When you walk past an old bus you usually don’t think, “Hey that would be a really cozy looking home!” But for one man, when he saw an old, double-decker bus he actually did have that thought – and he acted on what his gut was telling him.
A carpenter with a vision
Adam Collier, a 42-year-old carpenter from Brighton, UK, knows how to make his dreams come true. With his vision and skills, he managed to do something few others could pull off: convert a double-decker into a functional and classy living space!
Collier came up with a creative way to build an affordable piece of paradise for himself and his daughter.
Anything’s possible
If you have the right mindset and determination, and a bit of imagination too, anything’s possible! Adam didn’t lack any of these and always had an adventurous spirit. Without the means to afford himself and his daughter an expensive mobile living space, he set about creating his own mobile home.
When he saw an old double-decker he’d already had an idea worked out in his mind and knew how to convert the bus into a cheap and mobile home for him and his 12-year-old daughter, Devon.
You don’t need to be a millionaire to afford yourself a cozy and functional mobile living space.
We can often see how the rich and famous are able to afford luxuriant mobile houses that cost millions of dollars. Adam didn’t have the cash to fulfill his dream but he had the vision and the skills to build one with his own hands. He set himself a budget of just £10,000 to buy the bus and convert it into a livable home.
There was a lot of work to be done before Adam could realize his dream, however. The double-decker was only recently removed from service which meant Adam had to solve structural issues before the bus could be converted into a home of wheels.
Converting the bus into a home proved to be a tricky task, but Adam was determined to make his dream come true
Having removed the 42 seats and the benches, Adam then had to solve the problem with insulation, as he realized that the bus didn’t have any insulation to begin with. When he first entered the bus, Adam realized the window seals were leaking everywhere. It didn’t deter him and in an interview with AmazingSpaces, Adam stated he was going to do all the work himself, with a few of his friends lending a helping hand.
A real DIY enthusiast quietly set about converting a bus into a real home!
“I’m a tradesman as well, so I knew how to do everything, and there was no point in asking anyone else to help. Also, it was my project. I couldn’t expect others to share my level of enthusiasm.”
In place of the old seating, Adam put a brand new dining room on the lower floor
Adam’s task demanded a lot of ingenuity, considering the limited space and budget, as well as the resources needed to transform a bus into a fully liveable home for two. In order to make his home on wheels structurally sound, Adam had to keep the bulk of the weight on the first floor, which he achieved by putting a dining space on the lower deck in the back of the bus.
Having spent his childhood on a bus, Adam intended to retain some of the bus’ old look without sacrificing functionality. In place of the old walls, he installed new lush green colored wooden paneling which gave the new home a relaxing, naturalistic appearance.
The new kitchen was to be located between the driver’s ban and the dining area and he also added a boiler, bathroom, long open kitchen, woodburning stove on the lower deck. On the upper deck, Adam wanted a simple bedroom: “to squeeze in as many double beds as possible, and I wanted them to be proper beds – that was important. I designed it on a scrap of paper, which I’ve since lost,” he said.
Success!
After a lot of work and a few hurdles along the way, Adam succeeded in transforming an old bus into the home of his dreams
Adam struggled to keep the cost of his project under control, spending nearly half of his initial budget on purchasing the bus which cost him £4,500. Keeping the expenses under control without sacrificing his dream wasn’t as straightforward as it seemed at first, but Adam knew he was going to find a way to realize his vision.
He put his brand new kitchen opposite the bottom of the stars – which kept their original appearance – with Adam installing three off-the-shelf simple kitchen units which he made himself.
6 months later
It took six months of hard work to finish the amazing transformation but the end result was definitively worth the effort Adam invested in the project. He had managed to convert the upper deck into three bedrooms and also squeeze in a bunk bed at the back. Adam, a passionate surfer, had managed to make out the most of the limited space available and in the end, exceeded his original budget by £5,000, putting the overall renovation cost at £15,000.
See Adam’s new house for yourself in the video below. He really turned it into a gorgeous home on wheels!
