The Reason For All This Upheaval

I bought some lagging materials the weekend before last, for the purpose of stuffing the internal framework of the Movano. I settled (as noted elsewhere) on the blown fibre from recycled plastic bottles. It’s non-irritant, doesn’t readily break down (the reason environmentalists hate plastic waste, and you can understand why), doesn’t rot or go mouldy in and of itself (though I reckon if you wet it and seal it, it would be as good a rooting medium as normal Rockwool). It’s lovely to work with, tears easily, and breaks down to what feels like slick, rough, cotton wool. The outside of the bundle has been semi sealed by heat (I think), this makes the outer edge great for being the leading edge when stuffing.

Tools are improvised: The flexible handle of a plastic fish slice, a coat hanger bent to be a double ended hook for pushing and pulling, and the classic long handled wooded spoon for the easy access ram it in bits ... caveat: one mustn’t ram to hard or the insulating properties are destroyed by compaction. It’s  hard work, and I’m gobsmacked by the volume the internal frame can consume. I should also say, if you aren’t prepared to be lacerated, then you should probably not take the job on, and it’s one of those jobs where gloves really do just get in the way.

I initially bought a single 4 meter roll that expands to 200mm thick once unwrapped. I’ve barely stuffed the nearside middle to top struts and the top nearside strut, and half the packs gone. So on the evening of the 5^th of June I’ll be going back to B&Q for another three rolls (whatever’s spare goes to Paul for use in the final fit out, so none is wasted). In amongst all this stuffing I’ve secreted the Silicone desiccant bags I‘ve been saving at work.

As with all these kind of first time jobs, there is a learning curve. You don’t want to ram to hard for fear of creating bents on the outside when you find a soft spot or void in your previously stuffed sections, the hook needs to be used sparingly because you don’t want to scratch off the internal paint and expose the metalwork (n spite of desiccants), and as with every DIY job you ever did it takes three times as long and ten times the materials you originally estimated.

The prep work to get ready for stuffing and sticking insulation materials involved a clean with white spirit to remove grease and dust post respray and thirteen years worth of soot deposits. The next job following the stuffing of the internal frame is lining the internal panels with double skin foil bubble wrap (that’s our main heat reflector and retainer) then Pauls lays on blown fibre under ply, to provide the sound insulation in addition to being a thermal barrier. To ensure breathability within the space between the foil and the external shell I’m going to be using a high temperature spray adhesive (not a high temperature contact adhesive), and I’ll run the adhesive in horizontal lines to ensure air flow throughout the internal space.

On Tuesday 11^th June I’m taking the van back to Garry Lee Panel craft, there is a crack in one of the side windows, and one of the window rubbers has split (this allows a tiny amount of water ingress). I’m not beyond the idea of replacing an entire window (or windows), but it’s very much the last resort. My part of the window re-fit will be re-running the Herzim strip that protects the screw heads, but that’s a way down the line yet.

Once all this is done, it’s ready to go to Paul at Blackdown for final fit, and the date pencilled in is the Friday 14^th of June. This requires a bit of logistical tinkering, because once the van has gone any large items requiring shifting between lockup and anywhere else will require van hire, so Friday and Saturday this week will be lift and shift days ... we also have to fit in Amanda’s and my dad’s birthday tea’s, and (I may have mentioned this elsewhere) site seeing and tomfoolery with Amanda’s sister who has flown in from Cyprus for Amanda’s birthday weekend.

It’s all go go go.

Deep Breath Relax (for a while anyway)

Since I last posted the list of achievements is extensive and the working hours obscene, however as I’m sure I’ve said elsewhere “nearly there”. I won’t list house DIY details other than to say I need to apply some touch up paints here and there in the kitchen diner, where we've dumped into things putting the room back together (ironically). However we are not touching up until I've moved the first wave of excess stuff into storage). I’ve gotten as far as removing most of the pointing from the patio prior to repointing (it’sthe final job before the estate agents are called in on Monday next week) ... we were going to get them in today to start valuations etc, but instead we decided we’d enjoy it as our home for one week and hope that we have a bit of a late summer early Autumn Indian Summer and a buyer steps up asap. 

In the motorhome I sorted and tested the water supplies with mixed results. The cold worked fine, but the hot had dismal pressure. With a little research I found some of the answers and hoped it wouldn’t get too expensive: 

The hot water system is a 9 litre Carver Cascade 2 system, and from the information I gathered; there is a non return valve at the end of the cold feed pipe that gets scaled and jammed. I removed the drain plug (which I broke) and a large amount of solids fell out along with some lime scale slurry. The parts with free delivery come in at a few pennies over £16.00 from http://www.leisureshopdirect.com/caravan who are proving to be an essential port of call for just about everything motor home related.

I made a good intuitive call on making all the T pieces Y pieces as this eases pressure drops and is recommended. I then retested the pump pressure, and flow through the heater cylinder, once it was all seen to be fabulous, and water could be squirted direct from the drain plug eight feet across the verge, I re-assembled the whole kit and caboodle, switched on the gas and tested the heat ... it’s all good.

