Vantastic

1960s reno honours brother

When Fiona Foote found the Pixie Caravan on her late brother’s property in Waiuku it was in a sorry state. For a while it’d been used as a tea room for loggers working on his farm. Now, however, the little 1960s camper, which had been doused in dark green paint and left to rot, was dripping with mould and covered in spots of green and grey lichen.

It was so run down it had all but blended into the rugged bush landscape. Inside, the rats had had their way with the wall coverings and cushions. All told, it was grotty as. It was also exactly the project Foote had been looking for.

‘‘We were disposing of things on the farm. That little caravan was sitting there looking very forlorn and I thought, ‘I think I’ll take that home’,’’ says Foote.

‘‘It was a labour of love really, for my brother. It was the project I wanted, something to do up.’’

In it’s dilapidated state, the ‘‘only thing it had going for it’’ was tongue and groove wooden floors.

‘‘We thought that’s original. Nobody’s ever put tongue and groove floors in a caravan. That’s what saved it, actually. They had old 1960s lino over the top and that had protected the wood. It was in perfect condition underneath.’’

The process was a finicky one that took about six months. She started with the basics: stripping the caravan right ‘‘back to nothing’’.

‘‘When it arrived it was full of rats’ nests, so we water blasted it from the inside out. I took off all the cupboard doors and repainted them. They’re still original. The sink top I had to change, but the cupboards above the bed, the little kitchen bench and the under cupboards are still original.

Foote was forced to get a whole new chassis but,

‘‘I wanted to go back to the retro, 1960s look, but I ended up making it more beachy themed, a little bit classic, but it’s got that holiday vibe.’’ Fiona Foote

apart from that, the exterior is original.

‘‘We just sanded and painted it. It’s got dents and bumps, but it’s 60 years old, so you can imagine.

‘‘I found old newspapers stuffed in the cupboards from back in the 1970s, which the rats hadn’t eaten, surprisingly. They ate all the curtains, everything else that was kind of edible.’’

Eventually the caravan’s needs outstripped Foote’s skills and she had to get help.

‘‘Someone said to me, ‘why are you trying to do this yourself, why don’t you go to work and pay a builder? He was right. It was harder than I thought. Stripping it out was all right. It was trying to put it all back together.

‘‘Because it was so curved I was trying to use a jigsaw to cut the wood, and I’m not the best at wood work, so I ended up hiring a builder to do all the interior.

‘‘Then I needed an electrician to put the wiring in so it’d be all certified to take to a camp ground. Then I needed new windows, so that was another job. I pretty much had to pay people to do all of it.’’

Not quite all of it. Foote did the ‘‘finishing off’’, the interior design with its charming beachy vibe.

‘‘I wanted to go back to the retro, 1960s look, but I ended up making it more beachy themed, a little bit classic, but it’s got that holiday vibe.’’

Foote, who lives in Mangonui, Northland, has been renting it out on Airbnb over the summer to help cover costs of the work.

She’ll deliver it to your camp site or home – it makes a lovely spare room if you’re having guests – and pick it up again. It’s been booked solid since she listed it.

‘‘It’s been really popular and everyone’s made great comments about how cute it is. It can only sleep two, and a child maybe. It’s really tiny.

‘‘If it doesn’t pay for itself, I might turn it into a little icecream van and take it to the beach.’’

All told, the renovation came to about $13,000. ‘‘I’m pretty much a grandma now, to nearly nine grandchildren. I’m semi-retired, I live at the beach and have a good time. The reno was something to do, it gave me a job and something to remember my brother by. I’ll have to think of something else to do this year.

‘‘Whenever I drive past one now I think ‘oh, look at that cute little van!’, but unless I could do more myself . . . This one was a major job. I would do it again, but not on that scale.’’

Inspired to give it a go by a couple she met on holiday in the Gold Coast, Foote advises anyone wanting to try it themselves to find a camper that needs a spruce up, rather than major structural work and a spruce up.

‘‘Give it ago, they’re cute little things.

‘‘I only just got it finished at Christmas time, in fact I was sewing the awning on Boxing day. I haven’t slept in it myself yet. I’ll get away in it myself after the summer rush has gone.’’

Fiona Foote’s 1960s Pixie Caravan reno was done in memory of her late brother. The before photos, inset, show the state it was in when she found it on her brother’s property.