released

Today is a happy day.
Many days in the recent few weeks have been happy, that is, more happy than usual.

But today is the first day I can share the reason for my happiness over the internet.

The happiness started about two weeks ago, when the bus eventually passed its final technical tests after being in the garage for just under a year.
It's been over two years since I bought this monster, a dream I'd always considered would remain in the realm of my imagination.
During these two years the impatience wasn't always obviously directly beneath the surface. Only the last two weeks, with prolonged administrative procedures eventually completed, my impatience was hardly durable, but finally there she was.

Fitted with official license plates, I parked my 18m long vehicle in front of my parents house and moved most of my stuff I need for living into the bus.

A good friend and metal-craftsman who rents a workplace in an industrial zone offered to host me and my bus for a short period, during which a transformation of the insides will be attempted.

I had already started the year before with removing the chairs, supports, buttons and other items that serve a purpose in a passenger-transportation context, but because it was unsure what of the original interior needed to be present in order to pass the homologation process of the governement, I might be tearing down stuff that I would need to rebuild later again.
These were only formalities, because at this moment, with the bus being imported into Belgium and considered technically safe to be on the Belgian roads, the interior will never be questioned again.

In the mean time I'm trying to make a temporary comfortable living space in the back of the bus, so I can clear out the front, maybe even take out the ceiling and parts of the walls. With wood pallets lying around I'm building some necessary storing spaces for my kitchen. This is a slow process, since I'm not a carpenter and I have to carefully take apart the somewhat rotten pallets before I have my building blocks.

Albeit somewhat messy and too cosy, I can now permanently stay in my bus.