Cloudy

16 C     12 C (night)

This morning I was full of cold. I can’t remember the last time I was this bad and the worst thing is I don’t know anyone with a cold, so I can’t even blame someone else. I had so many things planned for today, instead I didn’t even get out of my PJ’s and was sent bed by nurse White, or maybe that should be Dr White. Anyway Si’s gluing didn’t go to plan, he unclipped the G-clamps and the side hatch promptly fell apart. It was quite a shock to both of us as the wood glue has stuck everything in its path before. Maybe it’s because the oak is only 12mm thick with one dowel in each corner, plus it’s a 1m x 1m and maybe too flexible. Back to the drawing board. He made a start on cutting the drawer ash fronts down to their exact size using the router. By the end of the day he had done the 5 small drawer fronts. I was still in bed, so I was looking at the door knobs and found some nice satin nickel ones at John Lewis £3.95, a snip of the £10.95 kitchen knobs. 

Si also went to fill the jerry can with diesel because he was slightly concerned with how much fuel we may have used on Thursdays snail pace cruise through the marina. He then re-glued the oak side hatch surround, this time with 2 sash clamps for good measure, fingers crossed. We emptied the contents of the freezer to start defrosting it but hadn’t realise how much food was going to go to waste, so we decided on a collection of chips, sausages and tomato flat bread. In the evening we started to pack, as we were going to be homeless for up to a week and would be travelling in everyday from Oxfordshire to work. The joys of living on a boat… part 449!

Sunny intervals

16 C     12 C (night)

Si didn’t take the opportunity to put his rods in last night because he’d been fishing on the high seas all day yesterday. He’d done really well again, coming 2^nd in the whole competition, and his team coming 1^st. He’d had a fantastic day and was still buzzing in the morning. And what a treat it was to wake up to the view of the river. You’d pay a lot for this view, but for us it was free until Monday. It was such a lovely morning that “our” stretch of river looked like the M25 at times. I’d had a hell of week, not helped by a cold coming on and I was desperate to finish the MDF primer on the kitchen corner cupboard doors. I needed to do some of the edges again with a paint brush before I could start spraying. Si wasn’t happy with his side hatch surround, it wasn’t meeting at the corners dead square. He took the router to several edges until he was satisfied and then glued it together. Our peaceful location was going to be ruined tonight by the Yacht clubs Halloween party and we weren’t proven wrong; drunken singing till the early hours, fantastic! 

We rushed from work to the boat for 12.30pm. The most experienced dock master was already waiting for us on our pontoon. We stepped aboard, started the engine and went and found the tiller handle. I also got the boat hook out and, thinking about it, this may have insulted the guy’s ego. We moved slowly but surely sideways out of our tiny space and proceeded through the marina. The Dock master was very skilled and everything was done at a snails pace. Si spent most of the time on the bow, while I chatted. I picked up lots of good advice, for example: when going around a corner, he kept on pulling the tiller arm back and forth. Apparently this acts as a brake, so you go round in stages rather than sliding. The other was to have the engine in tick over, just in gear, so if you need to brake the engines got some power to go in reverse. We moored up on the visitor’s pontoon and immediately realised that our view had improved ten fold. To the stern was the entrance to the marina , then a wooded spit of land separating the marina from the Weir stream. To port was Penton Hook Island and to the bow long views of the Thames. We were supposed to be heading down to 4 All Marine on the Saturday but they didn’t have anyone to help us, so we all decided it would be Monday instead. The marina was happy for us to stay until Monday because it wasn’t height of boating season. Plus Si would get the chance of some proper fishing. 

Sunny intervals

19 C     7 C (night)

Today was to be more preparation for next week’s voyage. We filled the diesel tank up with fuel and ran the engine for 10 minutes. I did some more spray painting, in between the food shop and that was pretty much it, we seem to have lost our mojo again.

Sunny intervals

14 C     7 C (night)

The weather was stupidly balmy for this time of year; the fish must have thought it was summer again. Everywhere you looked in the water there were hundreds of them. Si has a picture framing clamp to hold the side hatch frame together after gluing, but the cord wasn’t long enough, so we decided to walk around to the Chandlers. We also went to the marina office to pay our whopping £27 electric bill. I know it was over the summer but that’s our kind of bill. We also needed to ask for assistance to move us to the visitor’s pontoon because blacking was back on for next weekend. Unfortunately the only day they can help us is the Thursday before so we will have to move the boat in our lunch hour. I continued with the kitchen cupboards believing I was close to using the kitchen cupboard paint. 

Sunny intervals

17 C     5 C (night)

Si was getting a little frustrated today because I was spray painting, which meant he had to do less messy jobs. He made a start on the oak surround for the side hatch by mitring the corners at 45 degrees and dowelling them. Due to enjoying the walk to the pub last Sunday, we thought we’d re-enact it again.

Sunny intervals

17 C     6 C (night)

Ness had a long overdue appointment with the groomer today, so I’d travelled to my parents last night, leaving Si ‘boat alone’. He continued cutting and gluing drawer fronts and gluing more ash strip trim to the portside wardrobe.

Sunny intervals

20 C     15 C (night)

Today was our first day of waking up on the boat in over a week; we had been here there and everywhere. The Thursday before the boat was supposed to go in to be blacked, we received a phone call asking us to cancel. Chertsey lock was closing for 5 months and 4 All Marine wanted to get the people below the lock in before us which was fair enough. In some ways this suited us better because everything seemed to be a rush. We headed to my parents to doggy sit for the first night; we then had a second night but this time with my parents company. Then we headed west to Cornwall, on the Monday. We had 5 fabulous days of chilling, no surfing, lots of drinking, walking and even an attempt at fishing for sea bass. Ness was in heaven on the beach and she soon ended up with sand in every orifice… charming! 

On the Friday we headed to Si’s parents to collect the wood that Si had ordered several weeks ago. Kindly Si’s dad was storing it in his garage for us. Finally we headed back to the boat Saturday afternoon. We were a little surprised to see our boat had been moved; 10ft closer to Nat & Dan. We were aware that the marina staff were going to be moving her because they had left a message on my phone on the Friday, but we still weren’t very impressed on arrival. 

In the evening we went to a gathering on our next door neighbours’ boat, our new neighbours that is. The evening was entertaining and it was a lovely boat, large but perfectly formed, well - for a cruiser anyway. Today I sprayed a few more coats of MDF primer while Si cut the ash drawer fronts and glued the planks together. He was also mitring the ash strips he’d cut at his dads last week. The table saw now lives in Chris’s garage. In the end we decided to finish our week off with a walk into Chertsey to the pub.

Sunny intervals

22 C     14 C (night)

Si had taken today off because he’d missed a day of boat building this weekend due to the wedding. He carried on preparing the boat for her to go to 4 All Marine to be blacked.

Sunny

21 C     11 C (night)

Well, what a few days. It didn’t start well with my parents eldest dog, Lily, falling ill. Unfortunately she couldn’t be mended this time and had to be put to sleep on Thursday. We are devastated, mother obviously even more so. Lily was her guardian angel through hard times. Friday afternoon I had headed to Oxfordshire to support my mum but I also thought our crazed Wheaten Terrier might help. On Saturday morning I was up and out to head back to the boat because I was supposed to be photographing a friends wedding from lunchtime. I got back to the boat with half an hour to change and then drive 7 miles to the wedding. The day didn’t improve. By the time Sunday morning came round we were so thankful, but had no energy. Today was about preparing the boat for its voyage next weekend to the slipway for blacking. I did manage a few more coats of MDF primer on the next batch of kitchen cupboards.

Sunny intervals

16 C     8 C (night)

I started to paint the edges of the next batch of kitchen cupboard surrounds and fronts. Unfortunately though, there were three original pieces I needed to paint again. I’d over painted the ends and the paint had crazed. Si was cleaning the boat on the outside, as spider season had well and truly started. The afternoon disappeared into a leisurely one with fishing rods in hand.

Sunny intervals + heavy showers

18 C     10 C (night)

Today was more of domesticated day for me, though Si did manage bits of boat building here and there. I was up early cooking bolognaise for a lasagne and cleaning, as my parents and the dogs were coming for a visit. My mother and I were off to a craft show at Sandown racecourse in the afternoon. Father dropped us off and by the time he’d got back to the boat, we were done. The show was tiny compared to others and quite poor. On our return I put the lasagne together and took the dogs out for a walk with Papa. It was a lovely day especially because my parents got to see our progress.

Sunny intervals

22 C     11 C (night)

Si took today off to get on with boat building as my parents were visiting tomorrow and wouldn’t leave much time to get anything done. He was attaching the knobs to the kitchen drawers and finally placing the finished 600mm drawer and 300mm cupboard unit into place. Wow, they looked amazing! Not surprising, as the knobs were £11 each. I know extravagant - but stunning!

Sunny intervals

21 C     15 C (night)

Well this morning I was playing with my camera in its underwater housing, trying to take photographs of the fish and the boat. Well let’s just say I took a lot of murky shots which do nothing to entice you to go snorkelling in the Thames. We attempted to do a big job today, attach the bathroom mirror. A job neither of us were looking forward to, especially if it went wrong. 7 years bad luck and all that. Si is still positive our bad luck is down to a bathroom cabinet mirror he broke at a car boot sale. If that is the case we’ve got another 3 years to go, oh joy! 

