Too Tall
For a moment, it looked like Talley had a made a huge mistake when he realized that he was five inches too tall for the bus! How was he going to work in this thing? “As soon as I stepped onto the bus for the first time I knew me being 6’6″ was going to be a huge problem,” he admitted. “The ceiling is only 6’1, so I was going to have to do some MAJOR work to get this thing comfortable for my abnormally large [body].”
Cut In Half
One of the most radical things that Talley did to the bus was cut it in half. “I cut a section out of one of the steel ribs and took it to a metal fabricator,” he said. “I had him craft 25 identical steel ‘sleeves’ that could slip over either end of the rib once the roof was raised.” This is ultimately what solved the ceiling problem. “It’s remarkable how much more spacious the bus feels than I thought it would,” he said.
Awesome Design
As a professional designer, Talley knew that he needed to make sure that every single inch counted. If one measurement was off, the entire project could fall apart. “This is my ‘final’ design for the bus. I like to entertain so I put all the public areas towards the front and all the private areas in the back,” he said. “Having people over outside to grill or chill, the two most common areas they would need to access would be the kitchen and the bathroom.”
Personal Cinema
One thing is for sure, Talley is big a fan of movies. His social media is full of photos of him with stars such as Matthew McConaughey. So it made perfect sense that he wanted a TV in his place. “I like movies. Film and television are my favorite things, so I wanted a great movie watching room,” he said. “I like to have people over to watch things so I knew I needed a sizable living room. I’m also a designer, so I needed a great workstation.”
Little Help From My Friends
It’s natural that Talley would’ve needed some help to fully realize his dream. “A nice man came with his 7 months pregnant wife and 8-year-old daughter to cart away all these seats to the scrap metal yard,” he said. “Props to my stepdad for crawling under the bus and helping me remove every single bolt. If I did this again I would have used an angle grinder, but this was still only days into the build and I was terrified of power tools.”
Getting Better
With each day, Talley’s design was starting to take shape a little more. The scaffolding was starting to appear, furniture was being fitted and he even had his office set up. One of the main transformations that Talley made was stripping down the bus windows and replacing them. “The windows weren’t hard to take out,” he said. “Part of me wanted to keep them, but I knew they would rattle, provide little privacy or insulation, and look weird with my roof raise and design.”
Kitchen In The Works
Being a lover of food, Michael Talley needed a kitchen counter that he could easily chop a lot of vegetables on. As you can see, he already tests an onion on it.”IKEA phased out their old kitchen line and I got a hell of a deal on these drawers and cabinets,” he said. “I paid $30 for everything! The butcher block was also a great deal. All the butcher block in this bus was bought on clearance for $120.”
Stunning Kitchen
Naturally, one thing that Talley considered even more important than a place to watch movies was a place to cook food. All it took was a sale at IKEA to get his dream kitchen. “IKEA phased out their old kitchen line and I got a hell of a deal on these drawers and cabinets,” he said. “I paid $30 for everything! The butcher block was also a great deal. All the butcher block in this bus was bought on clearance for $120.”
