Amazing Spaces...

 Last year there was a series on channel 4 called "George Clarke's Amazing Spaces" which showed what great design ideas you could incorporate into small spaces. The places people converted ranged from underground toilets to 1960's coaches and of course the ubiquitous VW Camper van. It was inspiring to see what people could achieve on budgets ranging from a few hundred pounds to tens of thousands of pounds. When we built our Camper Van our budget was tight and yet we built and have enjoyed our Van for the past four years for a fraction of what it would have cost to buy a new purpose built van.
  A few weeks ago we went to a Camping and Caravaning show at the NEC in Birmingham courtesy of some free tickets we got from Sarah at Inspired camping . I had never been to a show like this before and it was quite an  eye opener as to the ingenious storage idea's designers build into their Campers. One idea that I really liked was the little Teardrop Caravans which could be towed behind the smallest of cars or the most underpowered of Campervans.

  In the four years since we built our Camper she has done us proud, but as with all things they need a bit of TLC now and again. So this spring we will be giving the interior units a bit of a makeover and then in the early summer the body work will be having a couple of panels replacing to keep the dreaded rust at bay.We view our van as a keeper and so spending money on her is seen as a long term investment as she has brought us so many happy memories over the last few years.

  Apart from our Campervan we have our allotment, which as a family we spend a lot of time there as we have a very small garden in our town centre house. The kids love the open space especially Joel who loves playing in the allotment shed and climbing the trees.This got me thinking especially after watching the "Amazing Spaces " series last year. I drew up plans for converting our humble shed into a combined potting shed / playhouse for the kids. a place where an Autistic boy like Joel could play and explore yet still be of a practical use to me as well. Channel 4 were looking for new ideas for the new series and so I sent in our plans. They loved the concept and we were just a few days from initial filming, when a change in our circumstances meant we had to pull out...shame. But not deterred we have three weeks in France in the Camper to look forward too and I'm confident our "Amazing Space" shed project is merely delayed not forgotten......Watch this space!!!