Pinteresting

Thanks for all your comments on my last Pinteresting post. I cant help but agree that there is a lot of repetition on Pinterest. I think that part of the problem is that people just repin already pinned posts, or posts from popular bloggers so you see the same thing over and over. But in amongst all that repetition sometimes you stumble upon that perfect little nugget of inspiration, or a new blog that is amazing, or you just repin things you find so you never have to search agonizingly through goggle trying to hunt up something you vaguely remember the name of. That's what I love about Pinterest, and makes the hours wasted spent trawling worthwhile.

Something that I've been thinking about lately is seating in the van. We're in the process of finalising the floor plans of the caravan and that means finalising how much seating and sleeping space we'll have. I  believe that you can't have too much seating or too many sleeping options in a caravan. Some of the seating needs to be fixed, where as some needs to be removable so it can be used outside. Arghhhhh. So I'm trying to find solutions to these quandaries. 

One thing I'm loving is floor cushions. I want a cosy little nook where we can read, or play board games, snuggle and watch a movie or just relax. 

Here's a round up of some of my fav's. As usual the picture should link you to the source.

Love these, love the ability to arrange, stack, create any seating arrangement you like. Whether you lay them all out as a "mattress" or stack to make a couch, arm chairs etc



I think stackability (it's a word, I used it in a sentence) is also important. There's not a lot of floor space in a caravan, so things need to be compact and have there own space. Hence the desirability of stacking.

The living stones are incredible. I think the picture sums it up, just the pure joy and creativity/imagination they inspire. Completely impractical for a caravan, I know. I am thinking about creating a mountain of them for Squiggle Butt's room though. Caravans are not the only places that need comfy, cozy and snuggly little nooks.

These are simple and so clever. Perfect for Squiggle Butt to lounge on, take out doors, use in a tent when she's older.

Now I just need to be able to make a decision!! 

Do you have  a favourite floor cushion design. Or a perfect solution to my indoor/outdoor seating and bedding space problems? Let me know in the comments. 

Progress.... HIP HIP HURRAH

We have been productive... HURRAH!!

We visited our TROLL shop and got some great bargains. TROLL is what our local tip shop is called for some wonderful, magical, reason. I remember going with my mum to dump rubbish and picking through the tip looking for treasures, but it was stinky, and you touched some really questionable stuff looking for those treasures. Its much nicer now and I highly recommend you get to your local tip shop regularly. Honestly you never know what amazingness you'll find! We bought a cupboard, that will become a bench seat/bed and a timber double bed frame for about $6. We also bough an old locker, 2 metal out door chairs, a BBQ and a laundry sink for home for an extra $32. 

Spanner Wielder spent a day on the Caravan of Wrighteousness on Sunday and rapidly ticked some items from our list!!

He fitted the new (to us) stabilisers. We bought these at a garage sale for $2 each. I had no idea what they were, but felt like we needed to buy them. So I dragged Spanner Wielder over for a look, and sure enough we needed them, they also marked them down from $4 while I was hunting up Spanner Wielder!!

Our old stabilisers 

Our pretty new stabilisers

One of the pins were broken, so we assumed that's why the last owner replaced them and put them in the garage sale. It was a very easy fix though. Spanner Wielder simply knocked the broken pin out, found two bolts that fit, tightened the bolt enough that they were stable, but loose enough that everything could still pivot, and, finally, welded the nut in place. Simple right, well it sounds simple when Spanner Wielder explains it! If you are thinking about buying a caravan that is as crap shacky dilapidated as ours, its probably important that you know someone who welds.

Its also important to have good footwear, Spanner Wielder wore sand shoes and steeped on a nail. I did some Googling and because he had a tetanus booster 5 years ago (from, believe it or not, jumping stepping on a nail) he didn't need another one!

He also took down the shower, rain door sun roof, ready to fit our salvaged sky light.

We both spent the afternoon at the van Monday. Squiggle Butt was asleep in her porta cot so we couldn't be too loud. Initially we did a lot of measuring. We're hoping to have detailed plans (well measurements) so we can just start framing, rather then having to figure out placement of items, how things fit together as we go. We also plan to do a quick stock take of what we have, so we know what we still have to get. 

