So it’s been a few weeks since I put pen to paper, or rather fingers to keyboard but we have not been idle during this time.
After much deliberation, discussion and procrastination, we finally bit the bullet back on 22 February and ordered some new windows and fans and other bits and pieces.
Our first real opportunity to fit them arrived last weekend, with some glorious weather forecast and time to kill. We had spent some time on Friday evening messaging with people online who had installed the same windows as the ones we had bought, as the windows came sans instructions and it wasn’t abundantly clear how they fitted together. Saturday 6th found us up and out early walking the dogs in an attempt to exhaust them so they weren’t volunteering to ‘help’ every ten seconds with a ball or stick. It seemed to do the trick.
First port of call was to get ready to cut two holes in Hetty’s roof. A daunting task, we set about plotting the exact location of the electric fan that will be above the lounge area. Dave climbed the ladder up the front of Hetty and with the aid of two bits of scaff board for support, he set about measuring and drawing the location for the first cut. Eeek. Then he measured again. Then I roughly measured inside. Then Dave checked the measurements again. Ok, no more putting it off. Let’s get cutting. Well, Dave was cutting. I was being the glamorous assistant (GA) who stood around in garden crocs and my old fleece taking photos and making encouraging noises.
With hole one successfully cut, we set about fitting the fan. After a bit of a false start (it turns out we didn’t need the thicker wooden frame after all) fan one was in! A temporary fix to the electrics spurred us on (see what I did there) as it all worked well. Hoorah. Onto roof hole number two.
Roof hole number two was a tad more challenging, as a previous owner had decided to cover the entire roof with bitumen felt. It was stuck down well and needed to be cleared in order to cut the hole. I kindly left Dave to do this and started to weed the garden until he was ready for more help from his GA.
Shortly after I started digging, my assistance was needed to fit fan two in hole two. So it was off with the gardening gloves as they didn’t match my GA attire and back over to Hetty. Fan two is above the sleeping area in the cab bringing much needed light to that end of Hetty. Everything seemed to go well with the second fan fitting. After making sure they were both as sealed as they possibly could be, we tidied up and called it a day.
Having said that, we did actually then go and collect some flooring for Hetty that I had found on FB Marketplace place before we truly downed tools for the night.
Sunday morning arrived and Dave went off to get some bits from B&Q and Screwfix (his second home) that we thought we would need to install the windows.
First up was the smallest window, which will be in the shower room. We thought it best to start small! We measured once, twice and three times just to be super sure.
And yay, it all seemed to work. Within a fairly short space of time, we had a hole in the wall. Now time to fit the window and make it watertight. This seems to go without too much of a hitch and before we knew it, window one was in. Having secured window one with screws in all the right places and a half hundred weight of mastic and sealant, it was time to move on to window two.
This proved slightly more challenging in that it was bigger and heavier, but after a few minor technical glitches, window two was in too and had received the same level of treatment as window one. We both agreed to leave window three for another day as time was ticking on.
Having cleared up and come inside and looked at the weather forecast, we both decided:
a) we should be building an ark rather than refurbishing a Horsebox; and
b) we should take Tuesday afternoon off to fit window three before the heavens opened for the foreseeable future.
Yesterday afternoon therefore found us ready and keen to install window three. Aside from an argument with the hedge who likes to get up close and personal with you when working alongside Hetty, the installation went well and we finished pretty quickly. We then spent some time clearing up ready to think about the next challenge. I did make the mistake of climbing up into the bed area to realise it was going to be quite challenging to get down.
Once we were done tidying inside Hetty and Dave had helped me down from above the cab, we set about checking all of the wood and metal we had kept when we cleared Hetty out when we first got her. We had a bit of a cull but decided to see if we could use the wood from the horse dividers (I have no idea what they are actually called) to make the wall between the cab and living area. We spent quite a bit of time trying to locate the screw holes to do this as they had been caked in numerous layers of paint. Having successfully removed one piece of timber, we made a delightful discovery, which is how I will end this blog. Ew.
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