Family Ditch Expensive Rents To Live In A Converted School Bus

A FAMILY of five are living in an old school bus because they were tired of wasting so much money on an apartment.

In March 2014, Brian and Starla Sullivan were paying an extortionate amount of money on rent each month in an apartment that barely satisfied their standard of living.

Struggling to afford the most basic necessities, 29-year-old aerospace assembly mechanic Brian and his partner Starla, 26, bought an old school bus for $2,800 and just a year- and $30,000 - later they were calling it home with their three children Charlie, 3, Henry, 2 and three-month-old Lincoln.

Starla said: “We are ridiculous people - we are!

“We are ridiculous people and this is a ridiculous lifestyle and it just works.

“We now have money to eat the foods that we want and go to the places we want.”

Located south of Seattle, Washington, in a small city called Renton, the Sullivans are currently paying $500 of rent a month to live in the school bus – a third of what they were forking out for their apartment.

Starla said: “$1,500 for living in an apartment – and that’s the cheapest apartment you could find on the market in this area.

“The apartment was about an hour away from Brian’s work and the commute was awful.

“He would work overtime trying to pay the rent, then he would sit in a car for three hours and we would never see him, so we decided to make a change.

“We pay a third of the cost now and we have money to pay off debts and student loans!”

Brian and Starla’s motivation to live in such an unconventional home was triggered by watching YouTube videos online about accommodating, but tiny, houses that people comfortably live in.

Starla said: “There was this one video in particular – we called them the crazy people who lived in a blue bus.

“Yet we just kind of looked at each other and were like do you want to live in a bus with me?”

Brian added: “I thought she was joking, but no she was serious.

“I was at work the next day and I started to realise all of these benefits like being able to be mobile and being able to move if I got a job that was 20 miles away.”

The bus is now fully equipped with a full size bed, a kitchen with a microwave and oven combination, a washing machine, a composting toilet and even a bath tub for the three children to bathe together.

But despite the money-saving and functional aspects that come with the bus, the Sullivan family still have their issues from time to time.

Starla said: “I wanted to feel like I was living in a tiny house, not a vehicle, and so we basically built a box inside the bus which really helps with regulating the temperature.

“We have had frozen pipes, no running water, we’ve run out of propane in the middle of the night and had no heat, no hot water, we’ve lost electricity.

“Whenever any of those things happen, I’m just grateful that they haven’t all happened at the same time.

Brian continued: “Living in a tiny space is really a test of your organisational skills and really a test of your discipline skills because you have to keep the space clean.”

The happy family can’t see themselves moving out any time soon as they hope for their abnormal dream to continue.

“I see myself living in the bus until the kids move out,” Starla added.

“I know a lot of people say it’s not possible for us to raise kids in the bus, especially until they turn 18, but I disagree.

“They might literally outgrow the bus because our ceilings are only six feet tall.

“I don’t see us moving from the bus into anything traditional. It would be something equally ridiculous.”

Brian and Starla are documenting their family journey on their own Youtube channel to raise awareness to others that living like this is actually possible.

Brian said: “When you’re in a bad situation – you can either stay in the same place and die a slow death or you can get creative, think outside the box, take risks and do something scary and I think there are rewards there.

“Now we’re two years into it, and we’re living the dream.

“It feels amazing – it’s like putting on a tailored suit, you can’t describe it.”