Finally, we set up for our favorite outdoor activity, which is a projector movie night. Of course, our Jackery 2000 V2 helped us power it all. And even when it got super chilly, we were able to plug in this massive heat lamp which kept us warm throughout the entire movie. Get outside, enjoy the fall weather, and stay powered on with Jackery's power solutions.

We’ve finally started our most anticipated project! #vanlife #skoolie #rvlife #skoolieconversion #vanconversion

today we're prepping for our most exciting project yet the shower we're turning the school bus into our very first home welcome to The Schoolie Project part 68 The Infinity Shower is a compact recirculating shower system that uses less than one gallon of water in a vertical loop and once we saw the system we just knew we had to have it in our school bus home but we couldn't install it ourselves so we had to detour a little bit to work with the shop to get this project done to make this system work we gotta replumb some stuff now we didn't build our plumbing for the shower with this system in mind so we had to move a few things around to make it work so how does this infinity shower actually function the water leaves the shower head goes down the drain it passes through a series of filters including a UV sterilizer that helps treat and clean the water and then back out of the shower head after we're done enjoying a long hot shower the recirculated water drains back into our gray tank we live with a limited hundred gallons of freshwater so once we saw this system and knew we could take unlimited hot showers it was just a luxury we couldn't pass up we also had to make some upgrades to other parts of our plumbing system including removing our old hot water heater and replacing it with a brand new one that had better flow rate this was a little bit of a blow to the bank account but our new hot water heater is truly winterized and it seems to heat the water up a lot faster we did have to make some minor adjustments to the exterior for this new unit to fit in the same spot as the old one we just had to cut some trim and fix up the paint I think what sucked the most about having to replace this is we never did the final propane hookups on the initial water heater so we never actually got to use it that's not gonna be a problem anymore because today we're gonna finish our final off grid system our permanent propane set up just like with all of our other off grid systems we decided to go big and this under Mount Tank is the size of two and a half barbecue tanks while swapping out our barbecue tank was pretty easy this one is gonna last us a lot longer and is much cheaper to refill we need to be able to access all of the inlets and gauges so it's time to cut a hole on the outside and create an access panel we taped off an area that would be here of cutting the tank and then Jake used a grinder to cut out a hole I sprayed down the raw metal with rustoleum and let it dry now for the final part of the system running the lines to both our oven and the brand new water heater Jake and I headed underneath the bus into the tight nooks and crannies to run the propane line and zip tie it as out of the way as possible and we built this line with some professionals at a local propane store and had it pressure tested for leaks it's crazy to think we've been living in our bus for almost two years without ever having hot water Jake got all of the final hookups attached to the oven and the water heater and then we installed the access panel we drove the bus to a local propane store and got our tank filled up all that's left to do now is test it we headed home and everything worked perfectly make sure to hit that follow button to keep up to date with the Schoolie Project and to see this build complete

We are Rich, Rich, Rich!!! #vanlife #skoolie #rvlife #skoolieconversion #vanconversion

People love to assume that we come from money or have some secret trust fund. Today we're gonna share the truth, so let's get into it. We find this perspective quite comical, as most of the people we know on the road, including us, chose this alternative lifestyle mainly due to necessity, because the cost of living was overwhelming and the idea of homeownership felt very unobtainable for us. The US national median home price is approximately $408,000, while schoolies are being self built for total cost ranging from 20,000 for minimal builds to 100,000 for professional conversions. So even a luxury schoolie build cost less than a quarter of the price of a traditional home. If we were sitting on a trust fund, we would have just bought bought a luxury camper van or a completed schoolie. That would have saved us years of time and allowed us to immediately begin living the nomadic lifestyle we were seeking. But instead, we bought an old abandoned school bus and spent years laboring to turn it into a home where we had to learn every skill necessary to build a home ourselves because we couldn't afford to hire anything out. When we started this adventure, we were 20 years old. We had rent and bills due that required us to work two jobs during the bus build on top of being full time students. After about a year, we realized where we were building was unsustainable, so we eventually made the Leap to relocate our lives, to live full time at a workshop, and an effort to speed up the schoolie project. What's ironic was our dream was to live slower and enjoy some quiet, yet the entire build was quite the opposite. It was sucking all of our money, time, and energy, and we still hadn't even spent one night living the schoolie dream. All this to say, we knew this project wasn't going to be easy, and the life we craved wouldn't magically be given to us. We documented all of the trials and tribulations to show and share the reality of what it takes to DIY a dream. Which is why seeing our comments filled with people suggesting this life was somehow handed to us genuinely hurts. This is the reality of many of us nomads working hard and clawing this dream into existence. So next time you see one of us rolling down the road, maybe instead of thinking we are lucky or rich or privileged, instead think of how hard it was for us to get here. There's a philosophy, if you can't buy it, built it. And that's exactly what we did. We had a dream to get out of the rat race and instead prioritize freedom and independence. It didn't happen through a stacked bank account or a magical fairy godmother. It happened because we sacrificed, worked hard for ourselves, and were resilient through every hardship. So are we rich? Yes. Rich in love. Rich in health and rich in freedom and independence. This would have never been the case if we hadn't been brave enough to see a vision of the future we wanted. So dream big and make it happen.

