Brent Anderson Photography - Dreamers Taking Action

Written by Nicole Anderson Now that the floor paint has dried time to frame out the floor for insulation and plywood!  First we put down a layer of moisture barrier then framed it out with 1x2 lumber. My job today was cutting the 3/4 inch insulation and putting it between the framing. These videos always make the process look so easy! Lyla wasn’t feeling good today so she was taking a nap while I was working.  I got halfway done and she woke up needing her mommy! I hope to finished tomorrow and I hope Lyla feels better! Sunday I was able to finish the framing and insulation around the front wheel humps.  Here’s a video of the last of the framing and insulation! Finished for the day!!! Next step is to get the plywood!

Written by Nicole Anderson Brent surprised me and removed the wheel chair lift and heater!! Woohoo!! See all gone! Now we have an empty bus!! Can you tell I’m excited! Next on the to-so list is to patch the small holes that were used to hold in the seat tracks.  See how many holes!! But first I had to clean the floors first ! Now that everything is clean my plan was to use Bondo to seal the holes.  I was going to use little pieces of screen along with the Bondo to seal the bigger screw holes.  After mixing up just a small amount of Bondo I realized it wasn’t going to work! I watched YouTube videos and found that some people caulk in pennies. So we had the kids go through our large container of change to take out all the pennies from it.  Then we all worked to get them on! Here is what it looks like. I realized I made a little mistake today.  Since I switched from using Bondo to using pennies, I realized I should have painted the floor first BEFORE applying the p...

Written by Nicole Anderson I had 3 things on my list to complete this weekend: 1.  Figure out how to remove the heater in the back of the bus 2. Figure out how to remove the wheelchair lift in the back 3. Completely remove the rubber and plywood layer from the floor The thing I had to tackle first was the wheelchair lift I found the bolts going through to the bottom of the bus so I was able to get the nuts off no problem! This was the easy part! Next up was figuring out how to remove power to it. I followed the cables running under the bus and found one attached to a smaller battery half way down the bus, so I disconnected that.  Also found the ground wire and disconnected that.  Now to figure out how to remove all the cables attached to the lift!! Hmmm... I think I could safely cut all the wires running up from under the bus connecting to the lift, but I was scared to do it.  There is a built in safety mechanisms with the lift that if you cut the wrong wire there is...

 Written by Nicole Anderson Week 1 consisted of some demolition. Most of the seats were already removed by the previous owner so this is the BEFORE picture: The first part of the build out is to remove the flooring all the way down to the metal so that insulation can be added. (If you rode a school bus as a kid in the winter you'll know that school buses get cold). We want to insulate to make sure the cold stays in during the summer months, and warm during the winter months! We removed the seats... Next part was the hardest...removing the metal rails going down the bus that hold the seats in. This involved going under the bus and unscrewing THOUSANDS of nuts to remove the bolt! Doing it myself was challenging so I was happy when Brent and my stepdad had some time to give a hand! Finally got them all out today!! Now I can start removing the plywood! Lots of other screws to remove then I was able to lift out two panels before it got dark. I'm so happy that there is absolutely no...

Written by Brent Anderson https://brentandersonphotography.com With visions of adventure and travelling with my family and expanding my photography across the country in the next few years we’ve made the big decision to buy a Blue Bird school bus and convert it into a traveling home (look up Skoolie). We are designing the interior to be a complete off-grid living space for myself, my wife Nicky and our two children, along with storage space for my photography and art show supplies. We are giving ourselves two years to build out the bus to travel for future photography explorations and adventure. We located the perfect bus in Billings, Montana, and with a window of clear weather in the mid-west the week before Thanksgiving, we decided that it was now or never to close the deal on the bus and drive it back to Florida before winter storms sweep through the mid-west and through the northeast. So in a week’s notice, I changed my plans and booked a flight for Billings, Montana, wher...