The Countdown Begins

As of today we have 35 days until our wedding day - eek! So the past week has been a hive of activity trying to get things finished in time as we need her ready for the honeymoon where we shall be journeying along the west coast of Scotland hopefully right up the the top coast if we have the time. There's nothing quite like a deadline to get jobs done!

Ryan got some help from his Dad and got the rear leaf springs replaced as they were very tired and done some welding to the underneath. He's also began getting to work on the extensive rust on the cab, before and after pictures to follow...

Ryan is also in charge of our gas system which needs re-routing from the gas bottle in the rear locker to a new LPG tank under the body, and the wiring and electrics. He's put the batteries in to their final resting place under the sofa and is sorting out the charging systems so while the sofa's in pieces I'm getting it painted as it was looking very tatty. He's made a switch panel too which is positioned on the wall between the living area and kitchen for the lights & heating etc so that we can reach it from either side for convenience.

I finally got a nice piece of carpet fitted in the cab as for far too long the cab has been still housing the filthy grim grey-black carpet tiles so I tore them out with pleasure! Ryan's parents had an off-cut of a tough beige and brown carpet spare which was perfect.

If you've ever fitted carpet before in a car you'll know that's bad, but Waki was typically far more trouble due to the huge foot wells and contoured arches. The process took quite a long time involving me laying on my belly down the slope between the two seats struggling with my arms outstretched, bashing my head on the seats and dash many times and getting in a tangle with the pedals but I got there in the end! As with previous experience though using spray adhesive in such a small space will always put me in a happier place ;) Don't worry I did have the doors open, but it's still strong!

My next job is to tidy up and fit the old cover strips and also a new length to bridge the carpet-to-laminate join to the living area. I'm also in charge of fitting the cupboards and doors, modifying cupboards, painting (of course!), making panels and boxes, cleaning the old laminate section of floor from ground-in paint and any other fiddly things I can find that need attention.

Another bit of women's work for me is to edge the rug to stop it fraying from where I cut it down to size to fit in the living area. I'm using some recycled wool from an old cardigan of mine which has untwisted enough to be like sewing with multiple strands, and so far it seems to be working really well but it just takes a lot of force to pull the needle through so I'm having to do a little bit each day to avoid blisters. I guess my fingers will toughen up soon enough and I've found a piece of rubber grip mat to use as a thimble which helps a little. It also works out that the off cuts will make perfect mats for the step and should help absorb a lot of water and dirt before we get to the walkway, as it's quite annoying in wet weather to be at home with our shoes off and tread in a wet patch on our way to the kitchen or loo! I love being able to get a use for something instead of throwing it out and we save money too!

At this point I'm really not sure if I'll have time to do lots of Blog updates on our progress as we go, or whether it will have to be after the wedding but I'll try!

Paintwork

We had the good fortune of a few days of sunshine late in March and April so Ryan got to work on Waki's paintwork. She was literally peppered with holes and we have been gradually filling and protecting areas with duct tape which had left her looking very shabby indeed. So Ryan bought a compressor and smoothed the fillered areas down and applied several layers of white metal paint with a roller. He also managed to get another coat of paint on the roof so that's finally got a good weather seal on it.

This is really a base coat to protect the body and there is still much more smoothing work and dent removal to be done. The immediate result though was fantastic! No more grubby beige and brown flakiness but an expanse of clean fresh white!

We plan to use a nice white car paint for the final finish, and Ryan's already very handy with a spray gun what with his previous experience painting cars and aeroplanes :) We both agree that she needs some sort of coloured stripes or a design down the sides to break up the white a bit, but we can't yet agree on what yet...

Every cupboard has a plastic lining…

Every cupboard has a plastic lining…

Well the kitchen ones do anyway! J

(This is a job that was done before I got ill, but I hadn't gotten round to taking any pics sorry!)

