The doors are on!

Stewie the dog and I had our first adventure adventure last Thursday to go and get the van doors. Here's us in the van ready to head off:

Poor little Stewie has never travelled well (he's more than happy jumping in, but his tummy doesn't like the motion), and he had a small 'incident', in Salisbury, but was fine on the way back, so I think in general he approves of our new van :-)

Anyway, vomiting aside, and 1.5 hours later, we found ourselves at the breakers' yard, ready to collect our doors. It was to be a 'five minute job' to switch the doors over, I was assured on the phone, but it actually took over an hour. So HUGE thanks to Rob and the other lovely chaps at Whitefield Car Parts (they have an eBay shop incidentally, here's a link: Whitefield Car Parts).

While I was waiting for the van doors, curiosity got the better of me and I found myself having a serious mooch round. I'm a massive fan of scavenging/upcycling, whatever you want to call it, so along with two new windowed doors, I came back from the yard with a load of cushions and a sink (at a cost of NOTHING)! Here are the cushions.

I'm quite handy with the sewing machine so this little lot is going to save me a fortune! Just need a nice fabric to cover them with, but I'm still deciding between my fave leopard, or boring wipe-clean vinyl...but I'll let you know later this week what I've decided.

I'll leave you waiting with bated breath on the fabric decision, and sign off for now. The van's taking great shape, and I'm hoping to have in finished in the next week or so, so more updates to come soon

Back soon xxx

Let there be light...

As I said before, I need windows in my rear doors (in fact that's the least I want - I'd prefer windows all round but that will be much more expensive). I actually wonder why I didn't hang on a bit and buy a van with windows in the first place, but hey we live and learn.

Anyway, windows in the rear doors will give much needed extra light in the van, plus of course I'll be able to park it easier, since I'm SO not used to parking using just my wing mirrors...

So after another lengthy research period (approx 1 day), I had pinged off a few emails/online forms asking for windows quote. Some didn't come back at all (what a surprise), some were very helpful (www.vanbitz.co.uk) in particular, with a fair quote of £120 delivered for 2 rubber mounted windows plus fitting kits.

I was happy to pay this, and last night I successfully cajoled my builder brother-in-law into helping me with the entire project, cutting of window panels included...but more about that later!

Then this morning I had a brainwave - how about buying some doors with the windows already in. Doh!!! A quick look on eBay later, and hey presto, found my doors, a snip at £70 for the pair. And not too far away either, about 60 miles away in Wiltshire.

So on Thursday I'm off to Wiltshire to pick up my lovely new doors, and having had a quick chat with the seller, it might even be possible for him to quickly switch them over for me. Result! I'll sell the original doors on eBay and recoup some of the cost, so with any luck it'll only have cost me about £40 in total.


Here are the little beauties - please note they are the same size as each other in real life ;-)

Talking of bro-in-law, he said I have to draw up a rough plan of how I want the layout, so that's next on my to-do list, hopefully tomorrow.


Oh and lastly I had a text from my brother too (he who works for a builders' merchant), who said he loved my blog (I'd posted it on Facebook) - and to make sure to give him a list of supplies that I need, so that he can get the best price for me (I didn't even have to ask him)...don't you just love family!


He'll hate me for this, but here he is (with his pride and joy Vespa scooter - note the seat and backrest, covered by yours truly):

More later this week - thank you for reading!

Insurance...

Just a quickie - been on to various insurers to get my van insured, and it's shocking what van insurance costs, even if you're only using it for social/pleasure purposes!

Anyway decided in the end to contact Adrian Flux who insured our last converted campervan (www.adrianflux.co.uk), and they can insure my van 'as is' for now, then convert the insurance over to campervan insurance once the work is done (NB the van must have storage, a bed, seating, a gas cooker, and running water).

Amazingly, once the van is converted, the insurance drops from £770 per year to just £270!!!! The money saved will almost pay for the conversion!!!

This gives me an incentive to get the work done ASAP. So I can't hang about here, I've got plans to draw up :)

The Beginning...

I've been obsessed with campervans for what seems like an age. I can't even remember why or how it started, except that I always felt a pang of envy when I went (tent) camping and saw how the other half lives...and this is long before the word 'glamping' was even thought of...

Now I don't mean those flash luxurious motorhomes - the ones with more square footage than my house, pristine white bodywork, ensuite bedrooms, jacuzzis and helipads ;-)

I mean the cute, small, scruffy (battered in some cases) campers, with their pop-top rooves, dinky curtains, 'bijou' interiors, patches of rust and of course the fun people that reside in them, at least temporarily during the summer...I'm talking Bedford Bambis, Suzukis, and of course the ubiquitous VWs.

OUR FIRST CAMPERVAN

My husband Steve and I took our first steps into the campervan world a few years ago, with a converted 1994 Renault Traffic ex-minibus, non-power steering, 2 berth beauty, bought from eBay, and after a few personal touches (most notably covering all of the interior cushions in leopard print!), we were good to go...

