RV Renovation - My Island on the stormy Sea by Brigid

I had the honor to renovate the old RV situated in the orchard as my personal project this year.
I have been interested in the tiny house movement and building my own home for a while already, so this kind of building project intrigued me.
It was also a wish of mine to live in the orchard during the summer since I felt the need to withdraw from society, noise, and distractions and to find peace and awareness in nature and the simplicity and
remoteness that this space would provide me.
In the beginning, I had the idea to buy my own RV and take it to Germany with me to live in it in the
future. But I had doubts about such a big financial commitment.
Due to my undecided and changeable temper, it took me a while to come to the decision not to buy one,but to work with the lovely RV that Maja and Matjaž already owned. Since this camper might serve as an accommodation to future volunteers, I was also happy to make a useful contribution to the farm and the people living here after me.
The main work I did from the middle of May until the end of July, so that I was able to move in after I
returned from holidays at the end of August. I didn‘t know how long weather and temperature would
allow me to live there but I was quite determined to stay in RV and orchard as long as possible.
But I was lucky and after some chilly days at the beginning of September, late summer was sunny and
warm and even allowed me to go for many mild and calm evening walks until the end of September,
when it got cold and too early dark to be outside for longer in the evening.
In October it got quite rainy and cold and I was struggling with drying my wet clothes in the damp air in
the RV. But I found enough candles and blankets to stay warm and cozy in the evenings and nights, not
wanting to leave my little island yet.
In the mornings, it was hard to get out of bed, into the cold, sometimes even frosty autumn air. But the
pink and orange sunrise over the hills, the mist over the meadows, the deer grazing on the neighbor's
field, and the meetings with my friend and neighbor Harry the hare, paid off for all the cold and
inconveniences.
I felt at peace and home in this space. The two months in the RV taught me many things about myself and how I want to live in the future and where.
I feel endlessly inspired and grateful for this experience and will remember these days with love and
gratitude towards Maja and Matjaž, who trusted me to allow me to renovate their RV and to live in their
orchard and who gave me advice on how to proceed if I had problems, to all people who supported me
during the working process and to all creatures and spirits that shared their home, the orchard with me.

STEPS IN THE BUILDING PROCESS
• tearing out little bathroom/shower cabin and huge wardrobe
• dismount cupboard doors, clean and paint them with white varnish
• tape edges of all cupboards and furniture along walls, before painting
• take out old curtains
• rip out old linoleum flooring and discovering black mold and rotting of wooden boards underneath
in the area of the former bathroom and at the entrance
• cutting out rotten wood with a saw
• filling up empty spaces on the floor with cement plaster
• cutting of nails sticking out of wall and ceiling where wardrobe and bathroom where
• painting all furniture with white varnish twice
• replacing old plastic knobs on cupboard doors with new wooden ones and putting doors back on cupboards
• measuring out flooring and sketching the layout
• Cutting out and taping together cardboard in the measurements of the future floorboards
• Cutting out wooden floor pieces, with cardboard sheets as measurement support
• laying cardboard under wood floor noise cancelation and less friction between the old and new
wood
• laying out new floor, fitting boards into each other, and gluing edges together
• filling out gaps and cracks with silicon
• glaze floor with transparent varnish twice
• assemble left-over wood to kitchen counter cover
• sow covers for sofa cushions and curtain for open cupboard in the kitchen