Today we’d like to introduce you to Tee Farley.
Hi Tee, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Tee was born and raised in Norway and always had a dream of traveling the world in a motorbike of some sort. As a 20-year-old, she came overseas to follow a band on tour. It was the perfect opportunity to get a rental car and go on a solo roadtrip to see the U.S. The roadtrip brought her to Pittsburgh PA, where she decided on a whim to stay for a while. That’s where she soon met Jesse. He fell for her adventurous spirit and they bonded over the want to get out of their comfort zone and travel. They decided early on that vanlifing sounded like the perfect lifestyle.
Their relationship evolved and they had a Covid elopement in 2020. Vanlife was put on hold in favor of buying a fixer-upper house to gain some building experience and to hunker down during the pandemic.
Suddenly, they were expecting their first child and the dream got pushed back further, but they compromised by buying a house on Florida’s beautiful Space Coast. The plan of getting a van turned into a plan for a shuttle bus to make room for their daughter. Soon after, however, baby number two was on the way and their dream got pushed back even further. A hard pregnancy and newborn phase, immediately followed by loss of income due to an unexpected layoff, made them realize that life is what they make it and it was time to just take a leap of faith and go for it.
Jesse is an artist and knew he wanted to travel to art festivals around the country. Tee is a photographer who wants to connect with clients in new places. It was time to realize their dream, but with two girls the shuttle bus idea also got scrapped and a full-size school bus became the plan.
As fate would have it, a school bus that seemed to have everything they were looking for showed up on Facebook marketplace and it was located only two hours away. They went to see it, for “research”. Sure enough, the bus was perfect and it took only a few days for them to decide that they could invest some of their savings in a future they have been dreaming of for years.
The bus came home with them and they have been converting it into their dream home on wheels while juggling the children, work, and other aspects of life. But they got it to a point of being mostly functional and have finally left on their maiden voyage to pursue their dreams.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There have been many struggles and challenges. Do. For starters, the unexpected layoff right before buying the bus really made us have to reconsider. Soon after buying it, Jesse had two close family members pass away and we had to move our family back to PA for a while to handle that situation. There are constant challenges with building the bus, especially with YouTube university as our only teacher. Now that we are on the road, it is challenging to have a bus that is not completely done. For instance, we do not have the shower installed and we definitely need more storage as soon as we can. Navigating such a huge life adjustment with two toddlers is difficult, because we are balancing meeting their needs with living in a smaller space and trying to continue to finish the build while on the road.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Tee is a photographer with her own business called Our Song Photography. She is based on Florida’s Space Coast and is blessed to have a solid client base in the area. But, she does dream of expanding to other parts of the country.
Jesse’s art business is called Skewed Line Designs and he hand draws intricate geometric designs. He has been successful at art festivals and fairs both in PA and Florida, but also wishes to travel to bigger festivals in the U.S.
Together, we have created LiviSkoolie – and we are telling our story to an American and Norwegian audience. We share our dreams, challenges, and funny tidbits of our daily life raising toddlers while making the dream work. We inspire people to take that leap of faith and make their dreams a reality. More than anything, we wish to use our platform to bridge the huge political divide in the US right now. Seeing the country’s news cycle through a Norwegian-American family’s perspective makes us know that we can make a difference. We meet so many people in different walks of life, with different opinions, priorities, and interests, and we know that sharing their stories will create a sense of belonging with our viewers, which we home will bring the people together. We also share unique travel destinations that haven’t been shared by every single content creator before, and keep family-friendly experiences on the front lines. So many fulltime travelers are couples or singles, and we have always missed content curated towards families with young kids.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
If any of your readers wish for us to share their story, we would love to meet them. We can be found on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok under @LiviSkoolie. We love community and would love to have even more friends in Central Florida where we really feel like we belong.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: Liviskoolie
- Facebook: Liviskoolie
Image Credits
The Farleys
