In the roof of my van! Between them will be the two solar panels (2x150w high output panels) with enough room where the broom is, at the front of the van, for another. I'll also have fold out solar panel for when I'm parked in the shade but still want the sun to power the battery. I'm also having a battery charger so that if there are cloudy days forever, and the Lithium 200ah battery needs some topping up, I'll be able to plug into 240v for a couple of hours and top her up...nice! Of course the battery will also charge as I drive. I'm still waking up in the middle of the night with ideas and thoughts and just a little bit of panic that I might be too late to implement really important things like the installation of the iMac. I can't seem to sell it so I'm keeping it and wall mounting it. It's a fantastic computer and so much easier (and faster) to work on than the MacBook Pro I'm using at the moment. I was just in time...as always..... and Michael will be able to fit it and put the right sort of power in the right place for it. Luckily I have chosen the very best people for my van conversion, they never get frazzled and always manage to make me happy. I can see the stars through the hole in the roof and that's exactly what I want to see from my little bed which will be under the skylight. When I first saw the photo on the right, it took me a moment or two to realise that the metal bulkhead had been removed and the seats and dash had been covered to protect them from the building dust. Thanks Michael...or was that Emma? It's a big van isn't it?
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You can afford. I think it’s a good idea to use the best when making a ‘tiny house’ on wheels. Regret nothing! Everything is integrated and has multiple uses sometimes as space is limited so go for the best you can. So... as I believe this.......I have just upgraded the plan to have a super solar 12v system, even better than the one we first thought of, much better perhaps because it’s all build on using Lithium batteries. I was just in the ‘nick of time’ for this change of plan as the wiring is one of the very first things to do. We talked it out and have now covered all eventualities for keeping me happy in all conditions - as far as power is concerned. For a while now I have been searching for, finding and buying 12v chargers for my camera batteries, Bluetooth speaker, torch, Essential oil diffuser, phone etc and I think the only 240v appliance i’ll use occasionally will be the Bamix (stick mixer with grinder). Other than those things requiring power I’m now hand grinding my coffee beans and that’s my exercise time....strengthening my core muscles (and shoulders) 😊 The Atomic coffee maker is a 1980s Italian made stove top espresso machine and a real delight. The coffee grinder is a new design called HandGround. It does a good job and it pretty easy and quickish. Mindfulness coffee. Today I say..... Challenge yourself. It’s good fun!
On Monday i’ll Pack the van with the bits and pieces I want to include in the ‘build’ and on Tuesday i’ll head down to Mudgee. On Wednesday I have the whole day for a nice long discussion about the van conversion. I’ve been Measuring, drawing, researching and writing lists for well over a year so I have a pretty good idea of exactly what I want although I am open to suggestions from those who know a lot more than I do from their building/cabinetry and van conversion experience. It’s so important to be absolutely clear during every stage of the build. Home again to ‘Winnie’ on Thursday...just in time for a freezing night! Despite the cold I’m getting a bit excited now 😀
10 days until settlement on the house and almost everything has gone! There’s a few bits and pieces to donate to the museum street stall, too many sauce bottles and packets of pasta in the pantry and always...no space left in the bin! Why on earth did I accumulate so much? The pantry and fridge are still looking pretty full and I haven’t shopped (apart from bread and milk) since before Xmas. I am really looking forward to living in a small space, a space where every item will have to account for it’s place in a drawer, in a cupboard, on a shelf. I’m looking forward to only having the things I need and the few things I love. My poster arrived this week for the wall at the end of my bed in the van. With a timber frame around it I think it will look really good. Down lights under the overhead cupboards will light it up nicely. A nice familiar image to see when I wake up in different places. After looking on eBay for ages, searching for a particular type of tap set, actually I found it in my own garden on an old enamal sink I bought 6 years ago. These taps will be perfect with my copper preserving pan sink! My last Mountain Arts for a while. I entered two artworks this year. A cowboy relaxing after his event.
Dorrigo, Silver Spurs, Campdraft earlier this year. Sold at the exhibition. I was feeling as though my van was going to be a mismatch of bits and pieces with no real theme. That is until last night when it came to me in a dream. The van needed a name, A personality, A colour scheme. Out of the blue, in a flash of some kind, I knew she was called... ‘Juniper. Juniper is the little cat friend i’ve had beside me for 8 years. A dear little cat who’s job in life has been to sit on laps And dribble a tiny bit if she’s really happy. Juniper is staying here. In the lane that has become her home. With the people she knows and the new owners of this house. Juniper in spirit will be in my home, Juniper will still be with me as I roam. Update on Juniper the cat. She ended up at my brother’s place. He loves her to bits and I get to see her all the time. Purrfect 😊 My home no longer feels like my home. It feels like the back room at Vinnies!
