How a single mom turned a converted school bus into a dreamy live-work haven in Ojai

When Laura La Rue thinks about her life — from modeling for Elite Models at age 13 to living off the grid in a trailer — the 32-year-old tie-dye designer marvels at her quiet life today in Ojai, where she lives in a school bus with her 16-month-old daughter, Lasca. Maybe I’ll write a book about it someday.” After eight years, she was done with L.A. La Rue makes pancakes inside her school bus. “We do everything outside, and that’s the best way for a kid to grow up,” La Rue says. La Rue says living in a bus without air-conditioning during the heat of summer can be unbearable, and the narrow living spaces of the bus are “claustrophobic” at times. “I worried about her horribly when she lived in L.A.,” La Rue’s mother says.