We had a few trips away, including 2 Glastonbury Festivals, Swanage (where, incidentally, we stumbled across a major folk festival!), and various stays in the gorgeous New Forest, and I fell in love with non-tented camping, especially once we'd invested in a porta-potti and toilet tent...

ALL GOOD THINGS...

After many fun times, and about two years later, the cost of running two cars and a campervan was getting too much, and so we put her in storage and shortly after, sold her to a lovely young lady who fell in love with her, and who was planning on having some adventures in the van with her dog Zelda. We've since heard that she's been to Scotland and the South of France (so far), so we know she's still going strong and being taken care of.

Two different cars and a couple of summers later, I realised I was missing the freedom of being able to jump in a campervan on a whim and head off for the weekend, so again I started scouring the internet, looking for another campervan (with no real money to spend!). The one thing I did know was that I wanted a campervan that I could also use as an everyday vehicle, so a big and bulky van would be out of the question.

VWs were out of the question - I'm rubbish at fixing anything and I couldn't afford the heavy garage bills that I knew I would incur if I bought a 'project' vehicle. On my travels I did stumble across this bad boy, but being £43k short of £44k was probably the clincher:

In any case, what's the fun in buying something brand new that's ready to rock? That's just cheating ;-)

So, after just a couple of weeks research, I decided I wanted a smallish van and that I would convert it myself. My budget would be the value of my car plus a few hundred quid...at most!

Apparently there's a new breed of compact vans, which are almost like a car to drive. They're small enough to drive as an everyday vehicle, yet large enough to fit a standard camper side conversion. BINGO!

(text plagiarised from http://www.convertyourvan.co.uk/citroendispatchcamperconversion.html), who supply/fit some cracking conversion kits -which I would jump to buy if I had the readies).

UMMMM, I'VE WON A VAN

Having decided on a compact van, I found a Dispatch on eBay, on a classified ad with best offer - so I put a cheeky offer in, thinking no more of it. The next morning (Saturday 14th), I was checking my email on my phone whilst having my first cup of tea and ciggy, when lo and behold, I received an invoice from eBay, asking me to pay for my purchase of the Citroen Dispatch. Holy moly, the seller only went and accepted my offer, without so much as a by-your-leave!

When hubby got up, I broke the news...."Umm.......you know eBay? Well I've won a van". Much amazement/bemusement/chuckles ensued, and when it sunk in I called the seller there and then, and made arrangements to collect said vehicle. Hubby naturally thinks I'm mad, but all the same he knows that when I put my mind to something, I usually achieve it.

One small stumbling block - I still had a car, and the whole point of a small campervan was to do away with running two vehicles...hmmmm...

So the very same day, I chucked my car on Gumtree, Preloved, and Adtrader, and lo and behold, 1.5 hours later I had a call from a dealer, offering to buy it! So that afternoon (yesterday in fact), the guy came to see it and bought it on the spot. And what's more, I got the same for the car as I paid for the van. Result! So within 24 hours I'd bought a van, collected it, and sold my car. I like to think it's fate, or at least jolly good luck.

THE VAN IN ITS RAW STATE

So here she is, in all her unconverted glory:

She's a 1.9 turbo diesel Citroen Dispatch, with 3 front seats and twin side loading doors. There are only 59k miles on the clock, and she has nice tidy bodywork and is ply lined. Best of all, she has power steering, and happily does 70mph on the motorway (our old van got to about 60 before grumbling).

THE PLAN FOR ME AND MY VAN

In her current state, it would be easy to sling in our airbed and camping stove and head off...but owing to the atrocious summer we're having, I will most likely be able to get a few bits done before christening her properly :-)

The plan is:

• install u-shaped units with foam cushions (covered in leopard print of course)
• create a dismountable table that converts into the middle of the bed
• some sort of unit with stove and sink
• space underneath for porta-potti
• put windows in rear doors (I'm a girl, I need more vision for parking!)
• sort out interior roof to cover metal
• have floor covering put in

I have a brother-in-law who's a builder, and although he doesn't know it yet, he's going to have the pleasure of helping me with this conversion! In my naive mind, I figure a load of wood and brackets, and we're practically there...although I know that nothing is ever as simple as it looks.

I have a brother who works for a builders' merchants, and although he doesn't know it yet, he's going to help me source my raw materials...

I also have a nephew who's a carpet fitter, and although he doesn't know it yet either, I'm going to put him in charge of floor/wall coverings.

In light of these revelations, I'd best be getting off, as I have a bit of schmoozing to do to in order to achieve aforementioned plan.

I will be updating this blog with my progress over the next few weeks/months, along with pictures, and if I'm feeling techy enough, videos too. I hope you've enjoyed reading thus far...

Until the next time

Naomi

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