Maiden Voyage of the Van...and ahh the beach

We finally took off for the weekend to Esperance in the new van - all of us hanging out for some time at the beach once again... and surprisingly we have all come back in one piece...even the van, LOL.

We had a friend of Mals from work come and do the wheel bearings on the van during the week and he checked out the brakes for us too so we knew that they were all good.  Mal had to rewire the external lights on the van as the old ones just weren't working....as usual once he got in to the job he realised how easy it was - ah Mal!!!  Now he can add 'auto' to his title of electrician!!!  We haven't got round to getting the gas tested yet, but since we were staying in the caravan park it didn't matter anyway, and we made sure we tucked in our faithful heater which kept the van lovely and snuggly.

Esperance is a good 4.5 hour drive from Kalgoorlie....its a very long and boring drive..but when your feet are on the sand and your looking out at the gorgeous aqua blue sea and listening to those waves, it all seems to feel worth it...needless to say Chippie just loved it and had the time of his life finding sticks and digging in the sand once again.

It was good to be able to give the van a go living in it, we could pull out the awning for the first time and make sure it was all okay, and give it a good clean too.  As usual there are things that we want to add to make it easier to live in but thankfully the bed turned out okay as its only a double and Mal was worried it was going to be uncomfortable - but we all had a really good sleep last night.  Considering its so much smaller than the previous van and doesn't have the luxury of hot water and an en-suite, its really quite livable.

Our next adventure will be free camping somewhere along the coastline....so we have a few things to get sorted to make that happen over the next wee while.  Here are some photos of our weekend away

The Caravan Reno Completed

Well we have finally finished the internal redo of the caravan - what a journey!  Its unbelievable to look at the before and after photos and realise just how much we have done.  I love it,  Mal's not totally convinced (he keeps saying he likes brand new) but I think it feels new as its so fresh and clean.  I bet you once we are out in her relaxing by the beach he will be sold, especially when she is so much easier to tow and move around than the monster Jayco we had.

We ended up having to replace a panel of wood internally as it was leaking on the wall behind the sink - we finally found where it was coming from and bogged it all up.  Otherwise no other major problems at all.

Mal has done a lot of work getting the electrics all sorted internally and replacing the old cruddy fittings with brand new ones.  He has to get the outside electrics fully sorted now and we have a guy from Mals work coming to do the wheel bearings and check the brakes out for us.  All thats left then is to organise to have the gas tested and she is totally done.  We are aiming to take her out on her maiden voyage in a couple of weeks for a long weekend and head to Esperance....ahh the beach....we plan on staying in the motorcamp we were in when we were there last so we can plug in so won't have to worry about the gas or sorting out our free camping stuff straight away.

Have a look at the photos below of before and after shots - click on them to make them bigger

 

Stage four of the Caravan Reno

We have both been pretty busy over the last few weeks….Mal finishing off the painting and spray painting and my new sewing machine has been well and truly broken in…the caravan is starting to look very cosy indeed!!!

I have recovered all the old seating, made an upholstered headboard for the bed (when we find one) and made a division curtain for the bedroom and I have yet to make a little curtain for the door window – I got 20 metres of upholstery material when we were in Perth and I will be using up every little bit of it.  I am really pleased with how they have all turned out.

We put up the blinds that we brought from Bunnings while we were in Perth and they look really good too.

Today I spent the day laying the carpet tiles in the bedroom area and the floor plank tiles in the kitchen area – wow they look really awesome!!

One of the guys from Mal’s work has made a new kitchen benchtop for us which looks fantastic too so we can’t wait to get that on.

We have yet to sort out the new handles for the cupboard doors and we have to fit the splashbacks on the kitchen before we can put the benchtop in. 

Unfortunately I found out today that we have 3 leaks in the caravan (thanks to it finally raining) so we will have to sort out where they are coming from…pretty good timing really as I would hate to have had everything sorted and then found out we had a leak!!!Here are some piccies of our progress…

Stage Three of the Caravan Reno

We had another Sunday off together so got stuck in to the caravan again today - on to the fun stuff now...top coat!!

We thought we were going to be in for a cooler day to paint in the van with the forecast telling us it was going to be cloudy with a chance of a storm...typical Kalgoorlie turned out brilliant blue sky and sunny - so by mid avo the van was like a little torture chamber again.

We did however get one good coat on and some parts second coated but we have run out of paint so back to Bunnings for us again.  Here are some piccies of progress so far....we are really pleased with how she is looking so far...

looking in to the bedroom - you might be able to see the door colour..only one coat on them so far

looking from the bedroom...we are putting stainless steel splashbacks below the kitchen windows

the bedroom again

the dinette area

bedroom

cupboard doors..only one coat on them so far

We have some excitement happening in Kalgoorlie this week...Ewan McGregor and a few other actors are going to be around town filming the Son of a Gun movie...they wanted extras however some of us have to work for a living......