Tying up loose ends to get ready for the project we’ve all been waiting for! #vanlife #skoolie #rvlife #skoolieconversion #vanconversion

today we're tying up loose ends on a bunch of projects to make room for some big projects coming up we're turning this school bus into our very first home welcome to the Schoolie Project part 6 7 for our first project we headed to a local welding shop to get a tow receiver hitch permanently installed to the front of our rig normally we like to handle all of the bus work ourselves but we decided to outsource this project we wanted to make sure it was installed properly a weight rated for exactly what we were gonna be using it for and would be able to hold up against the driving conditions we normally put the bus through now I know some of you might be wondering what we're gonna be using the receiver hitch for well that takes us to project number two building out this e bike rack our e bikes have needed a permanent home for about two years now and we were really just deciding whether we should install it on the bus or our car and we just felt like the bus would be a better spot we're constantly traveling to beautiful places so it's gonna be great having our e bikes with us everywhere we go we took it out a few days later and did a test and here's what she looks like we got hundreds of concerned comments on our front door install about our hinges and so today we're gonna be upgrading them to ones with non removable pin we also upgraded to better hardware for the side that is going into the steel of the bus because it just didn't feel strong enough before and this took a lot of effort on Jake's end like a few hours for the next task I painted the interior of the door frame the same orange colour as the front door just to clean it up a bit and make it look a little bit more seamless in here we were also getting a quite a draft from the seams around the door so after a lot of searching we found the perfect weather stripping to seal up this area Jake just had to make a few custom cuts and we were able to get that installed around the entire border of the door and while it's not the prettiest this upgrade was all about functionality finally we nailed three very important numbers to the front door 4 5 2 the original bus number during all of our work on the front door these mats got pretty grimy so it's time to swap them out for some newer prettier ones we do this about every three to four months and it truly keeps our house a lot cleaner we wanted to upgrade the handles on our freezer cabinet but ran into another problem mold so and now we have a whole another task on our hands we removed the old hardware just because we feel like it did not fit the design of our kitchen as much as we wanted and we filled the holes left behind we also weren't the biggest fans of this plastic Rattan we bought so Jake ripped it out to address the mold concerns Jake sanded down the whole unit and then painted it with a mold and mildew primer we'll just check beneath the freezer in a few months and make sure this was truly a solution we chose these gold handles for the hardware just because we feel like they fit into the cottage core aesthetic a little bit better and finally we installed some real wood Rattan for the freezer vent we sleep right on top of our electrical system and that concerns a lot of people so we installed four of these aerosol fire extinguishers right on top of our system just for some peace of mind now that we've wrapped up all these small projects it's time for a big one at the shower make sure to hit that follow button to keep up to date

We’ve made it back to our favorite state! Mount Rainier is a gem and was the perfect setting for celebrating our 8 year anniversary! Washington will be the farthest north we go this year. Soon we will be chasing the good weather south all the way to Baja ☀️ #vanlife #skoolie #rvlife #skoolieconversion #vanconversion

After seeing this comparison, was an RV ever even a real option?! #vanlife #skoolie #rvlife #skoolieconversion #vanconversion