First Si needed to remove the tap unit on the sink, he shut of the valves and off he went and thankfully, no leaks. We gingerly carried the mirror into the bathroom and slowly placed it in the recess. Guess what, it didn’t fit……gggrrrrrrhhhhhh!!!! We gingerly carried it back to the corridor and discussed our options. I had laboriously painted the surrounds  but they had to go. Believe me this was pain, we literally only needed 2mm on one corners Si proceeded to drill all the plugged screw holes out and took a chisel to my work, I realised too late he just needed to take one edge off, even more painful. Attempt number two saw the mirror in place, I held it up while Si went off to get the drill and the right size screws. We swapped and I went off to find my wiring diagrams to make sure we weren’t going to drill through any 12V cables. Once the mirror was in it was time to attach the expensive and adapted John Lewis light. I made a few more adjustments, well several, before we could attach it. Wow! It looked really good! If you squinted your eyes to ignore one surround piece missing and the other damaged. It looked so impressive that I took several photo’s on my phone to send to people and put up on facebook. If anyone thinks living on a boat is pikey, check out our granite top, Villeroy & Bosh sink, Mayfair tap and a mother of mirrors!

Sunny intervals

22 C     16 C (night)

We had slowly been writing a list of what needs to be done in preparation for the boat coming out of the water. One requirement is that the gas bottles are secure and this requires a heavy duty chain and a padlock for security. Although we have the option for a padlock on the lid, we though if in an emergency the gas bottles needed to be turned off, it was better they are quickly accessible. Si had acquired some awesome metal drill bits, so drilling through the bulkhead inside the bow locker took no time at all. Once again having decent tools pays. He’d also taken the front of the portside wardrobe off to router the door and drawer holes straight. A job all three of us were glad was over, even the dog finds it nerve racking. 

Sunny intervals

19 C     14 C (night)

Today was the second part of the drawer cutting, cutting the 6mm bottoms for the seven drawers. I was less mobile as I had completely seized from yesterday, being on my feet for 10+ hours on an uneven floor and the many steps at the venue.

Sunny intervals

23 C     15 C (night)

Well, I was away at my parents again. I know, it’s becoming quite a habit but I was photographing a friends wedding, an all day affair. I stayed till 11pm to be my parents taxi. I spoke to Si once through the day, he’d been working on the wardrobe drawer inners, routering a rebate to support the 6mm bottoms. 

Sunny intervals

17 C     9 C (night)

Si completed the arduous task of cutting the wardrobe door and drawer holes out with a drill and jigsaw. A delicate process because there were some thin strips that might have snapped with a little too much pressure. I suppose we were lucky we were using ash faced MDF rather than block board because it’s much stronger. The funny thing is none of the drawers are the same size. Si was determined that they would be this time; although that was the plan on the starboard wardrobe, they are nowhere near. Unfortunately his determination didn’t pay off. It’s only noticeable if you look really hard, but boy did we laugh. He still has no idea what had happened twice!

Sunny intervals

20 C     12 C (night)

Today Si was making a start on the port side wardrobe front; by no means a simple task. It has 8 edges with 3 of them not being straight. This meant Si would have to make small cuts at a time in the lounge, then lug the sheet of 18mm ash faced MDF in to the bedroom to test the fit every time. By the time the pub was calling he had moved this piece of wood well over 30 times, but his persistence paid off as his angles were accurate. He’d also managed to do the side of the wardrobe during the day. I arrived back from my parents with some wood from their garage, 6mm ash faced ply for the bottom of the wardrobe drawers. As my boat building never adds up to much, on my return I decided I’d be far more constructive down the pub. 

Sunny intervals + heavy showers

18 C     11 C (night)

Si was taking it easy today because he had completed a 5 day working week, unheard of normally. He had managed to cut the 12mm MDF into rectangles to make the backs and sides of the wardrobe drawers. Speaking to him on the phone he felt he hadn’t achieved that much because it was such slow work, every edge required routering straight. Although I wasn’t on the boat I was doing periphery boat building. It’s getting to the point where I’m doing more and more of it, because the majority of the boatbuilding left is fine woodwork plus Si creates so much dust that I can’t paint or varnish. Anyway it was day number 2 of helping my parents sort out their garage and sheds. The aim is to be able to move our stuff into one of the sheds to give them their garage space back. The problem being that every shed (x3), the workshop, the garage and the pigsty is rammed full of stuff. We managed to fill my dads 4x4 twice to go to the tip and only made a slight dent to the stuff in one shed and the garage. I will be back next Sunday to carry on with the quest. I also updated the website, worked on the dwindling boat budget and ordered a few more items.

Sunny intervals

24 C     9 C (night)

On my return from my parents, my efforts today concentrated more on gardening than boat building. In realising root vegetables were not going to work, I decided to pick them all and reduce the number of pots around the boat. I had very little produce, but I was in possession of some awesome carrots… canoodling carrots! Si had attached the wardrobe carcass frame securely to the floor and back wall and planed down the other plumbing top box in the bedroom.

Sunny intervals + light showers

21 C     14 C (night)

Si’s boatbuilding was rather limited due to the DVD player and carp fishing DVD’s, porn for fishermen!

Sunny intervals

22 C     8 C (night)

I awoke to more of Si’s late night worktop oiling. I left the two of them cuddled up together and headed off to work, a martyr to the cause. On my return home this evening, I was greeted with a fitted bedroom plumbing top box. Si had been practicing with his new plane. Not a single portion of any wall is straight and he had made it fit snugly. The boy’s talents never cease. He’d even left the shavings on the carpet to show me. I thought these looked very impressive and began to take arty farty shots. He’d also fitted the fresh water tank gauge, this is more proof of how long it takes us to do things, we purchased it nearly two years ago. 

Sunny intervals

19 C     7 C (night)

I left Si and Ness sleeping like a babies as I headed out to work. We spoke to each other during the day and I was starting to wonder why I was going to work. The answer was to save my leave, in a few weeks I’d be doing loads of editing for friends wedding photographs. What was nice was going to work past Si’s efforts oiling the worktop, it looked like new again. On my return home he had attached all the separate parts of the wardrobe carcass together, even including the rail. It was very impressive; my only concern was that my clothes were now in the portside wardrobe, the SMALL wardrobe! In our old flat, it was often the joke that Si had two thirds of the wardrobe space. On the boat the portside wardrobe was meant for long items, such as dresses. Now I own two, he had kindly given me that side. What a gentlemen. 

Heavy Rain

16 C     13 C (night)

Si had many projects on the go and slowly but surely they were starting to emerge. The 3 drawer carcass was complete, the wood for the drawer side cut to shape with a hole for the water gauge. He had also made a brave start in sanding down the kitchen worktop, to re oil it. The oak looked dried out and rather stained, maybe we won’t have a solid oak worktop in our next kitchen!  

Sunny intervals

22 C     13 C (night)

I returned from my parents at 2pm, Si was still building the wardrobe carcass in slow time and I didn’t help matters by persuading him to go the pub… bad girl!

Sunny intervals

22 C     9 C (night)

I was supposed to be returning back to the boat today, but decided to spend some mother and daughter time having lunch and shopping, although our first shopping visit was to B&Q to stock up on indoor varnish and kitchen cupboard paint. Si was still continuing with the carcass frame and generally taking it easy. Well why not; with no proper holiday in over 3 years, sometimes one deserves to be lazy. 

Sunny intervals

22 C     14 C (night)

I sprayed the 300mm kitchen door and 600mm drawer units before heading to my parents at 4pm, leaving Si to his wardrobe carcass building. We were supposed to be having this coming week as holiday but we had used quite a lot of annual leave last week due to the kennel cough incident. Si decided he was still taking the whole week and didn’t care about his leave quota. I was taking a different stance and would be going into work Thursday and Friday. Luckily Ness had stopped coughing by Friday, so we thought it would be safe enough to take her to my parents without re-infecting their dogs. 

Sunny intervals

21 C     15 C (night)

This morning we were both up early for a change, and made a start on putting the Houdini hatch trim into place. I was the hired assistant holding it while Si went around and put the screws in. Wow what a difference not to have to look at the old yellow spray foam, it even made the room lighter. Well chuffed. We moved the chest of drawers from the bedroom to the lounge, for Si to start on the bow wardrobe carcass. If it wasn’t bad enough having to eat dinner around the router tables and saws, we now have to cook next to our pants. Si prepared to wardrobe build by hoovering behind where the drawers were, as it was rather dusty. I got on with spray painting the kitchen cupboard fronts, hopefully for the last time. Although yellow stains were appearing on certain parts, I wiped them off but they came back. So I had to sand them back to almost the primer to get rid of what ever it was. Si put on the spray painting DVD, which did help. I realised I was holding the spray gun too far away. I thought it was 15cm + and it should be 5 to 15cm. Armed with this piece of information I gave it another go. It was working much better so I tried being a bit more liberal with the amount going on. Once dry they now had a satin sheen, rather than the matt colour of previous attempts. Later on in the afternoon we went out on a shopping expedition to buy a new bin (to replace the Henry Hoover cardboard box) and a 16 inch TV with built in DVD player. We used our nectar points, so the bin cost £0.49 and the TV was £25 cheaper, bargain! On returning to the boat we realised just how small the TV actually was, because Ness was twice the size of the box! We attempted to set the TV up but encountered the problem being in a steel tube: no signal. The aerial has to go out the bow doors and sit on the roof, so we can only watch TV when it’s not raining. Luckily it has a built in DVD player for the wet days.

Sunny intervals

23 C     15 C (night)

Si made it his turn again this afternoon and you could see he was enjoying leaving work at lunchtime. Saying that, by the time he’d got back to the boat, walked Ness and had lunch it was still past 2pm, which doesn’t allow too much time to boat build. He did manage to assemble the bow stairs and put them into place by the time I had returned from work. 

Sunny intervals

22 C     15 C (night)

Si’s turn. This afternoon he put 2 more coats of varnish on the bow steps and cut a piece of wood to go in between the bow steps and the water tank. The piece of wood will eventually have cellotex and carpet attached to it, in an attempt to dampen the noise of the water pump. He also re-glued a houdini hatch screw, as it had obviously moved with all the trim testing and was now acting as a funnel when it rained. 

