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Van Day 1
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…
Cheeky lambs
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Once in a Lifetime
I’m afraid there’s only one thing I can start with, though it’s not DIY related. When I heard solar flares meant we would have the best showing of the aurora in a decade I decided to poke my head out the door, but I didn’t think I’d see anything. We’re very lucky to live in a dark sky area, meaning we didn’t have to drive anywhere to enjoy the lights. It was amazing, though not as bright as it looks in the pictures. It started with a haze of green, which slowly formed into a wide band across the sky. In time a pink starburst settled in the center, with a bow of pink and green heading out from it. Simply amazing.
But the week wasn’t all staring at the sky in awe. One tedious job was filling the gap around the windows inside with expanding foam, cutting it back, filling and sanding it. The bottom didn’t need filling as the windowsills will hide it, and Chris told me not to do the tops for now… Only to turn around and ask why I hadn’t done the tops….
Outside, with the scaffolding taken down, the remaining first floor windows are too high for me to fill even on the ladder, so that’s Chris’s job. Instead I filled around the double door.
In the spare bedroom Chris cut out a hole in the new cupboard, so we could thread the ventilation pipe through.
Outside I put together a flat packed rose arch. It’s a fairly flimsy frame, but all the more robust options were several hundred pounds. In time the two climbing roses we’ve planted should climb up and over, knitting together and making it more solid.
Another rosey job was to tie down the climbing roses that are a remenant from an historic garden. These rambling flowers seemed to just grow straight up into the air last year, whereas I’d like them to cascade over the front wall, which will require continuously tying them down. While they’ve only just started growing I’m tying down what I can and will keep adding more and more throughout the summer.
The side garden has been full of rubbish from hedging and piles of wood in need of sorting. We started having a tidy, taking five bulk bags to the recycling center. Chris then sorted through the wood so we now know what’s being kept and what needs to go. Chris has made a neat pile ready for building the frame of his shed, while another pile is set to be kindling once we have fires. Only a small amount needs to make it’s way to the recycling center.
I started building a small single stone wall along the edge of the garden. Though much smaller than the walls I built in the front garden it’s slow progress as the stone aren’t as easy to get hold of – mostly buried in the garden. This will form the edge of the patio in time, and with a little work we can plant flowerbeds above them.
We’ve had a fair few animal visitors lately, from lambs wandering into the garden to bees turning up in the house. Asking my bee expert friend, it turns out they are chocolate mining bees, solitary bees that have probably made their home in the walls and are now hatching in the spring sun and emerging into the house. Completely harmless and great pollinators.
One of my favourite returning guests are the swallows, that like to perch on the telephone wire outside the front of the house. At some point I’d like to put up some nests for them around the house to encourage them to move in, but for now they come and go as they please.
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Two Years On
This Sunday marked 2 years since we got the keys for our new house, and 10 months since we moved in. We had hoped to have finished the inside by the 2 year mark, but everyone that’s ever watched Grand Designs will know you never make your deadlines.
We started the week with some boring tidying jobs, including filling, sanding and painting the coving on the landing, and applying a second coat to the skirting and architrave.
Chris added the final bit of plasterboard on the staircase and filled the joins and screw holes.
More excitingly, Chris took a day off work to help his brother take up some garden paving slabs. The slabs are being replaced with something more modern, and the owner told Rich simply to chuck the old ones out. But instead they are coming to us to become our patios.
In the garden, I rebuilt another section of wall. I was quite pleased that I managed to lever in a particularly large stone to form part of the wall.
While moving rocks I found a cute little newt. Sadly our container pond is probably too inaccessible for them to breed in the garden, but nice to see they’re around.
The big job of the Bank Holiday weekend was installing our new wooden windows and our double doors. Carrying the windows inside during delivery, we realised we couldn’t fit the doorway in to keep it out of the wet weather. We therefore decided to spend the evening installing the door.
Unfortunately, a key piece of machinery broke, meaning we spent the night with a big hole in the side of the building, till we could borrow an SDS drill from our neighbours the next day.
Overall, it’s great to get the new door in place, but I am sad we had to lose the side lights from the frame design. Because modern frames are much thicker, the side lights would have been significantly thinner, and we thought it would look strange.