Tons of people have asked us why we did a school bus conversion and didn't just buy an RV instead. Well today let's compare a pre built RV versus a self built schoolie. First let's start with the exterior. Rvs are usually made of fiberglass which is basically plastic and are super cheap and lightweight. Which means they have extremely little Protection in a collision. Just look at this crash test. RV's also have very thin walls that offer a little Thermal Protection against the elements. While our entire school bus is made of steel and was literally created to transport children and prisoners. School buses are considered the safest mode of highway transportation and with this crash test you can tell why. We also insulated heavily with three inches of closed cell spray foam on the roof and walls. Let's compare off grid capability. This RV comes with a 40 gallon freshwater tank but is advertised for a family of seven so this would only last a few days. This is the extent of the electrical system with a small solar panel on top and only works for emergency power. So this RV is expected to stay plugged in at all times and has no off grid capability. While our bus is supplied with 100 gallons of freshwater that can last the two of us up to two weeks and allows us to be in remote locations. Our solar system is massive which means we rarely even have to Conserve our energy. The electricity is a fully renewable as it is powered by the sun and allows us to be parked just about anywhere. One thing we do like about the RV is it comes with a flushing toilet. This does however use a lot more water and creates black water which can be harder to empty than a gray tank. On our schoolie, we opted for a composting toilet that is vented out through the floor. It does require for us to deal with our own waste, which is definitely not the most pleasant situation for us. Aesthetics are really important and all the RVs we looked at are and boring and uncomfortable. So we knew that if we purchased one of these, we would have to sink even more money in with remodeling and renovating it just to make it comfortable for us to live in. While our school bus conversion was, yes, a lot of work, but we were able to customize every single square foot to our exact needs. And when you live in a tiny house full time, those small details make it so much more comfortable of a lifestyle. Plus we got to make her so cute. When it comes to driving, an RV can be an easier adjustment as they work more like a normal car, including the brake system, which works very differently on a full size school bus. School buses take a little bit more knowledge to figure out how To drive, especially on mountain passes and the air brake system. But all in all it's pretty easy once you get the hang of it. Finally, let's talk about the cost. Our bus does take diesel, so that can definitely be more expensive than what the RV takes, which would be gasoline. But full size RVs range anywhere from 100,000 to half a million dollars for a brand new one. And are built pretty generically using low quality cheap materials that are not meant for full time living, so they wear down really quickly. While our school bus conversion has cost us under $50,000 so far and was built with high quality materials and comfortable furniture that's meant to last a lifetime. Personally, we think custom built school buses blow RVs out of the water. But let us know your opinions in the comments and make sure to hit that follow button!

How do you think these projects have held up over time??!! #vanlife #skoolie #rvlife #skoolieconversion #vanconversion

We've completed a ton of projects in our school bus home, and today we're gonna rate how they're holding up. Starting off with our modular bed frame. This is actually the first piece of furniture we ever built for our school bus home, so it was definitely a daunting task, especially because we had to hide all of this electrical system inside the blueprint. We feel like in the end, our design came out really good, and we were even able to fit a queen size bed in this area. We put the entire top of the frame on gas struts. That way, we could easily access our electrical system and use this area for storage. One thing we don't like about this design is when we drive, it gets really hot down here because our engine is in the rear, so we have to hang a fan anytime we're on the road. And while our bed is super comfy, Jake can't sit up without smashing his head. And the only solution we could think of is getting a thinner mattress. But this one was already so hard to get in that we don't know if we can get it out again. Next up, we have the tiled heat shield that sits in between our oven and fridge. Now, this is a necessary and beautiful addition. We made it to help keep the fridge cooler while we're cooking. It definitely works for that purpose. But one thing we were super Concerned about is how the tile would hold up over time, as our bus is constantly moving and going through a ton of vibrations. The good news is, we've put about 10,000 miles on the bus since we've installed this, and we've had no issues with cracking. It's a beautiful statement piece and added a lot of character to the kitchen. The only downside is the white grout. That can be difficult to clean and already has a small stain. Now let's look at one of our more recent projects, our multi functional dinette. This is by far the hardest piece we've had to build. We had to include electrical, a trash can, litter box storage, and work around a wheel well. So the blueprint was really hard to create. We broke the design up and built this out in sections. And honestly, in the end, the design came out beautifully. But now that we've been living in it for a few months, are all its functions and purposes working out as they should be? Honestly, yeah, it functions even better than I thought. I mean, the built in trash can, shoe holders, beautiful table. The only thing that we could change is adding A fan to the litter box area, because it does kind of smell sometimes. But honestly, this is one of our favorite spots now, and we utilize it all the time, especially these windows that open up to gorgeous views. Lastly, let's look at this built In deep freezer that doubles as a sitting bench. If you've been following the Schoolie Project for a while, you might have seen the episode where we tried to fit a full size apartment fridge in the bus, and it didn't work out well. We still wanted all that fridge and freezer space, so we decided to break up the build into two sections, the fridge and the freezer being completely separate. And this is the design we came up with. It does take up a lot more room in our tiny home, but we do love the amount of food storage, and it allows us to be off the grid for a lot longer. We did have to make a few adjustments, like cutting out a proper vent, as well as making this top cushion a little bit better by adding two additional inches. But to us, this was a fantastic use of space. And somewhere that we use so often to spend time together. We absolutely love our home, but sometimes it's good to check in and see how things are holding up. We still have a lot of builds left, so make sure to hit that follow button to keep up to date with Jess and Jake.

