Insulation, wood, flooring and other bits and bobs...

This week, I have been mainly on holiday in the Scottish Highlands and not working on the camper. However, the somewhat brisk and relentlessly damp weather spurred me on to ever more dizzying heights of inspiration: a sink and a fold out chopping board to name but one. But I digress.

Over the last couple of weeks I've been gathering bits and bobs for the build as the slow realisation has dawned on me that it's difficult to plan anything inside the van without knowing what the whole thing is going to look like at the end, complete with the actual materials I plan to use. I'm using recycled timber and 2nd hand everything else so without actually having all the kit, it's kind of difficult to measure up and figure it all out.


So here we have my collection so far: some wooden batons, some floor insulation and a huge sack of fibreglass insulation from my new best mate 'Kellay' the builder from down the road (who turned up one day while I was sitting in the van in deep, meditative contemplation over kitchen units, and proceeded to tell me in no uncertain terms what he thought of my [rubbish] plans, and his rather more excellent ones. He did, however, turn out to be a diamond of a guy who lends me tools and gives me stuff, and who is now cycling down the coast of Guatemala for 6 weeks for some reason...).

Next are the packs of teak laminate flooring found on freecycle - enough to do the floor and drawer fronts, and finally the roof insulation which I admit to buying from B&Q because it needed to be lightweight and easy to stick to the roof, both of which this is. Not to mention cheap.

I'm particularly excited this evening as I'm going to pick up my new (2nd hand) 'Captain's Seats' tomorrow from Huddersfield. Found them on ebay, bid £70 for them, but because no one bid against me they didn't reach the reserve. The chap then called me and asked me very nicely to take them out of his garden shed for £50! Back of the net.

Also winging it's way to me is my new (2nd hand) Zig unit. A CF9B which I'm hoping is going to be the answer to all my electrical-related prayers (as you can see I categorize my prayers into major functional sections to minimise chances of doing something for which I may, some day, posthumously, pick up the Darwin award). The Zig is another ebay success story, (or failure depending on whether you're me or the seller). The seller's conscientious approach to her listing (adding the B on the end of CF9 which simply refers to the faceplate being gold instead of silver) excluded it from the search results of most people looking for the more commonly known "CF9". Jackpot. Top tip here for ebayers not yet in the know is to search slight spelling errors or different permutations of model numbers to get a good deal from those unfortunate souls who don't quite get the search terms right.

So finally, I'll be visiting caravan breakers in the coming weeks to pick up a 3-way fridge, a skylight window, sink, water tank, electrical sockets, etc etc, then the timber yard to get some boarding to line the inside.

One final thing, I've started work on my bed, which has become ridiculously over complicated and involves sliding bits and latches and glue and screws and blood and sweat and swearing, and in the end will probably end up in a blazing heap in my garden, while I, the quivering heap next to it, frantically search for a second hand rock and roll. Time will tell. Anyway, here it is so far. Can you tell what it is yet?

(Yes because I just told you).