An example of some of the rot.

Spanner Wielder and I also got on to some demolition... you know the fun stuff. most of the panelling has now been removed and we have a pretty clear picture of what is salvageable and what needs replacing. Much more of the frame is salvageable them we thought thankfully. However where the broken rear windows have let a lot of weather through and much of that area needs replacing. I honestly don't know how it hasn't fallen to pieces, I can't figure out what's holding the back together.

My gory wound

During demolition I bashed my finger on a rusty nail. Now I know I haven't had a tetanus booster recently, but I'm taking my chances. I'll head in for a needle if my jaw starts locking up, but not before!!! 

Today was meant to be our first scheduled day working on the Caravan, and wouldn't you know it  Spanner Wielders been called into work. I'm hoping to go down to the workshop after Squiggle Butt wakes up and do some tidying, we didn't clear out much of the panelling before knocking off Sunday. I'm also hoping to trace out the curves in the kitchen, ready to frame out. It'll be tough to get a lot done though as Squiggle Butt is pure mischief, and there's so much damage she could do! Plus look how grotty she managed to get last time, and she was asleep for most of it!!

Pinteresting

I <3 Pinterest. I remember when I first discovered Pinterest feeling like an out cast because I had to wait for an invite.... All the cool kids were pinning and I was left dejectedly checking my email day after day, or begging for an invite (none of my friends were pinning yet so no go). Oh happy days when that long awaited invite arrived. After which there was a period of hysterical pinning, and sleep deprived nights trawling through pins. I've calmed down a bit now, but a lot of my spare time is still spent trawling Pinterest.

I pin a lot of ideas for our Caravan of Wrighteousness, to follow this board just click the link on your right!

               

So I thought I'd share one of my favourite finds from this week. I want these lace screens for the van badly.... I'm just trying to figure out the logistics. I'm thinking that they'll need to be constructed from wire.... wire being the easiest thing to bend and caravan windows being anything other then square! I also want to make sure they're easy to remove or open, so that we can get to the windows. Anyone knows that caravan windows NEED to open. 

So I'm now keeping my eyes peeled at every oppie for just the right lace... the lace cant have large "holes" because then it wont keep all the bugs out. And I hate bugs, especially the ones that bite, but the ones that bite love me. Its a vicious circle. 

I may need to block Pinterest for this month *sigh*

Rabid screaming mess coming right up...

So I'm feed up with my lack of caravan mojo and have decided to try scheduling to get my groove back. Scheduling is always my go to strategy... Has a lot to do with my type a, obsessive compulsive Virgo personality. Sadly I am AWESOME at scheduling, not so awesome at sticking to said schedule. Fingers crossed it works this time. 

So after chatting with Spanner Wielder our aim is to replace the caravan floor, re frame the roof and kitchen, make the caravan watertight, replace the levelling leg thingys, replace the missing windows, and install the bed by the end of this month. And it HAS to happen by then because, Spanner Wielder is closing down his workshop at the end of the month, so the caravan is going to have to move to our house.

Speaking of houses, did I mention we also need to move this month.... for the second time this year. As you can imagine when I found this out I had a bit of a break down (basically there was lots of sobbing, though I manfully kept my crap together and didn't have the full scale tantrum that a 3 year old would be proud of, it was a close call though) and now I've reached reluctant acceptance. But this is why every things crazy scheduled.... because this month is going to be crazy busy. I hate months like this. You all know what I mean, you get to the end wondering what the hell happened to June and you're completely wrecked trying to keep it together so you don't end up a rabid, screaming mess, threatening murder and the likes. Did I mention it was reluctant acceptance... clearly I'm still in a dark place.

Back to the schedule, we've basically got a list of what we want to complete this month, and some days assigned to do it in. It is in no ways complete yet, and I hate that its not set in stone, but we never know when Spanner Wielder may be called in to work. We're hoping to spend some time in the caravan this weekend (though it's not scheduled), our first scheduled days will be Wednesday 13th and Thursday the 14th. Hopefully you guys can keep me honest!! 

So let the crazy month of June begin, I'm off to start packing!