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This week on Sweet Digs, we take a tour inside a renovated Greyhound bus that has become a mobile home. This bus home had been fully updated to be livable and it perfect for your dream of van life. Watch this episode of Sweet Digs to see what it's like to live in s bus in Asbury Park, New Jersey!

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High rent, small spaces, nosy neighbors — we put up with A LOT of things to live where we love. In Sweet Digs, Refinery29 gets a peek inside the homes of the coolest people we know, from tiny studios to sprawling houses, and ask the real questions like, "Wait, how much is your rent?"

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Transcript
00:00Hi, I'm Jessi. Welcome to my Mobile Suite digs. Before you come in, subscribe below.
00:05The bus was $7,000 and all in all I spent $125,000 renovating it. Currently I'm
00:11parked in Asbury Park, New Jersey and I pay $100 a month in rent. Expenses were
00:16carpenters, electricians. The largest cost was the master carpenter that I
00:20hired to do all of the interior woodwork. I found the bus on eBay and I
00:24love the aesthetic of a 1966 Greyhound. This is my reading nook where I like to
00:29just cuddle up with my blanket and read, but I also use the space for whenever I
00:33don't want to fold clothing. I just kind of throw it on so it's my catch-all
00:36chair. Growing up I had a ritual with my mom. She would wake me up early every
00:40Sunday morning and we would clean the entire apartment while she blasted
00:44either Queen or classical music. So for me it was always something that you just
00:48kept up with. A lot of the items that I have throughout my home come from my
00:52travels. I bought the pillow in South Africa. I got it when I was studying
00:56abroad there. It's embroidered by women in a township and it gives back to their
01:00community. I also bought this carved wood box in Hawaii at a thrift store. It's
01:04actually not for sale. The owner told me that someone was passing away on the
01:08island and wanted to give it to me as long as it was something that I was
01:11going to keep in value in my home. Over here I have a seven-foot closet. It
01:15extends to the same area that this does. It's all one pole. They're larger than
01:19anything that I had in New York City. I grew up in Manhattan. I had always lived in
01:23small spaces so it made downsizing pretty easy because all of my
01:27apartments were around the same size as the bus which is 400 square feet. I
01:31decided to downsize more so because I wanted to live outdoors and spend less.
01:35I love going hiking and boating and swimming so for me having this outdoor
01:40lifestyle was only possible by having a tiny home. Back here is my bedroom. My
01:45favorite space in the bus is definitely the bed. It's just super cozy. I love to
01:49sleep and just cuddle up here especially on cold winter nights. I love to read
01:53with this antique lamp that I have in here. I just started War and Peace for
01:57probably the fifth time. I would like to finish it. This is my kitchen area. I have
02:01lots of counter space. The stove is propane. I have the propane tank under the
02:05sink. It's a 20 pound propane tank which you could fill at any Lowe's or Home Depot.
02:08The water tank is underneath the bed. I think it's about 50 gallons 47 to 50 gallon tank
02:13and there's PEX piping which leads it to the kitchen and bathrooms. Heat the water. I have an
02:17instant hot water heater which is underneath the sink and it's meant for
02:20RVs or tiny homes so it vents through the floor. One thing that is really
02:25different from apartments or other places that I've lived is that I'm much
02:28more conscious of the amount of water and propane that I'm using. I recently
02:31learned how to cook spanakopica, a vegan version. I had a bacon in the oven with
02:35pastry dough and it was a huge hit. The plates and fruit bowl are a matching set
02:39for my great-grandmother. They are from their apartment when they lived in the
02:43tenements on Delancey Street. When the apartment burned down they saved the
02:47plates and moved to Brooklyn with them. There's hidden storage throughout the
02:50bus. Bus battery, charger, all of that stored in these cubbies down here. In the
02:55baseboard of the kitchen I decided not to waste the space and I put utensils
02:58down here. And in the back of the bus I have cubby holes acting as a night table
03:03all around the bed. There's no dishwasher but I have a large sink so I'm able to
03:07pile my dishes in there but I'm usually pretty fast with cleaning. I have my shower
03:11over here. In here I have mahogany wood strip floors so when I step out of the
03:15shower I can drip dry off. All of the flooring underneath the mahogany wood
03:19drains to the same place that the shower drains to. And I don't have a gray water
03:24tank so I make sure that all my shampoos, conditioners, and body washes are
03:27biodegradable. Here I have my bathroom. I have my mirror and sink in here. I
03:32previously had a compostable toilet and I'm looking to update. Up here I have the
03:36driving area and also the guest bed and couch area. So far I've only had a couple
03:40people over. Mainly people stay in the bed with me. It's just cozier back there.
03:44But I do have a pullout bed in the front of the bus that's a queen size and fits
03:48two people. The front area of the bus has a ton of windows. The windshield is
03:51massive. I would like to figure out a way to make it more private for when I have
03:56guests over. Can you comment with how I can possibly do that? This is the original
04:00seat and steering wheel from this 1966 GMC Greyhound commuter bus. The horn still
04:05works. When the bus is in motion I secure everything so that nothing breaks. I don't
04:10have many delicate things but for my plates and all of those items I just
04:14wrap them up when I'm on the go. The tiny home movement is awesome. I do hope that
04:18it becomes more mainstream and I think that it has been lately. People are
04:21surprised when they find out I live on a bus. I think specifically when I was on
04:25dating apps. It's the best place I've ever lived because I designed everything so it
04:30was really just custom to everything I wanted in closet size, kitchen size, all these
04:35different spaces and it has the aesthetic that I just really enjoy living in. I'm
04:39selling because I want to travel abroad for some time. For my next dream home I
04:43think I actually want something even smaller and easier to drive in cities.
04:53Thanks so much for watching My Sweet Digs. To subscribe click here and to watch
04:57more click here.
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