In April, an hour before she was to sign a deal transferring ownership of the downtown Peekskill store, her entire plan collapsed. She had moved everything out of her space at 23 N. Division Street, and the money from the sale was going to finance her dream of buying and renovating a boutique bus to take Quirk Shop on the road.

Because the new owner wanted to wait on announcing the transfer until the sale was complete, Shea didn’t let on to her customers that a change was imminent. “It was another heartbreaking thing about the deal falling through: I didn’t get a chance to let [customers] know. I felt like I was betraying them, sneaking out in the night. I would’ve had a ‘goodbye’ weekend!”  

A week after a devastating realization that she no longer had either a brick-and-mortar location nor income from the sale, she started a GoFundMe page to let the public know what happened. Having built a loyal following of artists who consigned items to her shop, along with faithful repeat customers, she explained on the crowdfunding platform that she wanted to transform a small bus into a beautiful, functional mobile boutique—bringing her handmade goods, sustainable clothing, and creative work to markets, festivals, and towns far beyond a brick-and-mortar location. Within a month of starting the fundraiser, she was shocked to have received $12,000 for her project. 

“I’m just so grateful to so many people for the GoFundMe support. I did not expect that, especially now when money is so tight and things are expensive. It just blew me away.  There was so much support and excitement. People thought this was such a cool idea and so many people came out to see it this past weekend because they started following the story.”

Before she created the GoFundMe, she paid for a consultant call with Skoolie, one of the leading authorities on how to convert a school bus. She was thrilled when the consultant contributed to her campaign. 

With the donations, she was able to purchase a 30-foot former school bus that had been used to transport sports teams from the Yonkers school district to games. “It was well maintained,” said Shea, 43, of the 2010 V8 engine vehicle with 90,000 miles. 

“The hardest part was taking out all the seats!” Once the seats were out, she laid a laminate floor and designed where to affix her furniture – all of it custom-made for her original shop. (She had to cut down some of the legs on display cases to fit into the bus.)

“It’s not quite done; it’s evolving, like the shop did,” she said. She had a vision for certain creative touches, one being the space between the entry steps, known as the riser. A colorful Peter Max design, “Earth Day,” intrigued her–so she reached out to Eddie Guiracocha of The Copy Center with the idea; he printed the design on vinyl stickers she affixed to the risers of entry steps.

The most daunting task was painting the bright yellow bus blue. When she went to Home Depot to inquire about brushes and paint she was told that the paint job couldn’t be done by hand and that she needed to have it professionally painted. “That would’ve cost $5,000 and I didn’t have that to spend” – so she painted it herself, over the course of three weeks. “It’s not bright and shiny but it’s got texture and grit. It was a labor of love.”  

She ended up purchasing the rollers and brushes (including tiny brushes for the intricacies of rivets) from Home Depot. But it was at the Wallauer’s on Route 6 in Mohegan where, with some encouragement from the “fantastic” paint team, she purchased the striking blue paint named “Deep Royal.” The roof was painted white for contrast, but also for heat reflecting purposes. “Painting the roof was tricky,” she said, describing how it all was done very carefully from the top of a ladder. 

The bus resided in the back driveway of her Peekskill home, so she could work on it at all times.

About six yards of white fabric that she acquired from retake/remake at the Hat Factory became a curtain, used to create a dressing room where customers can try on the upcycled fashions she creates. And she covered the wheel wells in the rear of the vehicle with wood she reclaimed from Peekskill’s bulk pickup day.

Her mom, Leeza Shea, is her primary scout for the handmade jewelry that sits in display cases. “She’s my first mate on this project. She’ll be along with me selling.” 

“I have to have a whole new system of how to keep track of things now that I’m not in the shop,” she said, as she straightened a mirror jerry-rigged to a hook at the back door exit of the bus. Items now need to be secure in a way that wasn’t as important in the shop. 

In the shop, she had a drawer to hold tape measures and scissors, as well as a sewing machine to do quick alterations. There is no sewing machine in the bus and it’s a learning curve figuring out where to hang magnets to hold the scissors and other tools she uses. Another area she’s learning as she goes is the awning. She rigged up flagpole mounts to the side, and inserted poles that fold out. ”…But I have to redo it; I never had a shop in a bus before!”  

Driving the bus has also been an adventure. “It’s very easy to drive because the mirrors are so big, and it handles really nicely. But I’m learning about backing up into tight spots. When I was leaving on Saturday, I forgot to take the sign off the outside of the bus and when I got home, I saw that it was still affixed. It was only on with magnets.” 

It’s those types of adjustments that she’ll get acclimated to in her newly-fueled dream of Quirk Shop. What she can rely on is the strength and support of the community she’s stitched together–one upcycled piece of clothing at a time.