Our goal these upcoming months is to cut our spending in half and to put that money away towards our future property! #skoolie #skoolieconversion #DIY #recap #vanconversion

Movin’ and groovin’ to the next location! #vanlife #skoolie #rvlife #skoolieconversion #vanconversion

We're leaving this spot behind and heading to the next one. And today we're gonna show you all the steps it takes to get there. And a behind the scenes look of a day in our schoolie life. Usually on travel days, it's honestly best to wake up early. But as our drive is pretty short today and only about 200 miles, we decided to take advantage and sleep in a bit later. And I mean, it's just so, so hard to say no to a Lonnie. We take turns using the bathroom to do our self care and morning routine. And yeah, I just absolutely love this space. I feel like it is the perfect size, and I'm really glad we decided to separate it from the shower area. Once we're both refreshed, we change into our outfits of the day. And we both decided just to wear something pretty comfy because we're gonna be doing a lot of driving. We then split up for all of the packing up tasks. He takes the outdoor tasks while I take the indoor ones. He starts by packing up our cats outdoor play tunnels. And we try to set these up before anywhere longer than a few days because the cats get kind of antsy living in a bus full time. In the interior, I work on getting everything travel ready, and that includes a lot of securing stuff down. That way our home can handle traveling down the road. Our Engine gets really hot while driving, so we zip tie this box fan to our bed frame to keep air circulating down here and our electrical system. Cool. I know a lot of people envy life on the road or be fully nomadic, but it does take a lot of work and a lot of tasks that maybe you don't think of. Like all of this clean up and preparation we have to do every single time we wanna move. And while we love our lifestyle and the freedom it gives us, it's not all traveling and fun. And we just wanna show all sides of schoolie life. Because about every two weeks, when we wanna go check out somewhere new, this is the reality of our worlds. While I'm prepping the kitchen for travel, I have to empty out both of the kitchen sinks because we utilize them for holding our cat, water fountain, as well as all of our plants. Meanwhile, Jake heads to the roof deck to disconnect our internet satellite. And, yes, we've thought about flat mounting this to our deck so we don't have to do this anymore. But we like to position it in every place we go because we can get the best internet. Most of the drawers in our bus are held in with this rope locking system we set up. But they don't always work the best, and we've definitely broken a few hooks on the road. But recently, we found A better locking system we're gonna be in installing very soon. Everything's packed up, secured, and ready to go. So it's time to turn on our bus and say goodbye to our neighbors. Well, more like see you soon. We hit the road and headed to our first spot, which was, of course, filling up water, because after 10 days, we were running it really low, and we wanted to make sure we were filled up before we pulled into our next camp spot. Stop number two was filling up gas, and we recently found out we have 100 gallon tank. So I'll tell you what, sometimes those Phillips are pretty costly. Our drive to the final destination was beautiful, and we even got to get up close and personal with mountain hood. We pulled up to our friend's house around sunset and got ourselves set up in their driveway. We unloaded everything on the inside and then gave all. All of the surfaces A good wipe down, because they get super dirty on travel days. Jake also came behind me with the vacuum. And gave all of our floors A nice cleaning. After all that, we are done with the day. That's how we travel from one destination to the next. And make sure to hit that follow button to keep up to date with Justin, Jake.

Knocking out the little things that make our home so much better! #vanlife #skoolie #rvlife #skoolieconversion #vanconversion

