Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Our new 5’ver

Since April/May 2010 when we decided that we’d like Peter Groom of Truelux 5th Wheelers to build our next home, we have been on the waiting list. At the end of October 2010, we eventually received that long awaited phone call, “We’re ready for you to come in and begin / finalise the plans of your 5’ver.” Our appointment was for the 8th November 2010. We still had two weeks to kill, & did they seem to take forever. The 8th came & went; by the end of the day, we looked at each other & wondered if we actually achieved anything as there had been so many interruptions. A couple of days later we attended another meeting just to sort out some of our concerns which we had from the previous meeting. This time we had Peter’s undivided attention with no interruptions. At long last our new home was on the drawing board. We were told that they will start the chassis by the end of November & that the outside walls should be up by Christmas when they will shut for 3 weeks for the Christmas / New Year break.

So by the middle of November, it was time for us to head back home to Napperby & get ready for the Christmas festivities & of course to bake the Christmas cakes & Puddings (a bit late!). In the meantime, phone calls going back & forth to confirm various things & a trip to the local carpet & lino store in town to choose another lino. With all this done, we could relax a while. Straight after Christmas, Colin advertised our current caravan on the internet, a couple of enquiries but nothing serious. Oh well, we’ll try again in the New Year. Christmas Day & New Year came & went as they always seem to do, so it was now time to get serious with selling our current caravan. Yeah, we had quite a few enquiries about the van, but the response was; “You’re on the other side of town”, or “That’s a long way”. No one seemed to want to take a lovely leisurely drive out to the country to see our van. Time was moving on & we were beginning to feel that no one was going to buy our home & we didn’t want to put it on consignment locally.

The week before we were ready to drive back to Melbourne we had a prospective buyer. They came & left after leaving a deposit. We were beginning to feel a weight being lifted. The next week was spent cleaning inside & out so it sparkled, putting together all the bits ‘n pieces that we’ll no longer require for our next home. Thursday 20th January 2011, we watched one stage of our life being driven out the gate & the next stage beginning.

By Christmas Day, after another delay; (composite panel machinery breakdown!), Truelux had received our chassis frame & the outside fibreglass walls. Our next appointment will be a progress meeting on February the 1st, with hopefully, the chassis completed, walls should be up, roof on and well on the way.


Click on the link below to view progression photos of our new home.

http://picasaweb.google.com/108879761974384702036/New5VerProgressPhotos?feat=directlink