Skoolies and parrots?

[ravvlet]

Ok, I might have lost my mind a bit, but I’m getting really frustrated with our expensive Seattle townhouse. We’ve had problems with EVERYTHING since we bought it - electrical, gas, plumbing, appliances, you name it. It passed inspection fine somehow, and yet something is always messed up! It kills me to think how much we paid for this place when it feels like I am always having to fix something.

I have been fantasizing for a while about how nice it would be to downsize (like, tiny house downsize, LOL), but I keep thinking it’s not possible for us because of the parrots. When we first moved to Seattle we actually lived in a 415sqft apartment with our kid and two chihuahuas! The most spacious room in that thing was, inexplicably, the bathroom. I have a buddy I used to work with back when I was in college who bought & renovated a school bus and now they live in it full time. It’s not as luxurious as the ones you see on instagram, but it works really well for them! It’s also - for a tiny house - HUGE.

When I was a kid, my parents got an RV, and we took several summer trips in it. I really enjoy traveling but hate having to leave our pets at home. The RV was awesome because we could easily bring our family dogs and all the comforts of home wherever we went!

However, a tiny house means whatever is in the air anywhere in the RV/bus/what have you is what the parrots have to breathe in. I think we’ve been pretty successful in getting rid of all the dangerous stuff, and anytime I need to work with art supplies that aren’t bird safe I do it outside or I go to something like a Makerspace where you can rent time to work and use their equipment. I feel like we could probably still manage this - but I don’t know much about diesel engines or how much we’d need to worry about exhaust fumes, etc.

Has anyone here travelled or lived in an RV situation long term with their parrots? How’d you manage? I am thinking if we did this we’d have to go all out with a custom build and have a dedicated bird area (my plan would be to sacrifice the “master bedroom” and just have a convertible bench bed situation for the adults).

This is probably mostly daydreaming, but I’ve got a big annoying hole in my dining room ceiling from a leak from our *newly remodelled bathroom* that is really on my last nerve!

 

[saxguy64]

Well, I can't speak to the RV life, having never tried it. I totally understand the attraction though. That said, I have my beautiful Baxter girl specifically because her previous owners downsized to an RV and decided not to try to make it work with her. Their thought was the travel and change would be too hard on her. Harder than ripping her away from the only family she's ever known and dumping her at a refuge? I beg to differ. I shouldn't complain though. She found me and the rest is history

 

[ravvlet]

I’m pretty confident that if we dedicated enough space (and figured out a way to have a convertible, fold down outdoor space as a bonus!) for the birds they wouldn’t give a flip what sort of habitation their humans chose.

A lot of people seem to dedicate the backend (+ exit door) of skoolies to a bedroom, but I figured if we made it so we could latch the bird cages in to the walls back there, we could finangle a fold up screened patio situation that hooked to the back/back roof and could be let down when not driving, without blocking the tail lights…

Plus, our current offices are our bird rooms, so we’d just add additional space for desk room & install their tree in the center aisle.

I may have already sketched some variations on this theme, lol.

Either way, we would never consider rehoming pets for a whim, even a major lifestyle change. We have also been looking at just buying undeveloped land nearby and slowly working on it until we can sell this place and move in; I’d love a tiny house that had RV-sized sleeping arrangements but a BIG open concept living/kitchen area, and a second BIG atrium-style office/aviary for the birds!

 

[wrench13]

Tiny houses seem like a great idea until you try living in one. Not for me certainly, heck all my instruments alone would fill a school bus, not to mention sound equipment, cannons, swords and pirate garb. Then there is the live steam locomotive, motorcycles, tools .... Geri an I would be living in the front seats, w/Salty in the aisle.

Face it kiddo, owning a house, tiny or otherwise is a money pit. Always something needs fixin' or replacin'.

 

[ravvlet]

Yeah yeah yeah, I know. This is actually not my first rodeo owning a house. We just got back from a vacation and I can’t help but think how much more time and resources we’d have for travel or doing stuff we love if we weren’t spending so much on this overpriced pile of concrete!

Fortunately our townhouse is arranged so that we don’t have a ton of stuff; and it’s easy to sort between what we always use and what we almost never touch… but I agree that if we were going to do something, buying land on the cheap and building something we love makes more sense. But the idea of downsizing and throwing out all the clutter appeals to me a lot!!

 

[HeatherG]

Hey there: I have lived in small places and made a lot of art.

Currently I have a very old stained tub in my bathroom. Therefore it is a spray booth. There’s an exhaust fan and everything.

If I ever need to used a soldering iron to wood burn or melt something, there’s always the stove top. Also comes with high powered exhaust fan.

I knew someone who lived in a short bus. That was cute.

 

[ravvlet]

Hey there: I have lived in small places and made a lot of art.

Currently I have a very old stained tub in my bathroom. Therefore it is a spray booth. There’s an exhaust fan and everything.

If I ever need to used a soldering iron to wood burn or melt something, there’s always the stove top. Also comes with high powered exhaust fan.

I knew someone who lived in a short bus. That was cute.

Clever! Our bathroom that has a decent exhaust fan is right by the parrot room which freaks me out! Thankfully I reached out online and it turns out there’s a community Makerspace in the town south of mine that’s only a 20min drive from my house. Membership was on sale so I jumped in and couldn’t be happier. They have an airbrush booth, laser cutter, massive CNC router, a heat plate & sublimation printer, etc. It so far works perfectly for my needs and they’re also letting me rent storage space for my toxic materials I don’t want around the birds.

The short bus skoolies are so adorable! I did some more research and found out that repairs on those buses are often 5-10k because the parts are so specialized though, and take a while to complete the same reason! So no worries, Kirby isn’t going to be forced to #vanlife with me anytime soon!