7 Days And Counting :)

It has been one whole week, we made it!

Not that I didn't think we would :)

Every morning we get beautiful rays of sunshine streaming in.

So quiet and blissful.

No more major traffic streaming past our home.

Why didn't we think of this years ago :)

But I think, even if someone had of suggested it to us, we would never have been open minded enough to be inspired by it. So everything happens for a reason.

Miss Personality has been enjoying having a soak in the camping ground pools every night.

And dad has been enjoying recovering from his surgery in total relaxation.

His last few jobs he has had, has been working 6 days a week.

So having this time off has been a dream come true.

It is awesome too having the visitors we have been having, now we are back in our home town.

We are all enjoying being closer to Miss Blondini too, especially dad.

We even got to watch Miss Blondini do a fantastic job at her first gymnastics competition of the year.

But with dad starting a new job soon, we have to wait till the wages start rolling in again, before we can save for our first goal, which is him getting his truck licence.

Any one else been through this process in New Zealand lately?

How was it?

Which were the challenging parts?

How long did it take before you could drive on the road?

Once he has his truck licence, there will be no holding us back and we will be going for as many trips as we can to Gisborne, to catch up with Mr Affectionate, and Mr Confident and his little family.

The only negative we have found so far about living in our bus, is the internet.

New Zealand is so expensive when it comes to mobile internet.

So at the moment using our Iphones as a hotspot is all we have.

But then again, one of the reasons of living in the bus was down sizing our bills.

So I guess it is something we will just have to get use to :)

For now we are enjoying snuggling up in our pajamas at night, watching DVD's together as a family before bed. Having the moonlight shine down through our pop up window on the roof as we chat and gently drift off to sleeping listening to the waves at the beach, which is just across the road.

Moving In Day!

6th May 2014

Two day ago we started our new life living in a house bus.

After some minor frustrations as we piled all our stuff into the bus and had to clean our old home.

We could finally be on our way, not only moving into a house bus, but also moving areas.

We arrived in Papamoa later that day and had free range of the motorcamp.

Since it is winter, there is practically no one else here, which is just awesome!

We chose a motorcamp as our first place to park up for a while, as we just needed a bit of time to get our heads around the running of our new bus. As well as being close to a dump station, electricity, and somewhere to wash our clothes.

When we first got here I had to empty out the bus of all our belongings and then re organise them into the workable places for everything to go.

Our bedroom is right up the back of the bus. It is super cost and very snugly.

There are four bunk beds. We created a cosy snug little space that resembles kind of like a hut for Miss Personality, to not only sleep in, but also her own space to do what she wants in. An identical snug spot has been created on the other bottom bunk for when Miss Blondini comes to stay. 

The top two bunks, will be used for extra storage.

Miss Personality loved it on our first night, as she was so close to our bedroom. That she could just lie in her bed and chat to us about all her worries, concerns and thoughts and then drift off to sleep as happy as can be :)

All our personal touches have been placed, and everything has been given a home, even Blousey & Elizabeth the mice :)

It rained the second night, and we found a few spots that leaked, but we think it may have been more from the top pop up windows, that had been opened and may have not been shut completely properly.

We still have a few things on our wish list to get at some point. Like an inverter, as there are no power points in the bus. We also need to get the bus certified so that we can legally and safely use the powered sites at motorcamps. We also need to get a truck licence so that we can move around our bus or go visiting Mr Affectionate and Mr Confident and his little family in Gisborne.

The best part about our first night in our new home, was going to sleep listening to the sounds of birds, the waves at the beach, such bliss.

3 WEEKS AND COUNTING.................

Thursday 10th April 2014

It nearly feels surreal to think in 3 weeks our idea/ goal of living in a bus is going to become a reality.
It really feels like the statement above how it has all come about.
We came up with the idea, brain stormed how we were going to achieve it.
Didn't think it was going to happen quiet this quickly.
But asked the right questions to the right people and TADA!, it has all fallen into place.

It's funny though the reactions we are having with those who we share with, what we are about to do.
Most people have been really supportive, but you can kind of tell from there tone of voice that they kind of think you are a little crazy too.
Or at some point you will change your minds.

Some friends are, your so lucky, I would love to do that, but......................
Like anything in life though, if you want it bad enough, you will make it happen.

We have certain family members who are concerned, and that is okay, because that means they care.
But it is okay to not have all the answers straight away.
It is okay to be spontaneous.

Life some how becomes magical, adventurous and exciting again, to not have all the answers, to have a little bit of mystery about it all.

A lot don't quiet understand though that this isn't going to be short term, this is long term.
This is just the beginning of the journey to where we want to be :)

At this stage we have a home - housebus,
We have somewhere to park our new home,
We know where our money is coming from,
And we have each other.
At this stage that is all we need to know :)

Over time we will personalize the bus to be more us and to cater for us in every way.
Part of that personalisation is going to be coming up with a name.
Why name our bus?
Well why not :)
It is going to have personality, just like the rest of us.
The challenge will be coming up with a name that everyone who lives in the bus will be happy with.

For all those other people who travel in a bus, caravan or motorhome.
Have you named your home?
How did you come up with your name?
If you would like to share it, would love to hear what it is :)

We Are Getting A Bus!!!!!!

Saturday 29th March 2014

We have talked about making one of our goals, getting a housebus, when we came back from Australia in September.

We didn't have the cash to buy one outright, so we just did a lot of talking about what we wanted in a house bus, the budget of what we could afford. Researched what things we needed in our future home.

Didn't think it would be happening for a while to be honest.

We don't have the skills to build one and thought it would be a lot easier buying one already set out.

But we also found when looking at ones for sale, that there were not many built for families.

A big majority of them seem built for the retired couple.

But an opportunity has come along to rent to own a house bus, that we couldn't say no to.

So in 5 weeks we say good bye to the four walls of a house and go totally mobile.

Wow! 

It's scary and exciting all in one :)

When we found this one, and it ticked all the right boxes , we just had to go for it.

Features:

1976 305 Mercedes

11m long, 2.4m wide 

200hp rear engine with automatic transmission

Airbag suspension with high ratio diff fitted.

1000 ltrs of fresh water

1100 ltrs of wast

70 ltrs fresh toilet water

80 ltrs of toilet waste

Marine toilet

Gas heater

Califont and full size gas stove

110 ltr 12v/24v.230v fridge

Hi tech absolute 400ah deep cycle house battery with dedicated temperature controlled charging and monitoring system

12m x 4 m awning

With all this, it still leaves plenty of room to still personalise it.

I have been reading blogs on housebus families and how they have things set up in their homes.

We have been reading up on solar panels as this bus does not have them, and how to use an inverter so we can run a washing machine, charge our phones and laptops.

We buy things that we can use that doesn't use electricity, so we conserve what we have as much as possible. Like the hand mixer, whistling kettle to go on the gas stove, wind up lantern/ torches, that kind of thing.

We have been reading up on how to do your washing, camping style.

We have been researching ways to modify this bus so we can be as self sustaining as we can.

I also read up today about super magnets that can be used to put up your curtains instead of using cords and curtain tracks.

It's all so exciting and new.

Do you live in a house bus?

What things did you do to make your life easier?

What gadgets have you found to be, must haves?

We are ideally looking for a bit of land to rent to put our new home on too.

Still need to find this.

How did you find the perfect place to park your house bus?

It's funny this time last year I would never have dreamed that this is what we would be doing :)

But we cross of that days on the calendar, excitedly as we look forward to our new adventure.