Thursday, May 24, 2012

Vintage caravan restoration

We have a camper van, a thing that has tent like ends; it's great except when it rains. We had a horrible experience last year, it poured and poured, the wee ones got diarrhoea, it was a long walk to the park toilets and the littlest got very ill and ended up in hospital. So from then on I wanted a 'real' caravan. I wanted to be able to pull over, open the door have lunch a cup of tea and keep driving, no set up.

We had a check box of things we felt were requirements.

  • Under $10,000
  • Not too long, around 18 foot.
  • Single axle
  • Bunks and queen sized bed.
We finally found it and it was in another state, a huge task to go and see.
We met possibly the dodgiest vendor in all of existence. While our new van fits all of the above criteria except the queen bed but that can be changed, it was internally in poor condition. It was carefully disguised and we felt quite sad later. However it had towed beautifully, couldn’t be happier as that's extremely important. So the renovation begins in our study down time.

Here’s the before interior view:
The aim is for a cute vintage caravan, all new lining boards and a tiny ensuite. I have had a ball googling pictures and I think we might acutally go quite.. ahem... loud! I'm considering flowers on the outside!
I have decide on white linings, Micheal Miller fabrics (vintage prints), through Etsy of course and I'd love red and white checked flooring but I can't locate any as yet.
Sadly this is a long term project and our study break will be finished soon and all life as we know it is on hold again, until the end of the year.
Pooh, the body in the picture, found a screw had gone through electrical cable! I'm so glad he pulled that overhead cupboard off. Perhaps a complete rebuild is a blessing in disguse?

1 comment:

Barb. said...

How fun. I hope to read and see all that you do with this.

Barb.