doolan family bus – part 2

by Kaylah Stroup

Last week I shared the start of the family school bus renovation. Check it out here. Today I’m back with another update!

After ripping out all the old flooring and laying down plywood, it was time to put down pretty new flooring. My oldest brother had just finished remodeling the kitchen in his home. He had some flooring leftover and coincidentally enough, it was just enough to cover the bus.

school bus renovation
laying flooring in renovated school bus
School Bus Renovation
“I know I’m a dirty puppy. Plz let me on da bus anyway.”

While my dad and Jeff laid down the flooring. My brother started building the benches. During the week he had actually drawn out a fairly detailed plan for the bus which was definitely appreciated. My dad doesn’t use the internet and to be honest, I find the whole world of bus renovations quite overwhelming.

Similar to how I found planning my wedding stressful because I’m great at comparing my life to the pretty pictures online and feeling crappy about it- that’s kind of how I feel about designing a bus. Um, for the record, I’m pretty sure I ended up having the best wedding ever though. Not that I’m biased or anything… There are SO many incredible designs out there but it’s hard to know what’s for real and what’s really just for show, hard to know what costs a reasonable amount and what was wildly expensive. It just feels really overwhelming and unattainable. Sometimes I think that looking at too many ‘inspiration’ photos can really clog your own creativity and take away the focus from what works for you. I guess that’s why I never really got into Pinterest?

All that to say, I’m super thankful my brother took the lead here and just drew up some plans!

Below you can see the start of a bench. There will be a second one in front of it, facing it with a table in between. The table will drop down to make a bed for two. Behind that will be the kitchen and further back will be storage. On the opposite side of the benches that have already been started will be a long bench. All of the seating will have storage underneath because we all agreed that was definitely one of the most important aspects of a camping vehicle. Storage, storage, storage!

I know it doesn’t look like too much has changed since the first post but honestly, I think it’s coming together very quickly. I’m super excited to see it really start to take shape over the next few weeks.

Jeff recently got a GoPro which I’ve had a blast playing around with. I’m still getting the feel for video. It’s a whole new world for me. After watching so many old home movies lately, I’ve had a real itch to capture more family memories. I’m, of course, always armed with a camera but I’m realizing now just how important it is to have video. This bus is definitely a great little thing to fool around with video on. I’m happy with how this turned out but I’m definitely looking forward to improving on my filming and editing skills.

As always, I’ll be back with more updates as I have them! xoxo

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5 comments

Kristina B May 14, 2019 - 12:58 pm

I’m LOVING this project. I think it is SO cool!! Can’t wait to see it all done!!

Kate May 14, 2019 - 3:30 pm

What a cool project, overall – but especially to work on with your family! I can’t wait to see how it looks when it’s done.

Sam May 15, 2019 - 10:29 am

It looks great! it will be so cool once it has benches in etc. Don’t forget to install a silly horn (la cucaracha is a personal fave) 😛

Kaylah May 22, 2019 - 12:54 pm

Hahaha! I love silly horns!

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