Sunny intervals

22 C     15 C (night)

It was my turn again to take this afternoon off. I painted the last coats required on the Houdini hatch and mirror trim and Hammerited the bare steel again before Si returned from work. On his way home he went via Wickes to buy the timber for the wardrobe carcass. I had been moving furniture around the boat to make room for the chest of drawers so that Si will be able to start building the wardrobe carcass on the portside.

Sunny intervals

21 C     11 C (night)

This afternoon was Si’s turn for doggy duty while boat building. He was attempting to router the top bow step again, after the slight accident with the guide moving last time. This went very well but he then decided the lid wasn’t closing flush enough due to the frame being too lumpy. He took a plane to the frame and accidentally knocked part of the stationary oak step snapping the end off. On my return he had now re-glued this piece back on and had removed the opening part of the steps to varnish.  

Sunny intervals

21 C     11 C (night)

I was off work today, courtesy of our new baby seal coughing through the night. It kept Ness and I awake all night. Si on the other hand slept through. Si went to work while I nursed Ness and made an appointment with the vet. I utilised my day as best I could with another coat of paint on the Houdini trim and mirror surround. I also used hammerite paint on the bare steel around the side hatch and Houdini, just to give the steel more protection from rusting with the condensation. The vet diagnosed kennel cough and gave her antibiotics and Benolin (human) cough mixture. Ness was not impressed at having to take either, but the cough mixture worked a treat. We all slept through the night, not that Si needed any assistance.

Sunny intervals + light showers

20 C     10 C (night)

I was absolutely drained from going to bed at 2am especially as yesterday was so manic; but now we diagnosed Ness with kennel cough, probably picked up from my parents dog Maisie. She sounded like an 80 a day smoker crossed with a seal. I helped Si carry the bow steps through to the lounge because he was going to router the fronts of the steps straight. I waited in the bedroom hoping it would all go smoothly, the noise of the router eventually stopped and all was quiet, so I thought he’d cracked it… no chips or gouges. Hopefully. Well, I was in there less than 30 seconds while he was sanding down the fronts, when he realised the 1cm overlap was on the left end of the top step but not on the right, more like 3mm. His router guide had slipped during the routering without him noticing. There were a few choice words while he rolled a cigarette and went out on the back deck. I sat in front of the steps trying to work out the most logical and quick fix to rectify the situation. On his return although he was obviously gutted we talked it through. Hats off to him for this, I don’t have the patience to be so calm, my tantrum would last much longer and effect everyone within a 50 metre radius. We found strips of oak, which he then proceeded to glue and clamp, so that it would now be ready to rout back on attempt number two in a few days. Previous to this episode I had rearranged the second bedroom to accommodate our new wall papering table. I moved the shelves to the opposite side to squeeze it in, in an attempt to stop all the floor fluff ruining my spray painting. Whilst I had this new surface I gave the Houdini hatch trim another coat of white paint.

Sunny intervals

20 C     14 C (night)

Today Si achieved far more boat building than I did. I did go to paint he Houdini hatch trim and mirror surround first thing this morning but realised it would benefit more from some filler. I used the white wood filler on both, but this wouldn’t be dry for another 2 hours. I needed to go into Staines to do many chores, Post Office, Homebase, Sainsbury’s etc. While I was out and about for 3 hours, Si continued with the bow steps, cutting the metre long strip hinges to length and temporarily putting them in place. On my return there was a working lid on the bow steps and Si had put in another screw to move the bedroom door curtain from the bedroom to the bathroom door. This was because of our visitor this evening, Becks was coming over for dinner. We’d been in contact last week and I didn’t realise they were having major building work done to their house, making the upstairs the only liveable space. Apparently she’d been cooking with a microwave and rice cooker for months. Totally being able to sympathise I offered her and Andy dinner as we now had enough seats! I mentioned our eclectic mix; 2 breakfast bar stool, 2 directors chairs and 2 beanbags. She let us know that it would only be her because Andy was going on a stag do. I mentioned this to Si and he said “it’s a good job that Andy isn’t coming, we may have 6 seats but we only have 3 plates!” So if Andy was joining us, he’d have to bring his own. I spent the afternoon cooking an oven fest while painting the Houdini hatch and tidying up. Becks arrived at 7.30 and we had a lovely evening, so lovely we were gassing for 6 hours. We showed Becks the latest projects and advances, the last time she was aboard was May. Si showed Becks the bow steps which she proceeded to jump up on. This was the first time they had been tested. In a way it was good that Becks didn’t know this; had we tested them, we would have stepped on them rather gingerly. Becks left in the early hours with a Tupperware box full of lasagne for her and Andy’s Sunday lunch. Si and I realised Becks was the first friend we had cooked for, as it had only ever been my parents.

Sunny intervals

25 C     14 C (night)

I arrived back on the boat at lunch time due to taking the afternoon off work. I had a pleasant afternoon listening to London’s French radio station whilst painting another coat on the Houdini hatch trim and the mirror surround. Listening to Parisian café music, on a sunny day, with all the windows and doors open really gave me the sense of being on holiday… very relaxing.

Sunny

29 C     15 C (night)

Yesterday we dropped the mirror template off to Feltham glass and they priced it up at £140, which I thought was reasonable considering the angles and curves involved.  Today Si was off work and routering the oak bow steps and creating a cutting list of all the oak and ash we need, well almost all. On my return from work I sat for an hour working out the boat budget and realised that with the blacking, we are down £3000 and it will take us until November 2012 to save the extra money… mmm, Lottery win needed! After depressing ourselves we sat on the back deck fishing and I caught a whopping perch, my largest ever and he was a beauty… photographic evidence on the gallery!

Sunny intervals

28 C     13 C (night)

After quite a few pints, who am I kidding - many pints, I was up at 8am and thought I’d make myself useful. I made a start on varnishing the outside of the Houdini trim and once this was dry I could start on the numerous coats it will need of white paint. Moving to the bathroom I then cut back the plugs around the bathroom mirror, sanded them back flush and painted the first coat of many. I also attempted to spray the kitchen cupboards, but this turned out to be a waste of time! Trying to be thrifty, I was reusing mixtures of paint that I had decanted into jars after the last spraying session. To start with, the jars turned out to be cupboard paint and the MDF primer. Now my nice shiny doors were matt; this was meant to be their final coat. I had rearranged the room last time to use more floor space, with the cupboards sat on newspaper on the floor. Well they just attracted dust, fluff, you name it. My solution, I turned to the wall papering table. We still owe my parents one of these because we broke their last one, it was full of wood worm but it was in our possession when it crumbled. The table will also come in handy for the future car boot sales we will need to do. To break the day up we went for a drive to pay the deposit for the hull blacking. Luckily the slipway is just around the corner so no locks required; their first available slot is October.  Unfortunately, we can’t stay on her while she’s being blacked, so we are going to be forced to have a weeks holiday - the first in 3 years and 5 months… not that I’m counting. Well it’s between the Isle of Aaron or the Devon/Cornwall coast, for a bit of surf. In the afternoon Si continued working on the oak bow steps late into the evening while I cooked dinner. 

Sunny

25 C     11 C (night)

I spent the day alternating between painting the edges of the kitchen cupboard surrounds, plugging the holes around the bathroom mirror and ordering lots of boat items on the Internet, oh and working out our diminishing boat budget. Si’s day was spent working on several elements of the houdini hatch, it seems never ending. He cut more spray foam back and fitted 4 battens up into the hatch area for the trim to be screwed to something. Once these 4 lengths were screwed in, he made a start sanding the outer edge in an attempt to make the outside of the trim meet the roof. Well there was lots of going backwards and forwards, sanding it out on the back deck to keep the boat cleaner, then coming back in to try it for size. Every time he tried the fit there was another gap somewhere else. After many discussions we decided if we can’t bring the trim to the roof, why not bring the roof to the trim? This was achieved by unscrewing some of the screws holding the roof panelling up, letting the panelling settle down on the trim. Why we didn’t think of that in the first place. Now the Houdini hatch trim was complete it required several coats of outdoor varnish on the outside and white paint on the inside. Si gave its first coat of outdoor varnish before we disappeared for our fortnightly treat… the pub!

Sunny intervals

22 C     10 C (night)

We arrived back at 4pm from my parents after celebrating my father’s birthday last night. Nessie had also had a pampering session at the groomers, so was looking delightful. We did think about going to the pub, but it seemed a shame to waste a beautiful evening. While I did the domesticated bits, Si re-drilled the holes on the Houdini hatch, as he had to put that extra piece on to increase its depth, thereby covering the already drilled holes. He also put a couple of coats of varnish on the 2^nd bow front step.

Sunny intervals

23 C     10 C (night)

Today the weather was looking good, which doesn’t help with boat building. We had to knuckle down so Si continued on the bow steps, putting them through the router table. He also free routered the extra 6mm on the houdini hatch unit to get it flush, he now just needs to work out how he was going to secure it to the ceiling.  Today I had a light bulb moment or a blond moment, depending on which way you look at it. I was concentrating on painting the edges of the cupboard doors and not the surrounds. I suddenly realised that some of the surrounds required the cupboard paint as they were going to be visible in the frames, for some reason I thought I could cheat and just use MDF primer. So today I concentrated on these edges rather than spraying the flat parts.  

Sunny intervals

19 C     11 C (night)

Normally we would have disappeared to the pub last night, but we were abstaining this weekend, not due to a healthy regime but because we are skint ‘till pay day. Both of us said last night we were feeling more content living on the boat and it’s really starting to feel like home. On the boat building front, Si glued the add-on 6mm MDF to the Houdini hatch and set up all the clamps. He then turned his attention to routering the bow steps to straighten the back and right hand side of each step to fit. Then he cut 20mm off the ends with the jigsaw. These steps will have an integral hinged lid will to gain access to the valuable storage space within. Before I could start my tasks today I had to move a shelving unit from the 2^nd bedroom to the bathroom. Not an ideal place for it but I was desperate for more room to spray paint. Once I had rearranged our furniture I covered the 2^nd bedroom with polythene and newspaper. I proceeded to spend the next 2 hours spraying the cupboard doors and my feet. Spray painting in flip flops is a hazard and gave my toe nails a free nail polish, well jasmine white cupboard paint.

