A few years ago Louis had a dream of owning a double decker bus that he could (of course) live on, hire out for parties and use for social action projects. Three years ago he fulfilled his dream and bought a bus that was all kitted out for kids parties from a DJ based in Telford.
He began refurbishment work on it and was having some alterations made by a coach works company in Kent. The company rang him and said that they had just had a bus delivered back to them that they had refurbished a year before that already had living accommodation facilities on it (plumbing, shower, cooker, fridge) and asked if he would he like to trade in his bus and buy that. It was going to cost £10,000. But they had already started work on the other bus, which had cost him £2,000 to buy and was now still going to have to pay the coach works so he didn’t say yes to the newer bus and was still figuring out what to do. However, when he went to collect the first bus after they had done the work, having driven 2 miles down the road it spontaneously combusted!! Yes, it just burst into flames. His friend who had driven him to Kent to collect it was driving behind and saw smoke and flames coming out of the back and flagged Louis down! No one was hurt! AND he got all the money back through the insurance and had enough money through some funding for the social action projects he is involved with to buy the £10,000 bus! For the last couple of years it has served him well as living accommodation, has hired it out for parties and school fairs and has done lots of youth drop in for local councils, youth projects and even run a mums and toddlers drop in where he takes some volunteers that will look after the toddlers and a beautician who will do the mums nails etc while the kids are playing! Oh... and set up a recording studio in it!!
Here is his promotional video for the work he's been doing on it:
A Street Party:
Sleepover on the Bus:
Then last year in “emissions zone” was imposed in London which meant another £5,000 spend on converting the bus to low emission fuel or a £200 charge every time the bus entered the zone. This has restricted the buses activities somewhat although quite a number of people has still booked parties and been prepared to pay the £200 charge as part of the evenings costs (obviously not kids parties but things like stag nights etc!), and Louis has been looking around for more funding.
A few weeks ago he was successful in obtaining funding of £10,000 for both the fuel conversion and some improvements. Yey! But ... about 4 weeks ago, whilst working on it with a friend, I don’t know whether it was due to lack of sleep, not eating properly (a mother always worries about these things with sons) they made the decision to rip the entire contents of the lower deck out ... without a project plan, a budget plan and with a party deadline of last night!! He had booked his friend for a week to help him with the work, but then the friend who is a builder had other work to go to. So who do you turn to in a situation like that? Mum and Dad of course! Ben is pretty handy and loves projects but even he was overwhelmed by the amount of work and the scale of Louis’ plans for the bus. So, the logical pragmatic member of the family had to step in (me) and we put together a task list – couldn’t find a copy of MS Project on any of our PCs so had to put it in a spreadsheet and got Louis to estimate the times for design, sourcing of materials and execution to give him a realistic view of what could be achieved.
So for the last three weeks Ben and Louis have been working solidly on it, Ben teaching during the day, stopping by for a bite to eat before going over to the farm where the bus is stored and working til about 3am!!
A few weeks ago he was successful in obtaining funding of £10,000 for both the fuel conversion and some improvements. Yey! But ... about 4 weeks ago, whilst working on it with a friend, I don’t know whether it was due to lack of sleep, not eating properly (a mother always worries about these things with sons) they made the decision to rip the entire contents of the lower deck out ... without a project plan, a budget plan and with a party deadline of last night!! He had booked his friend for a week to help him with the work, but then the friend who is a builder had other work to go to. So who do you turn to in a situation like that? Mum and Dad of course! Ben is pretty handy and loves projects but even he was overwhelmed by the amount of work and the scale of Louis’ plans for the bus. So, the logical pragmatic member of the family had to step in (me) and we put together a task list – couldn’t find a copy of MS Project on any of our PCs so had to put it in a spreadsheet and got Louis to estimate the times for design, sourcing of materials and execution to give him a realistic view of what could be achieved.
So for the last three weeks Ben and Louis have been working solidly on it, Ben teaching during the day, stopping by for a bite to eat before going over to the farm where the bus is stored and working til about 3am!!
And in the last week emergency calls were sent out to friends and family to get all hands on deck. Two days ago I was recruited as an upholsterer and have now learnt the skill of working with leatherette and an electric staple gun and Hilary (who I had booked to come round and help me with some admin) helped me all day yesterday!
And of course, we pulled it off and the bus looked amazing. They stopped by on the way to the party to pick up the upholstered seats, lights flashing, music blaring, mist poured out of the bus door like a rock concert state ...
It is fun being part of a crazy family!! At times stressful, but I wouldn’t trade it.
And of course, we pulled it off and the bus looked amazing. They stopped by on the way to the party to pick up the upholstered seats, lights flashing, music blaring, mist poured out of the bus door like a rock concert state ...
It is fun being part of a crazy family!! At times stressful, but I wouldn’t trade it.
