Well we had a wee run and sleep over in the LR over the last few days - a quick trip to the city for more materials and some other stuff. It was a late departure and my wee lad was getting hungry and tired so we'd to pull in on the roadside in the mountains and get as far from the road as we could (not far as it was a swamp - and we were perched on a small pile of old tar dumped there by the road menders which stopped us sinking in the glaur). It was only a few metres from the road but as this is the West Highlands it was fairly quiet and the views were no too bad ye ken!
It was very warm and the bugs were quite bad (midges - no-see-ums, in clouds). So I popped the roof, opened the side flaps and hatch and let the breeze in but kept the bugs out. Worked just fine. The layout proved very flexible. My wee lad sat on a storage box I've built behind the bulkhead. It has two lids, one is very solid, but above it is a lighter ply one and designed to lift up and fold back against the seatbacks of the two front seats, becoming a handy backrest for the storage box which then becomes a small seating unit. I've still got to make a cushion to fit it, so just used some white foam on it temporarily. Worked fine - William was able to sit happily watching a wildlife video on the iPad while I made the dinner, and he was well out of my way.
Whilst he was doing that I cooked, The door end proved very flexible with the large work surface to put the cooker on, and be able to chop veggies beside it. On the other side I could access the sink easily, and when I needed fridge access it slid out easily and provided another work surface when necessary.
The 'shelf' around the edge higher up from the work surface is brilliant - its usefulness has surprised me (it's actually the remains of the old roof with a pine board screwed to it) it allows glasses and other stuff like binoculars and cameras etc to be placed out of harm's way and not interfere with the food prep surfaces and cooking etc. The two rough bits of wood you can see at the end are my temporary roof 'safety' struts (in case the gas struts fail one night) - going to replace them with alloy poles asap.
As you can see I decided to christen the van with a small dram of the island nectar and we supported our local salmon smoker too!
Having the small sink makes it really easy for William (and me) to hand wash with no dramas or risk of spilling water everywhere. Might seem like a minor thing but I've lost count of the number of times I've spilled water whilst trying to tip it out of a container, and which has run everywhere inside ending up with sodden socks and a grotty floor.
When dinner was ready I pulled out the sliding table on it heavy duty slides, then placed the larger table top on it (which normally acts as a cupboard front) and that was us ready to eat. The seat on the left is an Exmoor Trim lock and fold which faces forwards when driving or turns inwards for normal seating or sitting eating. When not in use it sits back well out of the way. It complies with all EU legislation regarding safety and child use so has been an excellent buy.
Then I put the wee lad to bed 'upstairs', let him have a quick iPad game, then read him a bedtime story (about dragons) and he was out like a light. I went down below and had some more food and a cup of tea with plenty of room to move about. The temperature difference between up and down was dramatic - very cool and airy above, a lot warmer down below. (thats W's new fishing rod lying on the floor in cardboard by my feet).
Next morning was cool so I ran the Eberspacher and it warmed up quite nicely but heat loss upstairs will be considerable in really cold weather.
There's a few things to adjust and tweak - I think the sleeping platform is a tad too long - I reckon I could lose a few inches off it, which would make getting up and down easier, and enlarging that rear access gap, and I need more steps for the wee lad as he had to struggle a bit to get up. All things considered it's provided a warm, dry, bug free airy space that's flexible and comfortable, enabling cooking, washing etc without a lot of fuss.
My careful measuring and experimenting has meant that the storage boxes slide out without affecting the sliding table that sits in between (on its HD extending runners - that's it in the frame left above with the tea on it after the bigger top has been put away again), the fridge slides out easily and goes back in without hitting the folding seat, and when the fridge is out it passes over the the top of any of the storage boxes that might be out, on the floor, the folding seat swivels and just misses the sink and clears the edge of the extending table etc. I'm really glad I spent the time measuring and doing 'dry runs' before committing to building anything permanent. It's a small space but surprisingly flexible.
And to keep the wee chap happy we spent a glorious hour fishing with his new rod on the way home (without any luck!).
