Kitchen furniture

Ordered a foldable light-weight kitchen furniture from Amazon. 

Christmas illumination

Naturally the camper needs Christmas decorations. Added two LED light chains around the windows.

Curtains

The last remaining curtains to be affixed were out of stock at Amazon. So I tried ordering them at AliExpress. Arrived safe and sound. The blue hue is a bit different than the large curtains at the back, but that does not matter. 

Two curtains (length each 132cm) are now at the triple window, and two less wide curtains (86cm) are at the double window. 

The new sofa

Considering the weight issue I abandoned my original plans of having a solid seating bench made out of wood. Instead I looked at Amazon and found a foldable camping bench. Only 8 kg weight.

Here is the sofa in my hallway right after unpacking:

And here I put it in the camper, added a blanket and two cushions.

The first snow

The all-year tyres had been mounted just in time. On Friday it began to snow.

Winter resp. All-Weather Tyres

It will get cold soon, and the camper only has summer tyres. Also, they are in not ideal condition, and each wheel has a different tyre. They often do this in UK ...

So I decided to get all-weather tyres. This will allow me to drive the van in winter in snow and ice.

In the shop they had a hard time removing the screws. Apparently the wheels had not been off since 2014.

One of the inner rear tyres was actually flat.

So now winter can come - 6 brand-new all-year all-weather tyres. 

I got Matador MPS 400 Variant. 

https://www.matador.tires/de/de/car/tyres/mps400-variant-all-weather-2/

Again repositioning the table

The previous repositioning of the table still was too high. So I removed the board, added a new one, and placed the table now at a height of 70cm. This is finally OK for properly sitting on the chair and being able to eat at the table.

In my stuff I found the old lamp from my kitchen in 1990. I added this above the table, to have a dinner lamp.

 

The Gas Heater

The new gas bottle was connected to the heater, this time with the pressure regulator which has a pressure gauge.

With a gas sensor I try to find out if there are leaks.

There are no leaks - status is "green".

The pressure of the gas bottle is OK.

Now there is nice heat in the van - and I can continue working.

Autumn leaves on the roof

The camper is parked under a maple tree. Now in autumn the leaves fall on the roof and provide a nice colorful seasonal display. 

More about the panorama doors

A small bolt was added inside of the right door to keep it closed. It lathes into a hole in the bottom.

At the left door a horizontal bolt was added which allows closing the left door and affixing it to the right door.

The lower part of the panorama doors nicely shows the blurred outlook.

Fire equipment

Added two fire extinguishers, cor class A and B fires. These are foam extinguishers, not suitable for gas fires. Only powder extinguishers would also be for class C, but the powder is highly corrosive and is not suitable for campers.

A fire blanket would be for a fire in the kitchen a fat fire, to be thrown over a burning fat pan.

More Curtains

The thermo-curtains have now also been hung at the rear. They provide a tight closure, without letting any light through, and with providing some insulation from heat or cold.

Themro-curtains closed.

Thermo-curtains open.

The other smaller windows now also have each a white transparent curtain.

Curtains

In 1989 I bought my very first curtains, for my very first flat. I bought then the very cheapest curtains that I could get. Had them for several years at the panoramic window of two flats, then had it packaged for more than 25 years. Now I unearthed them.

My friend and neighbor Nicole offered to shorten the curtain with her sewing machine, just folding the curtain so that it later might again be extended to its original length.

Curtains at the panoramic window. There are two dark blue curtains waiting at the sides of the window/door - will be mounted on a railing, to block out the light and keep the warmth inside.

Staying in Munich - meeting friends and relatives

Camper again in travelling mode, then in living/camping mode. Travelling to Munich. Annual meeting with the former team of UniBwM around Prof. E.D.Dickmanns. 

A few of the team members at dinner.

The gas cooker which I had bought a few years ago, came in handy for making a good cuppa (= cup of tea). And the gas heater provided a good and pleasant heat in the room.

I also visited the Starnberger See (Lake Starnberg) for a bit of sightseeing. Nice view of the Alps!

View of the Alps towards south, over the Lake Starnberg.

The camper at a parking near Starnberg.

Also visited my friend and colleague Winfried in Munich. We had breakfast together.

And in the evening I had dinner with my distant relative Klaus and his wife Helga. I had not seen him since 1972!

 

Blinds

From my flat in UK I had saved the horizontal blinds. Good that I did not throw them out. I had them since October 2008. They fit very well onto the panoramic door/window of the van. A bit short, but that is OK.

The blinds before the carpet was laid.

The blinds after the carpet was laid.

Carpet floor

Got a piece of carpet. Blue, 4.00 m x 2.15 m. 

The carpet roll is lying on the left

I had to cut it down to 2.08 m x 3.44 m . Could be easily done with a scissors.

Originally I had planned to put an underlaying layer, e.g. rubber or insulating material. But for now I just wanted to see how it looks, so no layer, just directly onto the wooden floor.

Removing all the stuff, then arranging the carpet from the back. Then placing items again onto the carpet.

Looks immediately so much better!

All carpeting now done.

 

The doors - continued

The doors already had their frame mounted onto the Plexiglass, But I now needed to place the blurry foil at the lower half of the doors. So I had to unscrew the frame at the lower door segment, then place the foil onto the Plexiglass, then affix the frame bars again. In addition I added a center frame as an upper limit of the blurry glass area.

After preparing the doors, I needed now to attach them to the frame into the van. First I used two external hinges in the middle height, to affix the doors at the sides of the frame.

However, when trying to add the other hidden hinges, this was not possible because they were smaller, and the axis of the hinges did not coincide. Therefore, I needed to remove the outer center hinge and only use the hidden hinges. For each door I used 5 of these hinges. This works OK.

Affixing the blurry foil onto the lower half of a door.

One of the hidden hinges

One of the doors in its place.

The doors in their place at the van.

View from the inside through the doors.

Using vertical blinds as a cover for these doors

First "locks" from the inside - for keeping the doors in place.

Missing now is still the actual door lock and the door handle. I have the parts, but will need to solve a few problems regarding the way this lock will be used for opening and closing/locking.