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I love problem solving and you cannot beat the feeling of doing so via improvisation. Getting on site in the next 3-4 weeks is going to be a big relief. Having to travel 1hr each way has been a real drag and I think that even though we are moving into a static caravan. It will be into a static caravan that we own on our land and the place we will call home. Living in rented for two years, has felt like living in limbo.

You will have many more stressful days like that. just think how that plywood saved the day, then every time you have a day like this planned think what could go wrong, and what would save the day, whatever you think will save the day make sure you have it ready. it could be an extra man on concrete pour day or that stack of 4x2 that you found free on Facebook, get it all ready you will find the majority of lads are used to solving problems.

Try to make living there more pleasant look for some patio slabs free on Facebook, build a small patio, build a path to the washing line, put up a small shed that you take your boots off in and work clothes, if the wife starts walking mud in it will start eating in to the dream. build good steps to the static, keep her warm and happy and you can probably put up with the house build.

Well done. Hope you enjoyed a cup of tea after.

That looks like chalk so should drain ok. And gravel, especially that much, would probably be resistant enough to uplift. Any risk would only be when the tank is empty, so that could be kept to the end of summer.

You just sell it on later with the WBS installed as a bonus. Just do a good job, with a good appliance, and then you’re all good. You’ll have a relatively long time to advertise / sell it at the end of the build, so I’d make life comfortable for the build and stop panicking about minor issues. Worst case, the roof can be put back ‘as was’ in a couple of hours with some plate, rivets, and CT1. Even if it knocks a couple ok £k off the resale value, who cares?! It’ll save you 20x that in the long run anyways, so is basically sacrificial in terms of cost / loss.

Tiles? I’d expect a caravan to have a thin steel sheet with some polystyrene under it, and then ply for some strength. But I see your photo, so perhaps otherwise. I'm guessing, but that would need care. You have to consider if a hot flue could cause a fire. An insulated flue would be essential as a minimum. There are special flashings for flues to metal roofing or any other product, so it is doable.... with great care.

DIY

I fitted a wood burning stove in ours. It hardly went out from November to February and kept us warm through a Highland winter at little cost but it was a lot of work keeping up with the wood to feed it.

or pallets and old rubber stable mats 😁

The caravan steps at Argos are good. But you'll need a slab base first to get up to your floor height.

A new chapter, vs closing the book

Keep on keeping on and all will be well, all the best.

I want you to run my next project. Well done!

I've given up trying to work it out tbh, you just seem to have bad nerves from all this building malarky, and are hitting the same pic twice......or something.... Your build is going very annoyingly well. Or, annoyingly very well. You pick! Either way....Congrats to you, fantastic progress.

Are you SURE you are not prone to high water table at times? That would need to be concreted in here, and because of that I would (I did) dig the smallest hole it would just fit into.

That is a big hole.

The smile is deceptive. 2 weeks of manual graft has made every sinew sore 😄. Been a refreshing change from the usual IT Developer day job.

Love it, well done.