A Portland man bought a 70-year-old double-decker bus and turned it into a tiny home that he rents out on Airbnb. Take a look at how he did it.

After a decade of working long hours behind a computer in video production, Scott was ready to do something with his hands. It was around that time that he moved into a new home in Oregon that needed some fixing up. “I met a new friend named Cody who started helping me with some of the renovations, and we got to talking about making an Airbnb,” Scott told Insider.

Scott had an RV pad in his backyard, and the duo decided to build a tiny house on wheels. That was the start of Scott’s journey building and remodeling houses with different friends and for different people. He kept it going for over five years until the pandemic hit, at which point he decided to try out a new type of renovation: a van.

The pivot was partially out of necessity. Scott’s wife lives in Texas, and with most flights suspended because of the pandemic, he needed a way to shuttle himself between the states. That’s when he found the bus listed on Craigslist.

“After that, I thought I’d try to find a used van to convert and sell but when I came across the double-decker bus, I decided that will be my next project instead,” Scott said. The seats, Scott said, had “taken a beating. ” A previous owner had done some restoration work, which saved Scott from having to do a full gutting job.

“I did have to sand the whole outside of the bus and give it a new paint job. There was a lot of interior work to do too, but it could have been worse,” he said. The bus was listed for $8,000, and Scott took it without negotiating.

“This guy, who was either historian or a bus enthusiast, tracked me down, asked me to look up the serial number on the bus, and he sent me some information about its history,” Scott said. After 20 years on Manchester’s commuting circuit, the vehicle found its way first to San Francisco and finally to Mount St. Helens in Washington, where it became a tour bus, Scott said.

Around that time, the engine caught fire and the bus could no longer be driven. “Somebody in Washington then bought it with the hope of fixing the engine and getting it driving again, but my understanding is that he never got around to it. He had kids and it became like a jungle gym in their giant backyard,” Scott said.

“When Matt bought it, they fixed it up a lot and it really helped ensure its durability,” Scott said. “They didn’t cook in it, but they used it as a place that you could eat. ” Back then, The Grilled Cheese Grill had three locations and all of them had a bus that was used as the eating area, Scott said.

Breslow did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment. The bus was eventually sold to another restaurant owner in Vancouver, but his plans to turn it into a food truck were abandoned, Scott said: “It ended up sitting in his friend’s parking lot for eight years until he listed it on Craigslist. ” Breslow did not respond to Insider’s requests for comment.

To keep the place warm, Scott added a layer of insulation to the walls and replaced the broken windows. Scott also removed part of the ceiling on both ends of the bus to create more headroom. “I had to cut out the floor upstairs in the entryway to make it so you could stand in the kitchen.

And I had to do the same thing at the front of the bus so you could stand in the bathroom,” Scott said. Scott designed a floor plan with the living area, dining area, and bathroom on the lower floor, and the sleeping quarters upstairs. “My friend’s got a space called the Trout Creek Wilderness Lodge in Molalla, Oregon,” Scott said.

“He lives in the forest and they have to cut down trees that are at risk of falling over or if they need to clear space. ” That’s not the only salvaged material used in the bus: The walls on the upper floor are remnants of wood from a door manufacturing company in Portland. “They just had leftovers and said we could take as much of the wood as we wanted,” Scott said.

“He is a retired elementary school teacher but he’s been building things his whole life, so he just loves coming up and working on projects with me,” Scott said. Scott estimates he spent around $25,000 on the entire project, including the $8,000 to buy the bus. The bus now sits in Scott’s backyard, and he’s been renting it out on Airbnb for the past two months.

Prices range from $75 to $145 per night, depending on the season. One guest who stayed in August said the place was “an absolute dream. ” “You can tell that a lot of love was put into making this bus a home.

We were a short drive from downtown Portland/other places we wanted to visit,” another guest who stayed in the bus in September wrote. Scott named the bus “The Royal Scott” — a nod to his full name, which is Whitney Royal Scott, and to an old British railway line. “I have a friend who collects British railway memorabilia, and she told me about an old London, Midland, and Scottish railway that was known as ‘The Royal Scot,’ but with a single ‘T’,” Scott said.

“The nook is there because that’s one of the ways that I like to sit and hang out with somebody, so I tried to make it big enough that two people could fit in it facing each other,” Scott said. In addition to being a comfortable spot to unwind, the nook is also a storage compartment that conceals the wheel well of the bus. “There is enough space in there that it has lids you can open up.

So that’s where the electrical panel is and where I store items like extra light bulbs,” Scott said. The bathroom door was one of the things his dad built, Scott said. The bus can no longer be driven, but the tires can still move if the steering wheel is turned.

Scott knew right from the start that the artwork was something that he wanted to keep and so he did some touch-ups and covered it with a protective spray, he added. The air-conditioner upstairs helps keep the place cool during summer. Scott is getting ready to install heaters in the bus before winter rolls around.

“I’m also hoping to put in a little pull-down screen and projector in there too so you can watch movies upstairs,” Scott added. The project was a challenge not only because of the bus’ age, but also because of its unusual shapes and corners, Scott said. “You kind of know that you’re going to be able to figure it out, but the solution isn’t necessarily obvious right off the bat,” he added.

“When you first start building, you’re really worried about what mistake you might make. But once you get into it, you realize that you can undo them,” he added. “It doesn’t have to be perfect the first time through because it’ll be better as you go on.

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