After Multiple Setbacks, These DIY Creators Finally Turned a School Bus into a Dream Home on Wheels (Exclusive)

As college graduation loomed, Jess Elena and Jake Gomez found themselves at a crossroads.

Since meeting while working at an ice cream parlor in South Florida, the couple had been steadily saving money, motivated by a shared love of travel and a desire to avoid the traditional 9-to-5 path. What they lacked wasn’t ambition — it was a clear plan for how to turn their savings into something lasting.

They explored every possibility: a year abroad, a cross-country road trip, even international travel. But none of the options felt permanent enough. A van initially seemed like the obvious answer — simple, efficient and popular at the time — until they factored in life with two cats and realized space would quickly become an issue.

That’s when the idea of a school bus entered the conversation. “We thought, ‘We could make 40 feet of space actually sustainable,’” Elena, 25, tells PEOPLE exclusively over Zoom.

Energized by the possibility, the couple dove in headfirst, and quickly discovered just how steep the learning curve would be. With no prior experience, they leaned on advice from mechanics and a tight-knit community of bus lifers, learning through trial, error and persistence.

From the beginning, they documented every step of the process — from demolition to rebuilding — across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. Their videos quickly gained traction, drawing millions of viewers who followed along as the couple worked to transform a worn-down bus into what they hoped would become a future home.

But the journey was far from smooth.

Their first two buses turned into costly setbacks. The engine on the first blew just 20 miles from the auction site. “I was 19, and somehow I convinced them to take it back,” Elena recalls with a laugh.

The second bus lasted nearly a year before failing as well, leaving them facing a $20,000 repair estimate for a used engine with no warranty.

The repeated disappointments were crushing. “We got really depressed,” Gomez, also 25, admits. “We started questioning if this lifestyle was even possible.”

Just as the dream began to feel out of reach, an unexpected opportunity surfaced. A private mechanic they knew had a spare bus from a private school that had barely been used. With just 35,000 miles on it — far below the typical half-million-mile lifespan of diesel buses — it felt like one last shot. Within 48 hours, they finalized the deal.

“All we cared about was that the engine worked,” Gomez says.

Before construction on their third bus could truly begin, Elena and Gomez had to let go of the remnants of their earlier attempts. After years of breakdowns and false starts, they salvaged what they could from the old build and sent the rest to the scrapyard.

True to how they had approached the journey from the start, the couple continued to share everything online, including the hardest moments. One video, showing a crane lifting and crushing the old bus, quickly went viral.

“This huge crane picked up the bus like it was a toy,” Elena remembers. “The windows shattered, the tires popped off — it was crazy.” What could have been devastating instead felt freeing. “We were just leaving it all behind.”

With a clean slate — and one last chance — the couple committed fully. To make the build possible, Elena and Gomez relocated to Georgia, where they rented a tiny home and parked their new bus inside a fully equipped warehouse.

For an entire year, they worked on the project full time, pouring everything they had into turning the shell into a livable, long-term home while continuing to document each milestone for their rapidly growing audience.

“We did nothing else,” they say, laughing. “It was a crazy year, but totally worth it.”

All that effort paid off: earlier this year, after four and a half years of planning, breakdowns and persistence, the foundation of their 40-foot sustainable bus was finally complete — minus a few interior design elements — a milestone that once felt impossible.

Inside, the bus reflects the care and intention shaped by years of trial and error. For Elena and Gomez, the goal was never just mobility, but true sustainability. The bus now holds 100 gallons of water, 1,800 amp-hours of lithium-ion batteries and 3,300 watts of solar power — enough to run air conditioning, appliances and electronics without ever plugging in.

Gomez says the bathroom is his favorite space.

“It’s the only room so far that is 100% complete, and it’s lush,” he says, laughing. “After a long time of not being able to use a bathroom comfortably, I wanted this to be the best one I’ve ever had. Everything is fully customizable to what both of us want, and the vibes really blend with our personalities.”

Elena, meanwhile, is most impressed by the storage — something she once thought impossible in a bus.

“It’s rare to have a closet in a bus,” she says. “We have full-sized closets with drawers and hanging space — I can hold 12 pairs of shoes. I love that we don’t have to compromise our lifestyle, even living minimally.”

Even with a few elements still unfinished — including built-in furniture and a completed shower — the space already felt like home. So, this fall, the couple finally decided to put their work to the test.

Starting in Florida, they drove to Washington State, then slowly made their way down the West Coast before looping back through the southern U.S., sharing every step of the journey with their growing audience.

“Those first nights were kind of brutal,” Elena admits. “We’d be parked near highways, and every time a semi went by, the whole bus would shake. We’d just look at each other like, ‘Is this really what we signed up for?’”

Overnight parking varied widely. Sometimes it meant squeezing into big-box store lots — Walmart, Home Depot, or Cracker Barrel — where overnight stays are tolerated but rarely comfortable.

“A lot of those stops were just survival mode,” Gomez says. “You’re tired, you need to sleep, and you know you’re gone first thing in the morning.”

During longer stretches — including a five-day push from Colorado to Washington — they relied on quick overnight stops to rest before continuing. Once they reached Washington, though, their pace shifted.

Instead of constantly moving, they began using nomadic camping apps to find dispersed campsites on public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management. The apps didn’t just show where camping was allowed — they helped determine whether a 40-foot bus could realistically access the site.

“People don’t realize how stressful that part can be,” Elena explains. “It’s not just, ‘Is this spot pretty?’ It’s, ‘Can we actually get in and out without getting stuck?’”

They became meticulous about reviews, especially warnings about narrow roads, steep inclines, or tight turns.

“If even one person said, ‘We barely made it in our truck,’ we were like, ‘Okay, hard no,’” Gomez says, laughing. “We learned to trust the comments.”

When the logistics worked, the payoff was undeniable. One of their most memorable stays was a two-week stretch along a river near Washington’s Hoh Rainforest on the Olympic Peninsula.

“That was the moment where everything clicked,” Elena says. “We were completely off-grid, no hookups, no neighbors — just us, the bus and nature. And everything worked.”

Unlike many van-lifers who move every few days, Elena and Gomez intentionally slowed down, often staying in one location for a week or more.

“With a bus this size, moving is a whole production,” Gomez explains. “You’re securing everything, leveling the bus, checking systems. Doing that every day would’ve been exhausting.”

Staying put helped the bus feel less like a vehicle and more like home.

“When you’re in one place for a while, you start cooking real meals, unpacking, settling into routines,” Elena says. “That’s when it stopped feeling like a project and started feeling like our life.”

“There were so many moments where we thought, ‘This is never going to happen,’” Gomez admits. “So being out there, fully self-sufficient, was like proof that we didn’t waste all those years.”