A new project to keep me amused - 1970 Robin 4 birth

She is in fairly good shape, tatty water damage by skylight which is very often a problem

Rosie Robin is very dated as you can see

Old brown carpet, rubber backed which needs scrapping up

window trim brittle and cracking but can be bought cheaply from ebay on a roll

 So to paint, upholster, curtain and bedeck

paint the outside to and make a lovely colourful awning

The ceiling was spongey in areas particularly around skylight which is a common problem, I removed the ceiling panel, which is relatively easy as just held up with panel pins, removed the polystyrene insulation and put to one side to use again.  Will leave the roof to dry

As you can see, after removing the skylight, the wood supports are as wet as the Mary Rose, so will leave it open to dry, have taped over top of caravan put lid back over and placed something over that to keep roof dry, working in a shed or under a marquee would be preferable.

part of one of the supports had rotted away and has fungi on it, I will leave to dry and wait to see what needs replacing and what can be treated, before replacing ceiling panel with a sheet of hardbourd

The white window trim is old and brittle, this is quite cheap to buy and replace, tacking it onto frame

I will clean up all the fitments with metal polish and give a good scrub, so hopefully not replace

Having cleaned all the fittings I cut the trim to correct length, used an exterior sealant, in glue gun, and applied the sealant to the wood and into any gaps, particularly the layer between outer caravan and inner wall, the you have to prise the trim over the outer and inner edge, its kind of hard, but thats because it needs to be tight as to be water tight

I then refitted all the old locks and arms, ideally would be good to buy new, but they are fine for now, a little rusty but clean and working

The rotten beams have been removed and replaced, you cant screw into the roof so they needed to be screwed into existing beams. screws at an angle, the skylight outer fitting has been sealed with exterior sealant, then when the ceiling goes up the second half of skylight will sandwich the ceiling and will use more sealant

not a great measure and cut, so will try again, never done it before and a bit of a naff job

Will remove the copper gas piping. pull it through and seal it off, but will make sure that its checked by an expert before using the cooker or heater for obvious reasons, not worth taking chances on this kind of thing

Removed one of the cupboards at one end, harder than I thought as caravans are made from the inside out, so all the screws are from other side, inside the lining, so sticking out of the wall, will need to cut them, will leave the other one where it is.  But all the cupboards will be painted with lovely handles, so will look quite lovely anyway.

Will have another go at the ceiling next week as off to a festival in Holly-van who has had her new paint job done

rather cute dont you think?

pulling together ideas and colour schemes for the interior and exterior of caravan - Strawberrys and cream is springing to mind at the moment










The next step is sealing the roof, it will need sanding loose bits and cleaning then covering with Epdm liquid rubber roofing.  Taken me days to find a supplier of white liquid rubber but ordered it today @ www.caravanroofrepair.co.uk  best price I have seen and technical support supplied.  It will create a flexible waterproof and hardwearing cover to the caravan roof.

Clean up all the hinges and catches and replace

 matke sure the arms move freely

make markers to replace the catches so that window can pull tight

I will paint all the melamime surfaces, so this needs to be sanded with coarse sandpaper primed and painted with wood and metal satin finish for exterior, as caravan temperatures can sometimes be extreme or get a little condensation

remove old bits of staples and any side strips that come loose, as when painting you can rub back and apply another coat to give a nice even finish

I am lining the caravan roof width ways and then will wallpaper length ways

 Once the lining or wallpaper is up you can then cut out around skylights and vents with stanley knife

 Once I have lined the ceiling and painted the cupboards I couldnt wait to put the pretty door knobs on, I bought these on Ebay, can never decide on colours so but a mixture of colours, superb

 I bought this hand sewing machine which I have set up in caravan, for curtains and cushion covers, I love it, although I did put the needle through my finger, must be more careful when guiding material :)

