Life On A Bus

Many people aspire to restoring a big old vehicle and going on driving adventures, but only a tiny number actually follow through with it. Among the latter are expats Edith Kraaijeveld, her husband Frank, and their two sons Luc and Yannick. Together, they sourced and converted the holiday vehicle of their dreams – a bus called “LYFE” – and now they’ve taken their first trip.

What gave you the idea for this ambitious family project?

Looking back, I’d say it’s been a combination of things. We’ve always enjoyed going on road trips – we enjoy the adventure of discovering new places on the road. As far back as 1989, when Frank and I were dating, our first holiday together was a road trip through the UK with a tent; in hindsight, far from romantic, but we thought it was the best! Then, a few years ago, we used my parent’s caravan for a road trip through Germany and Switzerland, and had another wonderful holiday. It was after that, on a trip to Australia, that we came across some vintage buses. Our whole family – at least, the boys in the family – are crazy about classic cars, and these buses hit a nerve. That’s when the dreaming began. We started watching videos on school bus conversions – the documentary film Expedition Happiness was particularly inspiring.

Luc ended up being the one convincing his (in his opinion) unadventurous parents to consider the purchase of an American school bus to convert it into a tiny home on wheels. We wanted to make this a family project, with all the planning shared and discussed by all of us.

How does someone go about buying a bus?

Good question! We got in touch with the owners of the buses we’d seen in Australia to see if they’d be willing to sell one, but it didn’t work out. We continued our search until, one day in September 2017, Luc was surfing eBay for buses (as you do), and found a school bus for sale. The price was reasonable and Frank put a bid in. After a little up and down, that same night, the owner accepted our offer.

We decided to name the bus “LYFE”, after our four initials: Luc, Yannick, Frank and Edith.

Tell us a bit about the job of restoring and fitting out the bus.