The Final Shakedown!

Phew!

What a month – so much has happened since our last post and I think we are all feeling the effects of it, so I will give you a little taste of whats been going on before I go cross-eyed in front of the laptop and you get bored of reading my waffle!

Well, we are now officially houseless with good old Stanley being our family home. My mother kindly refers to us as ‘The Gypsies’!

Our Property Manager advertised our house on the internet at approx. 8pm on a Wednesday and the eventual tenant came through at 2.30pm the next day! Now that really made things speed up!

We had already started moving things out of the house but now it was all being done in a rush, with almost a photo finish! We owe many family, friends & workmates a big THANK YOU for getting us out on time with many trips to our storage unit – we could not have done it ourselves. My first tip to anyone thinking of doing this is to give yourself a reasonable amount of time to complete everything, with an end date in sight and then adding another week (at least)!

Stanley has been parked at a friends house (Cheers, the very patient Chris) and it was our intention to stay in Perth and try & get all the last minute things done, however, we have an ongoing booking at a caravan park in Busselton over Easter and after some consideration decided to undergo a final shakedown before our departure. If we are going to be living in the van anyway why not Busselton which is where I am writing this from (luckily our broadband setup runs on 12volt).

Paul has designed and installed a new box (built by Wayne and the boys at Kenfab) for Stanley’s front end. It’s a beauty and photos are sure to follow. It has speccy slides for the generator, a separate compartment for two gas bottles and a heap of storage. It’s very blokey and I tease him and say that its real purpose is so that he can check it out with other fellas while having a beer and making grunting noises! Surprisingly enough there was absolutley no denial from him.

Dave, a plumber friend  gave up a precious family Sunday afternoon to help us out and we owe him and his lovely wife Jo big time. Dave finished the installation of the washing machine plumbing, fixed up the gas lines to the box, installed a tap on the box and fitted a fancy dancy gas bayonet to the exterior of Stanley to hook the barbie up to. LEGEND!

The kids have finished school for what will probably be the rest of the year. That was sad, as they have lovely friends and we have also been very lucky with their teachers who have been marvellous in providing resources and advice. This has made us feel more confident about schooling on the road although whether Paul or I are The Principal of Cusworth College is a contentious issue!

So, we are now on the final stretch and things have become very real, we have gone from talking about it to living it and at times have been overwhelmed. We recognise this is only natural and generally this feeling is slowly being ovetaken by excitement and impatience to get going. Paul quite frequently seems to drift off with a goofy look on his face and will spontaneously high five whoever is standing the closest – I hope this wears off!

Among the things we need to get done over the next few weeks are; finding a spot for everything, setting up a dual battery system in the car, installing a communication radio for the car, setting up an antenna, eating all the kids Easter eggs and general things like mail redirection, checking expiry dates on bank cards etc.

Wish us luck!

H