More carpeting

We've had a very productive weekend carpeting the van.  Still not finished yet but we're definitely getting there now!

Meanwhile, we've been busy developing our new website and making some exciting plans with our van...

Christmas progress

We've used our Christmas break very productively and are getting Amelie ready for a big adventure! Sam's bosses kindly offered to let us work on the van in their work garage, so it's been a lot warmer than last year!

Sam has taken out the dashboard, upgraded the main power cables and installed a new fan motor. He also replaced the front pads, discs and wheel bearings, then cut a hole for our new sliding side window. Meanwhile, I painted our cupboards and insulated the roof.  We have just finished carpeting the roof and despite a few hiccups along the way, we are fairly pleased with the result (just don't look too closely at it!)

The new roof carpet from Mega Van Mats.  We used their silver mega stretch lining carpet.

Our main holiday this year will be in the van around the Scottish Highlands for a couple of weeks, but there's lots of work to do before then!

2016 - the story so far...

We have been extremely slack in updating the blog this year!  But it's because we've just been having far too much fun!  We're hoping to start a new blog in the next year, so we'll be posting that on here, but for now, here's what we've been up to...

In January, we finished putting the new roof on Amelie, although we had a few problems with fitting the window.  The window we ordered was too big for the hole, so Sam cut the hole slightly bigger... only he cut it a little big too big.  So then we had to get another bit of glass that was a bit bigger.  Then cut the whole bigger... then we SO NEARLY had the new bit of glass in, and it smashed!  I won't bore you with all the details, but by the time we'd attempted fitting 5 different windows, we realised that the roof is actually slightly bowed, so we'll never be able to get glass in there now.  We looked into getting the hole filled back up, but were told there were no guarantees that we'd have the same problem.  So Amelie is now the proud owner of a plastic window on one side!

She was ready just in time for Easter, when we went wild camping around the Norfolk Broads.

Most of our stops were on quiet roads, but we contacted a pub in the centre of Norwich who have their own access to the Broads, and they allowed us to park overnight (they charge £5 for 24 hour parking).  It was excellent and meant that we could paddleboard through the city.  If you'd like details, just contact us!

Our main holiday this year wasn't in the campervan, but we've enjoyed lots of weekend trips and have been to Broadstairs and Wales, as well as making the most of being able to park at parties so we can both enjoy a drink or two.  Sam also took Amelie to Le Mans for the 24 hour race (no, she didn't race!)

We've also found it useful to have the campervan for day trips with our paddleboards...

And we finally got brave enough to go to the Kent T25 meet, where Amelie made some friends...

We've got some really exciting adventures planned with Amelie, so keep an eye on this page and we'll let you know when we've launched our new blog.  Thanks for reading!

Off with her head!

We are currently the proud owners of... a convertible T25!

Kidding!  We're just changing the roof... 

New roof!

After much deliberation, we finally have a roof!  This has come off a Holdsworth Villa 3 that was being broken up and sold on Preloved.  Our current roof is damaged and leaks a bit, so fingers crossed we'll be able to make this one watertight!  

This is going to be our biggest project yet!

Girls' weekend

As Sam had already been away with his friends in the campervan, I thought it was about time I did the same.

Sam was away as I got Amelie ready and I soon realised how much he normally does when I'm busy packing!  It took a LOT longer than it should have done working out how to plug Amelie into the mains... who knew we had an adapter?!  

The next morning Amelie was ready to go, the fridge was nice and cold and I left to pick up my friend Beccy.  I had brought some extra flowers for Beccy's hair, but there was no need... she already had some :-)  

We stayed at Crowborough Campsite which was just right for what we wanted - it wasn't too far to drive, there was a pub and shops within easy walking distance and the facilities were good.  The only negative point was that there was a funfair in the field next door, but thankfully it didn't go on too late.  

The site was fairly busy on the flat pitches with electric, but there was hardly anyone in the field and we pretty much had it to ourselves.

We had a great weekend away, ate a lot of cake and watched a lot of Castle!  I'm now a lot more confident about driving the van on my own now too.  Thanks for coming with me Beccy! 

Busfest 2015

As promised by the website, we did indeed have a vantastic time at Busfest! We saw some brilliant campervans and now have lots of exciting ideas for Amelie.

Sam loves the syncro vans, but we don't quite have that budget at the moment, so he just wants to make Amelie a little bit higher off the ground and give her bigger tyres.  However, what with her rather large head (or as most would call it, high top roof), I am worried she might look a little oafish if she was much taller, and more like a monster truck than the sweet little camper I want her to be!  So we have made a compromise... if we can get a smaller high top roof for Amelie at a reasonable price, then Sam can do his monster truck thing to the wheels.  The current roof was damaged when we bought it so we needed to get that sorted anyway.  So most of Busfest was spent taking sneaky photos of other T25 roofs!

We've established that we like the Holdsworth, Carthago and Sheldon roofs.  So watch this space!