About

A Little Bit About the Basically Nomads Brand:

I'm Devin, and along with my cat, Tillo, we live full-time in a 2001 Bluebird school bus turned contemporary apartment on wheels. My goal is to disregard social norms and try to find meaning through simple and intentional living. For the past few years, I've been traveling around the US, working as a traveling tiny home build/ solar installer all while exploring some of the most beautiful landscapes America has to offer. 

Why I Went Tiny:

The decision to go tiny was a culmination of several things. I never really liked the idea of living “the American dream” where its the norm to go into massive amounts of debt to own things that served as more of a status symbol than to offer any real substance. The idea that you would work away the one life that we have to keep up with the Jones just didn’t sit right with me. I was determined to own our home and pay cash for it along the way, so a tiny home made so much sense for us. 

Now, I try to help others realize that same dream but creating one of a kind mobile tiny houses.  

What We Like About It:

The absolute best part about it is that we own our home. Tiny homes usually cost a fraction of what a “normal” house would cost. No house payments open up so many other opportunities. That money can be put back for adventures, or it can allow us to work less and reclaim our time.

An unknown biproduct of going tiny is that it forces you to be more intentional with what you bring into your life. We’re now minimalist (mostly) and that just kind of happens when you live in a 300 sq ft bus. I only have room to bring in things that add value to our lives, and we quickly figure out the things that are just taking up space and collecting dust. Oh, and its also pretty amazing that I can take our home with us wherever we go. 

Bus Model: 2001 Bluebird tc3000 

Dimensions: 39ft by 8ft

Square footage: Roughly 300 sq ft

Year Built: Finished in 2018

Location: Champaign, IL

Main Features: 

The Basically Nomads bus features a bedroom with a queen size bed, a bunk area for guests, and a fully tiled shower area with a slight roof raise. Other key features are a high end gaming PC desk space and double couches that transform into a large bed for even more guests! I also have the ability to go completely off grid with 2,000 watts of solar and a 100 gallon water tank. Full sized amenities in 300 sq ft!

 

Build Price:

$36k all in. This price included the bus. We did absolutely everything we could DIY to keep the cost low, but we usually opted for high quality materials when we could. 

Build Time:

This build took a LONG time. Just under 2 years. This is for a couple of good reasons though. When we decided to just go all in on tiny I was working over 60 hours a week and going to school full time. The first year of our build I was only able to work on the bus 1 day a week. In the end this was actually a great thing. Because the build took so long we were able to save up and pay cash for everything as we went and I would recommend this to anyone that wants to go tiny and be debt free. The length of the build can add quite a bit of stress though, since we moved out of our apartment before the build was done and my wife stayed with friends for a month while I finished the plumbing and AC! 

Advice for people wanting to go tiny:

Just pull the trigger. We constantly have people telling us that the wish the could do this. And my question is always, what’s stopping you? They never really know. The truth is that it’s a little scary to do anything outside the normal, but its very often one of the most rewarding things you can do. So, the best advice we could give is to overtake your fears. What’s the worst that could happen? One other tip would be not to accrue new debt while going tiny. It’s absolutely possible to go tiny with little to no debt. It may just take a little bit longer and thanks ok!

Instagram: @basicallynomads

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