Its been nearly 10 days since I last blogged, I haven’t been idle but there are only a certain number of times that you can say that you have been varnishing, anyway for the most part that has been what I have been doing, apart from a few days off as a result of a cyst on my back flaring up (I missed Streatham Common the first Kite Festival of the season as a result).

So what have I been up to: well all the cupboard doors are on, they proved more straight forward than I thought they were going to be back in October, and over half the half the interior has had the requisite five coats of varnish and the remainder is on its second or third coat.

As we are approaching our first weekend away of the year I have put a temporary hold on the varnishing and I have been making curtains using the fabric we picked up at Ikea a couple of weeks ago. These are now all complete, and we have a lined curtain at the rear which acts as additional insulation for the rear doors but primarily gives a degree of privacy when the rear doors are opened to access the toilet cassette and the under bed storage.
Then there is the partition curtain this extends the partition between the galley and the sleeping area across the width of the van to give privacy to the sleeping area when one or more of us wants to go to bed early or gets up late.
Finally we have the front curtains which close off the living quarters from the cab. We could have done with these during the cold spell when the car was off the road. The cab heater proved adequate to warm the cab but every time the van was braked the cold air in the rear spilled forward cooling us all down again.

Barring a little more varnishing, interior fittings for the galley cupboards to hold the plates etc, and the shoe locker which is going to be removable anyway I am just about done and probably in a position where I could take the photographs for the submission to the DVLA to have the V5 changed. If the weather is good I think I may take them on our first trip of the year.

Anyway the van is going into the garage tomorrow to have the Lambda Probe warning on the dashboard checked out. Fingers crossed it is just as a result of a blip and the ECU just needs clearing down which will cost about £40 but it is cheaper than a new probe.

Meanwhile over on another self builder’s blog, Annie has some interesting ideas on making a low cost sink