Our wallets might be light but hard work pays off.
The end of our campervan creation was in sight. The fiddliest element was complete and the "lets decorate" part wasn't far away. Each part that we managed to complete was a victory, no matter how wonky or ill-fitting. In the way though was the Roadworthy, one of the bigger milestones in our camper reinvention and by far the biggest hit to our budget. We needed him fixed so we begrudgingly parted with $85 to purchase yet another unregistered vehicle permit and made our way to the auto centre. As the list of repairs was pretty extensive, we weren't expecting to see him again for a few days but out of the blue, at 10am the following morning, we received the text. He was done. It was an exciting moment: he was fit to drive the many kilometres that we would eat up on our impending road trip and we could register him so that he was legal. This excitement had, however, made us impatient and lazy. Knowing that the garage and transport office were in opposite directions, we booked an Uber taxi to collect our Roadworthy certificate. It was a satisfying sight to see so many pass ticks. With our debt settled and the improving exchange rate thanked, we got into our returning taxi, having to leave our poor van behind as there was absolutely no way we were dishing out any more money for permits.
We had spent many days scratching our heads to attempt to work out how on earth we were ever going to get the van registered; the actual process seemed fairly simple in the end. The application and RWC were handed over and, after some checking of documents and rattling of keyboards, the chap at the desk disappeared. On his return, he had brought a shiny pair of number plates. It was what we had waited for. A week later than planned and our stresses and frustration could finally be set free. We could drive. Legally.
The walk back to the garage felt much shorter than the first time and far sweeter. We screwed in the plates, sighed with relief and set off. He felt like a different van. With his turbo fixed, he was much more powerful uphill and his steering was far more responsive. With a full bill of health, we just needed to kit him out.
If we'd bought a fully complete van, we'd probably have shrugged off our keenness to put our stamp on it due to the sheer effort needed. In the end, we were thankful that ours came minimalistic- we could really make him what we wanted. Our inspiration came from many sources, predominantly Pinterest, Instagram and Gumtree. Pinterest and Instagram were havens of beautiful vans, clad in reclaimed woods, fancy bunting, and soothing filters. They felt like the Hilton of campers: completely out of our budget, not something we should really try as novices but contained ideas that we could attempt to replicate. In comparison, Gumtree campers were far more like 2* motel accommodation choices: they offered the "real" camper experience, somewhat scruffy and unkempt but ultimately came with ideas within our measly price range. In all honesty, we tried really hard to make ours somewhere in the middle. The biggest thing for us was to attempt to make him look tidy- although that being said, we hadn't yet got going, so who knows what state it will be in months down the line. We liked being fussy with bedding choices and colour choices but we tried to still be practical. With that in mind, we bought a safe. I'd heard the horror stories of vans being broken into and prized possessions being stolen and didn't quite fancy that. To hide it away in the woodwork, we installed what turned out to be the most annoying-to-fit hidden door in the world. Irrespective of this unwanted characteristic, it is, in my opinion, genius. On a glance or even a good look, you'd barely know it concealed anything. It was just a shame that it took hours upon hours to get the bloody thing to fit and open without catching on the frame.
Everything we needed to do to the frame was complete. I no longer needed to fold myself in half, at risk of smacking my head, and that was great. With the installation of chipboards in place, the hard graft was over. It was by no means easy but it was wonderful to witness the ideas in our heads come to life. We decided it was the perfect opportunity to put in the mattress. Rolled hideously tightly in 5 layers of plastic, we didn't really have anywhere clean enough to open it up so we hauled it into the van. This was a great idea- we wouldn't even need to move it once it was out. But layer after layer, it became less of a great idea. The mattress began to swell and creak, expanding with each released roll of plastic. Kjel had to evacuate the van, fearing being smacked in the face by the ever increasingly uncontrollable growth. I tried my best to cuddle it to stop it from flicking wildly but it was too late. It had unravelled itself enough to release itself from the last layer of wrapping and I can only describe what happened next as being akin to being swept out to sea on a mattress surfboard, the only thing from stopping me from being hurtled out of the back of the van was Kjel, stood at the end, bracing himself for impact. Whilst, pretty damn funny at the time, I can't say that I fancy repeating it anytime soon.
