Looking pretty (but not too pretty - by Pete's orders!)

Just thought I would do one last update before our road trip. I have now made a number of additions to Morris to get him looking ship shape. I have added bunting, beach themed lavender hearts and have filled his cupboards with scrummy food!!

Here's a sneak peek!!

As always, thanks for reading!!

Just about ready for our first road trip!

So, we have had a mega weekend working on Morris, I am totally knackered! However, it has all been worth it as we are now ready for my birthday treat, our first weekend away in our van.

One huge bit of work we have done that has made a big difference is finally having enough nice weather to paint the exterior of 2 sides of the van. We have painted the top an antique white, and the whole of the bottom half (not just a stripe as previously) in "holiday blue". I am really pleased with the colour as it looks a bit like a sunny sky and follows the nautical theme that we are going with.

Pete has also made massive progress with the interior. Not only has he sealed the leak and made the back end of Morris water tight, but has fitted a new interior timber frame, filled inbetween with polystyrene and finally cut and fitted the plywood boards. We have drawn the timber frames behind onto the front of the ply wood so that we can see where we are screwing the shelving units back in. You won't be able to see this when we are finished as we are going to re-wallpaper.

Once we are back from our short break, we will need to crack on with sealing and re-building the front end of Morris as this is damp also, and painting the other two sides of the van. It is then just a case of making cosmetic changes like re-wallpapering, covering the interior cupboard doors, painting the cream areas and replacing the floor and lights. We are going to do this at a much slower pace however, so that we can ensure we meet our deadline for May 2013, but is not going to tire us out in the meantime! I may therefore update this blog slightly less regularly, but will make sure that when I do, it is even more exciting!

Thanks for reading,

Tanya and Pete

Huge jumps forward!

I didn't update the blog last week, more out of frustration than anything else. I spent a great deal of last weekend preparing for putting a white undercoat on one side of Morris, and Pete (my husband) continued to re-build the internal frame in the bottom left corner.

Unfortunately, the weather turned horrific and we had to abandon our hopes at getting a great deal done. This felt very disheartening and put me off doing much on Morris until the weather cheered up. It did cheer up and we had quite a nice evening on Thursday. I still wasn't quite in the caravan mood however, and instead went for a walk up some hills in the sunshine, stopping off at a lovely pub on the way home for a bowl of chips whilst watching the sunset.

So this weekend, I thought I should really make up for my neglect. I therefore got up early on Saturday morning, and proceeded to go and get my hair styled and had some beauty treatments. Don't worry, all is not lost for Morris, as I then came home and spent the afternoon continuing my painting prep whilst Pete did more work inside.

Then this morning (a Sunday!!) I was up at 8:30am adding the white external paint to one side. Whilst this was drying, I prepared and also painted the rear of the van. I used a paint recommended on a number of caravan forums. This is called "Tinkers Paint". (I apologise if this name is a little non pc - this is what it is called!). This is basically 75% exterior gloss paint and 25% yatch varnish.

After painting prep last weekend:

After first coat of Tinkers Paint - I feel another coat will be necessary - however the top half of Morris will remain white, from the bottom trim, we have chosen a lovely light blue colour - the Dulux Name for this is aptly "Holiday Blues":

And here is the bottom coat also on the rear of the van:

 

Whilst I worked on the oustide, Pete carried on his stirling work on the interior of the van. Here it is now most of the frame work is in. This has now prevented any water coming in at the back of the van, and all there is to do is add some polysterene (my neighbour has very kindly given us lots of this), add the ply wood boards and paper.

This message I am hoping will be read in another 30 years time, when Morris has continued to give families (including mine) lovely DRY holidays!!

I hope you agree that our work is progressing. It better had be as we have booked to go away in Morris the van very soon!

Thanks for reading, Tanya and Pete :)