I like to have clean food storage cupboards, it stops smells and so discourages pests from finding and spoiling the food. Nearly everything has the storage advice ‘keep in a cool dark place’ written on it as well so for the best storage life I decided that our main food cupboard (the old wardrobe at the rear) needed to be kept as cool and clean as possible. The problem is that as the back wall was structurally ok compared to the rest of the walls which was a bonus for the refurb, but it meant that it hadn’t got the foil and extra foam lining that the rest has. Also the blown air heater is underneath that same cupboard and we have plans to have a generator in the locker which is also underneath which will generate its own heat as well!

So to stop any generator fumes from creeping into the cupboard and living area it has been thoroughly sealed with silicone, and then insulated with our magic foil and foam sandwich. That is now topped with a lovely white wipe clean plastic the same as for the spit and splash zone wall in the kitchen, with an extra bead of silicone to seal the edges of the plastic lining.

The shelves in the big cupboard are now in, though they need painting and an edge putting on the fronts to stop everything ending up at the bottom in a pile when we move!

We have two excellent spice racks on the inside of the door, bought from Amazon (see the bottom of this post for the link if you want some too!)  which stop them from rolling around the cupboard when we’re on the move. And also crammed cupboards are frankly irritating when you have to unload your entire food stock just to get to one can at the back which will probably be past it’s expiry date anyway as it’s been hidden for so long.

I also ordered another rack for the kitchen wall which we can keep our cooking oil in. They’re the type of item that happily live on the kitchen worktop in a regular house without mishap but definitely need to be secured on the road. Unfortunately I accidentally ordered the wrong size :/ but luckily it fits perfectly in the shower room for our shampoo, we're still yet to find another solution for the oil!

I came across a beautiful set of hooks on ebay which looks stunning up in front of the cupboard holding our utensils. Bargain at under £2! The spoons rattle a little when driving so we're likely to fit some form of securement for them up there - my mind's heading in the direction of some sort of elastic strap but you'll have to wait and see...

I've been trying to pretty things up where I possibly can as we won't be able to have big pictures hung up or ornaments etc to decorate like we would in a house. Little things like that matter to me and I think that's what makes a place feel like a home, it's gradually becoming our home. :)

Amazing - Eco-fi Fabric

We recently recovered the fabric ceiling of the cab as it was very grotty, and also decided to recover the curved edging covers on which the original fabric had begun to rot away! To keep it light and bright we went with cream felt for the ceiling, bought from Milton Keynes market, which took a massive amount of spray adhesive and awkward pushing and pulling to get into all of the dips and bumps. 

The light colour is a risk with Ryan around and his dirty mechanic hands but it really does lift the space so is a risk worth taking!

We wanted to keep to the brown colour for the edging but couldn't find the right shade at the market so went back to trusty e-bay. I came across some well priced felt material called Eco-fi, which also happens to be made entirely out of recycled plastic bottles made by a company in America! See below pdf about how it's made it really is amazing! I know, simple things...

http://www.kuningroup.com/dfiles/ecofi_SS.pdf

I've been showing it to everybody and no-one else can believe its plastic either so we have some good eco-karma in the project already without a compromise which is a rare thing!

I had to do some cutting and sewing to get it to fit the internal angles which I done by hand as I never have liked using a sewing machine, and it's a good way to practice my needlework. I intend on doing a lot more fabric craft work in the future and we don't have room for a machine anyway. The Waki Way is about doing things the simplest way possible, although we do joke that it's possibly about being the most awkward and inconvenient way possible which is how it's felt with the multitude of obstacles we've encountered so far but we persevere for a simpler way of life!

I can’t bring myself to throw away any fabric offcuts, especially with all of the crafty things that could be made with them so I needed a way to store them. I could just leave them in a plastic bag in a cupboard somewhere or I could have them to hand in a nice attractive bag so decided to make a cushion cover out of the ecofi fabric to hold it, and of course added a few embellishments that would complement our decor. 

I must own up to the fact that it wasn’t my original idea, I was actually inspired by someone on a YouTube video who uses her pillows for storing fabric! 

Click on the link below to view her video, she really is an amazing woman who in a similar situation to us decided to buy a trailer chassis and literally built herself a tiny house on top of it from recycled and salvaged materials!

