Chris Nason and Nicole Pilon pose for a photo in front of a school bus they are converting into a motorhome. (Photo Courtesy Brendan Miller)

By Brendan Miller

Couple converting school bus into dream home with plans to retire in Belize

Jul 14, 2023 | 4:34 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Chris Nason is a retired British Army vet who has been struggling with PTSD for years but a project he started with his girlfriend has brought him out of his shell.

After selling their ’94 Dodge Trail van, Nason and his girlfriend Nicole Pilon purchased an old school bus on Facebook marketplace. Nason says it still runs great for its age.

“She purrs like a walrus, she fires up every time.”

The couple has spent the past three weeks renovating the school bus into a motorhome on their front lawn.

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“It still had all the seats in. It has the 20-year-old plywood that was soaked in children’s tears. It has all the mould and chewing gum under the seats,” says Nason.

The first steps involved ripping out all the flooring to bare metal before treating it with rust-preventative paint. Then they added insulation and vinyl flooring. After that came the walls.

Now work is underway on the shower bathroom combo, kitchen sink, cabinets and fold-out bed. The blue exterior colour was a suggestion from Pilon’s niece Taylor.

“We use a lot of recycled stuff. We are always at Restore looking for bargains. We are using pallets, we are using scavenged wood mainly because I’m cheap but it is good for the environment too,” explains Nason.

So far the total cost has been about $5,000. Nason expects to pay an additional $2,500 to install solar panels on the roof.

“We’re getting there. Like, we got the king-sized bed in, I thought he was crazy, there is a king-sized bed in there. He got it in and there’s still lots of room so he knows what he’s doing. A method to his madness I guess” says Pilon.

Nicole says the project has impacted her boyfriend, who served more than eight years with the British Army in the early 2000s.

“He goes to bed thinking about it, he wakes up and that’s the first thing on his mind. His drive is amazing and tiring,” adds Pilon. “Sometimes I’m like, ‘OK, can we just sit on the couch for 10 minutes?’ But no, it’s been really good for him, he’s happier than I’ve ever seen him.”

The couple plans to eventually sell their belongings and live in the school bus they’ve named Old Skoolie 14. Their dream is to travel through Central America and retire in Belize.

“The last two or three years have been pretty hard on everyone I think with all the COVID and restrictions that were put in and all that stuff so yeah we just got fed up with it and we figured we’re not going to be told where to go and what to do anymore, we are just going to make our own destiny I think,” says Nason.

The couple has been documenting the entire renovation on social media under the handle Chris and Nicole’s Plan B. They plan to take the bus on its maiden voyage later this summer to Elkwater before heading south.