LOVE VINTAGE LIFE with NIKI NICOLLE: A new project to keep me amused

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 :)