Flooring, floods and filters

Wow, I can't actually believe that my last post was about the Jubilee weekend! Sorry everyone :-/

I've been so busy recently but, unfortunately for Waki, with almost everything but the refurb! The main reason is that I've had the last 3 weekends completely hijacked by major local events where I have been volunteering for St John Ambulance, and my last day off work was used for doing the Swan hotels chalk boards again, though I have thoroughly enjoyed it all.

The fresh water tank in place under the sofa

So what have we done since the last post...?

We now have nice new vinyl flooring in the living area, which extends under the sofa and meant that the water tank could go back into place - though we still need to get ourselves a nice new filler pipe as the old one is definitely past it!

Wickes Beech wood-effect vinyl flooring

Ryan completed this task, glueing it all down with some particularly messy flooring adhesive which meant that we had to go over it with a scouring sponge and degreaser to clean it off - a job that still needs repeating a few more times!

We decided on the planks of vinyl from Wickes as they were well priced and should be slightly quieter and warmer to walk on than laminate (they're also easier to cut and there were several bolts in the floor to fit around). We chose to run them widthways to maximise the look of the floor space which I think works well, see below.

The water heater is under a cupboard under the kitchen area

The pump with the water filter attached

Ryan also managed to fix the existing water heater which wasn't working when we bought Waki. That saves us some expense for sure which is great news! Apparently the previous owner had tried to use it when it was frozen and it hadn't worked since so we didn't hold much hope for it, but Ryan took it apart and reconnected it with the gas bottle in the garden and it worked fine! It actually gets really hot, very quickly and now we can't wait to get the bathroom sorted out to use the shower too.


He then reconnected the pump and sink so we can actually use the tap too! We bought a water filter from Go Outdoors to freshen the flavour - though we also intend on using the Aquapure disinfectant tablets in the tank to stop any bacteria growth and a water filter jug as an extra taste improvement measure for drinking from. 


It was a nerve racking moment in using the sink for the first time since it was put back together as I could just imagine it not going into the waste tank for some reason and flooding the place (because that's generally our luck!) but it was fine so well done Ryan - you can now add plumbing experience to your list of talents! We did however have a bit of a flood moment earlier on when the residual water in the pump pipes went everywhere so not entirely smooth sailing, but then it did help clean the floor! :)

One last area of rot and mess!

When I had a few free hours I managed to cut out the kitchen cupboard openings so we can access the whole space easily. They just had one small door per cupboard which made it a nightmare to reach anything at the end, so we will have a set of double opening doors on either for full easy access.

We now just need to reline the one above the hob as it was a bit rotten inside like everything has been, and make some nice doors and then we'll be able to begin stowing things away. We want to line the cupboards in a plastic sheeting the same as for the kitchen walls so we need to go shopping again!

Spring Clean

(I'm a bit behind with my posting at the mo so sorry for the long gap!)

A good thorough Spring clean makes everyone feel better, and poor old Waki was certainly due one! It seemed that on every surface and in every corner there was dust and pieces of crumbled rot, with our wood and tools mixed in. I also didn't like the thought of trying to wallpaper with all of the grit and pieces of wood and foam floating about ready to get stuck to it before I could get it on the wall! :S

So despite the Bank Holiday rain (yes that's how behind I am!) we carried all of the bulky items out in to the garage for safekeeping and I set to work sorting and sweeping. We decided that the sofa and wall needed to be torn out as it was probably worse than the other side was, and as it was going to create A LOT of mess it would be best done now. 

The sofa was actually very simple, it was only attached to the wall with silicone sealant, and as the wall was so wet it crumbled away very easily so there's one upside I suppose! Ryan went outside and taped the open corner that's waiting for the bed support, and we shoved the heater into that corner to help it dry out. Hopefully we'll have a nice sunny day together where we can repeat the process of taking out that window and resealing it all. 

So once that was out of the way I swept up some more and used our old vacuum to clean the whole van. Much better!

You can easily bring a bit of magic into a Spring clean by adding some simple visualisation, I just imagined as I cleaned that all of the stagnant energy, rot and negativity that had been held up in the van for so long was leaving. I actually used the twigs of Hawthorn and Blackthorn that I gathered for my Ostara (Spring Equinox) blessing as an extra tool to get the energy out of the door which I felt was a fitting way to throw them out too! What is left behind I can now see as good, clean positive energy, with room for creativity. 

