It’s certainly not a sensible thing to do, starting a van conversion when you still haven’t finished your house restoration, but this is exactly what we’re doing. In part we’re switching jobs because the IVF treatment starts in July so it’s possible next year we’ll be too busy with a baby to convert a van. In the house, jobs are slowly getting smaller and more managable, something one person can do while the other one looks after a baby. It may be faulty logic but it’s the route we are now taking.

Chris had already spent an evening playing round with the van electrics and had successfully turned off the faulty handbreak off alert, got the wing mirrors and window electrics working, and uplocked the radio. So far so good.

Inside we now stripped out all the plastic lining the walls, and emptied to rubbish left behind by the previous owners.

Next we unscrewed the bulkhead, which was lighter than expected. I then gave everything a good washdown and a sweep.

Our first big job was to cut the holes for the windows. I was pretty worried about this, both incase we cut the wrong bit, and in terms of how hard it would be to cut through the metal. However the jigsaw actually made easy work of the metal cutting. The only issue was that the shape we needed to follow was marked on the inside of the van and we needed to cut from the outside. To get round this we drilled holes through from the inside to show where to go.

Once cut we applied a primer to the cut edge and some sealant, before pressing on the window trim. The most difficult bit was the thick black glue that needed to be squeezed out around the opening to attach the window. Chris struggled so much to get it out of the tube I had to guide the nozzle so he could use both hands. After applying some primer to the edge of the windows they now just had to be stuck on.

Next we tackled the side window, which followed exactly the same process.

I was pleased to have gotten this stage out of the way, as it was the bit I was most worried about.

With the bulkhead gone and the windows in, the inside of the van is wonderfully bright.

Outside Chris sanded down any rusty areas and applied new primer and paint. He wasn’t particularly pleased with the colour match, despite it being exactly the right shade, but longterm we’ll probably cover it up with some decoration.

The next step will be to insulate and board, before starting on the electrics and water.

With vanlife beginning I didn’t want work on the house to completely stop, so I’ve been trying to get some smaller jobs done in the evenings. One fiddly job was to insulate around the lintels above the upstairs windows and add a final wooden board to cover the gap.

It’s one of those annoying little jobs that no one will ever notice you’ve done but will be very obvious if left unfinished. I now need to fill, sand and paint before it’s truly ticked off the list.

Another little job I tackled was sanding and priming our front door before adding the yellow paint. The bottom of the frame was rotten so I had to apply hardener to that, meaning I couldn’t paint it. The yellow will need a few more coats before it’s completely covering the primer, but already I think it cheers up the house.

It’s exciting to be starting on the van, but with our first van trip booked for August there’s a bit of pressure to get it done. Still nothing like piling things on to help pick up the pace…