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We Could Do No Wrong Today....
- Friday, November 08, 2002 |
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...well actually the good luck started late yesterday. We spent several hours giving the still unnamed Starwagon a thorough swamping out. It turns out that the owner must have used this van to cart around dirt. Since the initial vacuuming of the lovely brown carpet didn't seem to make a dent in the amount of dirt (dust) floating around the van, Dave made the executive decision to remove the carpet. Geepers, guess what we found? A virtual sanbox underneath the old carpet--GROSS!!!! After vacuuming and sweeping the Starwagon out, we decided that it probably deserved some basic seatcovers to go over the fabulous brown/stained fabric front seats.
While driving around looking for an auto parts store the luck started to kick in. After a few minutes we came upon "Ultimate Seat Covers"! A whole store dedicated to seat covers for cars, trucks, and boats (they also build/repair/upholster furniture). We went in with the intention of purchasing the cheapest covers we could find for the Mitsubishi. Ron, one of the owners, gave us some old sample Sheepskin seat covers. They don't fit perfectly, but who cares, right? He did spend a fair bit of time helping us get the set that fit the best. Also, he gave us a few other sample covers, including a lovely leopard print, for which we could make pillows.
After that he was inquiring about what we would do for a bed in the back of the van. So after tossing around some of the ideas that Dave came up with, Ron offered his tools and extra scrap wood for our use to build the mattress platform. So on Saturday mid-day we visted Ron, Barnard and Gavin at the shop. Instead of watching Dave build the platform, the guys decided that they would take Dave's idea and go to town. So an hour later, the custom built, very sturdy platform was ready and fit to perfection.
Back to Friday... After we visited the Seatcover folks, we moseyed over to a fabric store and purchased some cheap fabric that matched the gorgeous, grey seatcovers in order to make some privacy curtains for the van. We didn't exactly have a plan on how we were going to install the curtains since we don't have any tools, etc with us. Our favorite Kiwi's came to the rescue! Since the Seatcover shop also deals with furniture, they took charge of turning the fabric into curtains and helping install them in the van.
HELLO, can you say HOSPITALITY!!???? These folks were awesome. We really enjoyed chatting with them about their lives, the world, and especially NZ. We will for sure stop by for some coffee on our way back thru Auckland in a couple of weeks to say "hi". Also, we may hook up with Barnard and his family on the South Island. Fun!!
After taking Ron to lunch, we drove around town to try to finish outfitting the van and LUCKILY found a few more things....
...a queen size futon mattress for $25USD and an extra piece of carpet to replace the ugly brown stuff (free, free, free).
What a day. The van looks SO MUCH BETTER!!!! More later!!
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