Go on give it a go and use a bit of Springs magic energy to clean up your life/house/mind too :)

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.

***

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...

The Over-cab Section

The over-cab section is essentially our bedroom so we want it to be as warm and sturdy as possible. We were originally going to just cap over what was already there with a heavy duty plywood board and pop our mattress on top, but investigations at the weekend revealed yet more rot so it had to all come out as well. Much to my dismay it also meant that a piece of plywood that we had already put up had to come back off to get to the corner :S

I came home from work the other day to what looked like a disaster zone as Ryan on his day off had torn most of the rotten soggy battens out from the bed section, pulled off the plywood and also a lot of the insulation to get at it all! Not only were the battens rotten but the metal itself was very corroded, and even had some small holes in the curved part at the front. I got the last pieces of the plywood chiselled off of the bed platform and cut out the old bed framework.

While I was on the roof painting (see 'The Roof - part 2'), Ryan got it all cleaned up and sanded down. He also applied a good coat of zinc chromate (an anti-corrosion aluminium primer) as we had done on other areas of corroded metal that were uncovered, though none of them were quite as bad as this part! It still needs filling to plug the holes, Ryan said he wants to use fibreglass for that part - it withstands flexing better than bodywork filler and that area does get the full force of the wind and weather when driving, which is probably why it's so bad.

The previous bed design consisted of three sections of mattress, the middle one of which slotted above the curved part of the cab ceiling. This was useful for walking into the cab to get in and out of your driving seats if the bed wasn't in use, though I always did seem to forget that the floor dropped away there and would mostly fall into the passenger seat! As we will be using that bed full time we are building a solid bed platform so won't be able to use the headroom there, but hopefully it means I'll take better care ducking into the cab in future!

The upholstered edging to the curved cab ceiling stood above on the platform at nearly an inch, and as headroom is a very precious resource to us now we realised that it would be a waste of valuable space to put the plywood board on top of the upholstery!

I decided to undo the fabric and padded covering and take off the protruding lip so that the board could go on flat to the existing platform.With the lip gone I pulled the fabric back over the edge and glued and stapled it down again, like new! :)

An interesting discovery was the date hand-written by Waki's makers on one of the wooden layers under the fabric 10-9-85!


                                                                  * * * * * *

As I'm writing Ryan is sitting on top of the bed platform putting the insulation back into the corner wall. The bed now has a new framework in place and the heavy plywood boards cut to size though still needs fixing down permanently, but the curved section of the over-cab needs to be finished first. We have also been investigating the walls around the sofa window and into the kitchen which has unearthed a few areas that need replacing too but that's for another day.

Thanks for reading, night night! :)

The Roof - part 2

As it was such a glorious day on Sunday we got the last beam properly secured and sealed on the roof. The bad weather, fading daylight and then shortage of silicon last time we was up there meant that Ryan could only put one layer of the roof seal on to get it at least weather proof and to stop it actively dripping inside when it rained (or when the snow melted!).

So Ryan scraped the layer of roof paint back off to redo the sealant on the bolts, a messy job as usual for him, and once it had dried I got up there with a paintbrush and got a good couple of coats of the roof paint over it all and around the edges again to use up the rest of the tin.

I had a succession of pointing children asking their mothers "why's that lady on the roof?!" and a few odd glances from Ryans family, but eventually finished and climbed back down to normality - well almost normality, it is me we're talking about!

I'll definitely have to try and keep a section of the roof clear of stuff as it makes the perfect sunbathing spot, and I enjoyed a moment of laying down with my hands behind my head and my work boots crossed but had too much to do to be able to stay there too long. For now I've just reserved the idea for when we find a nice spot on our travels, around the Cornish coast perhaps? :)

So now that the bolts for the roof beams are properly sealed we can finish the battens on the ceiling inside and get the insulation and cladding done there, after the front window has been replaced of course, and the bed finished, and the walls papered... *sigh* better get back to work then! :)

Walls!

