Alice Everdeen, left, and Jared Brown with Bentley, their dog, are living in Andover in a converted school bus they call the “Life’s Too Short” bus. Rose Lincoln
ANDOVER — Alice Averdeen and Jared Brown are both from New Jersey and are spending the next several months in Andover in their “skoolie,”
Before they arrived they spent nine months on the road sometimes stopping for gas only to spend an extra hour at the gas station describing to a curious stranger how they had converted their ugly yellow school bus into a cool recreational vehicle or skoolie.
Brown spent two and a half years researching and reconstructing the RV the couple hopes to have for a lifetime.
The idea began only a month into their relationship, they asked each other, “What have we not done in our lives?”
They agreed they wanted to travel the country. She wanted to travel in a van, he wanted to travel in a truck.
“So we bought a bus,” said Brown.
Averdeen adds, “we were tired of paying bills, of being adults.”
They spent $85,000. “Every penny we had. Totally worth it,” she said.
Inside Everdeen and Brown’s bus, the seats fold down to be a bed. submitted photo
Exterior
“The goal,” said Averdeen, “is not to feel like we live in a school bus.”
She points to the extra bright airplane lights (where she admits they may have gone too far) on the front of the 30-foot vehicle (with a 27-foot interior). They wanted be able to go boondocking and, “be in the middle of nowhere, because we are completely self-sufficient.” As part of the off-grid plan, they installed six solar roof panels (1.3 kilowatts) that they discovered, “were useless under a load of snow during -20 degree temperatures.” They discovered this at a stop in Missouri.
Two antennas are attached to the front. One is a signal booster next to the driver’s window. It’s for better cellphone service while they are on the road. A different, 30-foot extendable pole antenna helps to boost their signal service while they are parked. They can watch movies on Netflix and send emails. Most importantly Averdeen is able to do voice-over work sessions in her career as a voice actor.
The 12-bolt, house door to enter the skoolie is for security against robberies from humans and bears.
They attached an aerial wench that can hold up to 750 lbs. for hunting and aerial yoga. They added storage boxes made of PVC pipes, to the undercarriage, too.
The couple pumps their water from lakes or rivers and filters it into their 120-gallon, grey tank for drinking water and for “spa showers.” A compost toilet with a vent needs to be dumped every couple of weeks. Propane tanks and Jerry tanks are for the generator. Their geo tracker car fits inside a trailer they tow.
“If it [the skoolie] is not moving, we don’t need anything from anybody,” says Brown proudly, “it was really hard to figure [that] out.”
Alice Everdeen and Jared Brown with their dog, Bentley. Rose Lincoln
Andover
They are both very excited to be here as this is the first time they have settled anywhere for more than a month. They traveled to New Jersey, Florida, New Orleans, and Missouri before arriving in Maine.
They plan to stay until October at Andover’s Lone Mountain campground where Brown trades 15 hours a week as a work-camper significantly defraying their cost to live on the road. “Most RV’s are paying between $20 and $150 per night [at campsites],” says Averdeen.
Brown had a done a series of water related jobs in his former life: commercial irrigation, rain water collection, well drilling, and plumbing. He did some construction, too. “I have some skills as you can see,” he said gesturing toward the skoolie.
He is happy to be contributing his skills at the camp, too, where soon they will start building a barn and a gazebo out of raw cut lumber they will mill on-site.
About Western Maine Averdeen says, “It’s absolutely gorgeous up here!” Although she admits feeling a little unnerved by the animal tracks they have seen.
When they first arrived, they sent out a welcome on Team Bethel on Facebook and were pleased to get lots of responses from locals.
While his mother was her voice teacher in their New Jersey hometown of Ocean County, the two didn’t meet until Austin, Texas where they had both moved separately.
Their bus came from Round Rock, a town near Austin, and was, “a sign that they should do it,” said Averdeen. “Some people fly across the country to get the right bus and ours was a mile away,” she explained.
Inside home
“It is framed like a sailboat. Nothing is attached to the bus. Everything in here is an independent structure.” explains Brown of the tightly sealed interior.
They replaced the school bus windows with double-paned RV windows. Thermal bridging often brings condensation to school bus conversions, says Averdeen. “Jared built ours like a sailboat, with ribbing on the interior ceiling… [there have been] no [condensation] issues. Thank god.”
They sanded the shell inside and out, “It cost $800 in sandpaper and took three people, three eight-hour days to sand it,” he said.
When they removed the driver’s seat they replaced it with two new ones cut down, that double as a nearly Queen-sized box spring for sleeping.
Brown said both the wood burning stove and gas water heater were installments he really didn’t want to get wrong. He spent hours of research on both.
Between the kitchen and bathroom is an Isovox recording booth. Averdeen sits on a stool and sticks her head in the box to record. “Luckily I don’t do audio books,” she said of the claustrophobia she sometimes feels with her head in the box.
Custom countertops and cabinetry are reclaimed pecan and barnboard, respectively. Soon they’ll update the stove making it a stove top instead of the current set-up which includes an oven that needs repair.
A 5.9 cubic foot refrigerator and separate freezer each store 80 pounds of food. Because their appliances are DC powered they save 17% on power overall.
Important, because the cost for gas to drive the skoolie is a killer. Depending on if they are towing their trailer, they get around a 8 mpg while driving. “It’s not the most eco-friendly vehicle to be hauling around the United States,” says Averdeen.
While he’d like to stay in Andover past October, she refuses … having researched Maine snow totals.
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