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...

Introducing Kaa

I’d like to introduce Kaa to all of you who have not met him yet, the charming and quite oblivious passenger to The Waki Way of life. He is a Californian Corn Snake approx. 12 years old, (named after the Jungle Book character) and almost 5ft in length though trust me that makes him sound bigger than he really is! Sorry Kaa! He’s been a bit of an ambassador for snakes throughout his life and converted many ‘haters’ to admirers with his charm and hypnotising ways and I'm sure he will continue to do so on our travels.

He’s such a cutie and very friendly, and yes of course reptiles can be cute – look at him! He started life at the Japanese Koi centre near Henlow and was the ‘resident’ snake that they would bring out to show prospective customers so when I got him he was already around 4 feet and about a year old. I think all of the handling he got there is what has made him so relaxed around people, and he’s even been to visit the cadets at our St John Ambulance headquarters who were equally charmed!

He is still settling into his new vivarium in the house for the time being but will be transferred to the motorhome when the cupboard/sideboard area is built for him. I don’t want him to get stressed out by us building things next to him as well as being in a new vivarium with odd smells etc so we’re trying to get him gradually acclimatised to all of the changes.

Kaa’s new vivarium is a flat packed one by Vivexotic I bought it from a company called Seapets for a very reasonable price which arrived in good time and condition too, I actually wish I'd found them before I hand built his last viv as it probably cost me double the price in materials alone! They do seem to be the cheapest around for a great many pet supplies so I’ll definitely keep them bookmarked for our future requirements.

It went together well and actually comes with surprisingly strong good quality fixings, though it is only a chipboard unit so needs careful handling. I ran a seal of silicone over all of the internal joins to stop the damp getting through to the chipboard itself and also had to glue the back vents into place as Kaa would have been out of those it a heartbeat if left just pushed into place!

He actually managed to escape my homemade viv by pushing the glass and its runners apart and squeezing between the panes – luckily we were still sleeping in the house at that point and was just getting into bed when I heard him slithering across the bedroom floor! The runners on this viv are moulded from the same piece of plastic so can’t be forced apart, although the glass itself moves a little too freely along the runners for my liking so I’ll install a lock to stop him opening the doors. He is really inquisitive and surprisingly strong and likes digging, climbing and poking his nose into anything that's not his business so for now the doors just have a tab of tape of each end to stop him making another break for it!

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!

The Inevitability of Breaking Down

She's an old van so was bound to go wrong at some point, but I think there's a lot to be learnt about the personality of a vehicle from the way it breaks down. Some are a pain and seem to love nothing more than leaving you stranded in the middle of nowhere in terrible weather (like the old Mini Ryan had as his first car which I must have pushed more miles than it drove! High heels and all!), and others may go wrong but they always get you home like the old Land Rover my parents had when I was little that had all sorts go wrong but always kept limping along. Thankfully Waki seems to be the 'get you home' type so we're pleased!

Technically the first issue was that her poor deteriorated tyre went flat once we'd got back from Wales and left her on the drive for a day, but that was fine as the spare was good enough to get her to Ryan's work to get them changed.

Ryan decided that since the cost of insurance and fuel economy was so much better on the motorhome than his 3.0L V6 Coupe he would drive it to work instead for a while and to shake any more niggles out into the open, which worked a treat when the clutch cable snapped when he was halfway out of the village! :D Needless to say they got home fine, if a little dramatically, Ryan got a lift into work and fixed it that weekend with a friend of ours with a little modification as they had to guess at what engine it was from and the guess didn't seem to be correct! Whilst Ryan rolled around swearing (I mean working!), I got to work on the scale drawings of the interior so we can plan the exact layout of cupboards etc.

They'll be more to come I'm sure but that's OK, and we plan on storing spares on board of anything that can't be bodged and will leave us properly stranded when we finally go on the road full time. That is when we can figure out just what engine we have...

First things First

So where do we begin? We're still lodging with Ryan's parents and have spent nearly every evening since we got her just sitting inside on the driveway staring about, opening cupboards, poking things and discussing ideas. There's a lot to be done, and we need to get the order it's done in right! 

1. The ceiling and wall behind the bunks needs to come down as leaks in her previous life have left some unsightly damage to the plywood and paper covering, also we need to 'winterise' the vehicle so can use the opportunity to pack in as much insulation as possible! This also needs to somehow extend to the floor and outside of the vehicle so that our water tanks and pipes don't freeze if the weather gets really bad, especially as we plan on spending a lot of time in Scotland.

