Today I mostly .....

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Zelandeth
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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Zelandeth » Sun Mar 10, 2019 11:38 pm

Today I learned a few things.

One, I do indeed still hate wallpapering just as much as I remember. Two, the bathroom in the van is precisely as awkward as I thought it would be to paper.

The reason for this is evenly split between the fact that the room is entirely devoid of 90 degree corners, or truly straight edges and the fact that it's such a cramped space to work in.

To add insult to injury once I did get the paper on the walls it appears to have stretched, leaving wrinkles all over the shop.

Crossing my fingers that things will shrink again and flatten back out a bit when it dries, but I'm not holding my breath.

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Granted, it's just lining paper at this stage, so no huge loss if I need to pull it off and start over. The actual wallpaper going in is patterned, and as such is going to be an absolute nightmare to get lined up right.

Oh, while I was in there I took the roof light out and renewed the sealant around it. I'd never seen any evidence of leaks from it while during my ownership of the van, but it has clearly leaked there at some point in the past. For the sake of ten or twenty minutes work I figured it made sense to just ensure it's definitely weather proof.

If the paper continues to refuse to sit right, I may well abandon the whole wallpaper idea and instead to and find some suitably 80s looking fake wood sticky back plastic and use that instead. Planning to install plastic panelling (probably white) up to about waist height anyway to help contain the shower spray.

Really do need to find a proper bathroom sink too...
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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by sch4463 » Mon Mar 11, 2019 9:40 am

Paint instead of paper?

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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Zelandeth » Mon Mar 11, 2019 11:00 am

sch4463 wrote:
Mon Mar 11, 2019 9:40 am
Paint instead of paper?
Problem there is getting an acceptably smooth looking finish.

Someone elsewhere however did make the suggestion of using vinyl floor tiles, which I reckon is a stroke of genius and could make things massively easier...
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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by sch4463 » Mon Mar 11, 2019 12:00 pm

Spray shower paint.
(Ronseal 6 year anti mould spray paint)
Then sand/seal & just mask and spray?

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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Aaron » Tue Mar 12, 2019 8:52 pm

using vinyl floor tiles for the walls would add too much weight.
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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Zelandeth » Tue Mar 12, 2019 11:30 pm

While the vinyl tiles are a bit heavy, it's such a small room and there's enough "stuff" taking up wall space that I'm not too worried about it. Weight isn't a massive issue for us either as there will only ever be two adults travelling in it and we tend to travel pretty light - not like we're carting a heap of stuff for kids around and worrying about load capacity!

Getting rid of the decking boards that have been used to replace the flooring for the rear half of the van with proper composite panelling is probably a weight saving measure which is higher up the list...


Thanks to a link from a friend on another forum I finally found a match for the missing original folding sink for the bathroom. So should be getting that picked up soon, so that will allow me to get the last missing bits of bathroom reinstated. This is a photo from the eBay listing.

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There's a cabinet and shower attachment with it that I don't really need, so they might well end up back on eBay.

Went back in the van to see if by some miracle the wallpaper had de-wrinkled itself when it dried.

No prizes for guessing the answer!

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No idea what's happened there...as my folks used to do up houses I was helping hang wallpaper pretty much as soon as I was walking. This wasn't just a case of poor prep or too much paste or anything like that.

So what did I do next? Well actually got to spend a very satisfying twenty minutes making a godawful mess.

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Not worrying about removing what's left there as it's firmly attached to the walls.

Now someone had suggested looking into using vinyl floor tiles to "tile" the walls.

They're definitely onto something. Got a few in place now and two things are immediately obvious.

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Firstly is that it's going to be an order of magnitude easier than the wallpaper to put in place. Secondly is that it should look a lot better when it's done. I've got two types, the ones you see there which I will use up to the window base and then a mosaic pattern from there upwards.

Now I've used these tiles before (which is why I can't believe I didn't think of it) and I know the adhesive is about as much use as a chocolate teapot, so have tacked them down using decent contact adhesive.

Also glad to report that despite the torrential (sideways at times) downpour today that my roof light in there is definitely keeping the weather out. Had the inner bezel off so I could actually see the seam between it and the roof, so know it's good.

Just need to try to convince the water getting in at the offside rear corner to cut it out. Astonishing really that it's the only water ingress issue I'm aware of given the age of it.
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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Zelandeth » Wed Mar 13, 2019 10:57 pm

After a five hour round trip (yay traffic...) I have now this chunk of delightfully eighties beige plastic in my possession.

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One bit of damage to one corner but nothing we can't fix with a little bit of fibreglass or filler.

Really glad that despite having been rummaging on and off for months and not turning up anything aside one fuzzy picture of it, I've managed to turn up a match for what would originally have been fitted.

Hopefully get it fitted tomorrow.
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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Neil Chowney » Thu Mar 14, 2019 9:43 pm

Man, thats one weird bidet......
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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Zelandeth » Fri Mar 15, 2019 11:22 pm

Today has been one of those really annoying days which you always hit at some point in any decorating project where you wind up spending several hours taking stuff apart so you can get something else done. Made fifty times harder because the bathroom is just awkward to work in because it's so cramped.

Wanted to get the lower half of the tiling in the room finished and the sink properly installed.

Step one: make sure it actually fits and mark things up so I could see where to tile to (no point in doing the whole space under it) and where to drill holes for the pipework. This sink originally had the pipes coming out the bottom though I saw no reason for them to be visible as the sink was to be fitted against an interior wall up against the service cupboard. I suspect it was up against an exterior wall before.

