Week 14 - Pump, Heating, Steps and Shower Extractor
A lot done but also a comedy of errors this week.
First off, the bad stuff… worktop you see in the pictures hasn’t been cut to the correct dimensions I requested so it’s just plonked there for worktop space so we can get on with other stuff. Should be getting a replacement this week hopefully.
Then I finally got the diesel tank dropped and plumbed in the heater/boiler from Truma… which then failed after 15 mins and needs a convoluted warranty repair due to a faulty PCB 😡 Top 5 hits for engineers on their website they pointed me to also are either out of business or don’t do warranty work because of how difficult the process is… so that’s fun… also turns out that their fancy new control panel doesn’t have a basic timer function yet, so it’s on or off, because who doesn’t want a small diesel genny running under their head all night? Even the cheapo ones 10% the cost have that! Maybe when it’s fixed it’ll be ok but pretty annoyed at the moment.
Then the fresh and waste water tanks arrived with the wrong fitting kit. Advertised as one thing and sent the other. Also they arrived with barely enough pipework to reach the van floor, let alone to the tanks themselves. 🙄
Last one was trying to get the shower extractor in… this was always a worry for us and we nearly didn’t bother 😅 but we went ahead and I managed to drill in completely the wrong place like a right tit 🤣 completely my cock up.
RIGHT. Onto the good stuff this week! 😅 So, remember I warned a lot happened this week, though it may not look it…
- Worktop cut outs are proven to be ok despite the cock up in external dimensions, and we have them sort of installed just as somewhere to put stuff, the central aisle is now as final design at least minus doors and paint .
- Door front for slide/gin cabinet is on and a wine bottle holder underneath stuck on with tape till painted (It was dead space and all that would fit).
- Water pump assembly and garage cabinet has been built… and rebuilt… and rebuilt… about 5 times now… but finally how I want it ... for now... and access is now easier for all the pipes and the Truma (when it starts bloody working longer than 10/15 mins!) also tested the pipework as it stands and got the fresh water feed installed for the main tank when it can be installed. On that note, the fresh tank has been assembled ready for when the correct fitting kit arrives and I managed to install the level sensor right where a chassis strut needs to butt up against 🙃 again, can’t cut holes in the right place.
- Shower roof fitted, walls also arrived, just plain white now as everything else was £300 for one panel! Seemed an absolute joke so decided not to bother.
- Then this weekend Ellen got loads of sanding done, ordered the kitchen tap, bought some curtains she didn’t like and painted so much I’ve lost track! Whilst she did that, I built a heavy duty slide out step for accessing the bed (100kg capable drawer runners!) with a solid oak top and decided to put a pull out leg underneath just for extra peace of mind.
- With the roof lining fitted I could then fit the shower extractor and light as already mentioned… managed to wire up the extractor fan straight to the main switch in error but not really problem I guess 🤦🏻♂️ just means the "off" on the unit itself is extract only with no light. Still main control is on the outside switch.
- Also I built the headboard that also separates out the garage area properly and will let us mount an external shower and a heater vent to run up the back of the van for when we take it snowboarding (I hope). Finally the walls around the shower cubicle and at the front of the shower have been installed.
Next week should see proper worktops and shower floor arrive and maybe a gas engineer and Truma engineer will actually be interested in doing the jobs we need them to do.
Oh! I nearly forgot! The mattress and seat foam should arrive tomorrow or Tuesday! 😱 then it’ll really start to look done! (Apart from top level cabinets… but they’re very low priority)
Now though, beer and cocktails after a long exhausting weekend!
