It's gone! The brown carpet has gone to carpet heaven (aka Ross on Wye tip - sorry, household waste recycling centre!)
And what a lovely floor! We were worried about what we might find lurking underneath the monstrous carpet, but her floor seems to be very sound ply board, with no rot that we can find (and we really did look!)
The leaf shapes you can see on the floor are little 'biscuits' set into the ply, to replace knots in the wood which would affect its strength. I rather like them!
Mr Q spent quite a while cleaning up the carpet gripper strip under the bathroom door ... then we realised we don't need it for vinyl tiles ... *ahem*. We were both tired, ok?!
Mr Q then removed the seat backs and side pads - with help from me when I wasn't taking photos! In order to get one of the side panels out, he had to virtually climb into the wardrobe - but sadly didn't find Narnia! Just some annoying extra cabling that had been run on top of the screws holding the sofa panel in place ... grrr! But it came out, in the end.
I have a question for you. What do you think of these handles?
They're the originals, made of a coppery metal, and I think they look quite '60s-ish. But I'm not sure about them. To keep, or not to keep?
The beading is going to have to stay - it's stuck on too firmly to get it off without damaging the woodwork too much. So we'll have to work with it.
When we were too tired to do any more, and had reached a natural break in proceedings, (having removed everything that can possibly provide comfort or softness from the van!)we took her back to storage, which is in a very nice barn!
Doesn't she look lovely?! Nice and cosy, until next week, when we start having fun with paint colours ...
On a different note, I have been asked to look after a friend's Facebook business page while she is on holiday. Brenda Gratwicke UK posts lots of interesting pics of houses, rooms and gardens with discussions about design, colour and layout. And she's asked ME to curate her page while she's away! I'm very excited! (And a bit nervous!) It's the first time I've done anything like this, in such a public way.
I'm doing a 'dry run' tomorrow morning, so head on over there and take a look - please be gentle with me! If you'd like to 'like' her page while you're there, that would be great too!
Bye for now!
Mrs M xx
I have to say, I love this van more every time I look at her! Soppy, or what?! She's just so well designed, and comfortable!
I don't know whether you can see it, but whoever made the drop down doors for the wall cupboards wrote which door was which, along with the van serial number, on each door. So above, we have 957 Left and 957 Right! I love the way the cup holders have space for the handles ... I wonder if I will ever find cups to fit?
As you can see, the seat backs are hinged, so that when you are sitting down you can pull the base of the back out for a more comfortable seating position. There is a flap of wood at the base that folds down and rests against the wall to hold it in position. Simple, and effective! These are the most comfortable caravan seats I've ever sat in!
I've got the foam seats and cushions out of her, so that I can measure up and get fabric to re-cover them. We're taking her to storage this afternoon, but will have her back at the weekend - and will be ripping out that carpet!!
Bye for now!
Mrs M x
About time we started this blog! ...
Well! Here we are then. At last! We've been intending to start this blog for, well, years. But never got around to it ... until today, when we bought Roberta.
She's a 1983 Castleton HL Roberta Two Berth, and is about 13 feet long. Isn't she lovely? She needs a bit of TLC to get her looking her best, but she will be a beautiful van when she's been restored.
The original paintwork is a lovely cream, but unfortunately someone has painted over it on the front, back and roof. We think this is because these areas are plastic rather than aluminium, and the paint started to peel off the plastic. So someone painted over it - without removing the original paint first! So the paintwork on the front, back and roof is white rather than cream, and peeling rather badly!
The interior is really well designed, and very good quality, but in a 1980s stylie ...
Dig that orange woodwork - and beading!! It will be coming off, before the drawer fronts and cuboard doors are painted. The curtains have already been taken down and consigned to the bin - a couple of them disintegrated as I took them off the rails!
The worktops are generally in good condition, and are a really nice pattern.
They will be staying! They're lovely!
The bathroom/WC is minging. Really.
Who thought avocado vinyl was good in a small space?? Or, in fact, good at all? The sink is staying, despite the colour - it's a well designed, drop down sink which can hopefully be fixed so that it stays up when the loo is in use! This grey porta-potti style loo is not the original, but it's in good condition so it's staying too - after a jolly good clean!
The WC is a great design - it's tiny, but there are sections on the door and the wall that swing out and clip into place that give you far more space for your ablutions - you basically include the area inside the doorway into the WC space, closing it off from the rest of the van. It's difficult to describe, and I don't have a photo as yet, but it's genius design.
Carpet and curtains. Best 1980s brown. Enough said. The flooring will be replaced with a sturdy vinyl or laminate throughout. Why would anyone want brown shaggy carpet in a tiny caravan?! The bird design on the curtain fabric is cute, and quite trendy at the moment, just not in sludge brown! I *might* try to find a similar design in better colours, as an homage to the van's history.
So, there we have her, in all her faded glory. She's had some issues with damp in the past, which appear to have been fixed, but one front corner inside will need the wall panels replacing. She's been stored outside, and it's rained heavily recently, but she isn't wet at all inside, so it seems the repair worked.
We picked her up from storage and towed her back home - about an hour and 15 minutes drive. She towed really well, and behaved herself beautifully - all the lights worked, the brakes worked, and she even went backwards with no problems!
Hopefully, the next post will show her without the grim carpet. I can't wait to rip that out ...
M&Q x
