After a lot of blood, sweat and tears, our camper 'Lewes' has had a complete internal renovation!

Its been hard work to do it ourselves with no experience of this kind of thing, but we were so ambitious that this little van was going to take us to some mighty fine places, we worked our fingers to the bone {quite literally}.

We bought our 1978 Volkswagen Type 2 Bus from a lovely couple in near Lewes in Sussex a few months ago. Their three boys were growing out of it, and so had to put it up for sale.

After coming back from a camping trip in Dorset, I received an email telling me the van was still for sale, so we made a detour and headed along to view it. We fell in love and although we looked closely for any rusty problems, our eyes were blinded by love I think!

It came with all the original Devon conversion interior which is extremely 70s {and makes me feel so old that I was born in this year}. I loved it, but we knew it would need a bit of work to make it nice and cosy.

{'before' photos taken by the previous owners}

When we had it back home, we took out all of the interior so that we could get a good look at the bare metal and inspect the rust properly. We un-earthed 33 years worth of fossilised insects and some

sweet wrappers that belonged in a museum and other crud. In fact there was evidence of probably every trip, tucked down the crevasses between the units that are impossible to reach without taking them all out. The cupboards and units themselves are made from chipboard, and we found they were quite rotten at the bottom and swollen up, it was time for them to be replaced.

We found mostly surface rust in patches, but unfortunately, all four seat belt anchor points had rust through to the wheel arch, ouch! {amazingly it came with 12 months MOT!}We knew about some of the damage but not all of it. And, we discovered the battery tray so rusted that it could have just fallen out onto the motorway!

After a lot of Internet searching, we found a lovely guy called Ian from Mayflower MG & VW Services Ltd in Brixton, and after a lot of tutting and chin rubbing, {like mechanics seem to do a lot of} he fixed our van up a treat and gave us lots of helpful info and a free spare wheel!

So then, after a few weeks of sitting idle, we had Lewes back and we started work cleaning, sanding and treating all the rust, re-spraying the interior metal {as it was a bit rusty and with green spray paint along the window sills}, insulating and laying the flooring etc etc etc...

I had already done most of the upholstery work, which you can read more about here although fitting it into the van took longer than the sewing and covering!

FINALLY, we were ready for our first weekend away, the most exciting day of my life {except our wedding of course ; )}  We went to a campsite near East Grinstead, about an hour and half from South London.

Our van now looks like this...

Two very proud owners!

Actually 90% of the work we did is hidden underneath all the carpet and walls etc... but anyways...

Nao sanded down the original table legs that screw into the top and made a lovely new table out of pine, beautifully sanded and oiled.

We found two little bedside cabinets at a junk shop and thought they were just the right size for our van and looked quite 70s. We repainted them in off-white and sanded down the wooden handles.

And I made some bunting out of some vintage Japanese silk remnants which were a present from a very good friend of our in Tokyo, who's parents own a Kimono shop. I love the silk manufacturers stamp!

we used pure wool carpet, of course very impractical! but extremely cosy. So no shoes allowed.

the cab part had a face lift too, after a lot of sanding and re-spraying, we laid down seagrass matting but kept the original VW black matt at the front {I washed it in the bath!}.

so nice to have kitchen drawers! we don't even have this in our flat.

and a TINY fridge...

because of the fumes, I decided to fill our old hurricane lanterns with fairy lights instead...they are battery operated.

What a treat to go away camping and taking a suitcase...its like going on a train trip...

a few essentials ; )

The seat folds out into a very comfortable bedroom with dual aspect windows {I learnt that phrase from an Estate Agent}

I was very happy with the way the sun light shone through the curtains bringing the animals to life!

I also made a linen padded spare wheel cover, but it didn't go to plan! I will have to re-make it at some point. You can just about see it behind that bag. {by the way, wellies from B&Q!}

The bed frame was in a bad state too, all the white plastic coating was coming off. I just gave it a quick sand and enamel paint but needs a bit more work {one day!}.

There are clips in the corner to store the table legs when not in use, clever innit!

It was very lucky of us to get such nice crispy Autumn weather, and a good view too...

The table comes with four legs so we can use it outdoors too, so you can have tea and bicces and look over the rolling English countryside...

for your information, this was very agreeable.

There was a lovely fishing pond at the campsite too, and funnily enough, about ten other VW campervans!

After having an Automatic Nissan Micra, Nao soon got the hang of driving this VERY manual bus.

...and I think, he is looking like a bus driver already.  

We went to some lovely National Trust properties during our stay, but this post is WAY to long as it is, so I will save that for another day.

But, there will be plenty more tales from Lewes soon, I am sure you are going to get very bored!

having been born and bred on the Isle of Wight, I thought it quite odd that I never had visited the New Forest! Its a huge area of National Park land on the south coast, just a short hop over the water from good ol'Wighty. So, we chucked our stuff in the car and went in search of some sun {ANY sun!} for our first wedding anniversary weekend.

I loved the damp green velvety moss all over the trees and the ground, the huge tall pine trees and of course, the wild horses that roam about freely in the woods and heathland areas. Within the park lies some towns and villages, and quite astonishingly, those horses are free to walk down the middle of the roads, into the villages, eating anything in their paths, we saw one big old horse standing head on to a car coming the other way, looking as though it was going to charge at it, its all very amusing. Lots of foals too which are unbelievably cute!

one day we took our camping stove and various pickles and cheeses to a steam in the woods and had ourselves a very fine luncheon.

we were staying at a campsite right in the middle of the woods, on a farm. It was horrendously full, but we found a spot at the bottom field right opposite a pond, which was lovely.

as a treat, I splashed out on some new sleeping bags, I hate that sweaty nylon feel of our old bags. These are from Anorak, 100% cotton, made in Britain! mine has seagulls on it, and Nao's has stags.

a nice bbq and a rest in front of the pond, looovelllyyy.

next day was our anniversary, one whole year of being a Mr. and a Mrs. {accept of course I'm a Ms.!}

we had lots to ponder about, but i have to say that being married is very nice indeed and highly recommended!

I made Nao a card in the few minutes before we left for our trip, it leaves little to be desired but its the thought that counts, right?

and Nao made me a ring! a little Laurel Leaf carved ring of 18ct white gold. It is the same design as his wedding ring. He also lined an antique ring box with Liberty print fabric, amazing!

after packing up we went down to Lymington which I am fairly familiar with as it has a car-ferry connection to the Isle of Wight. But we went on a Puffin Cruise, a small boat which takes people out onto the Solent. We wanted to go on a long trip to see the Needles lighthouse but it was cancelled, so we went for a quick trip to the Solent and back anyways...

the sky was grey and spectacular.

back at the harbour, we had a drink and sat on the harbour wall and admired the locals...

lots of crab fishing going on!

after inspecting every campsite in the Forest, we ended up going back to the original one seeing as we had already paid for it, it was very busy and tightly packed, but we managed to have a very lovely evening in fact!

We ate asparagus and shitake mushrooms, {asparagus make my wee smell really odd, is it just me?}.

Nao washed his hair in a bowl, and I helped.

going back home, we met some more locals who seemed to think the roads are there for them...

we stopped by Beaulieu and had a nap in a meadow and fed some horses...

and then back to London, ACCEPT we made a de-tour to west-sussex where we also broke down! But thats another story {which i will tell you later on!}.