Work has come on apace on the conversion. Now that the seating/bed is in place Paul has been concentrating on the cupboard units. We spent some time sitting in the van to help us work out where we wanted everything to go. When we first decided to do the conversion one of our main considerations was whether to have a fixed kitchen unit, which would, out of necessity, be dinky. Having had two American RVs complete with full sized kitchens, even in the smaller one, I always wondered why we have to make do with half sized appliances in our caravans or more conventional motorhome/campers. Since we have an awning, plus a full camp kitchen, stove and a barbecue, most of our cooking is done al fresco; I mean, who wants to be cooped up inside a van whilst cooking when everyone else is outside enjoying the fresh air and the awesome sunset; so why do we need a full kitchen unit? But what if you’re only going for a couple of nights and don’t want to use the awning I can hear you asking. We’ll just pop one of our picnic stoves on the worktop is my answer. Instead of fitting a useless sized fridge we want to use our large 240/12 volt coolbox, which generally lives in the awning when we are on site, so we do need a place to store it and be able use it inside. What about washing up? Done in a bowl outside or taken to the washing up stations where there is plenty of hot water. So no, we don’t need a fully fitted Wendy house kitchen, just a space we can turn into a kitchen area should we need to. To decide where our units would be best placed we sat in the van. Originally Paul was going to put a tall unit on the passenger side with a shorter unit and worktop from the end of the seating. However, as I sat there, I felt that the tall unit being opposite the seating would make it feel very closed in. I suggested that having the smaller unit there, with a nice stretch of worktop, would make it look more spacious, so we decided to reverse the layout. With all this in mind, Paul revisited his plans, made a few alterations and set to work. Within a day he had the small unit made up and called me across to admire his handiwork. I must say, his carpentry skills have improved. Unlike our earlier attempts he is making sure everything fits snugly to the contours of the van. I was well impressed.
Over the next couple of days Paul could be heard working away in his workshop as he made up the tall unit. This is quite a work of art since part of this unit is where we will be storing the coolbox so has been made to allow us to lift the lid whilst in place. It was time to take it across to the van to try it out for size. We got it over to the van OK but getting it INTO the van was another matter. On realising the height of the unit was more than the height of the doors and, with the smaller unit in place, we hadn’t got room to lay it flat, we had a ten minute blonde moment. We knew it had to go in so the back of the unit was against the side of the van but could we work out how to do it. We turned it, tilted it, lay it down, stood it up, considered using the side door but to no avail. It didn’t help that the spare tyre and some old carpet was in the way.We were just about to give up when Paul moved the tyre and the whole thing finally slid into place. At which point we realised it would have gone in much easier if we had tilted it the opposite way. Duh!
Once we had it in place we climbed in to see if it met our expectations. It did. Although they are far from finished we can see how our interior is going to look and I am getting that buzz again. I really can’t wait to get away in it now.
But we still hadn’t worked out how to support the bed. We looked at sliding the bed base out, having the extending piece it hinged to fold out, having a backrest fitted to the extending piece to create a leg when it is folded over, you name it we considered it, and threw it out. We were still pondering when our daughter ambled across to have a look. And came up with such a simple solution it was pure genius. In front of the smaller unit there is a space where, due to the width of the bed, Paul was thinking of putting a narrow shelf unit. As Danii listened to him decribing our problem with the bed she came up with the idea of making a low storage box on which the extending piece could rest. The box could be used as a coffee table or seat when the bed was not in use. As he was explaining the idea to me I had a bit of a brainwave myself. If the measurements worked, why not make the box fit our camping toilet so it could be stored when not in use? So off we went and measured the toilet, a perfect fit. The “Bog Box” was created. It fits perfectly in the space and the bed is now well supported.