2. The electrics are shocking (excuse the pun!) and lights flicker or switch on and off when we close cupboards! :S The one leisure battery certainly isn't up to the task of living full time without hook-up so it needs some friends, and as we will want to add a couple of solar panels and a TV etc the whole electric system needs re-wiring, a nice confusing and frustrating job for Ryan... Thankfully we can salvage and re-use most of the lighting and can get electronic accessories on the cheap.

3. Whilst we're re-wiring and insulating we can run our blown heating system, including devising a handy clothes dryer facility in the shower compartment with one of the outlets! Our main source of heating will be via a skinny wood burning stove by the door (as we both wood-carve as a hobby fuel will be plentiful!) with just enough space on it's top for the kettle or pot to save on cooking gas.

4. Storage, and more storage! We will be using the space where the extra berths are for more cupboards and work surfaces. So they need to be carefully planned and built in.

5. We also need a toilet on board, and plan on getting one of those bench type in built ones with the cartridge that comes out through the wall. Or to start with we may just have to go with a traditional portaloo but I really don't like the idea of carrying the waste through the kitchen, I know those cartridges are also sealed but still! :(

6. Last but not least on the inside (and probably not really last either as something is bound to change!) the bed platform needs widening and a nice new mattress bought. Then the left over things like furnishings, extra thick lined curtains (the existing black out blinds are good already) to add colour and extra insulation.

7. I leave this part at number 7 with the view that it will get slotted in somewhere else dependant on the weather and Ryans work shifts. We need to address the rust on the cab but need a spell of dry weather where we are both available for a couple of days in a row to be able to get it all rubbed down and protected. The actual van paint job will be someday in the summer when the inside is finished so for now she'll have to stay looking tatty.

Why?!

I'm sure many people are wondering why we would want to do this! Why would anyone choose to live in a van when they have good jobs and could afford to rent a perfectly normal house or flat? 

We do both have good jobs, but we still find ourselves regularly depressed by not having either the spare cash or time to go to the places we would like to visit or to do what we want to do. Without a job or at least working part-time we'd have all the spare time to do what we want, get a dog, whittle wood...but then we wouldn't be able to afford to rent a house either. So something needs to change, and by addressing the housing cost issue we will have far more money to put into what we want and then someday in the future we'll be in a position where we can go on the road full time and make what little living money we need along the way. Many people retire this way, but I've found already that life has a way of sneaking an unfortunate or ironic surprise or two on you and I would prefer to experience and enjoy my life whilst I'm here or able to do so.

So it’s simply through a matter of addressing the priorities of your life and finding that ultimate balance that works for you. I'm a Libra and so symbolised by the scales, perhaps that's why I do what I do!

Why do you live the way you do? What do you do or have that isn’t really important that you can cut out and so focus your money & energy on the things that are more important to you? It doesn’t have to be as extreme as selling all of your stuff and living in a motorhome! It could just be living in a slightly smaller house, or having fewer expensive to run electrical gadgets... 

Everyone is different so there is no definitive way to live for everyone to follow, or perhaps you’re not ready to do what needs to be done yet! It took us a while of living by ourselves and in smaller and smaller houses/rooms, until finally our financial situation (and I’m sure a little insanity!) caused us to have to take the plunge and make the change. Our family don’t really understand yet how or why we would actually want to live this way, but I’m sure they will before long. That’s doesn’t mean to say however that even when they do understand that they’ll want to, or be psychologically able, to do the same!

Introducing Waki

I know most people think that naming a vehicle is ridiculous, and I certainly don't name all of my vehicles but I figured this one needed a name, like a boat does. As we plan on getting rid of the rust that nickname had to go, so we decided on Waki which is native American for 'shelter' and lets face it we're both very wacky to be doing this in the first place! You gotta love a good pun ;)

So here she is on the day we got her home, Waki the 20ft long 1985 Dreamliner Vogue with a Fiat cab. It's funny how we vowed we would NOT get a Fiat one (Fix It Again Tomorrow!) but I suppose it's not so bad as actually has a different engine. Most of the Dreamliner's have a 2.0L Petrol engine but this has been changed to a 2.5L Diesel with Citroen badges on it - we don't actually know what the engine is from which will make finding parts interesting. 

She has plenty of rust around the cab and doors, but that can be easily remedied and was to be expected with a van of her age. Ryan seems to feel a certain attachment as he is the same age! The body is good with just a few dents and dings, and needs a re-spray but that's another of Ryans talents so no problem there either.