We got four windows in on day 1 of the weekend. We decided the start with the easier windows, those on the first floor and those without the need of concrete lintels.
I’d been a little worried about lifting the heavier frames into place, but everything went fairly smoothly. Apart from the moment where I accidently lent back onto the nozzle of a expandy foam canister, and insulated my hair into one amalgamated mass.
On day two we installed the two more tricky windows, the two larger windows needing concrete lintels installed above them. Amazingly, we managed to get the first window in with Chris on a ladder and me in the room.
For the second, heavier window, we didn’t think the ladder was a safe option, so we put up the scaffolding. It was lucky we did, as this was the first window that nearly didn’t go in, the frame was so tight to the opening. With some chipping away at the stone, and a lot of straining, it finally slotted into place. And no one died.
On our final day, we ferried the old windows to the recycling center, and started filling around the windows on the outside. We’ve still got a few to do but the majority are done and looking good. The one downside of having such fancy looking windows now is that our front door looks significantly worse. However, a little sanding and a coat of paint and it should look good as new.
After contacting a lot of people on Facebook marketplace, I finally managed to find a wardrobe small enough the fit below the sloping roof in the spare bedroom. The wardrobe will have a duel purpose, as we’re going to cut a hole in the bottom and thread the ventilation pipe through, serving the box in the piping.
In the garden the invasive species are returning after their winter slumber. The Spanish bluebells are looking deceptively beautiful, and the Japanese knotweed has reared it’s head. The knotweed is significantly smaller than previous years, and we’ll just have to treat it again in the autumn. The bluebells are more of a pain, as they’ll have to be dug out. Perhaps not a job for this spring.
The final bit of excitement this week was the arrival of our van. An unassuming used work van, we’re planning to transform it into a campervan. I had my first go at driving the monster to collect the wardrobe, and it reminded me how terrible I am at reversing big vehicles. Still practice makes perfect…
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A Little Sunshine
You’d think I’d be bored of building drystone walls, but if anything I wish we had more to build. When the new fence went in our neighbour’s gardener, who put in the fence, piled up some stones along the boundary to cover the gap at the base. We didn’t want a full wall here, as we have the fence, but I tidied things up by building a very small wall to fill the gap.
Our neighbour had kindly said we could come and take some cuttings from her garden for wall loving plants. Returning with an armful of greenery I split them out and planted some directly in the wall, and potted some up in a seed tray in case they didn’t survive their first summer in the wall. Idris, of course, spotted the newly planted seed tray and decided it seemed a comfy bed… Hopefully some of the plants survive and start to clamber over the wall, adding some colour and additional stability.
For a ‘quick’ evening job, I started to fill round some of the new windows at the back of the house. I’d previously done the two kitchen windows because they were letting in water, but the rest had fallen to the bottom of the list. With two more filled, there’s just two more to go… Until we install the new new windows at the front of the house that is.
I’d been wanting to put in the kickboards for ages, largely because Idris’s fur accumulates under the cupboards. Mostly the process went fairly smoothly, aside from the longest strip on the wall cupboards. These cupboards weren’t removed when we sanded the floor, meaning the floor directly in front of them is a little more lumpy, where we had to go around the legs. Not an issue in general, until you have to cut a kickboard to fit snuggly beneath them.
I was pleased with the curved corner pieces that went along with the kickboard, as they give the cupboards a gentler feel.
Chris’s big job was installing the stable door, which wasn’t particularly straightforward, given the doorway is very wobbly.
I’d wanted a stable door so I can open the top on sunny days and let in the breeze, but it had been Chris who wanted the windows. As the kitchen is already so light I didn’t think we needed to extra glass, but it does actually brighten up a relatively dark corner.
Once installed, Chris had to head off so I finished up by putting in the glazing and giving the external side it’s first coat of yellow paint.
The sunshine this week has made it easy to get a few outside jobs done. One job Chris keeps reminding me of is weeding, which is pretty low down on exciting activities, but perhaps a bit more sunshine will tempt me outside with a trowel… Unless I can find somewhere else to build a wall…
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Moving stones
This week I’ve been mostly moving stones around. I was pretty pleased with how the first wall came together. I’ve only done drystone walling once before, right back when I was a trainee, so I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to make anything particularly solid. We didn’t want huge walls, just something to define the garden boundaries, so luckily I didn’t have to go too high.