Sunny intervals

21 C     11 C (night)

It had been a manic week for all of us including Ness. All we wanted to do was sleep but that’s not going to finish the boat. I was up at 9am and Si followed at 11am, I know it makes him sound incredibly lazy but I went to bed very early and he didn’t stop doing stuff till 1am. During the week Si attached the mixer unit to the shower wall, it looks fantastic. The problem now is that the rest of the shower riser doesn’t fit, but we knew this would happen. I had bought a very nice fixed shower with a large shower rose some time ago. We were now talking about cutting the shower arm down as well as the upright, this all now seemed like a lot of work. Plus having a fixed shower head means it will be impossible to clean the shower itself, or Ness. So I went off to Homebase to purchase a 1.5m shower hose to see how it looked and to measure the shower risers in the shop. This our latest plan, replace the fixed head with a riser and hose but it does mean we need to swap the water inlet and outlet of the shower mixer unit over. It also wasn’t a particularly productive day in other ways. Si routered back the face of the Houdini frame, it looked fantastic but on fitting it inside the hatch, it came up too short. Absolutely no idea how that has happened, but it meant he needed to add another 6mm strip, unfortunately the only wood available was 6mm MDF. I attempted to put the bathroom wall light together after Si had used epoxy resin to fix the inner light pull unit back into place. He’d originally bought a soldering iron to do this, but it didn’t really work so he took it to a colleague at work for advice. The colleague thought it would be better for us to use epoxy resin, which he did and it worked like a treat (thanks Keith!). The problem I now had is that when I put the back plate on the adapted light, it squashed the wires onto the light pull cord, so much so that the cord wouldn’t pull. It took many attempts to move the wires and bullets into different formations to finally get it to work. We marked the mirror template up to be drilled so that we can take it to the mirror shop to be cut…..exciting! I also painted the edges of some of the kitchen cupboard doors with the Dulux cupboard paint, to prepare for spraying the flat sides tomorrow. 

Rain

19 C     13 C (night)

Well what a week! I had been away on a course so it was typical that Si was alone to deal with kennel cough and an injured shoulder. Basically turning his 5 day working week into 2 ½ days. The kennel cough was the first part of the week and Si’s shoulder was the latter. He first damaged himself whilst in bed; he rolled over and crunched his shoulder, but later saw our neighbour struggling to carry boxes up the pontoon so lent a hand. Now he couldn’t drive or clean his teeth. On my return late Friday evening I was glad to be home, I got the most almighty greeting from Ness which lasted at least 10 minutes. Although Si had the same enthusiasm as Ness his greeting was more limp as he didn’t have the ability to hug. What he still could manage though was to lift a pint glass in his other hand, hence we went to the pub. During the week Si had made a start on the bow steps by biscuiting and gluing oak panels together but after Wednesday not much more boat building had happened due to his shoulder. Today he could now raise his arm to 90 degrees, so was able to glue and clamp the outer trim of the Houdini unit. We were now heading west to my parents, originally I was going alone but Si wasn’t able to do much with his shoulder injury so decided to join us for the trip. 

Sunny intervals

22 C     12 C (night)

Si made the Houdini hatch trim out of ash by cutting the ends at 45 degrees to make a perfect square. He parcel taped it all together to see how much he needed to trim back. The unit held itself up, but I wasn’t so trusting, so while Si was admiring his handy work I was ready to catch if needed. Today on the painting front I had resorted to painting the edges of the kitchen cupboard fronts with a brush because spraying them was a waste of paint and effort.

Sunny intervals

22 C     13 C (night)

Last night I had a productive evening; I was re-wiring the bathroom light and swapping the light bulbs. With the correct bulbs in place, it was time for the test. Si wired it in and I turned on the electric supply, it worked! I had purchased white (cold) LED’s this time, the rest of the boat lights are the warm version. It was only on purchasing these that I saw the spec of the bulbs; the warm light gives off 50 lumens less. We originally bought the warm version because we felt white LED’s may be too harsh, but we are now aware the warm version are not bright enough and often if doing intricate work we also need to use a head torch. Today Si was offering his assistance to our neighbour George; with the support of Dan and 2 MDL staff they were taking his boat to be pumped out and to fill up the fuel tank. Us girls stayed on the pontoon holding the mooring ropes and taking photo’s. Ness was very put out she wasn’t with Si and barked as they cruised off. An hour later they returned but luckily didn’t put the boat back in the same spot; it’s a rather tight squeeze, especially in reverse. Once again us girls helped with the mooring ropes and Ness tried to get onboard as soon as it berthed. She managed to push the boat out with her front paws and nearly went for a swim, luckily I grabbed her before she did. George said the cruise round had reminded him why he had originally bought the boat, however since arriving at the marina his boat hadn’t moved in 3 years, a similar story to us. 

While Si was off being a good neighbour I was attempting to spray-paint half the kitchen cupboard drawers and doors with the cupboard paint, managing to cover myself as well, including my feet. On Si’s return he continued with the Houdini hatch surround by cutting the outer edge for it to fit. He removed a lot of the spray foam and drilled several holes in the wood surround to accommodate the screws that hold the hatch in place and stick through the roof. With the holes drilled the hatch unit fitted in like a glove. Tomorrows’ task was to make the outer trim.

Sunny intervals

25 C     14 C (night)

Si made the most of his day by creating the mirror template for the bathroom. It’s currently in 3 pieces and will eventually be finished when we can work out the holes for mounting the wall light. He also shortened the bolts that hold the shower mixer unit bracket because they stuck out too far the other side.

Sunny intervals

23 C     11 C (night)

Today was going to be a fun filled packed day. I started by swimming a mile followed by a food shop because my parents were coming for dinner. On my return Si was up and about, I offered to take Ness for a walk as she hadn’t been to the toilet, and ended up wishing I hadn’t offered. Lets just say we had a poo incident that required Ness to be hosed down! Whatever you’re picturing in your head make it 10 times worse. So our day had started off well! Si attached the new door knobs to the electric cupboard doors; these are 28mm oval chrome knobs I have purchased from E-bay. Unfortunately the screws provided were not deep enough to go through the 18mm doors so Si drove to Homebase to purchase longer ones, he also bought 2 emulsion tester pots in an attempt to hide the bare patch on the wardrobe front. During the day we then spoke to our painter neighbour and he advised us to use watercolours to match the wood with the emulsion to bind it. When he started mentioning using a feather to create the texture of the ash, it didn’t sound that simple any more. Anyway back to the knobs, they looked good, so I will place an order for 7 more. These will be used on the stern step cupboards, the bathroom cupboard and the toilet hatch door. I will purchase different handle/knobs for the kitchen cupboards and bedroom wardrobes. Si then moved onto cutting the last of the circular holes for mounting the hinges on the kitchen cupboard doors He used Shufty’s dads pillar drill and his new forstner bit. I started spray painting and had discovered the knack required, although I still found it far too easy to over spray. This is not an issue with the primer as I can sand it back but it will make it difficult for the final spray of the cupboard paint. I suppose practice makes perfect. Si was now in the shower enclosure drilling 4 holes to attach the shower valve to the wall which I’d marked up last week. He’d also created an 18mm backing piece to strengthen the attachments; the shower mixer unit is rather heavy and we would have been relying on the 18mm thick wall. In between spraying each coat of paint I would tidy and clean for our forthcoming visitors. 

My parents arrived at 7:15 just as I was walking back from tipping the paint water down the Elsat. Dinner was rather late and chaotic, especially the pudding. How many people does it take to stop chocolate from curdling? The answer was 3 civil servants and a church administrator. The creation was a chocolate fondue, it turned out good in the end and at least we had a good old laugh. My parents eventually left at 11pm and we’d all enjoyed a good evening and the day had ended far better than the start.

Sunny intervals

23 C     13 C (night)

It was supposed to be a 5 day working week after our week off, unfortunately that was scuppered on our first day back due to temperatures of 33 C, meaning it was far to hot to leave Ness on the boat. I asked my boss for the morning off and Si did the same for the afternoon. By the time we reached Friday, Si decided a 4 ½ day week was still too much and took Friday afternoon off too. When Si has afternoons off work he boat builds, I end up being domesticated i.e. food shopping and cleaning. On my return from work, he had been sanding the wardrobe front down, trying to merge the ash trim into the ash MDF. It was looking good but there was one patch where he’d used the edge of the sander too much and it had gone back to MDF. Obviously he was gutted, but this isn’t the first time this has happened and is a valuable reminder about using manmade materials. This put both of us in a bad mood and the only thing for it was the pub. Well as usual we over did the alcohol level and my plan of going swimming this morning didn’t happen. We slowly surfaced, Si continued to sand the wardrobe but with added care and in between this he varnished the lower bow step front. He’d also replaced 2 door bolts on the bow door that had been snapped for some time. We lost the use of 3 bolts when the boat was transported on the lorry to the Thames, presumably too much vibration. We were replacing them because we were now using the bow door. The tarp had been off all week and it had been well and truly tested. On Wednesday morning Si told me it wasn’t going to rain, so off I went to work in a summery top. Let’s just say I haven’t seen such a spectacular thunderstorm and monsoon rain for over a decade. On our nervous return to the boat we whipped the steps out to check the damage; to our amazement everything was dry! Luckily the rain was coming from a northerly direction, had it been a southerly I’m sure it would have been a different story. 

