Another busy day

And they are all going to be like that from now on until I move out. Yesterday I decided that it was time to install my new fridge in the caravan. I took the old one out over a week ago and it’s now gone to the déchetterie and the new one has been ready to be put in for about the same amount of time.

The old fridge was one of those ‘multi’ power supply ones that could use 12V or 220V electricity or gas and that don’t work very well on any of them as a result. Now the caravan can’t be used for touring it makes sense to have a ‘proper’ domestic fridge that runs only on 220V mains electricity and it took me a little while to find one that would fit into the available space, a small Beko model.

The original fridge was about the same depth overall as the Beko but was of much reduced depth in its bottom because of having to fit over the caravan’s wheel arch. This was all well and good but this considerably reduced its capacity and made it much less functional for long term use, as I intend to use it. The Beko is much better in that respect but the difference means, of course, that it sticks out more into the caravan itself.

I don’t care about that and in fact, as you can see in the shots that follow, I came up with a design that incorporates a little wooden shelf over the fridge that will not only protect it from any cooking spills or splashes but will also be handy for placing small items on while the gas hob is in use.

There is a metal plate below the sink/hob unit of the same width that originally incorporated all the switches and knobs associated with the gas hob and the old fridge. As the new fridge doesn’t need any of those and the gas hob only requires the three original control knobs and air entry holes I had to make blanking plates up to cover the rest. I then just painted the whole thing gloss black which leaves a bit to be desired from the aesthetics point of view but is still an improvement on what was there, which was rusty with its paint flaking off in places.

I needed a small piece of plywood to make the little over-fridge shelf from and the other day I came across quite a large sheet in my garden tool store that I’d forgotten about. While I was getting it out I also realised that some pieces of roofing sheet left-over from when I built the tool store might be suitable for repairing the floor of my large trailer that collapsed in places when I loaded the old ride-on mower to take to the déchetterie, so I got those out too.

And to cut a long story short, when I tried them in place, although a bit heavy they were ideal, so I then spent an hour repairing the trailer. If I’d planned it a bit better I could have got the replacement floor supported better than I did, but it didn’t turn out too badly and now at least, to my relief, I’ll have the trailer to use to take my ride-on mower, cement mixer, plant plots and other heavy items into storage. Here’s how it looked.

I managed to get everything done (just) yesterday before thunderstorms swept in. They persisted on and off for much of the evening but had ceased by the time that I went to bed (in the caravan). However, I was woken up this morning by constant rumblings of thunder and made it back into the house at around 7.00 am during a lull in the rain. After a hasty breakfast I then returned to the caravan to fit the metal plate that I mentioned above that I’d left overnight in my workshop while its paint dried and after finishing I thought no more about it when, after I’d returned to the house, the thunderstorm resumed but with more intensity.

When I went back to the caravan, I found water on the floor and that the edge of the duvet on my bed had also got wet. The reason was that I’d left all of the three roof lights open as I thought that they’d give enough protection to not allow water to enter.

But I was wrong. Luckily, things had not come to too much harm and it didn’t take too much time to mop the water up. The edge of my bed will dry during the day and in any case, I’ve had much worse while camping in a tent! But better to find this out now rather then when I’m installed in the caravan over on my land in Fleurac 😉