January 2022

In an effort to become ‘better’ in certain areas of my life, I am going to try harder at keeping this blog updated. My plan is to write a monthly update. I shall see how things go. My addled and now slightly forgetful brain has prompted me to start the January blog on a Monday evening after our weekend of Hetty activity.

Friday evening found us deliberating on next steps. We are at a point where we need to spend quite a bit of money for the plumbing and electrics. Painful as it is, we need to make the investment so that Hetty does not become a moving fridge.

Saturday morning – 8 Jan

First things first, Dave started Hetty up. Cough, splutter, wheeze. She starts like a goodun but sure smells her age! I tidied up Hetty so we had some space. I always feel better after a good ‘ole tidy up.

Dave went off to Screwfix to get some bits and pieces. I think it is becoming his second home.

We knew we needed to order the plumbing kit but since it won’t arrive for a while, we decided to start on cladding the master bedroom. Progress started well with a plan in our minds on how to best fix the green plastic sheeting over the insulation before starting the onerous, unforgiving task of cutting and nailing the cladding. By beer o clock time on Saturday, we had made inroads into the cladding but ran out of the 2400mm lengths so could only get so far. I opted to pop to B&Q (my second home) that evening so we would be ready to start on Sunday morning.

Sunday morning saw us with a continuing water problem (and I mean Hetty, not me or Dave). She had developed a leak between the cab and trailer a while back which we thought we had fixed. She has been wearing a rather fetching dark green bonnet for a few weeks since Dave had done yet another battle with the evil hedge to climb up the ladder and seal her roof from the outside. It was still evident on Saturday morning she was leaking so Dave sealed her on the inside again. On Sunday though, we could still see water pooling in the green plastic, so there is clearly a problem which needs sorting. More sealant applied. Let’s see how things after after the next lot of heavy rain.

We got as high as we could with the cladding (and as kites from the sealant!) and I then had a brainwave. Could we create a recessed shelf in the wardrobe which could be accessed from the master bedroom area for drinks and stuff at night. Sounds simple yes? It took a few hours, but we now also have a rather awesome shelf! Sorry Dave for the afterthought.

Once finished, we came in and spent an obscene amount of money on a water heater and two water tanks. Gulp. We are now waiting on these to be delivered.

I am keeping a tab on costs and ‘man/woman’ hours we spend working on Hetty. She owes us big time.

So what else happened in January? Not a great deal on Hetty! We did spend time working on next steps and started to plan out how Hetty’s back end (ooerr) may look in terms of the housing for the gas cylinders, boiler and water heater. Work started in earnest on the evening of 31st January. We also needed to decide where the water tanks would be located. Apparently the old ice cream tubs I had saved weren’t quite large enough, so we now have these bad boys.

Hopefully February will see us spring into action and Hetty will continue to evolve into the beautiful camper van she is surely destined to be. Watch this space!