A Loo With A View

Ryan was tasked with cutting the hole in the bathroom wall for the toilet cartridge to go through - he’s been good at making holes in the wall so far, though not all required holes which is why I done most of the batten chiselling in the end! 

View from the loo of blue skies no less!

Our loo is a lovely little bench type with an electric flush and even has a little toilet roll holder built inside so the paper won't get wet when we have a shower. I know, simple things...

We also needed to make the roof vent hole in the shower room larger for the new vent we bought that won’t fit the old size holes that we have. The kitchen vent unfortunately got broken as the plastic was a bit brittle and we had to seal it closed with silicone as rain was dripping through at an annoyingly rapid rate! We've been waiting since summer to get this job done but just haven't had a day free without rain to do it!

So with the help of a much awaited sunny day the old bathroom vent has now been moved to the kitchen and the shiny new vent is now in place in the bathroom. We thought it would be nicer to have the new crystal clear vent in the bathroom where we need the best light anyway for applying make-up and shaving etc, and it will probably get the most use for letting the moisture out from showering and drying clothes. I'm very pleased with it, the first night it was in was a clear sky and I could actually see the stars and the moon from the er, yeah OK from sat on the loo! :)

We got a new shower head, two mixer taps and a nice little corner sink - thanks Richard! The old sink the fold down type and was far too big for the room and made from a brittle ugly orange-brown plastic so had to go! I also didn't like the fact that when brushing your teeth you essentially had to just spit in a bowl then tip it down the back.

We now need to find something to adapt into a corner pedestal to hide the pipes, and our attempts to fibre glass the old cracked shower tray failed somewhat so we've ripped it out altogether.

We've decided to make a new one from scratch with plywood and tile it as unfortunately, as with anything we do The Waki Way, we can't find a new purpose built shower tray to fit our custom loo room. A lot of this project is trial and error, but the end result will be a motorhome that fits us perfectly.

Busy busy!

Hi everyone, I've been a busy bee recently and have profited from a bit of crafty holiday booking around this Easter to get 2 straight weeks off work *Insert smug grin*! Well OK I haven't been working in the motor home for the entire time, everyone needs a break, but I have been sure to go in and achieve at least something each day.

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To start the week off Ryan helped on Monday by getting the cab holes filled with fibreglass (see below pics) and we got the supporting beams in place. It was a big job as there were so many holes and the original screws (and actual nails in some places!?) had to be removed so we could get the nice new supporting battens and beams into place.

He also made some D-shaped sections of the thick plywood to screw into and to hold the shape of the curved part of the over-cab. We will be filling the curved section with expanding foam which should give us a nice layer of insulation and help keep a bit of rigidity.

Tuesday I managed to get the foam into place on the bed section, fun if you like puzzles and Tetris! I also have the emergency blanket and foam roll layers for the bed cut to size and neatly folded away, ready for Ryan to help finish the cab. I also got the wood cut out ready for supporting the corner of the bed by the sofa which after our earlier investigations we found to also be completely rotten.

I had to modify the curved fabric sections that cover up the cab/bed edging to fit around the new supporting beam of wood we will need for the permanent fixed bed, but we have also now decided to recover them with new fabric as well so will still need more attention yet. I unscrewed all of the fixings in the cab ceiling so that we can recover the grotty stained fabric there, that will certainly freshen up the place but now it means I need to go fabric shopping again soon!


As this has been a bit of a patch up operation with cheap supplies, and like refurbishing an old cottage instead of a nice new straight walled house, we have a lot of slightly wonky bits and edges to fill etc. The cheap plywood is a bit on the rough side so needed sanding down, then I had to smooth out the transition between the plywood wall sheets by shaving down the wood, cue axe wielding maniac :)

Before anyone asks the axe was the sharpest and most controllable tool I had available for the job in hand, when supported carefully with both hands (I know you can only see one hand in the pic but I had to hold the camera somehow!) with fingers out of the way and a good cutting action AWAY from myself it cut through the tough ply nicely.





Once it was as smooth as I could get away with I sanded the edges down, dusted it off and then got to work with the filler, smoothing over any rough knot areas on the wood and also over any screws positioned in the middle of the sheets that wouldn't be covered up when the blinds go back on.

After another good few sets of sanding down and sneezing sessions, (I know a dust mask would have been healthier but I hate getting the sweaty face feeling too!) the wall is now ready for some wallpaper and paint!






Another job that I'd been meaning to do as well was to get the old stuck on paper off of the bathroom door and the kitchen cupboards.

It was at that annoying stage where it was peeling badly around the edges so had to come off, but the glue was still perfect in the middle so it left most of the backing behind. So armed with some warm water, a sponge and a wallpaper scraper I set to work determined and at least half an hour later I finished with an aching arm, glue covered hands and a big satisfying pile of paper scrapes on the floor!

It's hard to keep the motivation up when you're working on your own, unfortunately Ryan didn't get as much time off work over the Bank Hol as I was originally hoping but it should mean that he'll get a day off this week in lieu so I'll put him to work again then! Sorry Ryan but you want this finished too! In the meantime I shall keep putting my 'You Can Do It!' motivational YouTube playlist on and making sure I do SOMETHING each day. So let's go and have a look at this wallpaper then...