Kalgoorlie-Boulder Pure Gold shared a link via SON OF A GUN - Film.

Friday

Not long now... we can't wait to welcome Ewan and the rest of the cast to Kalgoorlie Boulder!

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I am going to start recovering the cushions and headboard for the van this week - get to take my brand new sewing machine out of its box.....

Stage Two of the Caravan Reno

Well over the long Easter weekend Mal got stuck in to the caravan - lucky sod had the whole 4 days off, while muggins me had to go to work and only had a rostered day off coincidentally on the Sunday.  Oh woe is me.....

anyway....Mal did very well, got 85% of the caravan undercoated and got the benchtop out so that we can get a new one made.  He has been pottering round trying to sort out the interesting electrics in the van also.

Yesterday I got the wonderful job of sanding back all the cupboard doors and undercoating them - needless to say I am thankful that that horrible task is now behind me and we can get on to the fun stuff....putting the colour back in to the van!!!

Here are our piccies...

looking in to the bedroom area- the dark areas are inside the cupboards which we have decided not to paint

the kitchen with the benchtop gone and the old woodgrain colour...so much brighter with that covered up 

the side of the van where the dinette seating is 

the cupboard doors

We have chosen our colours for the inside and looking forward to putting up our next lot of photos....

Weekend in Perth

We finally got out of Kal for a few days over last weekend and headed to the big smoke.  It was my first time in Perth so very exciting...

little Chip went to a workmate of Mals place for the weekend - he had 5 adults to himself and got thoroughly spoilt by all of them....so much so that when we picked him up he wasn't his usual over excited to see us self..infact I think he would have been quite happy to stay there instead of coming home...

The drive to Perth, although a good 6 hours, didn't seem as boring as we were expecting.  There are quite a few little towns that you drive through and its only one stretch before you start hitting the outskirts of Perth that is a bit barren and boring.  Having said that, I don't think I would want to drive by myself all that way in one hit, it gets very mesmerizing driving along and easy to start nodding off so it was good to share the driving with Mal.

After getting over the initial shock of driving in a big city again our first stop was the Caravan and Camping Show being held at the Claremont Showgrounds.  It was a bit disappointing, in that it was no different to the other shows we have been to in Brisbane before and we actually left empty handed  even though we had a list of things we wanted for our caravan makeover.  It was humorous though watching the overweight oldies (of which there were many) trying to squeeze their large frames in to caravans..how they think they could live in one is beyond me when they can hardly fit through the door!!!

We then drove through the City to find our accommodation which was on Adelaide Terrace and then headed off to Fremantle Beach.  One good thing about Perth is that the beaches and it seems everything really, isn't that far apart.  Fremantle is a very nice area and we sat at one of the restaurants at the Pier and had some fish n chips and a beer enjoying the day...that was after getting some lovely sand beneath our feet again...we so miss the beach and the sea...

having fish n chips and a beer on Fremantle Pier

around Fremantle

around Fremantle

sculpture at Fremantle Beach

driving around Perth

in the City

driving around Perth 

the Swan River

heading down towards the Swan River 

around Perth

We had a lovely dinner at one of the local restaurants close to our hotel on Saturday night.

Sunday we were up early and headed off to Scarborough.  We had a list of shopping to do at Bunnings, Ikea and Spotlight for the caravan reno which were all out in that direction.  We hit the Scarborough Beach first for a look and to have brunch.  Scarborough is a lovely area too and the beach was just beautiful

beach

beach

thank god we didn't see any snakes!

beach

brunch yum yum 

After finishing our shopping and getting all that we had on our little list, we headed for Cottlesloe Beach for a look - and that was absolutely packed!!!  There was a sculpture display spread over the beach here like at Fremantle so I am not sure if the beach is usually as packed as it was, or was especially so due to the exhibition.  Again, a lovely beach and lots of little cafes and drinking spots alongside the beach

Cottlesloe Beach 

sculpture

sculpture

sculptures

sculpture

ahh sand.....the water was lovely and warm too

On the way back to the Hotel we headed for a drive around Subiaco which is prime real estate but where all the main hospitals are.  I wanted to see where we refer our women and babies to - I could definitely work and live around this area, however its really expensive

King Edward Memorial Hospital

King Edward Memorial Hospital

Royal Perth Hospital

main shopping street in Subiaco

We then drove around Perth again alongside the Swan River which is a lovely blue river unlike Brisbane and on a beautiful day its just gorgeous

Exhibition Centre in Perth 

one of the lovely parks..lots of these all around the city

Swan River looking across to the City

interesting building alongside the Swan river 

driving alongside the Swan river 

Sunday night we went to an Irish pub for tea which was down the road from the Hotel.

Monday morning we headed off to a place I found online that sells carpet and lino squares and got a really good deal for the flooring in the caravan and then found a Clarks Rubber to buy some more squab cushions for the seating in the van - then with the ute loaded to the brim we headed home.

All up it was a lovely weekend and we both absolutely love Perth!