Drystone walls are usually capped with larger stones on top to stablise them, but instead we want to grow alpine plants on top, the roots of which should also hold the walls together, so I added a good bit of soil too.
With my first wall completed I moved on to the wall beside the path. Here part of the old wall was still standing at the base, so I removed the loose rock and built up from what remained. It was very pleasing to see a solitary bee, possibly a red mason bee, checking out the wall as a potential nesting spot even as it was being built.
And finally I cleared the soil off the old garden path. This would once have been the path to the front door, when there’d been two houses, but it has long since been covered over. Chris couldn’t see the point of a path to nowhere, but I like the history and think it’s nice to be able to wonder down through the plants.
We need to go shopping for suitable plants for the wall but first I raided our potted plants, many of which have self-seeded plants growing around them. From these ‘weeds’ I got some strawberries, violets, mullein, geranium and oxeye daisies to start the planting. I even got enough young oxeye daisies to scatter them throughout the meadow area.
There’s a few more walls to go but the garden is starting to look a little less chaotic.
In the side garden Chris found a spot for our cherry and plum trees, their terracotta pots having broken apart in the frost.
Chris has been itching to start building a shed in the garden, however he noticed some badger holes where he wanted to build it. Badger dens can be abandoned or rarely used, but we obviously didn’t want to cover them up if they were active, so he set out a trail camera. The good news is we definitely have badgers, which is exciting. They don’t seem to be using the dens much, so they’re probably temporary dens they use now and then. To avoid any damage to them however we’re moving the location of the shed and hopefully we can co-exist peacefully.
For more conventional, and boring, DIY Chris added another coat to the stairs ceiling and another section of plasterboard to the back before filling the gaps and holes. Unfortunately, once the last piece of board is added we won’t be able to balance the scaffolding planks across the top of the stairs, making it harder to reach the high ceiling and walls.
His final job was to add a splashback to the bathroom sink, a job that’s needed doing for a while.
With the sun shining and the birds singing, I mostly want to spend my time in the garden, but there’s lots of to do inside still, so perhaps next week I get back to sanding filler… Perhaps.
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Puzzled
Filling, sanding and painting skirting is very boring, so I thought I’d take a break from this mind-numbing task to do something completely non-urgent, but more satisfying and fun.
We have a number of piles of rocks in the garden, which need to be rebuilt into drystone walls. Drystone walls are better for wildlife than building walls with concrete mortar, both because concrete has a big carbon footprint, and because leaving out the mortar creates lots of nooks and crannies for things to live.
However, because there’s no mortar to hold the stones together it’s important to build the wall using a certain technique so it remains stable. It’s like building a giant jigsaw puzzle, trying to find the right stone to fit the space. Although the section I’ve built so far may seem small, it’s taken me a few evenings already. With lighter evenings I’m hoping to keep going a little at a time until it’s done.
Inside the house I finally got round to cleaning the stone on the kitchen wall, tidying the edges and coating the area with three layers of stone protector.
Meanwhile, Chris plastered the remaining wall on the stairs, and added a watery coat of paint. On the ceiling he added the architrave and a fresh coat of paint. Next the architrave will need filling and the whole thing repainting.
On the landing I installed the remaining architrave.
And in the kitchen I added more skirting, though some of it can’t be attached till we know what we’re doing with the fireplace.
Along the base of the stone wall in the kitchen we’d initially planned to install skirting, so I hadn’t plastered all the way to the floor. However we realised the wall was so bumpy,skirting might not be practical, so instead I filled in the gap with plaster.
As usual I overfilled my bucket, so instead of wasting it I plastered a small section of the downstairs toilet wall.
Out in the garden some of the tulips I planted are starting to flower. With the amount of bare ground the garden still doesn’t look very exciting, but at least things are starting to grow. I also finally put our bird box outside, ready for nesting season. I felt bad hammering it on to a tree, so it’s just wedged in the crook of two branches. The 50mph winds yesterday didn’t dislodge it so hopeful that’s that job done, and maybe some birds will make themselves at home.
