Storage solutions.

It could have gone oh so wrong but didn't......

Go back about 5 years when we were thinking of buying a shed as we hadn't got enough storage in the house for all our bits and pieces.   Flat roof - no loft/attic space.  Under the stairs cupboard - no.  (We have now but not then)   So we found a suitable flat accessible corner of land bordered by two walls  and with an olive tree overhanging for summer shade.  Then we looked at shed options.  All flat packed,  different thicknesses of wood but - as sheds are - very basic.  So add to the cost and time,  extra wood for shelving or cupboards, plus electric cables and sockets for using tools and lighting and soon  the basic price has maybe doubled.

Then I saw an advert for a caravan.  Double glazed.  With electrics.  And a fridge.  Cupboards and seating and cushions and a table.......

So much better than a basic shed,  so we bought it,  hitched it up to the car and brought it home,  put it in the 'shed corner'  and for the last 5 or so years it has been so useful.   Storage for chair cushions in the winter,  for winter bed covers in the summer,  an ironing place for me,  the sewing machine and material box lives there too and the table becomes a sewing place,  all sorts of bits and pieces out there.  

The space between the caravan and the walls have become 'potting' where I store my plant pots and gardening stuff,  John has added shelves so I can work out there planting seeds, and a door to keep it all safe and warm.  But just recently the door to potting wouldn't shut.  Maybe it'd swollen in the rains,  but even with a few dry days there was a problem, maybe half an inch less space.  John looked at  the caravan legs, the tyres etc and decided that the whole thing had sunk and moved backwards a few inches.

This morning first he attached a rope and pulley to the front of the caravan - the tow bar bit - and pulled that round a post.   Then we dug new holes for the wheels to settle into when we moved it, gradually unwound the back legs from the ground, released the handbrake and pulled on the rope and pulley.  What happened?  Nothing.  Next step was to pump up the tyres using  the compressor and were they flat!  As each tyre was inflated the caravan went up a few inches - note to ourselves that we should check  them more frequently than every 5 years -  then back to the pulley....again nothing moved.  Last step was to loosen the front legs as well then we just pushed hard and it moved enough to settle into it's new  tyre holes. 

The legs now have new concrete bases - not hard concrete yet it needs a few days to 'go off' (I believe that's the technical  term although I usually think of it setting) 

So what could  have gone wrong?  Winding  up the legs could have made it settle too far down at one end,  maybe it would have rolled backwards,  it might have crushed my plant pots!  But nothing went wrong, nothing got squashed and the 5 or 6 inches we moved it have made more space for more pots in potting for me.

If we've done it right this time, it shouldn't need doing again for a very long time.  It needs far less maintenance than a shed  and  has proved to be a really good buy.