The layout is pretty much as this one below, with just a slightly smaller shower room which we need to buy a toilet for and so one less cupboard than shown in front of the rear bunks.

The kitchen (below left) is in good condition and has everything we need to start with, but we may yet switch things around. The shower room (below right) is nicely finished with a fold down sink and an old vanity unit that will come down in favour of the suction corner shelves for our shampoo etc.

Below is the view to the rear from the living room showing the rear bunks and the kitchen area.






Below left is the L-Shaped sofa which we will leave as it is, there is a table that can be fixed into the floor on a single pole to create a very handy dinette/crafting desk.

Opposite the sofa there is another small seat for two which can be made up with the sofa to become another double bed, but it will instead be another storage area and home to my Corn Snake 'Kaa' to add yet another mad twist to our plans! The passenger seat also swings round to face the living area and we plan to get the boss-kit to do the same with the drivers side so we don't lose too much spare seating.








And finally below is the fixed bed platform that we will use as we don't fancy making our bed up every single day to a sofa and then back again. After the night spent at the Services where Ryan spent the entire time crushed up against the window we decided we definitely need a proper mattress, preferably a few inches wider but I think most of the problem was that I was subconsciously terrified of falling off out of bed so didn't use the full space! I figure that's just something you get used to, after all I don't fall out of my regular bed at the moment so this one shouldn't be any different...

Wales and Butterflies

We moved in with Ryan's parents when our tenancy run out so that we could save up as much cash as possible including the deposit from our old house and the proceeds from selling as much of our furniture and things as we could! It's strange how selling your things becomes almost addictive (I love e-bay!), and the more we threw out or sold the better we felt - maybe there is something to be learned from Feng Shui as the de-cluttering certainly lifted our spirits. Everything we wished to keep was boxed up safe and we began the search.

Our many hours of searching e-bay and Auto-trader and anywhere else that might possibly be hiding a cheap motorhome unearthed a slightly tatty looking 6 berth Dreamliner Vogue in Wales, 'first £3000 offer and it's yours' the listing said, so we were amazed that it was still there when we rang. So on the 10th November 2011 off we drove to Wales, with butterflies in our bellies.

Several hours later we arrived in the dark with a full moon in the sky and whilst Ryan checked her over with a torch for any structural or mechanical issues, the owner was very friendly and chatted to us about where they'd been as a family with 'Old Rusty' as they'd nicknamed her and happy enough we paid up and began the journey home. Ryan drove the motorhome and I followed in my little Clio with the biggest, maddest grin on my face the entire time! As it was so late already we stopped at some rather noisy motorway Services for the night, enjoyed some fish and chips at the dining table and slept (well for a couple of hours in total I think! :S) in our new home. We continued on the next day, and the butterflies and the smile stayed with me all the way! Dreams aren't so scary when they're still dreams, but ours was suddenly reality...

The very scary and strangely exciting process of jumping into your life dreams with both feet!

It’s a long title I know but the only one I could think of that begins to explain how we feel right now! My name is Sarah Hamer and I am an Artist and crafty person (though am currently a salesperson to pay the bills!), and my partner Ryan Clack is a mechanic (among many talents) with a crafty side too. 

We are in the process of completely changing our lives to live permanently in a motorhome in the UK, something that probably sounds awful to most people but that suits me and Ryan down to the ground. We are both enthusiastic bush-crafters and love camping, hiking, woodworking and pretty much anything that allows us to enjoy being in contact with dear old Mother Nature for an extended period.

We have been together for over 10 years already, but only 2 years in came the realisation that we would never afford to save up a deposit for a house whilst renting, and as we have always been horrified at the thought of spending at least 25 years after that owing money to someone else for a pile of bricks we started looking at alternative housing options. Our friends introduced us to the world of Narrowboats and that became the dream for a long while, though life’s twists and turns wouldn’t let us get there either. We then came to realise that a motorhome is by far the cheapest option and gives us the freedom we want, and that you don’t necessarily need to be sleeping in a layby somewhere with the multitude of cheap campsites and quiet hidden car parks throughout the country.

We had been renting a particular house for only a year when the owner decided that we were not able to renew our tenancy for the next year and so we were faced with either using up the little amount we'd managed to save up so far on credit checks for another rental house or jumping into the dream NOW! And what's wrong with now anyway? So we began searching for that one vehicle we will want to call home, on a budget of only £3000!