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Making space
With spring around the corner, I headed to my first volunteer day at the community garden, while Chris tried to tick off a big list of jobs.
Firstly he put some finishing touches on the ventilation system, cutting down and connecting up the pipe in the spare bedroom, and cutting down the black tubes protruding from the ceiling in the bathroom and bedroom to attach the inlet and outlet caps. Sadly it wasn’t possible to put the pipe in the spare bedroom as close to the wall as we hoped, so rather than just boxing it in we may build a small cupboard around it to better use the space.
Next he cleaned and sealed the slate in front of the fireplace, and painted the surround with black metal paint. Long-term we will put in a log burner, but for now this tidys it up.
While most of the worktop is in place, there’s one final awkward corner to do. Chris spent time cutting the back to fit, so now just the front needs shaping.
His final job was to clear the rest of the bramble from the back fence.
I spent several evenings filling, sanding, caulking, and finally painting, the the skirting and architrave in the spare bedroom.
Our big job on the Sunday was to finally finish off widening the drive. Although we already moved most of the soil banked up beside the drive, Chris was keen to try and flatten it as much as possible now one of our neighbours had lent us a mini digger. Chris used the digger to fill a wheelbarrow and I huffed back and forth to the pile of soil in our back garden.
With the drive widened, we had planned to drive the digger up the steps, using scaffold boards, to flatten the piles of soil in the back garden, but it was too heavy for the boards. Our neighbour says he has a ramp we can have a go with next time.
My one complaint with the wider drive is that the cars take up more of the view looking out from the window. I’m wondering if some strategic planting could help hide them a little.
In between moving barrow-loads of soil, I had a go at clearing a small section of the front garden to sow some of the packets of wildflower seeds I got for Christmas. The patch of ground was largely taken over by saplings, ivy and bluebells. While we want to keep bluebells in the garden, most of them are hybrid Spain ish bluebells, rather than our native species, long-term I’m hoping to dig out any non-native plants and just leave the native ones, but for now I’m hoping digging over the bed a little will give the native wildflowers a chance to grow, and then the bluebells will pop up in between.
Chris’s final job of the weekend was to take down a small dead ash tree. There’s a few more trees he’d like to remove, but he felt this was the most urgent. While he was busy Idris decided he might have a go at digger driving. He’s a natural.
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Ready
It was a couple of late nights finishing things off before our visitor.
One of the jobs I had it in my head I wanted to finish off was finishing the skirting and architrave in the landing. Completely non-essential but I just wanted to get it done. After more filling and sanding I was able to get a first coat on. It’s nice to see the landing looking more like a liveable space.
Next we focused on the bedroom, sanding and painting the new plaster, and getting most of the skirting and architrave on. Sadly there wasn’t time to fit, sand and paint the woodwork. Finally we tried to empty most of the DIY leftovers from the room, pieces of plasterboard, a spare door and other miscellaneous objects. This has filled up the office, but in time these bits will be used or sold. Some boxes had to remain, as for now there’s nowhere else to put them.
Excitingly the window company, who are making our wooden windows, came to check the measurements for the six windows, the double glass doors, and to measure the stairs for a replacement set. The windows should arrive the end of April, hopefully meaning we can take advantage of the bank holiday weekend to get them in.
While we won’t order the stairs till we’ve finished plastering, we needed a temporary banister to help my nan up and down the stairs. Chris salvaged an old rafter to sand down and install, which also gives us an idea what the stairs will look like with a banister. Sadly the expert said the new stairs won’t be much wider than the old ones, which seems a waste, but building control doesn’t have much room for bespoke designs.
We found a ‘new’ sofa for the lounge, with someone local throwing one out for free. It’s a nice sofa, but needs a clean. However the fabric is a silk mix and professional cleaners won’t touch it, saying it needs dry cleaning, yet the label says don’t dry clean. We’re at a loss as to how to clean it, and even the manufacturers said they didn’t know when we contacted them. We might just need to trial a few things.
Chris also got a mirror at auction. It’s very nice, but in need of some repairs. He wanted it to bring more light into our dark lounge.
