Brandon and Jazz have been living out of their converted shuttle bus for a little more than a year. The couple decided they were sick of the high cost of living, working all the time and never seeing each other, never being able to “truly live.”
The couple didn’t want to give their last names for privacy reasons. They found an old shuttle bus for $1,000 and transformed it into a mobile home that has taken them from their home base of San Francisco to spots across the country.
“We love to travel and we just decided to do it,” Jazz said. “We realized we could always go back to that.”
The two invited thousands into their home during the Colorado Tiny House Festival the weekend of June 23 at Riverdale Regional Park, 9755 Henderson Road. They were just one of the many homeowners showcasing a variety of livable spaces that ranged from 150 square feet to something just around 1,000 square feet.
The festival, now in its second year, drew crowds upwards of 10,000 to the Adams County fairgrounds. It was a larger turnout than the first year’s event last summer, according to organizer Art Laubach.
People wandered through the park, stepping into yurts that had been set up and taking pictures of more permanent tiny home options for potential ideas.
Some said they were there just to explore, but others were there to scope things out and get ideas for their own tiny homes.
Most of the homes ranged in price from $10,000 to $50,000, depending on the square footage and amenities.
Don’t let the idea of a tiny home fool you into thinking this is some kind of rustic living, however, some vendors said.
While it can be, most of the school buses, tiny homes and yurts, have the capacity for all the modern amenities you would find in a “regular” house.
“Old buses sell fast,” said one vendor, who was living in a converted school bus. “There’s a hot market for it.”
The market for tiny homes is booming. Profiles of the tiny house movement, emphasize the affordability of a small home, which on the high end are a fraction of the average home cost of $300,000.
Small homes are viewed as a more sustainable alternative to large, permanent houses, advocates say. They are typically built on platforms with wheels, which can solve issues of building code violations due to size.