Today, we're gonna be completing a bunch of small projects on our school bus home. We're turning this school bus into our very first home. Welcome to the Schoolie Project, part 66. First things first, we're gonna be mounting a permanent ladder to the side of our bus to access our roof deck. We made sure to use caulking anywhere necessary to keep everything water tight. And we bought this ladder specifically because it's collapsible. At the very top of the deck, we installed these matching handles of. That way, when we're climbing up or down, we have something to grab onto that creates more stability. We've had a few crazy travel days where the brackets on our solar panels have snapped off and the panels have become loose. We created a way to actually screw through the solar panels down to the framing to create some extra strength and stability. It's been absolutely terrifying driving behind the bus and seeing our solar panels literally lifting off the roof. So I feel so much better now that we have a solution and feel a lot safer getting back on the road. We love to antique in all of the places we've been traveling to, and we've acquired quite a collection of decor. So today we're gonna be putting it up, starting with this gorgeous mountain landscape we hung above the door. We acquired this guy from a local craftsman, and he reminds us of an end. So he is officially A protector of our home. We acquired this little fairy tale piece in Tallinn, Estonia, and, yeah, it's just giving perfect cottage core vibes. This we antiqued in Washington state and felt like it fit the bathroom perfectly. I'm pretty sure we found this clock at Walmart, but the reason we got it is because it doesn't just tell the time, but also the humidity and temperature. We also added this decor to the wall in our bedroom, but forgot to film it. When we first completed the bedroom renovation, we installed these really cute fairy lights, but they broke shortly after, so Jake reinstalled brand new ones. We wanted to bring more life into our home, so we bought three brand new plants, and after deliberating a lot on which plant should go into which pot, I got them all repotted. We already have a few pothos in our home, and I really like them hanging, so we got a cute macrame for this one. We found each one of them a place in our home, and, yeah, I just feel like they brought so much more warmth to the space. Since we've been back on the road, we've noticed the cushions on our dinette kind of slide down due to the vibrations. So I figured out a solution to this by cutting a small piece of wood just to put underneath the top cushion to keep it from sliding. Jake went ahead and installed them on both sides. But we won't really know if it's a solution until we hit the road again. What's really cool about our dinette is it can transform into a sofa or a bed by the table dropping down. Somehow the pole that we cut for the sofa version got lost or thrown out. So we cut a brand new one. And now it can be used again. We are back in action. These five locks at the top of our freezer were just not cutting it. So we decided to beef it up with these barrel bolts. It's funny cause it's not until you hit the road that you realize all of the adjustments you need to make to your furniture for them to actually be road ready. And now this freezer cabinet isn't going anywhere. There's a gap that sits in the top of our bathroom window. And that's because we run our Starlink cables through here. So we added in this, a little piece of weather stripping to close it off. Finally, we got this rug that we love for the kitchen, but it's fading fast. So we found this, a better, a bigger one and did a little replacement. Make sure to hit that follow button to keep up to date with Justin, Jake, and the Schoolie Projects.

We are through the storm of trying to make Skoolie life happen and on the other side it’s pure sunshine! ☀️ #vanlife #skoolie #rvlife #skoolieconversion #vanconversion

Guys, it's not all sunshine and rainbows. I mean, seriously, it's. Oh, wait, hang on. It. It might actually be. No.

Same lifestyle 3 completely different builds. Which one would you pick? #vanlife #skoolie #rvlife #skoolieconversion #vanconversion

three buses three 30 second tours and three completely different vibes Orange Grove is a full size 40 foot school bus with an engine in the rear we have a comfortable love seat sofa a cedar paneled roof and a modular multi functional dinette we installed a massive deep freezer and paired it with a little bench seat on top as well as antiqued this desk and chair to create a cute little office space we went with butcher block countertops a tiled heat shield and full size appliances as well as this massive cast iron sink we separated our shower and toilet room and in here we have a compost toilet cute little stone sink and hand painted wallpaper we built out massive his and hers closets put in a queen size bed and in the very back of our school bus home have a cozy secret little book nook this is Pippa she's a 40 foot international school bus and one of my favorite parts of our design is our hand painted flowers on the outside coming inside we decided to keep the front half as open as possible so we have a big couch that we upholstered ourselves where we can watch movies comfortably on our projector my favorite space inside is our big kitchen with this beautiful tile we got in Mexico and a propane oven stove combo for cooking we also love our coffee so our espresso machine is a must moving into the back half we built separate rooms for the shower and the toilet but we decided to go with an open concept for the bathroom sink in the very back we have our open air closet and our queen size bed which we built high enough to allow for tons of storage and plenty of space for our batteries and off grid electrical setup this is our 1999 Bluebird school bus Maddox it's 26 feet long and has a front engine at the front of our bus we have an L shaped sofa that hides our power system underneath and pulls out into a full size bed right across the way we have our kitchen area with a micro cement finish we have a small oven for cooking and a farmhouse sink with a waterfall faucet our long hallway and skylights make our home feel so spacious and all the natural light is great for the plants we love cooking and prioritized having a full size fridge and pantry our large closet was designed to hold our motorcycle gear as well as all of our clothes we have a queen size bed with lots of storage underneath and skylights above for stargazing we chose to separate our bedroom and bathroom with a live plant wall and continued our microcement throughout the build building your own home is something humans have been practicing since the dawn of time and it's so cool to be part of a community that's bringing that back into the present while the building space may be small they all show off our individual unique creativity and it's so cool that we were able to turn something that would have just rusted away into a tiny home on wheels make sure to give each of us a follow to keep up with our journeys and see more cool schoolie content