So that’s it then ... we’re all done in doors, we found a brilliant storage place after much legwork £100 PCM for 160 sqr ft ... as opposed to the last ridiculous quote I got for the same ammount of space at £269 PCM with the first month only costing £0.01p. Now we can start clearing down prior to moving out. And we’ve sorted out our temporary accommodation, for whatever period of time we need to be, between temporary accommodation and setting off on the journey.

There is still a lot to do in terms of planning and finance, but now those tasks will replace the constant DIY, and hopefully I can put together the scraps of knowledge that I’ve picked up about our routes, our mileage, what we want to see, where we want to stay and for how long, and how long we actually plan to stay on the road ... because it’s only sitting here right now that I realise how many snippets I have; as fag packet notes or un-viewed favourites, or our collection of mails to self that we’ve put together and now need collating into real Matter. Deep breath and relax.

Little Steps Big Jobs

This last fortnight has seen a total stop on anything travel related, be that in the immediate future (Jubilee week) or our extended travel plans. All in favour of dealing with the damp works at home. As reported earlier we found a patch of mould in a corner. And upon further investigation I found that damp is extensive. So extensive in fact that the only cure is to excavate the entire floor screed layer and replace it. I estimate 4 to 5 cubic yards of material or about 4 to 5 tonnes. We then have to tank the lower part of the walls, replace the subfloor DPM (Damp Proof Membrane), install sub-floor insulation, re-lay the screed over the insulation (thankfully considerably less that we took out with the addition of insulation), re-plaster and finally redecorate. To say the least a lot of upheaval, expense and back breaking work. And when I say its expensive, that’s expensive with me doing the bulk of the unskilled work. The first quote we got from a professional was for £3300, which is toe curling when you’ve just spent double that refurbishing the motorhome, and particularly galling when you price the materials quoted by the firm for yourself and see that most of the cost is brute force and ignorance labour and mark up… and the firm quoting expects you to get rid of the rubble, or pay extra for them to do it.

It is very easy to be disappointed, it’s very easy to be frustrated and angry, and in fairness these emotions are the usual first response. However with a week or two’s reflection, digging and discovery the mind accommodates the initial stress, faces up to the problem and rationalizes it. Ergo, you would have to fix the damp at home whether you were moving or not, in exactly the same way as we had to fix the motorhome if we were to live in it and continue our adventure. And there is the point: there is a goal beyond all these setbacks, and as long as you don’t lose sight of it, everything else is just part of the story.

We intend to sell this house, and use the equity in part to fund our travel. So the pragmatic way of looking at it is: Speculate to accumulate. We had intended to sell then move into a flat near Leigh on Sea for the rest of the year so we could enjoy the summer, close to one of our favourite local day out spots, and over winter in an area with a windy and wild beach. With the extra expense we have now incurred, we’ve changed tack. Instead of putting ourselves up against a hard target and ramping up the stress, we’ve changed our plans and timescales.

We will spend extra money doing the renovation works at home and make some marketable home improvements and hope that they in turn pay dividends when we come to sell. It’s like everything involved in this enterprise; a bit of a gamble, but I refer you to the blogs name, “It’s later than you think”. If you can’t gamble now before you are too old, then when can you?

Here’s the equation that put us on this path 5x22=110, and here’s how it breaks down. On average you get five weeks annual leave per annum, I have twenty two years left to work, that’s a literal one hundred and ten weeks (but some firms only offer four weeks leave for several years so that number can be a lot less). If you look at those numbers, my remaining life time annual leave entitlement is two years. Now try to imagine using all that leave just for travelling and fitting in all that you want to see without repetition, wasted miles and picking up previous threads. Quite simply you aren’t going to do it, and you’re going to have to contend with changing circumstances and the rigours of age as the twenty odd years progress. And lets not forget, that there is not a year goes by when outrageous fortune steals those hard earned days of annual leave from you… a good example being next week, we planned a week in Southwold Suffolk, testing out the re-fit, exploring somewhere new, and being far from the madding crowd. Instead we’re going to be carting five tonnes of rubble in bags to our local dump, and dealing with the other tasks listed above in preparation for an autumn house sale. When you look at it like that, sticking two fingers up to the rat race, taking your money and running for two years is clearly the most sensible, dare I say logical conclusion.

Getting Ready: The Tangents.

When eventually we leave the safety of home and home comforts, other than the Aluminium and polystyrene walls of the habitation unit of our motorhome, we intend where possible, legal and fun to try and forage for ourselves, both on the flora and fauna of our land and sea. And now without the flowery language; a bit of fishing, shooting and picking of herbs etc. In part this will help to save some pennies, (though we would hope never to be that poor), and of course it brings you a little closer to the land and sea you’re exploring, and adds extra dimensions to the overall adventure.

