Our summer road trip. Day 1 to 10.

With summer winding down, it is time to share our summer 2019 adventure. We had an entire month in the Netherlands. You might think we were going to get lost on things to do....... but not with a bus conversion!

Day 1 :

Jet-lagged but super excited to get started on a week of working on the bus Frank began with finishing the electricity. Early on in the conversion my dad had put in cables and wiring throughout the bus. So Frank had to connect the circuit breaker. Nice challenge! But by the end of the day we had electricity!

We were also happy with the cushion covers we had made in Singapore by Centrepiece Furnishing. Even though we were questioned about the choice of colour (we preferred something light and neutral) the fabric is easy to clean.

Day 2 - 3 Next up - doors for all the cabinets and making curtains. While Frank measured all the wood my mom and I continued with the curtains. Initially, we had 3 sets of different curtains in mind, (blackout, see-through and fly-screens) but that was over-optimistic, we could not get 3 sets completed in 3 days. The highest priority was blackout, in view of the long summer nights so we got on with making those!

Day 4

We experienced the hottest 25 June in the Netherlands ever. Frank had measured out all the wood and put cupboard doors together and he was ready to put them into their positions but not after purchasing 2 small fans to keep the air circulating in the bus.

Meanwhile, I was getting quite good at sewing curtains and adding strips where we could slot in the small magnets (purchased at the Singapore 2 doller shop!)

Considering nothing is straight in our bus putting doors in is quite a challenge!

Day 5

Kitchen cabinet doors, toilet door, cupboard doors and curtains were done! At the end of the afternoon we took LYFE out for some food shopping. A little feeling of the adventure to come - finding a parking spot for the bus in a supermarket parking lot.

Day 6 - 7 - 8

We had been dreading this final step. The floor! We had purchased the laminate even before the bus arrived in the Netherlands in December 2017. The thing we purchased first we actually put in last. Again, considering nothing is symmetrical the floor was a nightmare to install. We tried three times and still we aren't happy. We love the colour, we love the nice vibe it gives, but at the moment don't look at it too closely!

Day 9

We were looking at the floor too closely.... and decided to give the floor another go! After this final time it would just have to do. We were tired of trying.

Day 10

Busy day getting the bus ready for day 11 - the first day of our road-trip. For our clothes, 3 of us - F,E & Y had a shelf each in the cupboard, which was plenty of space. And another space under the seat was reserved for L. (The other space under the other seat is our shoe cabinet.)

Under the big sofa we stored items such as the coffee machine, toaster oven and other kitchen items we don't need immediately such as storage containers and bags.

Items such as cutlery, cups, plates, drinking glasses, tea towels and all other kitchen utensils have a place in the kitchen cabinets. Towels are stored in a basket under our bed and toiletries are in our 'bathroom', which is actually a storeroom because everything we don't want to look at, is in that little room!