The Challenge

[Taken from the original 'The Alice Project' bus conversion and motorhome website 2002-2003]

Where ever you live around Australia, chances are that you will often pass the rusting remains of a once magnificent plan. In our travels, we have seen dozens of either half-completed or never-actually-started bus conversion projects simply wasting away. In fact, when we first decided to investigate the idea of buying a bus, I was terrified at the number of half finished projects we discovered sitting around the suburbs and countryside. Would we end up with a similar dilemma?

We knew that we had to be very serious about committing to the project or we too would fail. The time limit we gave ourselves to finish the entire project was six months. Many 'experts' laughed. As we know now, it is a bit of a running joke, when people proclaim how long they expect their bus conversion projects to take. The project ended up taking twelve months but we were very impressed to get it finished within this period!

The greatest challenge of the project was balancing the need to go to work (to earn money to spend on the project) with the need to actually get the job done on the bus. All we seemed to do for twelve months was one or the other. We made an enormous number of 'sacrifices' as far as 'spending' and 'time' are concerned, and did nothing for a year except keep our heads down at work and at home. I could often be found after a twelve hour shift at work (ironically driving buses) out in the backyard late in the evening painting or planning something in our bus.

The twelve months of The Alice Project were a long and nervous time. There were many times when I questioned my own sanity (not a good idea at the best of times) and wondered what on earth I had got 'us' into! It was hard work. Mentally. And physically. I was always thinking and wondering and hoping that we would succeed!

It was not just the 'physical' aspects to working on the bus that required large amounts of time either. In fact, I probably spent more time thinking and planning things in my head than I ever spent actually working on the bus. As a person with no prior skills, even some of the more basic tasks were a great challenge!

We were extremely fortunate to have the assistance of a mate from up the road (Jim Owens), who took on the honorary position of 'Chief Consulting Engineer' and 'General Problem Solver'. When we first drove the bus home and parked it up, it just seemed to sit there. Where did we start? What should we do first? After a couple of weeks, Jim got us kickstarted and heading in the right direction. He also taught me how to weld and spent countless hours helping me out on various projects.

It was a wonderful learning experience - but definitely not a journey for the faint hearted! It was a bloody difficult challenge and one that required much perseverance and patience. In the end, we were lucky. We completed the project and got to live the dream.

(Keiran Lusk 2003)

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