We first met her in February of 2004. ‘Coach’ was a three-axle day tour Mercedes coach that was up for sale in Sydney. We had been comparing and looking for a long while and she was just what we were looking for. But the strange thing here was, we must have been what she was looking for as well … because she locked us in while we were checking the interior. It just took us a while to work out how to open the door. The decision was made and we drove her home to Lismore in New South Wales.
The transformation begins
Coach’s transformation took over three years, including removing seats; and lowering the floor because John is six feet tall. Now that was a big job. The engineer helped with ideas on holding her square (in case the old floor was a strategic part of the framework) until a new floor frame was in place. All good. We then replaced a few windows with opening ones. There were lessons learned there also. Extra wires were removed that were for heated seats, lights and other unwanted bits; and household wiring was installed.
While doing all this researching and learning, then trying to find everything that was needed to make a home to live off-grid, we also worked full-time and tried to farm on the weekends. Boy, what it’s like to be younger.
