Exciting as having a newer caravan might be, there is another cost, consequential on the new caravan being a little longer than the old one. I can't now park my car Sophie on the same drive, in front of the caravan. She will have to go alongside now, and at the moment this means parking her on the front lawn, which is no long-term solution. So I'm having a proper hardstanding put in.
The work involves excavating a thirty square metre pit - three metres wide, ten metres long - filling that with a compacted subbase with concrete edgings, laying ground guard matting on top of the subbase (the sort that looks like a lot of little square pockets, with an integral weed-proof membrane), and then filling those pockets with shingle. The finished appearance will echo the shingle drive of my neighbour across the road, so that we'll have a kind of visual balance. The topsoil from the excavations will be taken away for me.
And then I drive Sophie onto it, with a fanfare of heavenly trumpets, and a vast hand appearing between parted clouds, giving a thumbs-up gesture.
The cost? With VAT, £3,552. I can just about find the money. It's doable, but for a month I'll have next to nothing in my savings accounts. Then, despite the HP payments on Sophie (which continue until October) and the loan repayments on the caravan (which go on until the summer of 2029) my spreadsheets assure me that those savings accounts will quickly fill up again. They need to. At some point I must create the deposit for a new car.
The hardstanding will at any rate almost double the parking space in front of my home. It's a practical and useful addition. And I'll still have a lot of the front lawn left.
I think the hardstanding will add to the street appeal of the property. It will certainly increase its value: I'm sure that in that sense I will get my £3,552 back almost instantly.
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