Today I decided to use the spray gun to finish off the primer on the 2 cupboards I’m concentrating on but before I started I replaced all the polythene in the 2^nd bedroom as it had taken a battering from the powerful airflow of the spray gun. I thought I’d damaged the nib of the spray gun some how when I cleaned it last time, but I decided to persevere. Well my patience paid off after several hours, several cleans and lots of experimenting. I first attempted with the watered down primer but it still spluttered, I watered it down some more and still the same issue. It was only when I went to flush the gun out, running water through the gun for several minutes, did it stop spluttering. So I mixed another batch of paint and instead of the spray guns recommended ratio of 1:10 or Dulux recommendation of 5:1, I went for a 3:1, and it worked! The plus side was with the paint being so thin it dried very quickly and I could recoat within 15 minutes. Well I was so impressed with my new continuous spraying I worked up and till 10pm!

Sunny

28 C     15 C (night)

Considering the amount of alcohol we drank last night we were quite surprised at our productivity today. The temperature was hot and it was going to get hotter. Si glued more ash trim on the wardrobe, which only left five more lengths to glue. He then turned his attention to attaching the drip to the bow doors, filling the 8 holes with oak plugs, trimming them and then a quick coat of varnish. He then started to router the ash edges to edge the bow step fronts that were cut yesterday. Once he’d done this he then cut the ash edge trim to the right lengths to be able to glue onto the MDF. 

While Si was doing this I was sanding down the edges of the MDF kitchen drawers and doors with the sanding block before painting 2 more coats of Primer. In the evening we were sat on the back deck soaking up the rays and I mentioned starting the engine. It’s been on our list of things to do and it hasn’t been run since May 2010. The main reason for not running it was nerves that the engine may have seized. Si had checked it all over a couple of weeks ago and all seemed well so we decided to throw caution to the wind. She started perfectly and ran very smoothly, hardly any smoke at all. We ran her for a good 10 minutes and managed to dislodge a lot of weed. Our week off was over and we were rather gutted we both had to return to work; still hoping for a lottery win. 

Sunny intervals

23 C     12 C (night)

I knew my boatbuilding wouldn’t amount to much today because my role was to cook for our neighbours farewell do. First thing I cooked was the bolognaise sauce, followed by a chocolate cake. I then had a shower and returned to create the lasagne and ice the chocolate cake with fudge icing. Si did manage to glue more ash trim on the wardrobe and cut down a sheet of ash faced MDF with the jigsaw to create the front of the bow steps. At 6pm we went over to our neighbours and there we proceeded to eat and drink till midnight. It was a lovely evening especially as the weather had played along so we could eat alfresco.

Sunny intervals + rain

Sunny intervals

18 C     11 C (night)

I was up early to have a shower, well, actually to go swimming. The shower is a bonus because the marina is revamping its nice(ish) shower block for the next 6 weeks and that leaves 2 poorer options. This way I do a bit of exercise and become clean at the same time. I didn’t arrive home till 1pm. Si was up and about and had glued more ash trim to the wardrobe front, another 3 pieces. We are now not sure if we want to paint it white as the ash looks really good, this may need to be a debate for another time. Si had now decided the drip needed doing on the bow doors, it’s been on his to do list for years. Since the doors were installed even, back in October 2009! They’ve always leaked and badly, hence having a blue tarp over them for nearly 2 years. Neither of us are convinced it’s going to work because the doors were made so badly in the first place. So badly you can see the outside world without looking through the glass. Eventually they will need replacing, maybe next summer. Si was trying to work out the angle the drip had to be so that the doors would still open. He then drilled out eight holes in the drip to be able to plug them once it was screwed on and lastly routered the drip gulley underneath. Si started the first coat of outdoor varnish at 4pm and did a second at midnight. 

My boat building day was quite a short one in contrast to Si’s, I started at 1pm and finished at 4pm due to heading up to London to go out with the girls. In that time I finished sealing the shower enclosure and painted more primer onto the MDF. Si dropped me off at the train station to head to Waterloo. The girls always ask me about the boat and are normally horrified with the conditions we live in. The comments last night were that they couldn’t survive without hot water and how I don’t get to the point of having enough and booking myself into a hotel. Lets just say we are different, the girls don’t “do” camping, surfing, kayaking, actually anything outdoors. I even said to them that living on a boat you are so close to nature, there was no reply, just screwed up noses. Each to their own!

Sunny intervals

19 C     12 C (night)

Rather hung over this morning after 5 pints + a shot of sambouka (always seems to be a good idea at the time) I was up early to have my hair cut. On my return Si was on the back deck, I thought he’d only just got up but looking inside the boat the router table was set up with lots of shavings. He was now straightening the other side of the ash strips. I made a start by sealing the four edges in the shower enclosure again. I would leave the back two edges until tomorrow. I took up the masking tape straight away, lesson learnt! I then moved onto painting the edges of 4 of the drawer fronts with the primer, but using a brush. I had no more room to do anymore painting so I moved onto unpacking the shower and measuring the holes out for the main unit. While I’d been doing all this Si had been painstakingly measuring each length of ash for the wardrobe edges and cutting the 45 degree angles with his Nobex mitre saw to make them fit perfectly. 

While Si disappeared off to Staines for maggots and Argos vouchers I hunted the Internet for door knobs and handles. I’d recently bought four 28mm chrome knobs from E-Bay but wasn’t 100% sure, so I did my usual trick and stuck them on the electric cupboard fronts with blu-tack. On Si’s return he started making dinner (a chilli) while I was in the bedroom taking apart the £75 bathroom light with the plan to replace the guts of it with 12v electrics. We have hunted high and low for a nice bathroom wall light with a pull switch but nothing and me the queen of internet shopping! It took me a while to get into the back of it but I drew diagrams and took photo’s just in case it needed to go back together, but also to help me work out my electrics. Over the next few hours I sat playing electricians, unfortunately I couldn’t finish it as I needed 2 led light bulbs. While I was cutting & stripping wire, Si was gluing 3 lengths of ash trim to the wardrobe. This was the max he could do because he only has 9 G-clamps.

Sunny intervals

21 C     13 C (night)

This morning’s start wasn’t as early as we intended. Si’s job today was to cut some ash into 25mm strips for the edging of the wardrobe to hide the MDF edges. Our table saw is now at Si’s parents because we have both come to the conclusion that it makes far too much mess. Unfortunately it would have been far quicker than Si’s alternative method of using the jigsaw, followed by the router (to keep a straight edge) and then eventually running the other (un-straight side) through the router table. While Si was swapping tools like mad I was sealing the shower edges, it didn’t take me too long and soon I was back into spraying more cupboard doors. Unfortunately it wasn’t working as well; it seemed to be pulsating the paint. I read the instructions and tried several things but couldn’t get it work. I was nervous about how I’d cleaned up the spray gun yesterday as I may have damaged the tip. I still carried on but got rather frustrated with its intermittent spraying. It was at this point that I decided the edges of the MDF should be hand painted, especially the inner door sections, because the gun was struggling to get into the corners. On the clear up my foul mood gathered pace, it didn’t help that I cut my foot on the jigsaw which was on the floor in front of the sink. Probably my own fault as I was wearing my usual boat building outfit… flip-flops. 

At 4pm we all bundled into the car to go via Screwfix for a forstener set needed to create the holes required to recess the kitchen hinges, then onto a possible new mooring in Hampton. Although lovely the mooring didn’t come to anything because it turned out that it would only be available for 12-18 months until they build their residential floating homes, and there was no parking. Well it was worth a go, we would love to get back to Hampton, especially as our view from the boat has gone and we are now blocked in. On our return to the boat it didn’t take long to decide we were going to head north to the pub, but first Si wanted to finish some more ash edging. I took the opportunity to pull up the masking tape and realised I should have done this immediately after using the sealant because I now had to cut it all with a scalpel which took a hundred times longer. I decided I would do the sealant again as there were a few gaps and I had now learnt my lesson on taking up the masking tape immediately. We packed up and headed out for dinner and beer.

Heavy rain

21 C     10 C (night)

We arrived back to the boat yesterday from a busy weekend but we both had the week ahead off work. We’d both done a 5 day week (unheard of!) and then we drove to my parents for a farewell meal for my sister & cousin who were returning to Oz. This ended up as a late evening (2am) and an early start as Nessie wanted to be in the garden (5am). We left my parents early afternoon heading southwest to Bristol for Si’s baby sisters 30^th celebrations, well it turned out to be a double celebration as her boyfriend had proposed to her a few days earlier. Sunday was a more relaxing day and a good chance to catch up with Si’s folks. On our return to the boat we decided to be proactive and do the first thing on the list. We have a new whiteboard sitting on the kitchen counter top; the reason for it is that neither of us discuss what is next to do, and with so many unfinished jobs, we needed more organisation. 

The first job was to move the wood in the lounge to the corridor to make way for our new piece of furniture. The Laura Ashley console breakfast bar, a bargain at £360 reduced from £1000. We carried it from the van and carefully lifted it inside to fit under the hatch, very impressive! The rest of the evening was spent being very domesticated, cleaning and tidying. This morning Si took down the wardrobe facia to start cutting out the rest of the 4 holes (drawer compartments) with the jigsaw. He left an overlap of 15mm, as some times the jigsaw chips the ash face. He then spent the next 4 hours routering back 20 sides. The wood was much lighter to handle now but I was very paranoid one of the thin inner parts might snap, had this been ash faced blockboard this most certainly would have happened, but the MDF is far tougher. While Si was hard at work I was in the shower enclosure taping up the 6 edges to fill with sealant, I was all ready to go when I found out we’d run out of the shower anti mould sealant. I drove up to Homebase to buy some more and then decided I’d do that job tomorrow. I was now watching the DVD of the Bosch spray gun again so as to be properly prepared. I made a start but what I didn’t expect was the force of the air from the spray gun. It was so strong it would make the newspaper fly and the polythene I had originally put up to protect the room struggled to stay attached to the walls. I spent a long time spraying cardboard, trying to get the correct consistency. Eventually I was brave enough to have a go on a drawer front. The flat fronts were fine, it was the edges that seemed impossible. I couldn’t do many doors because I just didn’t have the room. I almost needed a factory size room. Unfortunately cleaning the spray gun will take you exactly the same whether you’ve sprayed one piece or a hundred - ages. 

