Friday 24 August 2012

Away again, my poor garden!!

So, it has only been 4 weeks since we were last away in Morris and we are getting ready to go away again!

Since our maiden voyage, quite a few developments have been made with Morris. The complete exterior is now painted and mostly sealed. Not finished with sealing unfortunately, due to running out of sealant part way through the job so am going to have to purchase some more of the amazing stuff off the Internet.

Here are some pics of the outside all finished!!

This photo shows the effect of adding B&Q basic paint stripper. After only a few minutes, the paint is just flaking off. After a sand and a clean, we get to this!



As you know from my last post, I have also purchase some accessories for the van, and here they are in situ!




















So, now the outside is finished, what next? To be honest, both me and Pete are knackered and the thought of continuing with the project is a little daunting. However, work must continue if we are going to meet our deadline of May 2013. Therefore, over the next few months, we need to remove the front end of the van inside and re-build the timber framing (from initial peeks and feeling the condition of the interior wall, we suspect that a complete re-build will be required as per the back). We then need to paper the interior (have found some sumptuous dark blue paper for the two ends and some cream paper with sparkles in for the rest), paint / cover the internal woodwork, create new covers for cushions and curtains with the material I have bought and finally fit new flooring.

We also need to create new tables / covers for the kitchen areas from white washed wood (to go with the nautical theme) and consider adding a sink to the bathroom area. However, neither of these things seem "necessary" at the mo, and we are quite enjoying using the loo area for storage so we need to think carefully before diving into doing this. Any comments / thoughts about next steps gratefully received!

Thanks, as always, for reading,

Tan and Pete :)

Sunday 5 August 2012

Back from our trip and progress already!

So, I hope you are all keeping well?

We are just back from our maiden voyage with Morris and had a lovely time. Our campsite near Much Wenlock in Shropshire was lovely and we managed to get all the way there and back again (I read the Hobbit whilst I was there) without any major incidents. When we arrived, the van was still together. Only problem, I decided to go off for a walk with the dog whilst Pete prepared the caravan for when I got back. Only thing, I didn't realised I had the caravan keys in my pocket so when I arrived back at the site an hour later, Pete was still sat outside waiting for me! Oops!

Anyway, the campsite was called Sytche Caravan and Camping and was great. Not only were the facilities brill, there was a great 10-15 min walk through the woods where the dog could run off her energy into the town. Here is the website and I have put a few pics below:
http://www.sytchecaravanandcamping.co.uk/




The other lovely thing was that whilst we were there, an old school friend of mine turned up at the site (this wasn't planned) with her family and vintage caravan so it was great to see her too. I will find out if I can add some pictures of her caravan to my blog as it is really funky!!

However, there is no rest of the wicked! And even though this is our first weekend back, the work continues. This weekend I have been out shopping on Saturday and have bought some cushions and accessories for inside Morris (all bargains of course) and I have managed to buy some really good material on sale at Dunelm Mill to cover the sofa seats. Pics below.



Also, we have spent a great deal of today (Sunday) attempting to remove the trim pieces on the other side of the van ready for painting. Has been a real pain to be honest with many of them rounded off. We have therefore had to use a series of drill bits to get them free. Is done now though and is almost ready for its first coat of paint. I am hoping with a nice bit of weather one evening this week, I can get it done.

At some stage we could get it looking like this:



Finally I thought I would just show you this brilliant book that I have recently bought from Amazon. It is called "My Cool Caravan" written by Jane Field-Lewis (big up the double barralled name!!) and Chris Haddon. Is a really inspirational read and I have added below a couple of photos of one van that has really caught my eye! Hope you enjoy reading this and I will update again once more work has been done!

Thanks for reading, Tanya :)