Didn't take me long to realise that the pipework was too bulky to be bent around in the direction I needed and for the sink to lay flat against the wall. No problem, I've got some elbow connectors which will solve that. Cue 30 minutes of digging through boxes to find them. Eventually though they did turn up.

I then discovered that the hose clips on there were utterly seized. This took a further half hour or so of (very careful) argument to resolve. Once that was done the hoses still refused to be separated from the hose connector stub and I wound up having to (again, very carefully) slit them both with a knife before removing them. Attaching a nice new hose which actually bends and the elbow significantly reduced the room needed so the sink would actually sit flush with the wall.

Still need to actually connect everything back up behind the wall but that's easy stuff I can do later. Flexible pipework likes to look a royal mess which I dislike...I will need to instill order in this mess before I declare it done!

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I initially thought I could just remove the two bottom screws holding the cabinet to the wall to slip the tiling under that edge - right up to the point that I discovered that there's actually a wooden frame under the cabinet which is essentially part of the wall. Cue careful measuring and cutting of tiles.

The tap for the shower also needed to come off the wall to let me tile under it - the hoses to this were about as interested in shifting as the ones on the sink were. At least they weren't attached to a fragile hunk of brittle plastic which made things a bit easier to sort.

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This is where we finished for the day.

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I still find the whole sink without a conventional plug thing an interesting concept. It's an elegant engineering solution to allow for the basin needing to fold up, no flexible piping necessary.

Apparently it's not that unusual an arrangement for caravans etc, just not something I've come across before.

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This wall is essentially done. Just needs some sealant along the edges and the lower edge tidied up. Need an additional pack of tiles though, need a few more than my total guess, not by much though. I've a few small offcuts which will do for the sliver of wall visible to the left of the cupboard.

Yes they are a bit heavy, but the small number involved because of the tiny size of the room means it should be fine.

Hoping that as the rest is just sticking tiles on the wall and a bit of trimming that the next bit will go quicker...

Also reckon I must have wasted an hour going back and forth to the garage for tools! Will just take everything next time!
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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Aaron » Sat Mar 16, 2019 10:01 pm

That is a very nice sink.
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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Zelandeth » Sun Mar 17, 2019 12:53 am

Aaron wrote:
Sat Mar 16, 2019 10:01 pm
That is a very nice sink.
It's better than the "upgrade" which had been bought for it, which was so tiny that it would have been utterly useless. This is a much better solution to the problem of wanting a decent sized basin yet not having room for one.

First task of the day was to get the plumbing for the sink and shower sorted out as I had taken it all apart yesterday.

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Much better. This lot used to be hidden behind a plywood box...not sure I will bother putting that back as it eats quite a chunk of space in the back of the wardrobe. Reckon I will add some clips to hold the pipes against the back wall and call it good, the box just seems unnecessary given this is all hidden at the back of the wardrobe anyway.

Drainage has been tested by dumping a five litre bottle of water down it, no leaks to report and it seems to drain at as close to a reasonable rate you can really hope for, though the design at least means you don't have to wait for the draining process to finish before stowing the basin.

Once that was done it was back to the tiling. Seems to be taking forever!

We are getting there though.

This is where this pattern will stop - there is a mosaic pattern to run from here up to the ceiling.

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This would have taken significantly less time had I realised that the trim around the window just snaps in place - I realised that after I had already carefully made sure to measure it as close to millimetre perfect as I could on two sides...rather than just extending the tile a bit last the edge and snapping the trim back on...oh well now I know! Obviously there is one little infill strip I still need to put in there too, just waiting for an offcut the right shape to turn up.

Interior wall is also ready for the next pattern. This is really awkward to get a photo of.

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I am *hoping* that I will be able to call the decorating nonsense done tomorrow as it is taking forever...though does kind of feel like it is actually moving in the right direction now.
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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Zelandeth » Sun Mar 17, 2019 7:19 pm

Today it has *finally* started to feel like we're starting to get somewhere and this is starting to actually look like a room again.

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Bit annoying that it's impossible to get things lined up perfectly with the rear wall courtesy of our friend Pythagoras, but it's good enough for a camper van! Won't be so obvious once the sealant along the edges is in place anyway.

If I had been smart I would have realised that was going to be an issue and would have made sure not to use a repeating pattern spanning the side and rear wall...though I reckon it still looks better than it would have in plain white (or with the original pink floral pattern!). Doesn't hopefully look too out of period for the vehicle either.
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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Neil Chowney » Sun Mar 17, 2019 8:22 pm

That's pretty funky, nice job!
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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Neil Chowney » Sun Mar 17, 2019 8:32 pm

Today I mostly bought one of these bad boys......

Bit a a squeeze getting it into the car, damn heavy too.... had to lay it down on it's side....

Yes it has a breather, yes it did all over the carpet in the back....nice smell of compressor oil in the back of the car now..... lots of granules trying to get it back out of the carpet.....
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And it its proper place. Just need to wire in a new 32a type B isolator from the distribution board.

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20190317_175822.jpg (70.43 KiB) Viewed 15018 times
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Re: Today I mostly .....

Post by Zelandeth » Sun Mar 17, 2019 8:55 pm

Very nice!

I really do need to think about getting a compressor at some point...sadly it's somewhere around number 37,780 on the priority list at the moment.
LOZ: Oddball cars, lighting information, and anything else I remember to upload!
Current fleet: 02 VW Caddy 1.9SDI, 90 Mercedes 208D Autotrail Navajo, 85 Sinclair C5, 78 Vauxhall Cavalier 1.6GL, 73 AC Model-70.

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