I'm sick of chiselling, I'm sick of hammering, and now I'm very much sick of sawing too but the walls are looking lovely at last! The plywood has been cut to shape and put in place...

The section for the overcab sleeping area was the toughest to fit due to it's awkward shape and the fact that I can barely reach the corner even when stood on the passenger seat! Thankfully my calculations lined up ok to cut it all out correctly, though I must have remeasured 5 times because the section of wood looked far too small to be our actual sleeping area! I think that's something we'll just have to get used to, I'd still rather risk hitting my head the odd time than re-make our bed every single day in the living area.

I cut out the ply around the door and living room window whilst Ryan was at work and we got it actually fitted up together as that involved taking the windows out again to seal them better. Ryan also replaced the electric hook up socket & added an outdoor plug socket so we don't have to trail an extension lead through a door or window if we need power in the awning.

As the largest areas of plywood were the reclaimed board they do need a good deal of sanding down before we can wallpaper them, but I'm just glad to finally see a solid wall in place for now! As they say, simple things please simple minds... :D

Sweet FA!

The weekend before last we literally done nothing to Waki, and Ryan was working for the whole weekend just gone so we didn't get any further then either! I feel this an important post still though to show that sometimes in a project like this, you just need to take a break. 


Both me and Ryan have been feeling some mental burnout from working full time and pouring all of our spare time and energy into the refurb at weekends or on any days off, so it was time to pull back and relax for once! It’s a difficult thing to do as on one hand I feel so frustrated that things never seem to get done quickly enough as we just want to be finished and able to move in, but that is just the reason that we needed a break to re-coup and be ready to push on with it all next week. 


So we're sorry we have nothing more interesting to write about this week, I promise we'll have lots to talk about next time! Thanks for your support everyone! :)

Fabulous Fabric!

I had a lovely shopping trip the other weekend with Ryans mum to find some curtain fabric for the living area. She is a very talented seamstress and so at Christmas I made a deal with her for a future favour instead of an extra present in the form of some curtains. I'm quite happy to re-adjust clothing or sew buttons etc by hand but haven't really done anything quite as complicated so this is one part of the project I am willing to pass to someone else!

I'd been looking online and on e-bay etc but couldn't really find any good deals, and it's hard to tell what the fabric is actually like if you can't physically touch it. So joined by Ryans brothers girlfriend we searched Dunelm, John Lewis and Milton Keynes markets' fabric sections but in the end came back to the same one we'd seen in Dunelm first (always the way!) which is a lovely doubled-over rich red fabric with small furry spots to add some patterning without being too over the top. We happened to find it in the discounted end-of-roll section for only £2.99 per metre so am very happy with the price indeed!

I think I will get the lining and the tape from John Lewis as I still have a £50 voucher won through a sales promotion at work so technically won't cost me anything, though I might still buy it online if I see anything else I would rather have from John Lewis!

I think it will really help bring some warm creative energy into the living space, and can already picture the curtains in place and the paint on the walls...

The Roof

I've kept the blog posts separated by topic to make it all easier to follow, but the truth is that most of these jobs have been running alongside each other dependent on the weather/available daylight etc. So this is the roof story...

Ryan's main job, whilst I've been doing the insulation and interior parts (you see I picked the best job out of the two!), is to sort the roof out as it was clearly still leaking and we don't want our nice new battens getting ruined like the old ones.

Flashing covering toward the rear

Poor Waki had obviously had a lot of hard to find leaks, as pretty much the entire roof had been covered with some kind of roof flashing material!? Unfortunately it was laid on so roughly that it was still letting water in and was actually holding the moisture underneath it instead of just evaporating when the sun came out so it had to come off immediately.

Flashing covering toward the front

Ryan had to scrape it off bit by bit and upon uncovering the supporting roof braces he discovered that the roof had collapsed slightly and was actually around 2 inches lower than the front brace so we'll have a bit more headroom to enjoy inside once it's held back up properly! It bows worse on the passenger side and as we've also removed some of the rotten roof battens we'll just try to avoid walking on that side until it's shored up properly.