How we water off the grid! @Glacier Fresh #skoolie #vanlife #GlacierFreshFilter #RVLife #RVWaterFilter

We live completely off the grid in our school bus home, but water is definitely the resource that goes the quickest. So today, let's talk about it. One of the number one questions y'all ask is, how do we even get water? Well, we have 200 gallon water tanks under the bus, one for gray and one for fresh. And there's many ways we can fill them. One is by actually driving the bus to a water fill up location. These can be at places like gas stations or rest stops, or even campgrounds where we can pay a small fee. After about two years on the road, we found that most of our water fill UPS are completely free, which is really cool. But it does get a lot harder to find them once we hit the desert. The only thing about filling up at all these random spots is that the water quality varies greatly. So we always make sure to filter it through a three stage filter before it even enters the bus. And the Glacier Fresh system is amazing. The three stage filter system has a high precision filtration of 0.2 microns, which can filter finer particle. The three filters are safety at longevity, and a tasty filter, which means we can virtually fill up anywhere and have high quality, safe water to drink. But we don't always want to leave camp to fill up water, because we go through it in about seven to 10 Days and honestly our rig is so big that it becomes super annoying. So we just figured out a new method to transport water with our car straight to the bus. And it involves a 60 gallon water bladder, a few hoses, a water pump, and of course our three stage Glacier Fresh water filter. This filter is designed to fit easily into limited RV spaces, and despite its compact 5 inch size, it maintains strong water flow without a noticeable pressure drop. We've been using this method for the past few months and honestly it's been a complete game changer because having to pack up camp and our massive rig just to go get water is such a hassle. So being able to take this 60 gallon bladder from anywhere and drive it straight up to the bus has made off grid living so much more enjoyable. Once we pull up to the bus, we hook up our portable water pump, attach a hose, and just like that we're able to transfer the water from the bladder straight into our home. And because of this new method, we're able to stay at camps for a lot longer and continue to enjoy off grid living. Then there's the Big Water users that we do outside of the house like laundry. We didn't want to utilize the space or water necessary to put a machine in our own home, so instead we've opted to use laundry mats and honestly, we love it. And feel like it's an easy accommodation. When we need to utilize A lot of water to do something like wash our home, we just pull up to A large car wash, and again, we feel this is another easy accommodation. We've never had A hard time finding A large enough car wash for our bus, and it's kind of A chore that we love to do together. And sometimes, when we're at A water fill that doesn't have A line. And A lot of open space, we'll use it to do other things, like clean our solar panels. Currently, our shower is not complete in the bus, so we've just been using public showers. And honestly, that's been saving us A lot of water in our own home. For us, water is by far the resource that goes the quickest. But we found A lot of ways to combat that. So make sure to hit that follow button to keep up to date with Justin, Jake, and other cool schoolie content.

Let's set the record straight. You've got questions and we've got the answers. - #vanlife #skoolie #rvlife #skoolieconversion #vanconversion

we're turning this school bus into our very first home and today we're answering your frequently asked questions are we concerned about the regular glass on our newly installed vintage front door honestly not really and many of our friends have installed house doors just like this and have had absolutely no issues after thousands of miles on the road but if the door glass does it shatter chip or break we'll just replace it then with auto glass soon we will be installing some shatterproof window film that will keep the window together just in case it does break a lot of you were also concerned about people breaking in but I feel like you guys are forgetting that our original doors were also all glass and that is what is mandated to be able to drive the bus we have to be able to see outside of this area we honestly feel so much safer with this door because our previous lock barely worked and now we have two brand new ones plus we have a camera right above the entry does our freezer overheat in this cabinet or is it vented so we actually left a vent on the back and we thought that would be enough as that's where we thought the heat would be escaping but once we filled it up with a bunch of frozen goods we actually realized the heat was expelling through the front and we had this area completely covered up so we had to make some adjustments and we did that by cutting out a huge hole from the middle and then adding some Raton on the front to create a massive vent since then we've had no issues and our freezer has stayed perfectly cold why did we decide to hide our litter box in our dinette where we eat we knew the litter box was gonna go here from the start the dinette had a ton of storage and we were able to hide a lot of stuff in here including the litter box and our trash can when you live in a tiny home there's only so many places you can hide something especially something as big as a litter box and for us this space made the most sense it's been installed for a few months now and because we clean it every single day we haven't really had any issues with smells we do however plan on adding a vent to this area in a future project what's up with our shower and why haven't we started it yet well we have done a little bit of work we've installed the shower pan as well as done all of the plumbing associated with the shower we've also fully installed the hot water heater but it's not in use yet public showers have just been so accessible on the road that this project has just continued to be pushed off and this area has turned into a storage closet but the great news is this is our upcoming project and we're working with the same tile company we did for this heat shield and already have the tile picked out so let us know in the comments what color you think we went with what do our travel plans look like for the upcoming year well we've already gone back to Wyoming and right now we find ourselves on the West Coast we think we're gonna be exploring this area probably for the entire rest of 2026 what's so great about this area is there's just so much free land and we want to knock out a lot of projects because at the beginning of 2027 we're going to be heading to Baja Mexico where we're gonna be parking on beaches and exploring waterfalls and we just can't wait to take you on that journey so make sure to hit that follow button to keep up to date with Justin Jake and The Schoolie Project