Boxes everywhere, newspaper and bubble wrap, confusion and a twitch of mayhem 😬 it was nice to go out today, to deliver art for the Easter Art Show (my last for a while), to pick up art from the gallery and then to share coffee with friends at a lovely little Dorrigo café. It felt like my life was a bit stable...for a little while. The cure for the ‘not quite sure of anything’ wobbles is to go to Flickerfest, the short comedy film festival. The cure all for everything is to laugh 😀 It’s amazing what you find when you clear out absolutely everything.
This morning I found a mobile phone. A Motorola. One of the ones that you could remove and replace the battery yourself! One that still charges after being in a box for ten years! One that doesn’t have a camera much less internet! I’m reluctant to throw it away. It’s good reminder of simpler times. Doesn’t time move fast? I thought an iPhone 4 was super old until I found this one today. When I see things like this, when I stop a moment to think. When the Apple salesman tells me that i’ll be doing well if a $4000 laptop computer lasts more than 4 years! When I stop still and reflect a bit, I know i’m on the right track. Despite the mess and mayhem of emptying a house right now, a ‘little house on wheels’ is the one for me. I have to go where time slows down, where the days are spent in mindful observance of nature, when having a shower is a thoughtful, well planned activity, when cooking a simple meal is a wonderful activity and not just a necessity. All the time saving gadgets....where is the ‘saved’ time? Is it in a box somewhere? Will the battery still charge after 10 years? I’m off To find that ‘saved time’. This morning I am off to the post office to send 10 packages of things I sold on ebay yesterday. I sold three pairs of fabulous Doc Martens and and seven pieces of signed Colin Heaney glassware. Three pieces are going back to where I used to live about 30 years ago! You just can't predict the future can you? put one foot in front of the other and eventually you will see that the place you are heading to is the place that you should be! People in my house..... every day now. 'How much for this?' How much for that?' 'You have such lovely stuff they all say. 'Are you sure?' 'Don't you think you should store stuff in case this isn't really what you want?' 'You might not like it once you've been on the road for a little while'. 'You might want to settle somewhere and have your things around you' I think they all care and I think they will miss me .... just a little bit. But I have spent a lot of time on this, done so much research that my head sometimes feels as though it is full of wet cotton wool. I have watched every single YouTube clip on van conversions and a great many on Tiny Houses and Teardrop campers too. Ask me anything!! I've looked into compost toilets, small stoves, both gas and spirit, deisel heaters and hot water systems. I've buried myself in solar panels and batteries, in weight and storage spaces. In fact i've buried myself in so much research over the past year I am beginning to feel like a mole (or some other underground digging creature). I searched high and low for a builder, someone who would do my van conversion with me and for me. Someone who wouldn't say, 'what you should do is..... Someone who would appreciate that I can think... and draw a half reasonable floor plan... to scale. My friends ask, 'where will you go?' They all ask that as though it's a destination, not a journey. 'Wherever the wind blows me', I reply. 'There are fantastic places everywhere, photo oportunities around every corner'. Ideas keep popping into my head.
It's fantastic to have a few weeks to fine tune the plan. I only have 5 weeks to empty my house for the new owners...that is not very long! And then I have 2 months (less hopefully) to live with my mini pod camper as my bedroom before my van conversion is complete. I have the van booked in for the conversion but I don’t have the van yet! I have the plan for the van fitout and a list of and all the things I want for my new tiny home on wheels but I don’t have the money yet! I have a big sense of adventure without knowing where I will go! Sometimes the not knowing is part of the adventure. 😊 When I bought a van, an old Toyota HiAce I called Scooby. I wanted to be where the photos were, to relax and snooze while waiting for sunset, make food and to have a nap, to be there in the morning for those great sunrise shots. Scooby and I did have some great adventures and went on a couple of fantastic road trips but she was old, she had no air con or power steering and she did a head gasket on my first trip and ....we always had to come home. Not perfect really. Scooby, once repaired, went to a good home in Bellingen and I bought a tent! A fantastic tent. I camped at Gloucester, NSW and took some great night sky photos but it was still a lot of lugging stuff in and out of the car - lots of setting up and packing up - and dealing with a wet tent when I got home. So Then.... ....after almost a year of looking at and researching 'Tiny Homes' and 'Teardrop campers' I bought a wonderful little mini pod camper I called Daisy.
Perfect in so many ways. She has a little solar panel and USB charging port and lights, cupboard inside for clothing, cupboards outside for all sorts of necessary stuff and a box at the front for tarps, pegs, etc. A great, comfortable little bed on wheels. She's light and is registered as a trailer. This is it! The day of reckoning. After today it’s a case of re-locating all the beautiful things, the artworks, the sculptures, the antiques. Today I take the first steps into ‘living tiny’, creating a much much smaller footprint on the earth. Following my principles of having (mostly) only the things I need and not too many wants. I don’t have the van just yet but i’m looking. The Fiat Ducato LWB is my choice so far. My builder in Mudgee, and I have sent many emails back and forth with designs and ideas. I draw a floor plan and he turns it into a 3D drawing. I am well impressed! |
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