Snow covered Waki with her gazebo!

We've covered the roof in a tarp to protect it in the meantime and to stop the snow getting in the way of work, we actually used our old gazebo until we could dig out our large tarp!. The first time I actually went up on the roof (instead of just clinging to the ladder and peering over the edge!) was in a bit of a mad rush to cover it as the first flakes of snow began to fall, you certainly get a fantastic view of the village from standing up there but I was pleased to get my feet safely back on the ground.

Ryan went up the next day to tip the snow off and do some more work but not until he had built himself a little snowman up there, unfortunately I didn't manage to get a photo before it got thrown over the edge into the snow heap! :(

So when the weather improves, or when we can drive her to stay overnight indoors at Ryan's work, she will at last get a good few layers of roof coating paint.

Back to Bare Basics

Last weekend we finally got ourselves two days in a row to get the roof lining and walls off so have been working hard! The plan was to get the rotten plywood off and any bad battens out of the wall and ceiling so we could replace it all ready for everything to go back on.

From previous investigations I had discovered that the best tools were my trusty hammer and chisel so I got started on a rather frosty Saturday morning (see the picture of the window right! >) while Ryan was at work and managed to get pretty much the whole ceiling layer of ply down, then got back to it again on Sunday with my aching arms and finished the walls too.

Me & my trusty hammer!

Peeling back the layers

After two days of wielding that heavy hammer I feel like I should have one arm like Popeye, arhg,hrh,hrrr!

As with anything we do, it took much longer than expected as there was a lot more damage than we had previously thought hidden away (see pics below), but all we can do is keep going and at least we'll know it's been done right so will last as long time.

Another composted batten!

The extent of the damp issue around the window.

The awning was attached to the side we needed to expose so we devised a rope system to safely catch it and lower it to the ground, all went well and we leant it against the van while Ryan toddled off into the garden to clear a space for it. Things suddenly got interesting when I was still inside ripping off the wall ply as I felt a peculiar rocking motion to the van and, naturally assuming it was someone rocking the van for a laugh (a regular occurrence with our friends!), glanced out of the window to see the scenery moving past! I scrambled to my feet screaming something at Ryan who wasn't in earshot just as the awning smashed into the ground, and rushed into the cab to jump on the brake pedal! At that point my heart was beating out of my chest and, (having a little adrenaline freak out!) I left Waki in the middle of the street and sprinted into the back garden to shout something I can't remember at a bewildered Ryan! :S Thankfully the awning seems to be mostly OK with just a couple of bent bolts, luckily no-one was driving passed at the time, and we stopped just before Ryan's car which was parked on the grass directly behind it!

Daylight!

Ryan helped get the roof beam cut back, and the battens out of the walls, though seemed to be finding way too many patches of daylight for my liking and we agreed that since I had mastered the chisel technique I should carry on with that (despite the complaints from my right bicep and shoulder!) and so he climbed back aboard the roof to investigate the leak issues at their source!

Ryan staring on the roof beam

The rot has now been cut out of the main roof beam, expanding foam sprayed in to fill the wavy edge and another strong beam capped on for support. All the wood we could get to we painted with a rot treatment for piece of mind. We've put in a new upright support post just behind the cab and sorted out the bow in the wall due to the sagging weight that was there when we got her. Ryan applied his expertise and used a hydraulic car jack with a piece of wood on top of the bed platform to take the roof weight while we worked! The side window was taken out so we could do the battens around it, though we didn't get to finish cleaning up around it to re-seal as we run out of time on Monday so we've just put a few of its clamps back on to hold it place for now.

Ryan's done a fantastic job and kept me going when I started stressing, (like I always do when things take longer than I want them to!) so thanks Ryan, I love you! xx

He Stole My Tinsel!

We were sat in the motorhome the other day discussing things as usual, when I noticed that the tinsel was gone at which point Ryan sheepishly admitted that he'd lost it!

"What do you mean you lost it? How?!"

