Not much driving lately, so plenty of time to slightly make adjustment and improvement to an already near perfect home… Truth is, even in small scale, a home is never finish…

Having being surrounded by other people living on the road full time, has given me the chance to see if the path chosen during construction, was the right one… Well, I would say I got it 98% perfect, to quote my old avatar.. I have seen both, better and worse solutions for the everyday living in an RV. One thing that I still haven’t see even once, are those bus conversion that are all advertised on youtube..

Now back when in Toowoomba I felt a bit short on clothesline space, mainly because of the two constant washing per week. The original clothesline I had mounted on the side was also getting rusted, so I decided to first buy a new one and second to mounted next to the old one being restored.. They are around the $70 and by buying 9 pieces of aluminium at Bunnings for a total cost of $27, I was able to remove all the old rusty pieces… Very easy job…

I also did managed to finish the front and side windows curtains that do make a huge different to the inside privacy and a lot more comfortable night for the guest bed.. They obviously also lower a bit the inside temperature, that at the moment it’s a welcome news.. This was also the first summer where I got to test the new Air Conditioner and it can easily take the inside temperature down from 37.9° (at 9am 😬) to a more liveable 24°..

If I close the bedroom door then we can go into the 18°, but that’s too much for my taste.. I also tested again the inverter side of it back in October, and yes, unfortunately the Truma heater is not really something I would sorely count on, if I founded myself down south in winter… The Diesel heater here is still the King of the Castle… Cheap, simple, quick and very very hot!

As mentioned in the Travelogue, I was given an Engel fridge, that at the moment with the current heat has been renamed “Angel Fridge”. It did fit very nicely between the washing machine and the BBQ.. Apparently Paul reckon that I really needed one… I think he was right!

Driving around and parking in places at night also did proved to be non an easy task especially when reversing. So in addition to the two already large LED rear light I managed to mount a very large working flood LED light.. Kinda of a smaller version of a front spot light, but it does work very well to the point that now I can reverse at night by just looking into the monitor and barely using the mirrors… Purchased from the UK as I couldn’t find them here in Aus…

My old Christmas light also did stop working (use them once last year) just two days before the 25th of December, so again from Bunnings we got a nice replacement that in line with everybody else around me, I manage to attached to the awning instead of the body.

A little bonus was that by choosing the white LED instead of the coloured ones, they can be used as outdoor light as well.. Then being 240 volts instead of the solar with battery backup, hopefully they will last more than a single use…

Bad news for my dining vinyl seats.. I honestly didn’t know this, but vinyl only comes with a three years warranty from the upholsterer. I got nearly 4 years out of them, so I can’t really complain. I was under the impression that the guy did use the vinyl for marine application, but who knows what’s going on down there..

I feel a bit sorry about blaming Baldrick for when I noticed the first crack in the vinyl few months ago, but as it turned out, it wasn’t the zip in his motorcycle jacket that made that long crack on the back rest, but simply the sun doing his job of deteriorating the vinyl…

So in the meantime, while I contemplate what to use next as “proper” material, I took advantage of an Aldi special and used 4 sheep skin in the usual grey colour. At around $200 the do the job for the moment and who knows, perhaps I just started a new trend especially for vegetarian or vegan.. Sheep skin at the dining table anyone??? Baaahhh…

Once again, my new neighbours Paul, made me realise that the entrance in my garage, could have done with an extra couple of handles at the door.. As it just turned out, the previous week I had to remove the handles from the Fridge to installed in the bins area, so it just happen that they did fit their new purpose extremely well..

I love the fact that you cant see the screws used to mount the handles and that the handle are small enough to do fit your hands but not to big to look like disable handles in a public toilet..

Finally I also added a new little portable gas stove to the BBQ. I realise that sometime is quicker for something small to use the little unit, instead of going inside and use the diesel cooker.. Again it was a gift and again I would like to say a thank you Paul and Alison for being so generous to me..

Next week there will be a bit of pre winter cleaning (lots of throw away stuff never used since day one) and then we’ll be away for a new destination. However, with the current prices of fuel, I will still not travel to much. A friend just came back from Perth on a similar vehicle and it cost him a whopping $4600. In his words “the most expensive hole in his vehicle, ever”… Crossing the Nullabour didn’t obviously helped as even in normal times, those few servos are really making the most of it, because of no competition…