You asked, so here it is. A little blog on caravan living!!
We moved house last November and as our new house needed some considerable work it was back into a caravan, this time with a toddler in tow!
Five years ago we lived in a touring caravan for 10 months on our front drive while renovating our last house, so to be honest the static felt like a bit of an upgrade to what it could have been. With a very active Toby in tow it was a complete necessity this time though & we found a hidden gem among a lot that really didn’t take our fancy. Oliver worked his magic to set up a very impressive porch and make a few alterations designed to make life as easy as possible.
Obviously when we started this project, we had no clue that a global pandemic was incoming and that there would be a considerable amount of time spent shielding from the outside world. That being said our outside space here, even though in need of work too, is much bigger and that means space to play, run & for Toby to find all the things you don’t want him to find!
The now familiar ‘coronacoaster’ has been in full swing at times but to be fair caravan life has been ok, sometimes, dare I even say it, it’s been enjoyable even.
Here are a few things we’ve learnt about caravan living:
1. Winter is waaaaaay easier than Summer! You can pop the heating on in winter, wear an extra layer of clothing and as long as the digger is weighing the caravan down (as per the big storms in February!) it’s actually quite lovely listening to wild weather raging outside. Plus, the rain is basically a free white noise machine for Toby too. When the sun comes out it heats up like a tin can, the temperature gauge on the baby monitor goes off the scale & refuses to work, I cry a little inside (then drink wine) if I see 20+ on the forecast.
2. It’s perfectly possible to bake cakes in a caravan oven. Even though it changes temperature multiple times through the cooking process and it’s a more of a 'wing it' type of baking. The only issue is space – I’m a messy cook and there isn’t the room to be a messy cook without knocking something on the floor. Being honest though, if it’s hot weather I could probably leave them on the side and they’d just cook themselves…!
3. A washing basket doesn’t fit through the caravan doors. It means some sort of weird contortionist shuffle in order to squeeze a basket of washing through the doors and to where you need to be. Needless to say I put it off until the basket is so big it makes the process even more tricky.
4. Every day we utter the phrase ‘I can’t wait until….’. The list of these things is endless and ranges from ‘I can’t wait to sit down with a cup of tea’ to ‘I can’t wait to be able to go to the toilet in the night without it being a choice of wetting myself or waking Toby up’. The list could go on & I am sure Oliver will be delighted when he no longer has to get dressed outside at 3.30am if he has an early start in a bid not to make any noise! You learn to appreciate the small things in life! The table chairs, the photo frames and flowers have all been removed at this stage as the small space means that everything is a toy or a climbing frame for Master T. We definitely have some house training to do once we get in the actual house!
5. It’s amazing what you can live without, some things I would have sworn blind were a definite kitchen, house or life necessity, but actually we can live without them quite happily. It makes you think that actually as long as there is love and laughter (and wine) then really the things that we need in life can be simpler than we make it.
So there you have it, life in a caravan with a toddler in tow. We’ve spent a lot of time stripping the house out over the last few months and it’s now ready for the builders to come in and work their magic. More on that soon but hopefully there will be positive progress to bring you!
I love our little static caravan but goodness am I ready for a house. This is the last time – definitely!!