Well it seems that if you drive along with the small triangular dash window open and a van overtakes you then it will of course create a difference in air pressure. So said van sped past and, before Ryan could catch it, sucked our length of tinsel clean out of the window to drift away and brighten the day of the following traffic! I didn't get mad at him, though I will miss my lovely tinsel and do feel very guilty about littering, just ended up in hysterical laughter at the mental image of Ryan waving his fist angrily at the van who stole his tinsel! XD

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Tinsel & the little lost bear we found in a cupboard!

Well we were far away from spending Christmas with Waki in the wilds somewhere this time, but hopefully that will be possible next year!

Still despite the state she's currently in (we did add a bit of tinsel so she wasn't completely left out!) we both sat and enjoyed a glass of wine for New Years inside and thought about all of the work we have yet to do. Daunting but exciting all the same!

We both got some lovely things for the 'home for Christmas, Ryan bought me the mosaic mirror I wanted to go in the shower room and his sister bought me a lovely sewing box as my old one was overflowing! My parents bought Ryan a good long extension lead which has already had a lot of use as we've disconnected the battery so we can take down the lights and wiring. Thanks everyone! :)

So far since our last post, Ryan's been working most weekends and having his day off during the week (when I'm working full time as well!) so we've not managed to get the walls down as yet. We need a good two straight days to get the rotten plywood off, insulate & then get the nice new ply on. It's so frustrating as I hate seeing it in such a mess inside and we're both itching to get it all finished, unfortunately we need to do the walls before we can do anything else! :S

So while Ryan is at work I've been unscrewing everything that is in the way of the walls or ceiling, and on his days off he's been sorting out some of the electrics and taking down the heavier items like the old rotten cupboard. I should have started counting the screws because there seems to be thousands of them! See below for the current mess:

The big window above the bed platform minus it's damp wallpaper

The very rotten part above the cupboards in the living space on the side that had the leak

Behind the beech panel to the back of the kitchen cupboards

We've also now acquired an extra leisure battery courtesy of my parents (thank you! x) as they had one spare from their caravan. We would like a total of 3 to be able to take charge from the solar panels and to last a decent length of time when nowhere near a hook up cable, so just 1 more to go - pity our birthdays are so far away now!

Got Wood?

I accidentally came across a website for a place that sells reclaimed timber called Cambridge Wood Works, a blessing for a fit out like ours as they sell all kinds of wood from plywood sheets to doors and lengths of timber - exactly what we need! I'd definitely recommend checking in on them for anyone starting a DIY project as you can save an absolute fortune compared to the large stores.

Everything they sell has been collected from building sites etc as an environmentally friendly alternative to throwing it away in a skip, and all of the proceeds go into the running of the business and to local charities! Because it's all reclaimed there isn't a set stock list and pieces can have holes already drilled in or plaster stuck to it but with a bit of a rub down you'd hardly know. We was able to buy 2 large 18mm and 2 x 4mm sheets of plywood, several long treated 1x1/2 inch battens, a long shelf and a couple of strips of beading for £45!

The staff were all really friendly and super helpful. They even helped us get it all inside the motorhome and safely stowed! Thank you Cambridge Wood Works!

http://www.cambridgewoodworks.org.uk/

First Outing

Last Sunday (whilst still feeling very groggy from my works Christmas Party the night before!) we got up to go on our first real outing in the motorhome. Ryan's brother wanted to test out his new motorbike so Ryan borrowed a bike from a friend and we took them to Whaddon motocross track for the day.

It was just nice to be able to spend some time pottering around, making tea and bacon sandwiches on the hob for the first time! As it was the last meeting of the year at that track before they close for winter we were all very grateful of somewhere warm and dry to relax in. We hadn't filled the water tank up yet as we don't want the water going stagnant whilst not in use so we had Ryan's 'Camel pack' hiking water carrier hung over the sink for hand washing etc, though when I had to use the on site 'facilities' I wished we already had a nice loo installed! Very grim :S

I also took advantage of the spare time and began unscrewing the curtain rail from around the rear bunks :)

So Ryan and his brothers sped around a muddy field and around the various tracks all day (heaven on Earth for him!) and when the light was all but gone we towed the bikes home again with yet more ideas...