In February 20, 2018, James and Amanda reached out to me via FB Messenger.
My initial reaction was “I can’t say I have designed a bus before”. I had a very limited knowledge of the #buslife and #skoolieconversion which made me shy away from the idea at first. After a minute or two, I quickly realized how awesome this opportunity saw it as a chance to help my friends. Although I like to challenge myself, I am also quick to stick to what’s comfortable. So before I could even change my mind, I quickly said yes to them and set up a time to meet.
Initial Meeting
I treated the meeting like any other project I worked on. During that initial meeting we discussed everything about the project. The first question I had was the same as yours, “What’s the reason behind calling it ‘The Muir bus?’ ”.
“John Muir is known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the National Parks," and our goal is to see as much of the beautiful land we live in from this bus. We had a lot of catchy names thrown around when we were first starting out - mostly having to do with our own dumb name - but when "Muir" was suggested there was a little magic in it that we hadn't felt from anything else. We also share a birthday, and that's pretty cool. “ Amanda replied.
Then I asked them how they came up with the idea. To be honest, I was never truly informed about this lifestyle that a lot of people are choosing.
“We had heard of "Skoolies" and kinda had far off dreams of someday being that daring, but then our friends told me they had a neighbor with a bus he was trying to sell and that far off dream got a lot closer to being feasible. It was just before Christmas that I met with the guy, got a photo of the bus, and hid it in the wallet I gave James for Christmas. He opened up the wallet, pulled out the picture, and on the back I'd written, '“Wanna buy a bus?” “
It was truly a spontaneous decision from their side. So cool!!!
Life got in the way.
Fast forward to today. The year is 2019. Yes, it took us a year to move forward with the project. What can I say? Life got in the way. Last year was a extremely busy year for us. Amanda is an amazing photographer and she did about a million weddings, proposals, and photoshoots. When James is not busy being a manager, he acts as Amanda’s second shooter.
Don’t they look so cute?
Also, in July 2018, Amanda and James did my surprise engagement proposal in Hawaii.
And in December 2018, they also shot our wedding. Like I said, last year was a crazy time crazy for all of us.
They did such an amazing job capturing 2 big moments of our lives. I hope I can give the same quality of service and effort as they gave us.
Our Progress
Now, it’s time to make sure I do my best to make this a success. We are constantly updating our portfolio page to reflect our progress. You can check out the project brief & photos here
If you want to see more photos & videos follow @themuirbus and @imperialarchitects to see how we are turning this bus into a home!