It was all coming together swimmingly. Probably better than I could have ever hoped given our lack of experience and limited resources and funds. We'd saved some of the board to use as a kitchen/bedroom divider and once the mattress was in, we layered on the paint and added brackets to keep it upright. We attached a mozzy net to the holes around the van and had Dan start to re-rivet the roof rack (it transpired that I probably could have fallen quite spectacularly washing the roof as it was held on by barely more than a handful of working fixtures, but we'll just forget about that quickly!).
The rest of the blog mainly derives of the interior decoration, which while beautiful in looks, doesn't really make for interesting reading. Key points to note would be:
Our solar lights look super cute.
Whilst mainly keeping with the grey theme, we love our yellow crate additions (they will become our floordrobe).The fold-up colander (what a masterpiece in creativity and engineering).
Our colour-coordinated cushions- in particular, the pineapple one. It's magnificent (I've never wanted so many cushions before).
Our ingenious unit prop. We wanted a leg or two to help support our long unit when it is fully extended out of the van. All the table legs in Bunnings were either just too tall or way too short. We decided to purchase a cheap camera tripod, which while useful when I start actually using my camera again, makes for an excellent prop for all height conditions. (Apologies for the lack of photo- it rained pretty much every day that we attempted to take one).
Our rear curtains. Many things pained us during this process but trying to figure out how to make our van private was possibly one of the tougher nuts to crack. We were advised to see a lady in Wynnum who was known to be a dab hand with a sewing machine and $30 later, we had a beautiful set of grey curtains, made to measure.
Our large unit restraints. We built our bed frame on a slope. This was not the right thing to do. As a result, the large unit has a tendency to move when climbing hills. Using my sailor-y rope skills, 4 round-head screws, two pieces of decorative ropey stuff left behind by the previous owners and 1 lighter later, two discreet loop restraints now keep it firmly in place.
The kitchen wall. We have tried, where possible, to maximise the space we have. After several hundred internet searches, we found the best way to use the headboard and keep our utensils from crashing around- car magazine holders! Whilst a bloody nightmare to attach, the bungee keeps everything in place a treat.
Our "Need for Speed"-esque tinted side window. We gave up trying to find a curtain or blind solution for our sliding door window so getting it tinted makes it 500% harder for people to see in and the early morning sun won't blind us.
During the whole process, we struggled to find a name that we liked enough to stick. We had decided early on that he was a boy. He came with a glorious moustache and while that didn't necessarily stop him from being a girl, we felt like he had that manly charm about him. Here are a few of our lengthy list of suggestions:
Alfred, Archibald, Berty, Brian, Bruce, Bruno, Carlton, Charles, Crouching Tiger (not my suggestion), Diego, Dwayne, Eduardo, El Capitan (again, not my suggestion), Fernando, Flaming Dragon, Henry, Horatio, Hugo, Jermaine, José, Leonardo, Luigi, Manuel, Marty, Percival, Professor X (...), Reginald, Rex, Roger, Terrance, Theodore, Tony, Winston.
Like I said, the list was long. In the end, we named him Stanley. We felt like it suited as after all the drama we had with our shoddy Performer appliances, in particular our hacksaw, we bought a Stanley one that worked like a boss and we certainly wouldn't have completed our van without it (lucky we bought the Stanley one as he could have ended up as Trojan!).
So after nearly 4 weeks, our camper is complete and it is, and will probably remain as, one of our greatest achievements together. It had been fraught, excruciating and terribly imperfect yet hysterical and so much fun. In our eyes, he is the fanciest van going and somehow, against all odds and our excruciatingly limited range of skills (secondary school woodwork at best), he functions exactly how we wanted. My initial plans for him seemed a little far fetched all of those weeks ago but here we are, standing before a van that actually is very similar. At times I've wondered if we were doing the right thing: it didn't have all the luxuries in the world but we did try where we could and with him pristine, I couldn't help but wonder if our road trip experience would be as authentic as it should- would it be too easy? But then I remembered that we don't have a shower installed, so no amount of comfy bedding or cute lighting will replace the fact that we will undoubtedly have long periods of time where we stink and look like sh*t, and that seems pretty authentic to me. All we've done is make Stanley our home away from home.
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