Once I’d cleaned up I took Ness for an evening walk which ended up with her being on her lead for the majority of it and me having extremely wet trousers. Basically, she did a runner. She picked up a sent and wouldn’t come back. I ended up having to run through the long grass to get hold of her. It took me 5 minutes and by this time I was hoarse and soaked. On our return Si was still cutting the 20 wardrobe corner edges out with a hand saw but luckily saw my distress and took over Nessie responsibilities. Si continued to saw while I made dinner and ignored Ness. After dinner I helped Si carry the now very light piece of wood through to put up… looking good!

Light rain

15 C      8 C (night)

This morning I was up early and went swimming. On my return Si was still asleep, I nearly joined him but thought better of it. I made a start on the insets but realised this would take several fills due to how deep the cavities were. Si was attempting to cut the front facia of the wardrobe, this was going to be a task as there were only two straight edges, 1 curved and 3 at different angles. The majority of the day was helping him put it up then down, to check each measurement and cut. He used his flexible ruler for the first time to get the shape of the curve, but he still kept on checking and cutting it away bit by bit. 

While I was waiting for the grout to dry I was turning the 2^nd bedroom/cupboard into my painting studio for the kitchen cupboard doors. I covered the majority of one end with polythene and held it up with masking tape. By 5pm Si had the correct shape of the front panel but needed to cut out at least the wardrobe section so that we could still gain access to our clothes. He roughly did this and on putting it in place it looked just like a Punch & Judy set up. It was asking for a puppet to be made, hence the photo in the gallery of a sock with eyes. At this point we realised how knackered we were and tomorrow was the beginning of a 5 day week followed by a manic weekend of rushing around the country… oh the joys of boat building, but at least we had found our boat building mojo again! 

Sunny Intervals

18 C    7 C (night)

Thursday was my grandmothers funeral, it turned out to be a good day. The funeral was upsetting as we expected, Nana was 91 and people would say ‘she had a good innings’. None of us would deny this fact but her passing has left a gaping hole in our lives. We were all instructed not to wear black so I had to go and purchase a dress, the first one Si had ever seen me in. The day was a celebration and the wake was a lovely do, Nana would have enjoyed it herself. 

Boat building had been neglected over the last month and I was determined to make progress with the shower enclosure so started tilling the third and final wall. Si had finished the frame of the wardrobe and had now progressed onto making the side panel out of ash faced MDF. The original intention was to make it out of Ash, then we decided maybe we should paint it white to brighten up the bedroom, but we didn’t realise we had far too much ash faced MDF and not enough plain MDF. So the plan is to use the ash faced but to paint it white. To say I worked hard today was an understatement, I kept on going until I finished grouting the main wall. I still had the insets to do but that was tomorrows’ job. Si also had been working like a Trojan and neither of us quite knew where this new found enthusiasm had come from. 

Sunny intervals + rain

19 C     11 C (night)

Today was the first day of the weekend for us to boat build. Si had been away to Cornwall for his works summer sea fishing competition. He’d left on the Thursday morning and returned on Saturday. The weather had been kind to them and he won his boat meaning he secures a place in the A-team for the winter competition. He sent me a photo while on the boat of the largest and his first catch of the day, a 35lb conger eel. In the photograph he is holding the fish up and it’s pretty much the length of him! While Si was away I had been at home but was more domesticated rather than boat building. Today was a short day for me too because I was leaving at 3pm to go to Heathrow airport to pick up my sister and cousin who had flown in from Oz for our grandmothers funeral, and then taking them up to my parents.

Sunny intervals + light rain

21 C     10 C (night)

Si was on the boat alone today and had a slow morning, I was due to head back down but we received a phone call from the hospital that Nana had deteriorated and wouldn’t last very long. My parents dashed up to Wolverhampton while I looked after the dogs. Nana lasted till both her daughters were by her side and then passed away so I was now staying at my parents for an extra night. Si continued through the day with the wardrobe carcass because he’d gone to Wickes to purchase more wood. We spoke a lot through the day as Nana meant a lot to him to, as Nana always had a soft spot for Si.

Sunny intervals

19 C     13 C (night)

Si needed more wood; he didn’t have enough to finish the drawer runners and wanted to replace one of the up rights as it wasn’t dead square and wouldn’t give a flush finish. I happened to mention the many unfinished projects around the boat, well this turned into a heated discussion. It didn’t help matters I was about to get in the car to head to my parents as Nana had had a second stoke and deteriorated. While I was on the road our new (too close)  neighbours made an appearance, coincidently one of the topics discussed was the unfinished Houdini hatch, it has been sat there for months possibly nearly a year and hadn’t got any further. Although I saw Si’s point of view, he did see mine and thought that by progressing with the Houdini hatch would win on so many levels. The first: keeping me happy by carrying on with an unfinished project, and the second: 3 hours of routering would certainly upset the new neighbours…

Sunny intervals + light rain

16 C     9 C (night)

Today Si continued with the starboard wardrobe carcass by attaching thinner strips of wood to the carcass to create the drawer runners. Funnily enough neither of us has previously made a chest of drawers before, so we were copying the design of our current chest of drawers. It’s a basic design but works well, so what’s the point of re-inventing it! I continued grouting the back wall with the aim of finishing it; this shower enclosure has been going on long enough. We decided to treat ourselves and headed to the pub.

Sunny intervals

16 C     10 C (night)

Well it’s been a hectic few weeks, travelling the country for many reasons. My grandmother had a stroke a few days before my birthday, I dashed up to Wolverhampton to see her as the prognosis didn’t look good. On the Wednesday afternoon we set off to Wales for a couple of days for my birthday, we still managed to have a good time but our thoughts weren’t far away thinking of Nana. Ness absolutely loved the beach and on the Thursday we must have walked 6 miles; we had one tired baby girl. I received lots of presents, but Si, the old romantic bought me my own fishing rod and licence, so we can sit on the back deck together… aaaaaahhhhhhhh! On the Friday we drove from Wales to my parents and had lovely meal out. On the Saturday Si stayed at my parents to look after the 3 dogs while my parents and I went back to Wolverhampton to see Nana. We came home on the Sunday afternoon but certainly weren’t in the mood for boat building. 

Today was the first day boat building in weeks, courtesy of the Queen giving us civil servants an extra day off for her birthday. Si continued with the starboard wardrobe carcass; creating the drawer compartments and cutting the clothes rail to size. Although we will be one drawer less than our current chest of drawers, the new ones will be much larger in depth and height. I continued more grouting on the back shower wall and was trying to do small amounts but lots of them. Luckily I had raided my parents recycling bin and acquired lots of different size plastic pots which were perfect for the job. In the evening Si made a saw horse with the left over wood from the temporary wardrobe, which would soon live in my parents pig sty. It was such a neat folding contraption, and a very solid piece. I know its nothing to do with building the boat but Si was very chuffed with himself. I was just impressed how he knocked it up with no drawings. There are not many things we are thankful to Mr Mills (Director of Simpsons) but Si’s new interest and talent is one.

Sunny intervals

16 C     8 C (night)

Today we were still feeling sorry for our long lost view. I managed a little bit of grouting but my heart wasn’t in it, nor was Si’s. By the end of the day we really hadn’t achieved anything and were longing for a break from the boat. 

Sunny intervals

17 C     5 C (night)

With the temporary wardrobe dismantled it had given Si a sizeable shelf of 18mm of birch ply, which he’d been after for a while to complete the housing for the gas taps in the kitchen corner cupboard. The day had turned rather sour early on by a new next-door neighbour. When a chap came round earlier and asked if Si had his fishing rods in, because he was about to put a boat in between us and next doors, Si thought he was mistaken. Well we didn’t believe it at first, but then were livid when a couple of hours later the boat arrived. It only just fits in the gap. It is now 18 inches from our back deck and we are completely boxed in. We possibly could get out but we’d take several £100,000 with us on the way. The problem is we can’t complain too much as it is a mooring space, but it totally ruins our view and the rest of the marina is currently half empty! We thought having a boat would give you a bit of flexibility, for example if you didn’t like your neighbours you could move… Wrong! You have no control, the marina will decide! Si’s gas housing was as much as we did today; we headed to the pub to drown our sorrows.

Sunny intervals

18 C     6 C (night)

This week had been our first 5 day week at work for some time, well in the end it was my first 5 day week because Si couldn’t cope with the thought, woke up this morning and decided to take the day off. I’d had a killer week because I had to go away for two days and it was the hardest two days I’ve ever had at work. On my return I was beyond tired. In my absence Si had fitted the magnetic catches to the electric cupboard doors and trimmed two kitchen cupboard doors to size. This wasn’t meant to happen but last weekend Si went to put the doors in place after they had all been glued only to discover the sink & fridge door now didn’t fit. Si thought he’d have to make them again but I suggested trimming them first as he had nothing to lose. Well the risk seemed to pay off. 

He had been a busy boy today and I only noticed when I went to water my plants late last night the new handle on my cold frame. Si has kept saying he was going to build me a handle because I couldn’t open the door without lifting the lid and pushing it from the inside. He had made it out of oak and it was gorgeous. Some men buy flowers but not my man; he makes me a door handle, it will last 100 times longer than flowers and is far more practical… I know, I’m one lucky girl! 