You’ve seen our home during the day, now let’s introduce you to our home at night! 🌖 #vanlife #skoolie #rvlife #skoolieconversion #vanconversion

음 I miss the moment this adventure on the past when you have the present song

To truly be offgrid, you need a reliable backup!! @Jackery Direct - ⚡ Power out, Jackery on. This hurricane season, don’t let heat waves and power outages catch you off guard. The Home Power 3600 Plus keeps your essentials running when the grid doesn’t. - #PowerOutJackeryOn #PortablePowerStation #SolarGenerator #HomeBackup #jackery

It's time for us to exhibit at our very first festival, which means we're gonna be showcasing our home to the public, and people are gonna be in and out of our home all day long. So we started by creating a little outdoor seating area for us to be able to take some rest, and then added all of these info panels to the front of our door so people can learn a little bit more about our builds. We also set up the cat tunnels for our two fur babies so they wouldn't get too overwhelmed by all the commotion. Finally, we realized we had an excess of power, so we decided to charge up our Jackery Home Power 30 600+. We realized on exhibiting day we wanted to showcase all of our really cool electrical features, and we didn't want to run out of power, so we charged her up when the sun was high as a backup system. Today's the day we are opening to the public, and I started off my morning by cleaning down all the surfaces and getting ready to open our doors. Very quickly we realized we were burning through energy, and that's mainly because we were trying to keep the attendees cool by running both of our AC's. And I'm opening the doors constantly. Just made our AC's work a lot harder. That's when our Jackery Home Power 30 600+ comes in handy. It's built for true energy independence and uninterrupted Living. And this thing has a big power, like 3,584 watt hours, which could run a fridge for up to 14 days. They also have one app that gives you total peace of mind because you can remotely monitor device status and customize charging and discharging schedules. This unit is also ultra portable as it comes with wheels and a handle. I mean, sometimes it's really hard to get electricity outside, so this is the perfect companion to off grid living. So this power station had absolutely no problem keeping up with our constant vacuuming because these attendees were tracking in so much dirt. Our first time exhibiting our home was a huge success, and there's a huge thank you to Jackery in there for keeping us powered on throughout the whole festival.

You know what they say, when one door closes an orange one opens! 🍊#vanlife #skoolie #rvlife #skoolieconversion #vanconversion

What do you think? Do you like the new door or old original doors better? #vanlife #skoolie #rvlife #skoolieconversion #vanconversion

