On the beautiful shores of the Key Peninsula in Washington, there’s a small but special home that can catch anyone’s eye.
It’s a small house, but it’s uniquely designed to include a yellow school bus. This “school bus home” is as strange and interesting as it sounds.
It offers a unique way of living that one family finds truly magical.
Mira and Jeremy Thompson live in the lakeside home with their nearly 2-year-old daughter, Carys. Their school bus home is next to a vacation home, which lets the family use laundry facilities, internet, and extra space for guests.
The Thompsons built their school bus home because they love family, traveling, and living on purpose.
“After living the typical, fast-paced Western lifestyle, the idea of living simply intentionally began to appeal to Jeremy and (me) more,” Mira said.
“We wanted more time to set aside for family, travel, and to live in the moment. So after eight years together, we got married and hit the road, living nomadically for a couple of years. We fell in love with our new lives and the freedom we had found and decided not to go back. But we did find ourselves wanting a home base close to our families.”
The Thompsons built the home all by themselves, and it took about two years to finish.
“Jeremy’s unique experience with 9 years of auto body and decades of carpentry gave him the interesting expertise required to alter the body of a school bus structure and marry it with the structure of a little cedar cottage,” the Thompsons explained.
“Mira designed the floor plan, decorated and gave her artistic two cents in every step of the build. No one else was hired to build the bus.”
From the Thompsons’ front door, you can see a beautiful lake next to a grassy bank.
Mira explained that they wanted their custom home to feel nostalgic and whimsical. Their cottage-like house is their main living space.
It’s cozy yet open, helping them grow closer as a family and live without a mortgage. Plus, they can move their home if they need to.
A large circular window greets guests as they enter the house.
“The bus stays put most of the time. It is a home we have the flexibility to move as we find our dream property, but it is not a motor-home, travel vehicle. We also have a 19-foot school bus that we use for travel,” Jeremy said.
The school bus home lets the Thompsons avoid the stress of a big mortgage or living in a too-large house.
“We also believe that creativity is essential to stay young at heart and in body. It seems like such a common thing in our culture for the years to slip by as we are consumed by the daily tasks of working to live in homes way bigger than we can even appreciate or afford. We decided instead to work pretty hard for a couple of years, expanding our minds in creativity, to give us a place that meets all our needs beautifully, while still nudging us to get off the couch, out of the house, and out to live our lives.”
Two octagonal windows next to the bed bring in light and make the space feel open.
The bedroom has a queen-size bed where Mira, Jeremy, and Carys all sleep together.
Above the bedroom is a spacious loft with enough room for a big mattress. The Thompsons use this area to relax and read.
The whole home is designed to be open and functional. Every bit of space is well-planned.
The small kitchen has everything they need, including an old, restored Frigidaire refrigerator.
The bathroom has a shower across from the toilet, although it’s not shown in pictures.
Mira wanted the house to feel both rustic and magical, blending old-fashioned charm with a sense of wonder.
