Today my Van swallowed a whole sheet of plywood in one big gulp.
With the help of my Bro™, we man-handled the sheet into the back of the van. I parked strategically on the road to give us space to cut the board up outside. The neighbours didn’t seem to mind us using the space, that was until I spotted that their car had a fine dusting of man-glitter all over it!
We had spent 4 hours of measuring, cutting, re-measuring and then trimming and swearing. Their car looked like it belonged in a head and shoulders advert, there was sawdust all over it. This was quickly solved with my Bro™’s hose (snigger) washing off the evidence just as the neighbour came out to use the car to go into town.
It was really great working together with my Bro™. I imagine, we had grown up as typical suburban siblings. Boisterous and loud, always arguing and teasing each other. Chasing eachother around the garden and out into oncoming traffic… ahh childhood… It must have driven the parentals mentals! But a good 3-4 years of separation while I was at Uni meant that when we did see each other, there wasn’t anything left to fight about. Maybe our formative years had gotten it all out of our systems.
Well that’s a good thing really because DIY is notoriously high stress and can lead to mega arguments. But not us; Bro™ kept me cool and calm and relaxed. On my own I tend to fluster and get more and more worked up if something doesn’t go right, but this just seemed to flow.
So now the van is half panelled, the complicated walls are done. I HAVE to do two things now that I have sort of been putting off.
- Seal up the holes in the roof
- Tackle auto electrics
I’ve decided to forgo getting the holes in the roof welded. It turns out that finding someone who can weld, is easy. But finding someone that will weld up the holes for less than the cost of my kidneys is impossible. I’ve got some special flexible sealant and some big penny washers and bolts to plug them. Should do the trick, right?
The Sketchy Eleccy plan has changed slightly, I didn’t think I could do a neat job to keep them tidy and remain accessible. I got myself some ducting and I’m doing a #ProperJob and having them all hidden behind the panels. It will look much better and neater but will take a bit longer and cost more… my obsessive compulsive alter-ego will be happy though.