To this end, a week or so back we bought some very basic fishing rods and reels (from these people http://www.tacklebargains.co.uk ) and went out to practice the art of salt water fishing down near where we live on the tidal Thames at Tilbury. Now many years ago I did fish the inland waterways near home, and experienced most of my first forays into camping and sleeping outdoors in that environment. Amanda on the other hand has never fished with rod and line. So guess who blanked and who caught? That’s right on Amanda’s second cast she came up with a small Flounder http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flounder, I was very pleased for her for the reason regaled below.

I remember being invited to go fishing once a week by a fella who lived up the road from us, my mum had said I wanted to go fishing, and as he was an Angler, he volunteered for the task. Then once a week for the next four weeks or so we sat at the same spot and didn’t catch a thing. Frankly I was losing the will to live and the desire to fish. Then one evening (usually a Wednesday as I remember) I caught my first fish; a Roach,  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Roach . And from that moment on I was hooked. However until that moment I was just about sick to the back teeth of sitting by the Lea Canal at the junction of the Hertford Union canal in Stratford catching nothing. Eventually the fella (Phil) if I remember correctly moved away, but by that time I had got all my own gear and fished for several years with a group of mates. Once we all left school our group broke up and, I took up hobbies like SCUBA diving, walking and more serious trekking and a bit of air rifle hunting (more about this later).

Since then fishing hasn’t really been on my agenda; but many is the time in the last four years since I moved to Tilbury that I’ve cycled past the guys that fish down by Tilbury Fort, and thought “I fancy some of that”. And so it would appear that in the making of our trip plan, I have fulfilled a side ambition, and introduced Amanda to the joys of tangles, lost fish, tall stories, and slimy cold things that won’t stay still while you try to take hooks from their mouths.

Given the relative success of our first trip, we went out again last Friday morning the 6^th of April, on the rising tide and bagged ourselves four Whiting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merlangius_merlangus before cycling home as the tide started its ebb and the clouds started to fill the sky; up until that point we had been facing into bright sunshine for the best part of three hours, and we both caught fish. All things being equal a very good morning. And then home to start on the serious Easter jobs at home to get the house ready for sale or rent (we still haven’t decided, and it will depend on the market later this year).

The point of this post? Well I think it’s about a coming together of many strands of life, as the plan firms up. As things start slowly to gel together and the idea feels more and more like something concrete as opposed to a pipe dream, you suddenly find that things you have paid no heed to for decades, were stored like savings earning interest in your deep long-term memory. Things like how to tie a hook, that once upon a time drove you mad with frustration, or how to disgorge a hook, and even how to fillet a Whiting; which I learnt from an ex girlfriends dad on the only other occasion in my life that I had fished from the beach. I say beach, I mean the sea wall towards Jaywick East of Frinton in Essex, but even that memory of filleting your own fish and how to do it stuck. At an appropriate time, those memories bubble to the surface imbuing one with confidence. Maybe this post as with others is also about confidence, and finding those reserves you’ve subconsciously stored away for yourself. Anyway enough for now, fishing is back on the agenda. Things are coming together, and for that I am glad.

March Marches Past

So here we are a best part of a month since the last post. So what’s been happening?

Well our 21 year old motorhomes leak proved too difficult to fix roadside, primarily because in removing the internal structures to get to the rot, would have compromised Structural integrity. I could have done the work in two halves, however this would have brought with it, its own set of unique problems. And again these problems revolved around stability of the habitations external skin and potential for mis-alignment. I couldn’t find a unit for rent to take the motorhome off roadside to do the work myself. This would have sorted out all the issues. I could have taken a fortnight off to kill the core repair job, and then spent the following weekends and evenings doing the internal re-fit, but finding a unit without a long minimum lease was impossible. Which given the state of the economy, the number of sizable empty units nearby and the fact that I was a cash payer willing to pay whatever insurance was required seems daft. I could write an entire post about the stupidity of small industrial estate owner’s agents and their odd belief, that what I was actually looking for was a retail unit in the centre of town, a 120000ft warehouse with offices and a price tag of £29000 per annum etc. However why waste time?

So having spent several weeks chasing false leads and getting nowhere I eventually decided that spending the money we were thinking of spending on a unit and doing the repairs ourselves would be better spent on an expert fitter or re-fitter and getting the job done properly.

In between times I stripped out everything I could to create a bare shell, in the hope that something would turn up eventually but in the end, I went back to No1Gear http://www.no1gear.com and asked Mike Chubb (No1gear’s owner) if he could recommend someone. He passed our details and to Black down conversions,

http://www.blackdownconversions.co.uk and after the exchange of photos to assess the damage, and the viability of repair and refurbishment; I drove the motor home to Devon on Thursday 22^nd of March and entrusted it’s care to Paul Studley and his wife, who can sort out not only the repair but also the re-fit of the kitchen, wet room, and all the upholstery.

There isn’t much more to say right now. Back ground preparations are taking place: Things like insurances for living full time in a motorhome, routes round the country, finances for stopovers etc. And as things that matter get more body so posts will hopefully be more frequent and full.