Our original bus doors are literally falling apart. So today, we're gonna be replacing it with this vintage one. We're turning this school bus into our very first home. Welcome to The Schoolie Project, part 65. While we love the original doors, they barely stay closed when we're driving, and it's really hard to keep a lock on this thing. We picked this door up at the local thrift store, and while it needs a lot of work in TLC, it's, like, from the 1950s or 60s, so it is solid wood, and we got it for only $80. Jake removed all of the hardware and then began sanding, first with 1:20 and then 2 20 grit. One of the main reasons we chose this door is because of its massive window. Not only is it gonna let in a lot of light, but like the original doors, Jake needs to be able to see outside of it while driving. Of course, because this door is older, there are a few holes, cracks, and dings in it. So Jake went in with quick wood and filled all those in and sanded them down. It was a tough decision to choose whether we wanted to sand this down to the original wood and just seal it, or give it a paint job. We ended up not wanting to strip all of the paint that was already on it off, so we chose to paint it, and we decided to go with A color that's already on the bus. Now, listen, I love A good, refinished wood door as much as the next person, but I just feel like it wasn't gonna work as well for this project, so. So, I mean, I'm not mad about the Orange Door. It's gonna look really good once it's on. I promise. We let the door cure and dry for a few days, and then Jake worked on getting the original bus doors off. While these may look easy to get off, it actually took Jake A few hours to get them off, because he had to cut through the four bolts holding them in. Honestly, it felt so good to get these off, because we were so concerned about. These are ripping off while on a drive. Some of the old framing was left behind, so Jake went ahead and removed that. And made room for the brand new framing we were gonna add in. And we attached this foam to the framing to go in between the metal and wood. To help with an airtight seal. Our good friends. Listen, Ryan helped us hang the really heavy door, and then it was time to finish off the rest of the framing. Of course, nothing on a bus is square, so we had to do some wonky stuff to this frame to make it fit correctly. It's now time to install our two different locks. And honestly, it couldn't have come any sooner, because, It. During this few days of project, our cats escaped not once, but twice. And I know this handle and lock might not be everyone's cup of tea, but let's not forget our door is vintage, and we wanted it to follow that theme. This is about the point where Jake and I really started to see the project coming together. But the door did get dinged and scratched quite a bit while trying to hang it. So I went ahead and gave it a final sand and coating just to make it look perfect. I know I'm a little bit of a perfectionist, but, my god, this made it look so much better. We also cut and painted some PVC trim that is waterproof to protect the wood framing. And just like that, after four very hard days of work, we have a brand new door. An orange entrance for the Orange Grove. But let us know in the comments if you like this door or the original bus doors better. And make sure to hit that follow button to keep up to date with Justin, Jake, and the Schoolie Projects.

A life with you is all I’ll ever need 💗 - I know most of you follow us for our Skoolie content and project parts, but Jake and I love making videos like this every once in awhile. We look back at our memories on here all the time and it makes us so grateful to see just how good life really is. So enjoy this video we made for us and are sharing with you! #nomad #relationships #couples #tinyhouse #skoolie

There’s nothing like a deep clean to reset the mind! #vanlife #skoolie #rvlife #skoolieconversion #vanconversion

we've been living at the dustiest campsite for the last three weeks so today we're gonna hunker down and give our interior a deep clean this is a behind the scenes look of a day in our schoolie life when I say this dirt got everywhere I really mean it we decided to only keep up with our normal day to day cleaning and wait for this deep clean until we moved to campsites just because we did not want to keep doing this over and over again I mean look at the inside of this AC I've literally never seen it this bad living in a tiny house comes with a lot of Yin and Yang on one side things get messy and dirty so quick I mean anything that tracks into your house you see right in front of you there is nowhere for it to hide now on the other side you can deep clean your entire home in just a few hours and I'm talking about like wiping down the roof the walls getting into cabinets and that's just like not the case with a traditionally large home a living tiny and on the road and traveling full time has it definitely changed a lot of our daily habits chores and cleaning habits but honestly I think like these deep cleans have become pretty therapeutic for us it's nice to recall everything that we do have in the bus reorganize and yeah I just have such pride in the house that we built that it's nice to keep it up and give it this refresh one thing Jake and I are really prioritizing this year is trying to narrow down and figure out where we want to live buy land and settle down and honestly that's changed a lot over this year originally we were really gung ho over the Pacific Northwest and while we absolutely love it we are not really prepared to live somewhere with like a six month of winter and honestly it's just so freaking expensive we love the desert but just to visit honestly I feel like I can't deal with the dirt and being from Florida we want a really incredible growing season and that's just not the case in most deserts what we are looking for is pretty even seasonality like we want winter but we just want it for three months it would be great if we lived somewhere with a great food scene being from Miami we you know love good food and yeah I think like just being around beautiful nature mountains rivers waterfalls so if you guys know any states that meet some of these requirements drop them in the comments tell us some cities towns to go check out because we are really on the hunt for somewhere to settle down while finding land is really important to us our main priority is finishing this bus now we've been working on this schoolie project for many years and honestly our goal is to wrap up this project before starting a huge new one like buying land and developing that so for us we wanna finish the bus we have a bunch of new projects that we're gonna be working on soon and hopefully by the end of this year it's gonna be fully complete after about just three to four hours we deep cleaned our entire house from the inside of all of our cabinets wiping every surface getting in the nooks and crannies of every single item honestly it feels so good to have this reset done and the dust out of our home we absolutely love sharing our schoolie life with you from projects to our day to day so make sure to hit that follow button to keep up to date with Justin Jake