 These are the beautiful coloured door knobs I bought on Ebay

 Its nice to have help but sometimes they are just a hindrance

 Supervisor

 Lady was very helpful, she kept all the scraps of paper in place

MY VINTAGE CARAVAN a 1970'a Holivan

Scroll down and see what she used to look like
I am having the outside painted and the picture
will be up in the next few weeks

I cant believe how she has come on - she is a complete joy -

Still some work to do on base round edges joining frame to floor

I would never have imagined that Holly could look like this - when she looked like the picture below when I picked her up - so so happy


I bought this little sweetheart last year and she was looking a little worse for wear to say the least

I didnt think about how much work it was going to be, just that it was a perfect size little can

The ceiling was hanging down, soaking wet as the seals where leaking around the air vent and windows    

The boards where removed from walls and ceiling and the air vents removed, all the old wet insulation removed ready to be dried out replaced before sealing up.  At this point I will admit that I had stored my caravan at my dads and he banned me from touching it as he does love a project, so all this renovation is his work, Im the decorator.

Once the walls had dried out and the carpet cleared out and everything clean then the new insulation could go in and the walls and ceiling can go back up and be painted

Looking better already, the outside remains the same at the moment

The plan is to have a vibrant colour on outside, luckily, as I do have alot of that, my brother is a yacht painter and is going to be tarting her up in June this year 2013

I thought I would make my own curtains, just thread them on the net curtain wire, so very simple, and found some off cuts of gingham in charity shops for the smaller windows, my dog Bindi is looking a bit guilty, oh yes, I also bought some offcut wood effect lino for the floor, so easy to clean and looks nice, carpet a pants idea

The cooker and sink where all in surprisingly good condition and still working so yay!!

Its now May 2013 and Im thinking Holy-van is going to be my sunshine on wheels, so yellow is going to be the theme, I have  bought a tough matt wood and metal paint from homebase to do the kitchen cupboards, after sanding of course, I did use a primer first as its a melamime, I also painted the framing around the door which is metal after using primer.

Again, as Im a lover of colour I chose a bright and bold wall paper, this one is from ebay, a laura ashley, for inside door and a couple of areas inside caravan, to include lining shelving

My dad found the owl broken in a field and glued him back together and homed him up here, so now he is there to stay, but he does look happy

most of the ornaments and cups are charity shop finds

These handles I bought from a shop in weymouth, very good prices, cant remember the name, big shop with lots of nicknacks, love it.  Couldnt decide on favourite colour so I had all the colours

I am now making a sun canopy, so when that is finished and the outside painted I shall put up the picture

I have made a rather stunning sun canopy out of oil cloth

I am going to add detacheable muslin sides weighted with shells

my gran babba wrapped and snuggled in blankets in a wicker basket

I found a pinny to match my caravan

Tyre blew on the way back from somerset, luckily not doing much over 40 and a few yards from layby - unfortunately Holly hit the road and has been damaged slightly

Worth getting towing system and tyres checked as quite a hairy experience

Black rubber marks on lovely new paint work

underside a bit bent and the sides are coming away, but it was already a bit flimsy and my plan was to put wood trim around the base with metal brackets for extra support, as Holly is quite old and needs surgical supports :)

Bits of rotted flooring falling out, will patch her up and all will be well again...we have Lamar Tree festival next week so best get to work

Turns out the tyres are not easy to come by but Tyreland in salisbury sourced a supplier, vintage caravan repairs in Hampshire, a little bit more per tyre but not double the price and Holly is worth it.

The underside will have to wait now until after Lamar tree as run out of time.

The roof needs cleaning and painting, and seems to be de laminating in areas, so will need sanding and coating.

The next step is sealing the roof, it will need sanding loose bits and cleaning then covering with Epdm liquid rubber roofing.  Taken me days to find a supplier of white liquid rubber but ordered it today @ www.caravanroofrepair.co.uk  best price I have seen and technical support supplied.  It will create a flexible waterproof and hardwearing cover to the caravan roof.