Eliza Brownhome
BluebirdMama, her husband and their three small children all live in a 40-foot converted Bluebird school bus. The parents lived in the bus before the children were born, but decided to move into a “normal” house when their first child came along. However, after four years, the mobile life called to them again and they moved back into the bus, which they named Eliza Brownhome.
The catalyst for moving from a 3,000 square foot suburban house back onto Eliza might have been the rain. BluebirdMama writes this on her blog about living in a house:
“I remember lying in bed, staring up at the ceiling, 8 feet up. We had bought a King size bed and the room was huge. Everything felt cavernous and empty. And quiet. We couldn’t hear the rain. We couldn’t feel the cold on the window panes. We couldn’t feel the wind shake our home. We would wake in the morning and have no idea what the weather was like, what we’d missed while we slept. We were truly disconnected from the natural world, from our community, living in a well-insulated, private, box.”
Eliza Brownhome has a main living area with a woodstove and two couches that can sleep three more people. The kitchen contains handmade cabinets, a tiled blacksplash and a large spice rack and pantry. The bedroom in the back of the bus has a queen size bed with storage underneath. Above the bed is a bunk for one of the children and another bed sits at the food of the ladder to the bunk. The youngest child sleeps in the parents’ bed. There is a play area in the bedroom, as well as the living area.
The bathroom sits across from the bedroom closet and has a small sink made from a salad bowl, storage, a water heater and a chemical toilet. There is no shower, but in the past, the couple used the shower in BluebirdMama’s sister’s home, where they parked the bus. They hope to do the same this time around.
BluebirdMama’s blog focuses mainly on childbearing and rearing, homeschooling and natural play and has a full gallery of the family’s bus.
Photos by BluebirdMama
By Christina Nellemann for the [Tiny House Blog]
