Monday, December 26, 2011

As Promised....The Van Revealed

I've yet to come up with a name for my "new to me" but long in the tooth van.  I've driven her for two days now.  Since her name will be in black and white, l can only do this once.  Like a sail boat, it's bad luck if it's named more then once.   My sister, niece and myself tend to name our vehicles using the first letter of the make of the car/truck.  Thereby narrowing down the choices by quiet a bit.  Her name needs to start with an F, for she is a Ford Econoline van with the RV manufacturer being Falcon.  Her name definitely needs to start with an "F".

Front View of the VanThere isn't a lot of storage in her, so l plan on using the top bunk for bins of clothes and other things, l will put them in baskets or bins of some sort.

[caption id="attachment_441" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Snazzy Kitchen"][/caption]

The kitchen is small but manageable.  The black metal thing in the photo is the grate that fits in the trailer hitch for storage.  It came with the van, and l will build a box with a lock to secure outside storage.

[caption id="attachment_442" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Luxurious Loo"][/caption]

It's tiny but at least it has one.  It needs some work.  the back curtains have got to go.  I'm thinking something more form fitting to the windows.

[caption id="attachment_443" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Facing the rear or the van"][/caption]

The couch/bed.  The monitors seem to work on the wall.  I did get readouts when l pushed them.  The curtains have got to go, once again.  Not really into lace curtains. :-)

I'm not sure when l can get out there and scrub her down,time is not necessarily the factor, but the weather is.  I would like to replace the floor, and add some window coverings that l like, and solar panels for power.  I have time to work on these things before l set sail.

How about Fiona?  It has a nice ring to it.  Fiona it will be.  Or Fie for short.   Welcome Fiona, to the family.

3 comments:

  1. Awesome! And how inspiring too... I just love new projects :)

    Fiona has a nice ring to it. Reminds me of the singer Fiona Apple.

    Yes the lace has to go! As does the floor. What were they thinking? You gonna curtains or some type of shading and carpet or some laminate/wood thing? Oooo I'm so excited for you! Just want to head up there and help you fix it right up :)

    Have a great tomorrow!

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  2. Congratulations on the new van camper! I read your comment about wanting to put in new flooring, and I immediately thought about a man who replaced his floor in mini-motorhome with some type of laminate wood look flooring. Someone told him that he should run the flooring side to side rather than front to back in order to obtain a feeling of a wider area, and it really does look wider/bigger! Here's a link to one of the pictures he has on his blog, so hopefully you can get there to see how doing it made such a difference. He has updates of the work he did himself on the floor in his archives from 2011.
    http://www.tosimplify.net/2011/10/floors-yogurt.html
    He also travels with a cat, just as we used to do in our camper van. We cannot travel in our camper now due to an aging parent, so we currently use it as an rolling home during hurricane season, as we want our six cats with us if we have to evacuate! The biggest tip I can offer you as far as your fur babies going along in the van is to make sure the underneath of your dashboard is blocked in some way so that they can't get up underneath the dash. We used pliable plastic gardening fencing and screws/washers and closed that area off, trying our best to leave it where we could still take the motor cover off without bothering the fencing. Our first trip with our 'one and only' at that time taught us very fast the importance of leaving no vents (vents under the dash) open, and we even put the plastic fencing material over the windows up top to help prevent our cat from pushing the screens out should we have to leave them open while we were away from the camper. Cats are a lot smarter than us at times!
    I look forward to reading later posts about you and your fur babies future adventures while traveling in your new camper! Good luck, enjoy the ride, and remember..the fun is in the days it takes getting there, not just finally arriving there! Pam

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  3. Pam, Thanks for stopping by. I read Glenns Blog, and l have read the article you mentioned, but l never noticed or digested, might be a better way of stating it, that his floors were opposite of what most people do. But it makes sense. I was planning on wood floors also, l just like the look. I never thought about the vents under the dash. Jeeze....that would have been a nightmare. My cats are pretty smart also, so l can imagine them doing something with the screens when l'm gone. It will be a battle of wills, l'm afraid. :-) And it's too soon to say, who will win!

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