The Ceilings Alive With Silver
WOW! What a busy and productive week we’ve had, good progress at a steady pace!
Like a Disco Ball
We started the week by working on the ceiling, it was tough work for me, my shoulder does not like anything where the arm goes above the head and standing and holding pieces of insulation and slotting them in just right is a killer! Ben did an excellent and speedy job at cutting the panels whilst I set up the stick pins ready to receive. We tore through it all really fast getting it done in just one morning.
We left two panels un-insulated for now, the one closest to the bulkhead and the one just next to it where we’d planned to put the fan that we have yet to install. I bought the fan a little while ago with a very kind donation from my family and we have been waiting for a dry and non windy day to make a start. The weather, however, seems to have other ideas and seems to be either dry and windy or wet and windy, we remain hopeful that we’ll get a chance soon, we are also parked on quite a steep hill and would prefer to fit the fan on flat ground away from the roadside.
With an idea of where the fan might go we decided to do some measuring for the solar just to double confirm. Ben had done most of the research on the solar setup whilst I had done the research on the fan. Combining our knowledge we realized that the nice little spot that I’d picked out for the fan to be installed was just not going to work. It would not leave enough space for all the solar panels we need because of the overhang, plus also we need venting space at the rear of the fan. Checking on this now has saved us a lot of aggravation later and we have now decided that, with little choice, we’ll have to install the fan in the section by the bulkhead, not quite where we wanted it but not far off.
Wall
With speedy progress we decided to make a start on one of the wall sections. This particular section will be the shower area. It was tougher than anticipated to cut the 50mm thick Celotex by hand and as fiddly as it looks to match all the weird shapes of the van. Nevertheless, it seemed to go well and I had time to fill the gaps and unreachable places with recycled plastic bottle insulation. Quite pleased with our efforts we headed in and Ben made us a nice cup of tea 🙂
We’ve made various trips to B&Q this week, and picked up some wood to frame the fan and eventually the windows. We need to do this because the windows and fan are made to sit in the thicker wall of a caravan, rather than the thin sheet metal of the van. The frame will help hold the weight and stabilize them. With a spare few moments Ben set to cutting the wood and getting the frame together for the fan whilst I poked the plastic insulation into the tiny holes in the roof ribs, another challenge for my shoulder. Ben did an excellent job with the frame and I was extremely impressed, it looked like a professional had done it! Way to go Ben!
I’ve kind of forgotten what happened over the rest of the week, sorry about that I know you were all just dying to know! 😛 I just remember the B&Q trips and the large amount of work for our business that we had to do. Although we did pop to one of our favorite places; a local farm shop, to have a well earned lunch.
