A WOMAN has revealed that she transformed a discarded old bus into her dream home, for just £1.6k.
Anne, purchased a shuttle bus for £12,000 in February 2024, and transformed it into a cosy apartment in just a few months.
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She decided to move into the bus as a means to escape an abusive marriage and now has a life of freedom and joy.
The conversion project cost her just £1,600 “and a lot of hours of work.”
The bus is eight and half feet wide and 25 feet long, which Anne believes is the perfect size for her to live and work as an artist in.
It is also powered by solar, meaning that she can go completely off grid if she travels from place to place.
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Anne has decorated her bus with bright painted colours, which she said helps to advertise her business as an artist.
“When I go into town it encourages people to come and check out the bus,” she told Tiny House Giant Journey.
She even does painting classes from inside her van, which local people often sign up to.
For her safety, Anne doesn’t want anybody to be able to tell that she lives in the bus from the outside, so she has kept the interior simple and left it looking like a bus.
The seats of her bus are used for storage, and under one of them is an empty foam box, which she cleverly transforms into a shower.
The seats can also be pushed together to make a queen size bed, or even an L-shaped sofa.
Another one of the seats is a compost toilet, and a separate seat is used to store her dirty laundry.
Living in a tiny home is a great way to save cash for a house, whilst still having your independence.
As the cost of living crisis continues to bite, more and more adults are struggling to get on the property ladder and are choosing to live in their family home for longer.
The 2021 census revealed that over half of people aged 23 and under still live with their parents.
Tiny Homes FAQs
The tiny house movement began in the USA before gaining popularity in the UK.
What is a tiny home?
Tiny houses are small, fully-equipped living spaces designed to lead a more sustainable, off-grid lifestyle. Although they vary in size and shape, tiny homes tend to be between 15 and 50 square metres in capacity, made of sustainable materials and are easier — and cheaper — to maintain than traditional brick homes.
Are tiny homes legal in the UK?
As long as the tiny house doesn’t exceed 19.8m x 6.7m in size, it is defined as a caravan in UK law. Therefore, tiny houses are classed as legal additional living space.
Can you get a mortgage for a tiny home?
The small size and relatively low cost of tiny houses means they’re not generally considered eligible for a mortgage. However, there are plenty of options to take out a loan to fund your dreams of the perfect, moveable home.
The average price of a house in the UK was £285,000 as of March 2023, and this rises to a whopping £735,254, which is completely unaffordable for many.
Moreover, research from the Resolution Foundation found that the average first time buyer deposit tripled from 5 per cent of the property price in 1989 to 15 per cent in 2019.
This means that buyers have to save for far longer and use up a larger percentage of their earnings to get on the property ladder.
Recent research by property site Zoopla found that 42 per cent of adults under 40 who do not already own homes have given up, due to the astronomical cost of buying a property.
This included 38 per cent of people earning over £60,000 (almost double the average salary for the UK).