Sunny intervals

20 C     13 C (night)

On my return from Oxfordshire, it appeared that Si had enjoyed a relaxed evening and morning, I’m not complaining as he deserves them but it is rather unusual as he’s normally very productive in our absence. I’d also been productive while sat on a sofa in the Cotswolds, by updating the website. I was knackered because I didn’t get to sleep till 2am and was awake at 5.50am due to an over excited Wheaten who wanted to be in the garden. The problem is that once I’m up I can’t go back to sleep. I eventually left my parents and returned at 3pm to an empty boat, Si had gone off to Wickes for more carcassing timber for the wardrobe. 

On his return he explained his lazy evening and morning and decided to get on with the wardrobe. While he was doing that I hung one of our new purchases, the magnetic notice board. The back of the kitchen door seemed a good home for it. The wardrobe carcass needed to be finished tonight as the temporary one was now in bits and down the side of the bed. Si cracked on through the evening while I cooked dinner. At 10pm he’d ran out of corner braces so I offered my assistance to dismantle the old wardrobe to reuse the corner braces. Finally at 11pm I could put the bar up and hang all the clothes back on the rail. It was a nice surprise when we realised the wardrobe was a few inches larger than the old temporary one. 

Sunny intervals + rain

23 C     14 C (night)

On Wednesday & Thursday evenings I had returned from work at 7pm and still been quite productive, well, for me on a weekday evening. I grouted a few more tiles and kept this going by doing more this morning. Both of us were quite surprised how keen we were to go back to work this week! Believe me this never usually happens, but I think it shows that boat building can easily get to you and we now know cabin fever does really exists. 

Si made a start on the starboard wardrobe base. He carried on building this up and adding several corner braces until he ran out of timber. I painted 2 of the kitchen drawer panels to experiment with the Dulux MDF Primer. I watered the mixture down (1:5) as the instructions online suggested and applied it by brush. I was surprised how the sides of the MDF just soaked it up, it looked like I hadn’t even painted them. I had read up on this and knew the sides needed several more coats. It was now 5pm and I needed to head west for a washing machine, collect our post and to see my folks. Si was staying on the boat because he can get quite a bit done without Ness and myself being aboard… apparently.

Sunny intervals

15 C     6 C (night)

This morning wasn’t the start of the week we both expected. In the middle of the night I wasn’t very well; the last time I fainted I banged my head on a door frame and gave myself concussion. I knew instantly I had sunstroke. Si also decided he wasn’t going into work either, his excuse was that I needed watching due to previous experiences. So once again I had my annual warning about the suns power and laid in bed feeling sorry for myself. Si decided to finish his electric cupboard doors which took him the majority of the day, by the time I surfaced they looked amazing. What you have to remember is Si is all self taught, and has found a real talent with wood. 

I now need to find magnetic catches and door handles to finish off his electric cupboard. Feeling semi-normal I fired up the internet, to order a few things i.e. bathroom lights. The chosen lights are currently 240 volt with the plan to rip out the wires and replace with 12 volt and 12 volt bulbs. It is an expensive experiment but there are absolutely no nice 12 volt bathroom lights in existence. I also ordered 2.5m of PVC table cloth. This was the longest decision because I was being indecisive on what colour we should have. The plan is to cut it into 5 bits to fit inside the kitchen cupboards to have a wipeable surface. In the end I went for grey with cream polka dots. Finally I ordered a magnetic notice board and magnets because our tiny cork board is beyond pathetic. 

Sunny intervals

17 C      7 C (night)

Today was the last day of our two weeks off work. To look back at what we have achieved, it may not have been as much as we wanted or expected, but there were definitely noticeable differences. We had learnt a lesson by going away: although not being able to boat build, it would have made us more focused and productive on our return. Today Si finished the last coats of interior varnish on the electric cupboard doors and frame. Within a couple of hours the unit was dry, well, dry enough for the next task; working out how to put the hinges on accurately. This took several hours of pondering and who can blame him, when you’ve put so much love and attention into one piece. 

Our day was cut short with an invitation to a barbecue, not the greatest being on the Bank holiday Monday, but as it was a birthday celebration rather than a marina gathering, we thought we ought to show our faces for a few hours. Well you know us… 8 hours later!

Sunny intervals + strong winds

14 C     6 C (night)

Yesterday morning we had long chats about our disappointment in our boat building efforts and decided we needed a break. We thought about heading to my parents, but the day gradually improved. I went off into Staines to purchase a new dongle as we have given up with Vodafone and decided to buy a T-mobile version. Both of us get fantastic 3G signal on our phones. On my return Si was flipping between varnishing the electric cupboard front & doors and sanding down the MDF kitchen cupboard fronts on the back deck. Earlier he had helped me take off 2mm from each of the tile beading insets; we had worked out the problem last time was that they fitted together too well. I spent the next few hours in the shower enclosure trying to finish them off. Hopefully, once cleaned up and grouted, they will look the part. In the evening I used our new speedy Internet connection to order a piece of furniture from Laura Ashley: an oak breakfast console with 2 stools. I’ve had my eye on it for ages, well, years. Normally priced at £1000 but with 60% off and a further 10% it was reduced to £360. We worked out that it would look and perform great just under the side hatch. We don’t really want all of the interior “built –in” but there is a fine line as some boats look untidy if all furniture is freestanding, hopefully we’ll get the balance right.

Sunny intervals

21 C     11 C (night)

Not much boat building happened today as we’d both had enough and realised we should have taken advantage of our time off and gone away for at least a couple of days. The most boat building that was achieved was Si sanding down the MDF cupboard fronts.

Cloudy

20 C     10 C (night)

Today was the big day of the Royal wedding and we were probably the only ones without a TV to watch it. We did it the old fashioned way and listened to it on the wireless. Boat building didn’t amount to much: I grouted around the shower wall insets in preparation but didn’t start cutting tiles and attempting to do the first inset. Lets just say it went horribly wrong and had to be taken off again and wiped down to be saved for another attempt. Well this just tipped me over the edge; I now had serious boat building cabin fever.

Cloudy

17 C     6 C (night)

Looking at our boat building to-do lists neither of us were crossing off that much, so we were focusing on the smaller tasks to get a sense of achievement. The first thing to do was to attach the smoke alarm in the lounge, by the hatch. We have one in the 2^nd bedroom/corridor but wanted a second in the proximity to the cooker and stove and escape. Once attached Si turned his attention to the bathroom extractor fan switch. He was attaching a second piece of wood in the hole to mount the switch when I stumbled across the lost back box, hence the reinforced hole. We had the back box but no bolts so we searched through the multitude of pots and containers but nothing. So I went off to Homebase with quite a list. Hinges, magnetic catches, grey outdoor wood paint, socket bolts, tile beading/trim, bucket etc. On my return S hadi wired the switch up and we now have a working bathroom extractor fan. Si also helped me cut the tile beading for all 3 insets. I’m glad I hadn’t cut the tiles yet because on testing the first strip I realised the tiles would be shallower than I had originally measured. I made up a small quantity of black grout to re-do some small areas underneath the two mosaic tiles which rest on the floor because it would be impossible to do at a later point. The day was flying by and we took Ness for a good walk. Si was Mr grumpy as he’d thought we’d get further in the 2 weeks off, well I suppose there are still 4 days to go!

Sunny intervals

17 C     7 C (night)

The only boat building done today was very late into the evening and this was Si putting a coat of varnish on three of the four electric panel doors. Most of the day had been spent in Kingston shopping, we are so out of practice we find it a quite horrific ordeal. We went with a long list and came back with very few of the items. Although we did come across a new store, well actually several new stores it had been so long, but the one we were amazed at was Clas Olhsen. It has replaced Woolworths but it’s amazing! It has everything from toasters to axes, fishing equipment and boat stuff i.e. fenders, flag poles, tiller arm extensions, cleats, rope. We could have saved ourselves a fortune on jubilee clips and clear piping. Si purchased several fishing items which is why not much boat building was done as it was more important to practice casting with his new gear.

Cloudy

16 C     8 C (night)

Today was going to be our mammoth boat building day because not a lot was done yesterday and probably less tomorrow. I started off by grouting 5 tiles with 200g of grout. This took less than an hour but in the process I lost two finger tips to grout with; I’ve taken the skin off them from the sharp tile edges. The wounds are minor but they sting like the proverbial. I am currently typing this blog with my thumb, ring finger and the little finger on my right hand. The reason I am not using my left hand is I only ever type using one hand, odd I know but I’m much faster, I think it comes from texting with one hand. Anyway I moved onto cutting the 3 inner tiles for the backs of the shower insets. I was originally planning to cut and adhesive them all together but realised I would get them more accurate if the back tiles were already in place. I used the ready made adhesive, this stuff is so much nicer to use than the Topps Tiles powder equivalent. Then I turned my attention to re-sealing parts of the kitchen gap between the work surface and tiles because I wasn’t too happy with it. Especially a part I had attempted to re-smooth but the sealant was too dry and instead I made it look much worse. I cut this length out with a scalpel and redid it. I did several more patches but had to stop myself as I was becoming a little OCD. I swapped the sealant tubes over from white to translucent in an attempt to seal around the sink. Nothing is easy due to the masking tape not sticking, but I persevered. 

While I had been busy doing the above for 7 hours Si had turned his attention to completing the electrics cupboard up to the stage of varnishing and fixing the doors. He first started trying to fill the gaps in the corners of the 8mm ash strips with a mix of Ash sawdust and pva glue. He had heard this trick a while back but hadn’t attempted it, and there was a reason: it didn’t work too well and was very messy. The gaps are in the 45 degree framing corners, blame bad tools as he had done this before he had bought his Nobex champion mitre saw. In the end he used ash coloured wood filler, quicker and cleaner and you don’t notice it at all. He then moved onto routering the edges of the lower cupboard doors to fit the hinges in and create a 2mm gap all around. Once this was done he sanded the cupboard fronts and all the doors to within a mm of their lives and now they were ready for varnishing. The evening was finished off with a walk for Ness, dinner of faggots and chips and plenty of liquid (beer).

