Meet Eliza Brownhome: a 1974 Bluebird school bus that houses a family of five
This summer, after six months of preparation including writing a detailed lease, we moved our family of five back into Eliza Brownhome, our 40′ Bluebird school bus. I’m sure a lot of you are wondering how we can fit a family of five into 300 square feet, so I thought it’d be nice to give a tour. I am pleased to introduce Eliza Brownhome, our beloved 1974 Bluebird schoolbus.
Bring on the fun fur: how should I pimp out my Chevy van?
I am about to purchase an ’86 Chevy conversion van, and I want to re-do the inside. I’m talking fur and funky fabrics everywhere. Might any of the super crafty DIY readers have any ideas on how to go about reupholstering seats/floor/ceiling/walls?
Paul’s red bus in New Zealand
Our friend Paul recently finished his bus renovation — turning a former school bus into a little one-man-one-dog wintertime road house. Come see his rig, his dog, and the cozy wood stove in his simply-made tiny home.
My guy works for the circus, so we live in an RV and travel to a new place every week
This is the first time in my adult life that I’m not renting my space, and it’s thrilling to demolish and tinker to my heart’s content. For now, this is home, and I really love it. It’s cozy and frankly, bigger than our shoebox in Toronto. How about that?
Do you wish you had kept your car — or does car-less life ROCK?
People who have owned a car, but decided to get rid of it: what was the transition like? What do you do if you have an emergency or need to run to the store in the middle of the night? How do you haul large stuff around? And most importantly: do you regret the decision… or do you love it?
How to buy a car using data: Part II — the final decision and epilogue of our adventure
In our previous blog post we identified 27 cars based on a list of features, and then narrowed our list down to 3 based on Internet data and test drives. Now, it is time for more data!
DEEP DIVE
With a list of cars this small, we can do more in-depth research. We found out the cost of car insurance, average maintenance costs, vehicle crash ratings, accident data, and insurance data. We also tried to estimate how much each model would cost to own over 5 and 10 years.
However, the most interesting data was about crash test ratings and accident statistics. Vehicle crash-test ratings are designed to be predictive, which means they try to imitate real-world conditions. Accident data is far more interesting, because it shows what actually happened.
How to buy a car using data
My wife, Kate, and I were perfectly content to drive her car, a 1995 Honda Civic. It never gave us trouble…until it died last December. Then we needed a replacement.
After mourning the passing of our reliable steed, we decided we did not care about specific car brands or models. We cared about features. Our goal was to buy a car with features we care about, for the best price. Our first step: decide what functionality we wanted most.
In this set of blog posts, I will cover my experience in buying a car using data. I’ll go over some of the advantages, like ignoring all of the lies marketing.
If Marie Antoinette had an Airstream trailer, it would look like this
Behold the home of Robin and John Brown! It’s a temporary home, but it’s a beaut.
Robin is a designer from San Antonio, Texas. She and her partner run their clothing business online, but take two trips a year — in the spring and the fall — when Magnolia Pearl heads to big shows. For this purpose, they’ve decked out an Airstream Land Yacht to roll in.
It is up and down, head to toe, glitzed OUT. This trailer has wooly rugs, fancy pants wallpaper, a full-size BATHTUB — it is in every way a rococo road spa.