A room with a view

Its actually an office with a view.

The office where i work these days has a great view out across Burnley, Lancashire, England. (In case any non UK readers happen to stop by).

Worsthorne Moor and the Mary Townley loop, within spitting distance, where much of my running has been done in the past and hopefully in the future, we also have a nice grassed area outside the front of the office, all of which makes it idea for bringing Eska our dog to work each day.

As i type Eska is laid out on the office floor, exhausted from chasing her ball around in our lunch break. (Yes, a real lunch break). Eska is only 18 months old so much fitter than me, however that doesn't stop me from trying to beat her to the ball.

Our Campervan sits at home on the drive as i usually get a lift to Townley park in the mornings where Eska and i walk for a while before starting work. The route home is a little harder as this usually involves jogging up hill for 3 miles and then over the moors to home.

 I have yet to measure the whole route but in fair weather it usually takes us about 2 hours and 20 minutes, when i start training again i'm pretty sure i can get that well under 2 hours.

Currently i only run the whole route once a week and walk parts of it while waiting for my partner to pick me up along the way.

First things first, get well enough to train.

Building a campervan part 2

You wouldn't believe how much work there is in converting a van into a campervan, so far i would guess that it has taken 2 months of evenings and weekends and cost way too much.

The problem is very much one of familiarity, i have not converted a van to camper before so had very little idea about what was involved, obviously i knew it would need insulation and carpet lining, a bed and kitchen but i did not intend to do each job to such a high standard. There seems very little point in doing this unless i do it the best i can.

I bough 24 square metres of smoke coloured carpet and have since bought another 4 metres, add in the 36 cans of contact adhesive the cost is around £200.

When it came to the carpet lining i started with the ceiling and used one piece of carpet for the whole ceiling (as you would expect). The sides are covered in one piece again and i also covered the wheel arches with the same piece. This stretch carpet is the dogs bolloxs, although not a simple job it really isn't that hard and with a little thought and forward thinking the bigger sections where completed.

The hard part was all the little parts and joins, the C posts by the back door i had expected to be difficult but all went smoothly, i carpeted right up to the door seals. I also carpeted the wheel arch boxes on the inside as i figure this will reduce any rattles from stuff stored in there. 

The door panels are screwed on with the screws enclosed in plastic caps, i have done it this way so these panels can be removed to gain access if needed. It must be a nightmare for mechanics working on some of these campers.

Although i have carpeted way more than i needed, i do very much like the (nearly) finished job, the carpet starts half way across the B posts and ends at the door seals on the C posts.

Just behind the front passenger seats is the Rock and Roll bed, i travelled to Bridgend in South Wales to buy it,  although expensive the quality of the finish is very good. 

Its way too heavy for me to remove from the van on my own so i just keep shoving it out of the way and working around it. Eventually it will live near the rear doors.

The boxes around the wheel arches will be used for storage on one side and the other contains the leisure battery and any tools we may need to carry. Both boxed area's will also form extensions for the bed to make it full width.

Since taking this picture i have made carpeted panels for most the the white area's and boxed off the rear door check straps. Although the carpeting is almost complete there are still a couple of little jobs remaining, these need to have the kitchen units in place to finish and i still need to figure out how i'm going to make the door for the storage compartment above the bulkhead.

Next job, that will be making the kitchen units. That should be interesting - honest. :)