Finally, I shifted the last of the soil alongside the drive. With this gone we’ve had a kind offer of a mini-digger from one of our neighbours, so we can flatten out the drive and the garden where the spoil’s been spread.
With our visitor having come and gone without breaking her neck on our building site of a house, we’ve now got two weeks till the next visitors arrive. I’m hoping that gives us time to get the last few bedroom pieces finished, though the nice weather is starting to draw me more out into the garden.
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Edgy
With this being the last weekend before my nan comes to stay with us, we were pushing on trying to get things ready for her visit.
The main priority was to get the spare room finished. One fiddly job was putting up the wooden boards to cover the gaps in the ceiling. Once up they needed fill, sanding, and a final coat of paint.
The fourth wall was now ready to be plastered, so Chris got to work putting on a couple of coats. This will hopefully be dry enough to sand and paint before our visitor arrives.
On the landing we spent some time getting the arcitrave and skirting, before filling the gaps. Like the plaster, this now needs time to dry before sanding and painting.
While I worked on the landing, Chris started on the skirting in the bedroom, however the skirting can’t be attached to the new plaster just yet.
To add a little privacy to the spare room Chris cut down and hung one of our spare doors.
On the landing, and downstairs in the kitchen, we plugged some awkward gaps with expanding foam before cutting it back and using filler to smooth over the surface.
There’s still a few jobs left to do before my nan can have a comfortable stay, but with a few evenings left to get on with things we should make our deadline.
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Hedge laying
With a weekend away planned, I tried to get a few small jobs done in the evenings.
I filled, sanded and painted the third wall in the spare bedroom.
On the landing I filled, sanded, and painted the gappy ceiling boards.
I painted the landing with our newly chosen pale yellow. It fits in nicely with the white stonewall, but brightens quite a dark landing space.
Our stable door for our kitchen entrance arrived, so I primed all the various bits and pieces.
And finally I put on the last few bits of board and insulation on the fourth wall in the bedroom. Having added board tape and painting it with PVA, it’s now ready to plaster.
While Chris headed to watch the rugby with his friends, I headed to my parents with a few crafting bits I wanted to get done. The first was a curtain that we’d brought second-hand. While listed as a pair of curtains, when it arrived it was one huge curtain instead. Rather than return it I ask my mum to help guide me through cutting it down to size and creating a pair. Once home I was able to put up our new curtain pole and hang them in place.
My other job was to repair the £20 tiffany-style lampshade I’d bought. Mum, already an experienced stain glasser, showed me how to fix the gap. First, we removed the broken glass, and the lead around the opening. Next we had to cut some new pieces of glass to size and shape.
Once ready, each piece of glass was coated around its edge in a copper foil. The pieces were then soldered into place. It’s not a flawless repair, but enough that the lampshade can retain its purpose, and hopefully soon be hung up in our kitchen/diner.
On our return from our rest, a big job greeted us. We’d wanted to lay the hedge this year, and ideally this needed to be done before the plants went into leaf. With some leaf buds already starting to open we decided it was now or never.
It took two days to lay the hedge, the first of which was freezing cold, snow falling down around us. Hedge laying involves cutting through the majority of the base of the tree and laying it down across its neighbours, using steaks at intervals to keep everything in place. This encourages the hedge to grow nice and thick, extending the life of the hedge trees and making a better home for birds and other wildlife.
The second day was lovely and sunny, much easier to work in. We had a bit of a challenge laying across where the ground had sunk from the sinkhole, but overall the laying went well.
Around a third of the hedge is made up of lilac, which isn’t a plant I’ve ever heard anyone laying, so it might not do as well as the rest. All we can do is wait and see.
The only section remaining to lay is along the side of the parking space, however the plants are so thin and weedy here we’ll coppice them instead (cut them down to the ground, encouraging new growth), and plant new saplings around them. It will then be five or more years before that section can be laid.
It was a tough job, and both of us are aching at the end of it, but well worth the hassle. The hedge won’t need to be relaid for a good decade or more, and in the meantime it should become stronger and healthier.
I’m excited for more jobs in the garden, already the tulip leaves are coming up in groups, and even the winter aconites are starting to appear. It’ll be nice to have a little more colour surrounding us when the summer comes.
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