The Mother Ship, Hawaiian Acres

The Mother Ship!! There was tons of potential with this bus and Ryan essentially gave us carte blanche. My imagination started to run wild. Claire and I were a bit daunted by the task of getting the bus livable but we were stoked none the less.

When we arrived the bus was struggling. There was a bed that was wonky, lots of rat and mouse poop, and thin film of mold covering the ceiling and walls. It was filthy. The ceiling had a sizable leak in it and it was dank in there.

The excitement and prospect of living in a school bus on an island was enough to keep us motivated. Plus, if we were going to be here on the Big Island for few months, in this bus, we had better make it cozy.

First thing's first. We started with a deep clean. We scrubbed the walls and the entire ceiling. After crushing out about 8 hours of arm pumping, sweat inducing work, the bus had a nice shine to it.

From there we moved the bed and got some more wood and cinder blocks to help support it better. New sheets, check.

The bus has a tendency to get hot in the day, being a glorified tin can and all. And at night there are plenty of mosquitos so we couldn't leave any windows open. I decided we needed to have windows open to allow for fresh air, to help cool the bus, and to keep the mold down. Everything molds here on the wet side of the island. We started construction on some nice screens and awnings for the windows. We ended up making six in total. That was tedious but rewarding work. After a few coats of exterior paint and stapling the screens to the frames they were ready to be mounted up.

Once mounted, we cut and installed the plastic awnings. Done! We opened the six windows and basked in the fresh breeze that moved through the bus. It felt great. A few sticks of incense and the mother ship was already feeling and smelling better.

As pleased as we were with the new screens and fresh air, there was still one big task that had to be taken care of; rats. There were a few rats that had taken up residence in the ceiling between the inner and outer layers of the bus. Rats are primarily nocturnal so while we were trying to sleep they would start scurrying around making all sorts of nightmare inducing noises. Claire was not happy about this nor was I.

Let the battle begin, I thought. One way or another we would rid the bus of these critters. I respected them but it was their time. We tried snap traps and sticky pads but those all failed. They would set off the snap traps and somehow avoid getting caught. We even found fur stuck on the sticky pads but no rats. It was turning into a real battle field.

Ryan informed us of a new rat poison that he found. It has what is essentially super warfarin. Warfarin is a anti clotting poison that makes the rats bleed out internally. Glad I'm not them. Surprisingly it is used in humans in small amounts as a blood thinner to help prevent dangerous blood clots. Who woulda thought!

We placed the poison around the areas where we knew the rats ran at night. Sure enough, the next day the poison was gone. They had eaten up all of it. Now we just had to wait as the poison can take a few days to work.

Ah, the peace and quiet. It worked! Our first quiet, rat free night in 2 weeks was a real treat! Time to board up the hole in the ceiling where the rats came in and out.

A few days later a slight smell started seeping through the vents in the ceiling. I knew right away what had happened and the olfactory assault was only going to get worse. See, I had covered up the hole prematurely and trapped a dead rat in the ceiling. There was nothing left to do other than wait it out, up the incense levels, and let decomposition run its course. It took a few weeks​ for the smell too disappear but it did and we were quite happy.

Progress. Each day the bus became a bit more livable. The dankness was dissipating and we were sleeping better. There was still much to do, however.

I pulled up the flooring and removed the metal strips that ran the length of the aisle of the bus. This was causing the flooring to sit unevenly and it shifted and felt wonky as you walked on it. Once the rails were out, I reinstalled the flooring and it made a world of difference.

I finally got around to fixing that leak in the ceiling. The top of the bus was hot as the mid day sun was turning it into a skillet capable of cooking a meal for an entire class. Or capable of cooking an entire class for you morbid folks out there.

I took some sticky roofing aluminum up and started patching. Luckily it was an easy, straightforward job. Now we just had to wait for some rain to see if the patch worked. Sure enough, a few days later a big storm rolled in and no leaks. High five!

Next up, we made some shelving and a clothes rack. We painted up a nice book shelf and a piece of wood to cover the old bus heater.

Needing somewhere to sit, we found two old bamboo chairs at a used furniture store. They were pretty beat and dirty but we knew they could be salvaged.

Claire took on the epic task of sanding and painting the chairs. It took all day to sand and then a few more hours to paint. Finally we got some killer flamingo upholstery fabric and recovered the cushions for the seats. The end result was a retro-pop flamingo chair that had tons of style.

Next up on the seemingly neverending list of projects was curtains. The morning sun would come in through the windows and slow roast us as we slept. We would stay in bed until we were sweated out and had to get up. This had to stop, so uncomfortable.

We found some cool fabric at the local fabric warehouse and got to sewing. To mount the curtains we put in some grommets at the corners and installed screws into the bus to hold the grommets. Goodbye solar slow roast, hello sleeping in past 7. The curtains also helped to keep the bus a few degrees cooler during the day.

The bus didn't have any storage space for our bags and camping gear so they usually ended up on the floor and stacked in random places. I ended up making a sweet, nearly bomb proof table with some storage space underneath it. What a difference that made for the clutter.

I'll now tell you how the bus got its name. Whenever we needed water or snacks or had to use the bathroom we would have to walk the 30 some meters back to the house. Once "refuelling" was done at the house we would head back. On dark nights the walk feels as though your going into another dimension. Outside at night the Coki frogs are making all sorts of noises and other critters fill the air with their song. It started to feel as though we were leaving Earth which soon became the name for Ryan's house. If Ryan's house is Earth then in the bus we must be orbiting and that's where the name "The Mother Ship" came from.

The Mother Ship is almost complete in her transformation. There's a bit of painting left to do and some other upgrades but it's coming along beautifully and we are very grateful to Ryan for this awesome experience.Read more