But at last, I have running water inside the van! Ursula brought me lots of gas and plumbing bits last September when they came with the car. I have used most of that now. The gas bits I used immediately as I needed to upgrade some of the systems on the van before winter. Then Janne brought that brilliant tap from Sweden which enabled me to have a tap as well as select my alkaline water filter when needed. The tap will do hot water too as it has a small, instantaneous electric boiler built-in.
A lot of today has been taken up with connecting the large filter outside the van to the water supply which goes to the manifold for watering the west side of the compound and outside the gate. There is a stopcock to isolate the van in case of the need to make changes and also to reduce the water flow if needed. A pipe runs up from the large filter which has been bolted to one of the metal stanchions of the decking, into the kitchen unit behind the fridge. The fridge gets a little warm so I’m going to need to lag that section of pipe in due course. The pipe goes to the sink where I have disconnected the built-in pipes to use the main supply. The tap is plumbed in next to the sink and the alkaline water filter is screwed to the wall by the window keeping it out of the way but close to the sink. The alkaline filter and the tap are plugged into the electrical outlets under the seat where the kettle is. That still leave two spares for charging or running things inside if needed. There is a knob on the tap which will send the water to the alkaline filter which delivers the water through a long pipe which is over the sink. The waste water from the alkaline filter goes through the hole in the sink cover so that can be left down except when the sink is actually needed.
This was quite a job as I needed to remove all of the cooking utensils and crockery from the cupboard under the sink as well as the cutlery drawer. Naturally, everything is covered in dust due to the recent wind but I lost the will to actually wash all of the crockery and cooking utensils but I did wipe the shelves after I vacuumed out all the sawdust and other much from the work.
Putting on the external filter requires going under the van and the decking so laying in the dust on a windy day. As you can imagine, I was pretty tired, dirty and sweaty although today has not been that hot which is why I did the job today.
The upshot is that I now have no more plastic water bottles to fill, other than those I keep in the fridge. The van was constantly cluttered with full water bottles or the empties which required filling from the outside tap.
I now have alkaline water which is clear so no more scum in my drinks or scale in the kettle. The external filter removes the main particles from all of the water that comes into the van and the other filter is just for drinking water.
I can now rinse my vegetables under the tap in the van as well as fill my cooking utensils without the need to empty lots of water bottles.
Why haven’t I done this sooner? Mains water only arrived last July and I’ve been contemplating the planning and material requisition since then. Like every successful event, it’s all in the planning!
The top temperature today was 34.2C and it has been mostly windy calming as the afternoon progressed. It even felt cool on the walk this morning as if some light outer garment was required. I must be getting soft! This is Crete and it’s August!
It’s sunset so daylight is receding. The dogs have been fed and are playing fairly quietly on the decking nearby. But I need to put them to bed and do Dave and then I can have something to eat and collapse into a heap.
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