End of Week 8

Just two weeks to go until road tests must start and it's a Bank Holiday Weekend.  Bank holidays - the bane of the self-employed! Why would anyone, if they had the choice, want to go on holiday when everyone else does? Nothing will be achieved until all the traffic jams have been dispersed, the crowded shivering camp-sites deserted, the short-haul flights back and landed, and work can begin again.

In my case, important questions in emails to my suppliers will go unanswered.

And that's another thing. Why do so many people in business simply ignore emails? I use the general term "business", but I had not really come across this until I began buying from people in the motor trade and the offshoot camper and caravan trade. It's a lottery. Some are good communicators in any medium, but far too many simply assume that if you want a question answered you will ring them. A few don't even offer email as an alternative.

I have made good progress this week, but "behind the scenes" as opposed to in the van. I can't install the furniture until I've got the water connected and running, and it took me over a week to find out what fittings I needed and get them ordered. I finally got the order in on Thursday, and got a machine generated email proudly declaring that my goods would be delivered next Tuesday.

I got the gas all connected up and leak tested, but couldn't get the air heater to ignite. My question to the suppliers about this hit the bank holiday wall, and will probably have to be repeated on Tuesday.

Meanwhile I've been making and fitting drawers to the kitchen unit. This is easily the most expensive and time-consuming of all the furniture, if for no other reason than my decision to fit four wooden inset drawers. Most modern kitchens go for the easy option of lay-on doors and drawers, metal drawer runners, ready-made metal drawers with screw adjustments for the wooden drawer fronts, and those big metal sprung hinges which control the movement of kitchen doors. These fittings are designed to have plenty of adjustment potential - wriggle room. Not mine:  all the adjustments are made with plane, sander and screws - you shave a bit of here, test, shave some more, test. If you take a little bit too much off on one drawer it throws all the rest out. If a screw hole is slightly to one side of the optimum position you  have to fill the hole and make a new one. At present all I can see are the faults. I just hope the final appearance will justify all this fiddling. As you can see, more fiddling will be needed before I can do the final coat of varnish: