Chelsea and I decided to take a wood working class to build dome wood working skills prior to buying and building our bus. I had a little bit of experience from woodshop in high school and general little projects here and there, but was definitely in need of a refresher. We looked for meetup groups and classes around Charlotte, but did not find anything substantial until we looked at local community colleges.

It turned out University of North Carolina Charlotte (UNCC) had some ongoing classes and turned out to be pretty inexpensive. It came out to about $125 per person for a 12 week class that met once a week in the evening. Plus it was on the way home from work for both of us.

We learned a lot, but mostly got some hands on experience with some tools we had not worked with before. The class started with two days in the classroom reading about safety procedures in the workshop and the rest of the class was hands on.

UNCC also offer intro classes for electrical work and plumbing. We had originally intended to split it up (I would take the electrical class and Chelsea would take the plumbing class), but we did not get around to it before we found the bus we would eventually buy.

If you are thinking about buying a bus, one of these hands on classes is definitely a great way to get your feet wet in a safe environment. If you have never worked on something like this, anyone can learn it and it can be relatively inexpensive!