Two Shots of Happy, One Shot of Sad

I finished (mostly) the interior of The Drowned Van over the summer - it's dry! It's habitable! It smells okay! I've even been making curtains although they aren't quite finished yet. I thought I'd share some photos here, but I also wanted to talk about what happens next.

You see, I won't be finishing the exterior paint.

I won't be fixing the plumbing or the gas.

I won't ever be going on holiday in 'Lila' after all this work.

She's off to Calais, to provide shelter to a family living in The Jungle through the winter, and hopefully beyond. Like so many people I've been horrified by what refugees are going through in Europe and felt powerless to help...but I did realise that I have something sitting on my driveway which I might sleep in 10 nights a year, but which someone who needs it much more could sleep in every night.

Then I was put in touch with Caravans for Calais and the upshot is that Lila will be leaving me on Saturday, and hopefully will be someone's home shortly after that. I'm going to try to make the journey with her, to take supplies and volunteer for a few days as well as to document the latest part of her adventure, and I'll be updating this blog with more information on that as well as photos of her voyage. I'm sad to see her go, but for  van with such a story it seems appropriate that this twist in the tale should come along!

People are donating caravans and time to get them out there, but money is needed for essential repairs, ferry charges and blankets and waterproofs to go in them. If you would like to help there is a Go Fund Me Page.

I appreciate that there's an argument that people in Calais aren't refugees so much as economic migrants. Trust me, if I could get Lila to Hungary, or Greece, I would - but I can't. At the end of the day the people in Calais are human beings living in terrible conditions so I think it's still worthwhile. I hope if you've been following this insane story, you'll agree.

So for now - here are some photos before she is stripped down again for the voyage. Fans of TDM will hopefully spot some references and souvenirs as well as a guest...

Remember...

I can't believe it's already a year since the gates of Temple Studios closed for the last time. 

The Drowned Van got a little damp over the winter but is still standing. And I have finally started making some progress

The outside has some gloss on it (much more work needed!!)

And the inside has some paint on it too...and some Masonic temple style floor tiles.

The Method Works

Ceiling torn down and new timber put in to replace what had rotted away around the rooflight. 

This is a photo with the rotten wood still in place. You could actually squeeze water out of it!

Had to scrape away all the old sealant with my head poking out through the hole which freaked out the gas man. 

Most of the ceiling has been replaced now too, but no photos until it's finished and filled ;)

The ceiling has been fun, lots of measuring and cutting and power tools.  I may need to get out more!

I've also added one of the two new timber struts to the underside of the chassis to make good where some of it had rotted away. Lots and lots of sealant too to close it up. Not a pretty job but I'm assuming most people won't be looking underneath. 

And finally...more undercoat....only the top and one side of the van are now recognisable as TDM murk colour. Even with grey and white undercoat the whole thing looks much better already. Let's hope the weather holds long enough to get the outside finished so I can spend winter doing interior decorating in the warm. 

You can never go home any more

Look who's coming to live in The Drowned Van (if it's ever finished). This is one of the scarecrows from the Desert at Temple Studios. His name is Miguel, of course.

Encino, we have a problem

Today's plan to finish lining the roof came to a grinding halt as we realised that the roof light still leaks, and that the timbers around it really are rotten. So rotten that the plywood is delaminating. 

So rotten, in fact, that in some parts you can squeeze water out of it. So my one new bit of ceiling has to come back down again, and somehow some new timbers have to go up. 

My father in law seems utterly confident that we can do it and it will be easy. I was glad he was there to stop me going into panic mode. Operation timber is scheduled for Tuesday. 

 

The roof light will be coming out....

Not to be dissuaded I've already cut the new ceiling panels to put up. I also carried on with the sander and sanded all the internal wood ready for painting one day. 

FIL also figured out how to make the double bed work (though I still don't think it will fit 2 people!!) so that's one bit of DIY I don't have to work out how to do. 

With all that dust about I also gave all the surfaces a wipe down so the whole place does look a bit better. Still no idea how to decorate the inside mind. 

Look, the Sandman

Today was a pretty busy one. First I sanded down the whole van....

...and uncovered a little bit of its history...

...then I made my husband sit inside to check for leaks while I jet washed it. Great news- no leaks! Hooray for the creeping crack cure!

Next to put primer on the bare metal I had exposed...

 ...Which hubby thought made it look 'even more like a bum's van' than it had before. 

Finally, undercoat to the bottom half which I hope will dry before the rain sets in. Looking better already and I'm excited about painting the rest!

You can call me 'Dusty'. Though I don't remember the Dust Witch being quite so industrial. 

DAMP!!

Having read up a little on what happens when you buy a terribly old caravan on eBay, my next purchase was a damp meter.

This showed that essentially the timbers around the roof light are very damp (possibly rotten but....) and also the ceiling. Having poked it around a bit more, I decided that the roof light was leaky. So here's what I did:

• Tried to take off the roof light so I could put it back in and seal it properly. Discovered I couldn't, because the screws are knackered.
• Yanked off all the old mastic on this and the toilet vent.
• Used Captain Tolleys Creeping Crack Cure around the edges instead. Then applied liberally around all of the seams, trims and openings. This stuff is good shit. I plan to use it on everything in my life which is even remotely broken.
• Mastered the mastic gun and resealed both openings.
• Whacked some mastic tape over the top as well, just to be sure.

Having also established that removing the very damp timbers would probably make the whole caravan break, and reminding myself that it's a 30 year old caravan and really not worth it, I also painted the timbers inside with a can of wet rot cure. This seems to have hardened it up well and the damp readings are now very low, so I'm hoping that is Good Enough.

I've also pulled down the wet bits of the ceiling, ready to cut and fit some new ply.

The other thing I have managed to do is some new (black) seals along all of the awning rails.

Two of the windows are okay, the others have been screwed shut and will be staying that way until I get some new "window thingies". Once said thingies are in place, I will be replacing the window seals too. Waterproofing is the main task at the moment, before the Mancunian weather turns...well...Mancunian. I have cut some timber to fix along the bottom rails, to make up for some bits which appear to have fallen off, but need to treat them before I screw them in. 

There's all winter to decorate the inside, and next spring to finally sand and repaint the outside. Those will be the fun parts.