Should be called the Skoolie Festival!
Hello, skoolie fam! We went to our first Tiny Home Festival in Country Music Capital, Nashville, Tennesse this past weekend.
I’m not going to sugar-coat it, Mike and I have been feeling a little down about the conversion process and had hoped this festival would provide some much need inspiration. I know… it’s so early in our conversion to already be getting discouraged, but the more we researched into the process, the longer our to-do list gets and our cost-sheet goes up!
To get our heads back into the game, we packed the Subaru and drove the “short distance” of 4 and a half hours to Nashville, Tennessee.
After waking up at 6 am in the morning, feeding our caffeine addiction, and driving non-stop, we rolled stiff-legged out of our vehicle onto the hot asphalt of the Nissan Stadium’s parking lot. The same parking lot that hosted the Tiny Living Festival!
Walking up to the festival, there was an assortment of tiny homes small and even smaller filling our vision and to the right, a convoy of skoolies were lined up one after another. Families, friends, couples, and individuals with their dogs excitedly entered the festival.
Being the prepared people we normally are (or try pretending to be), we flashed our online tickets with a flash of our phones and got stamped in returned. We were officially at the festival!
So after spending 5 hours in the blazing heat, what did I take away from our experience? Here are my observations:
Skoolies Were Much More Prevalent Than Tiny Homes
I’d say there were at least 3 times as many skoolies as there were tiny homes and the tiny homes we did see, were sample tiny homes being sold by businesses.
Which was still cool… but as a DIY’er, I’d like to see fellow DIY’er creations.
With these sample tiny homes, they were just portrayed as picture perfect clutter-free spaces (of course, because they are meant to be sold) which is just unrealistic. Like… I have 10 pairs of shoes that all “spark joy”, so mentally, I’m just trying to puzzle them into the picture and I just can’t.
All Types of People in Any Stage of Life Build Skoolies
After first glancing at this Pikachu themed bus, I was a little apprehensive towards meeting the people who created this wild ride. While I enjoyed playing Pokemon GO back in 2016 and watching the anime as a kid, I would never have thought in a million years of painting my mobile home with a collage of Pikachus.
After swatting away my judgment, I decided to take a look inside and was pleasantly surprised. On the bus was a mid-twenty-something guy greeting onlookers at the door. The ceiling instantly dazed me with its hundreds of colorful decals thoughtfully placed in patterned sequences.
My first question was, “Did you really buy that many Vans?”
He laughed and explained that the bus is owned by him and his four other band mates and that they play at Vans Warp Tour across the country.
The bunk beds, 5-foot speakers, and tubs full of ramen instantly made sense. These guys were friends living their best lives by having fun traveling together and rocking out state after state. I couldn’t help but be a tad bit jealous myself.
One of the best parts of going to a Tiny Home Festival is meeting all the different people and being able to ask them questions about their build and lifestyle.
Everyone’s skoolies were built to accommodate their unique situations. There were young couples, families, friends, retirees, rock bands, performers, foreigners, individuals… basically, people from all walks of life who so strongly wanted the freedom to travel, they overcame personal obstacles and created their solution in the form of a skoolie.
You Can Buy an Already Converted Bus!
Building a Skoolie isn’t for everyone. The build can take hundreds of hours of hard labor and extensive learning, which can be difficult to do on top of a full-time job, family, and/or other responsibilities.
If your heart is truly set on a skoolie, you can buy one from others who’ve already completed their travels. For example, the bus above was created and used by a young couple from Canada who spent half a year traveling the US and now wished to settle down back in their home town.
There Are Bus Conversion Sites!
At the festival, I spoke to a sweet woman who told us she built her skoolie at Splendor Oaks, a five-acre family-owned farm and Skoolie retreat located in Canton, Georgia.
Mike and I have always been fully aware that not everyone is as fortunate as us to have family who lives in a rural area and is willing to lend them their land to tear a school bus apart and put back together again. If I didn’t have Mike and his family, I might have never even considered building a skoolie as a possibility.
Maybe you live in a suburb with a HOA ready to slap you with a fat fine for anything out of the ordinary or you live in a city and don’t even have a secure parking spot for your own car. In these scenarios, it’s hard to imagine DIYing your own set up without space.
That’s why it’s so refreshing that the family at Splendor Oaks recognized a need, and created a skoolie community and build area next to their home and farm.
Plus they have baby goats!
Most Skoolies Were Still a Work in Process
Everyone we spoke to said that they still had some projects to complete on their bus. Skoolies are literally a “constant work in motion”.
I personally saw a lot of unfinished showers, but it could equally just be that tiles don’t hold up to the constant vibration and bumps from the bus driving on the road.
On Laura’s Instagram, @provencher_adventure, she explained on March 11, she’s redone her Airstream’s shower twice so far. Since the shower area was deconstructed on June 1st, this looks to be her third attempt!
Laura also explained that she has never put so much thought into what goes into a shower (i.e. the whole construction process). This is true for just about everyone. Very few people go into their builds knowing everything. Most people are teaching themselves through Youtube videos and online instruction.
It’s hard to be fully satisfied with your finish process, because when you do something once, your mind endlessly runs through the possibilities on how you can do something better.
One person I spoke to loved the build process so much, he wishes he could build a whole new Skoolie with all his ideas of upgrades.
Some people didn’t have a shower or toilet or AC
Sometimes you have to make sacrifices. One couple we spoke to didn’t have a shower or toilet because they preferred an open concept. Having a bathroom typically requires the installation of walls which can close off a space making it feel smaller.
Also, rather than use the space for a bathroom, they preferred to have extra living space. How do they get by? They normally stay at RV parks that have public amenities or they use their Plant Fitness Gym membership at any location across the country to get their showers in.
One of the small families we met goes without ac if their not hooked up to shore power (i.e. plugged into an outlet normally provided at a house or RV park), which I’m sure many people go without ac if they don’t have alternative power sources, such as solar.
Living on the road can require trade-offs (the most common being a large living space). For those who live in a skoolie, being able to move freely is worth it.
Handicap doors are awesome on skoolies
All that Light though!
Renovated airstreams are beautiful!
The tiny home community is obsessed with essential oils and Berkley water filters
But to be fair, a lot of people are obsessed with essential oils
Baskets make beautiful wall decor
- Some people didn’t even have a shower or toliet or AC
- Berkley Water filters are crazy popular
- Baskets make good wall decor
- Tiny Home People are obsessed with Essential Oils
- Tile Holds up in Skoolies
- People with Solar power always wish they had more batteries than panels
Have you been to a Tiny Home Festival? Was your experience similar to our own? What did you learn from your experience? We’d love to start a discussion so comment below!
Why Bus Conversions Aren’t for the Squeamish