Sunny intervals

22 C     10 C (night)

Before we went back to Slough (DIY heaven), to return several items I took Si through my wardrobe designs and in essence he agreed with my thought process…result, I think I missed my calling: interior designer for storage solutions. Anyway we set off for Slough to return the hinges to Screwfix and the tiles to B&Q, but we also came away with more tiles from Topps tiles and these are large enough for the shower insets. Si discussed the drawer with the kitchen B&Q department and found out that it had all of its parts as they checked it against another one in store. Si looked for swan neck kitchen cabinet hinges as seen in his book but no luck. On our return Si routered the edges of his top electric cabinet doors and glued the bottom cupboard doors together. Ness and I were outside playing gardening, planting my seeds. I’m attempting to grow spinach, dwarf beans, carrots (in left over pipes), leeks, parsnips, tumbling tomatoes and salad leaves…fingers crossed. To make myself believe I had done some boat building I made up another 150g of grout and did 3½ more tiles in the shower before we headed to the pub, the first time in 9 days before you comment! On our late return Ness and I went to bed and Si glued another electric cupboard door panel.

Sunny

23 C     12 C (night)

If Friday was a lazy day yesterday was off the scale, but we had an excuse - my parents were coming for a visit. We had expected them to arrive at 2pm so we were up nice and early to go to Slough. We have been in this area for sometime but had no idea that Slough is the capital of DIY and retail heaven. It has a Screwfix, Wickes, B&Q, Argos and Homebase all within a mile of each other! Our first port of call was Screwfix, followed by Argos & B&Q. We returned with a 300mm soft close drawer, white tiles, kitchen cabinet hinges, loads! On our return we raced around trying to make the boat look presentable until at 2pm I received a phone call letting us know my parents were running late - 1½ hours late. This gave us time to play with our new purchases, well it turned out the hinges were wrong and the tiles too short. Maybe not as successful as would have liked but at least we knew this DIY haven existed - and only 9 miles away. My parents eventually arrived and we nipped out to a new garden centre leaving Si in charge of the 3 hounds and cooking dinner. The week of sunny weather we have enjoyed turned into the most impressive thunderstorm, the heaviest we’ve ever seen rain in the marina. Si cooked an amazing dinner, we drank 2 bottles of Chablis and my parents left at 11.15pm. It was a really lovely afternoon. Unfortunately Nessie took umbrage at my parents and dogs leaving and proceeded to howl and cry through the night, we tried shouting, screaming, ignoring her but nothing would stop her from crying. In the end I tickled her to sleep at 4.30am but still only managed to grab 3 hours sleep due to some ones horrific snoring. 

So today you would expect me to be knackered, well on the contrary. I had given up Diet Coke / Pepsi / Dr Pepper for lent and this morning was my fist taste, after 3 glasses I was on a high and it was only 9am. We had decided we were not going to go away for a break because we really hadn’t done that much on the boat building front. We were going to push on through by achieving in the second week. One of my jobs was to seal underneath the kitchen tiles with sealant. I had been avoiding this because I like neat lines and to get neat lines I use a lot of masking tape. Unfortunately masking tape will not stick to the oiled worktop. Si suggested duck tape but I was loathed to as I thought the residue would leave a horrid mess. I decided to test it and guess what? Duck tape doesn’t stick either. I had no choice but to do it by eye and luck. I tested a small area and found that the sealant could be wiped off fairly easily. I’m now just hoping it’s going to stick to something. I battled on patiently but on the second run realised that I could have reduced my work by masking taping the bottom of the tiles. I did finish but decided I would attempt a second coat because it isn’t quite perfect in places. 

In the shower I also grouted another two and a bit more tiles; I’ve learnt to do it in small quantities because it dries out so quickly. While I was doing that Si was drilling holes in the electric cupboard back to be able to dowel the front on. For some strange reason it has fallen off twice recently. It has stayed up for how many months and all of a sudden it reminds you that you haven’t finished it yet by falling over. He sanded down the 2 smaller doors for the cupboard and played around with the hinges that we’d bought a while back from Homebase. He was trying to work out whether they needed recessing but instead decided that he needed to take a few mm off the doors instead. He put the new 300mm soft close drawer together and attempted to fit it but its soft close action didn’t seem to work, its more of a force it shut close action. We’ll need to take it back to B&Q for assistance. I was so wired from glasses of Pepsi that I couldn’t sleep, so I redesigned the wardrobe layouts - to quite a radical level, I just hope Si sees my logic.

Sunny

26 C     10 C (night)

Laziness was at epidemic levels today, so contagious Si had caught it too. Our achievements totalled Si spending several hours cleaning the adhesive from between the tiles and me grouting 3½ tiles. The weather is so hot that the grout dries out too quickly, plus it took me nearly an hour to do that, I’m going to be there for sometime. 

Sunny intervals

25 C     12 C (night)

Today we were up and out taking Ness for a walk and on the return route via the marina office to pay our electricity bill of £145. Not too bad considering the 2 heaters were on permanently through winter. We were back for 5 minutes before turning round again to go to Focus in Ashford - though it turned out to be a wasted journey. The purpose was to look at tiles for the insets in the shower; I’d worked out that the lower inset would end up being in 14 pieces to match the lines of the tiled wall. They had absolutely nothing, this would require more of a B&Q warehouse. I see stuff on the internet all the time but not having a postal address close by is a pain. We came back, made lunch and then I was off out again to get my haircut as it had been 5 months since the last one. On my return Si was trying to work out the physics of corner cupboards. He had cut a long flexible piano hinge to size and had duck taped it on, this gave him a starting point to cut the surrounding parts to size. It was already 4pm and I decided there was nothing I could get my teeth into, so I started making more paper logs and researching boat stuff on Si’s iPhone. Our internet is well and truly up the spout. To end the day we took Ness for another perambulation, cooked stir-fry and drank copious amounts of beer.  

Sunny

26 C     10 C (night)

I was up and out for a shower this morning, on my return Si was taking Ness for her first busy of the day. I started charging up my camera batteries as I was leaving at 12.30pm to meet Nessie’s dog walker to take photographs of a few of her dogs and also to give Ness a treat. As I didn’t have much time so decided the grout sealant needed a small test patch. With a small paintbrush I coated the clear liquid on to a small area and we left Si to it. Si was setting up his router table to trim and cut more of his MDF strips to 85mm and router the rails. Ness and I had a splendid time. I found it quite difficult to take photos of the 4 dogs because there was a lot of water and mud involved. I got a few good shots but they weren’t looking their prettiest especially Dave aka Lila - in some photos looks like a brown grizzly bear, in others an otter, she is actually a working cocker spaniel. 

On my return Si was still routering hard so Ness and I went into the bedroom where I typed up the blog. I was in there for an hour when Si announced that I couldn’t come into the kitchen. Well I’m like a kid - that just makes me want to know what’s going on. I lasted 20 minutes until asking if I could come in? Si had temporarily put all the cupboard fronts in place (minus the corner one). They looked really impressive, but made me realise I’m going to be a slave to the paint brush for months! At 6.30pm I suggested starting dinner and while doing this I finished of sealing the rest of the kitchen grout. Unfortunately I discovered some cracked grout already, in the corner, and where the tiles cross two ash faced wall panels. Not sure whether to re-grout or leave to settle, makes us a little concerned for the shower. After dinner Si glued two more cupboard doors together, but it was still taking him an hour a door.  

Sunny

24 C     19 C (night)

I was up earlier this morning, sat in my usual place on the bean bag, but instead of writing blog I was putting together our 2010 photo album. It was looking at this when I realised how far we had come with the boat build and it is good to remind yourself of this from time to time. It took Si a while to surface but once up we took Ness for a walk and paddle before going to Sainsbury’s to become £91 lighter. It was now afternoon and neither of us felt compelled to do anything as the weather was so hot. Instead, to take advantage of it I started cutting up newspaper to create the first of the 2011 paper bricks for the wood burner while Si continued to work on the kitchen cupboard doors. Realising that before we know it our two weeks off work would have disappeared, I felt more compelled to carry on with some tiling. I re-cut the thin tile pieces that had snapped while Si was my night in shining armour scraping away the adhesive for a flat surface. I started the tiling and managed to use the entire powder adhesive left (1.6kg) though this didn’t stretch far enough and I had to resort to using the Wickes adhesive. It is completely different stuff, different colour, texture and much cleaner to use. If this stuff sticks I’m going to regret using the Topps Tiles version. Late into the evening Si glued the deep pan drawers together, several swear words seemed to be being uttered so I left him to it.a

Sunny intervals

19 C     7 C (night)

It was a more difficult to get up this morning, it started off very slow. I went off for a shower while Si took Ness around the field. On our return Si cooked sausage sandwiches while I read yesterdays Sunday paper. All very civilised and relaxing but it’s not going to help us complete September Air. Si started off by helping me shape a tile with the hand file. I had tried cutting it with the diamond cutter but I wasn’t happy, so I cut it by hand using a saw. It took me ages and was extremely rough. He was there for some time filing but once it fitted I made a sparing 1.1kg batch of adhesive to start tiling - part 6. It was going very well until I got to the last bit where the tiles are only 11mm high on the portside wall, on the other side they are 42mm. I knew I would have had to have a small bit at some point, its just unfortunate that the wall doesn’t meet the roof panel; there is only 2mm of wall that the tile can stick to, the rest is air. I tried to fill the gap with adhesive using my finger, what I really needed was a piping set. I managed to put one of the small pieces in and went to fit the next but it was too wide at one end. Si offered to file it down for me and then proceeded to drop it, so it was now in two pieces. I tried to put another full tile length in and it snapped due to too much pressure. So part 6 wasn’t quite complete and back to the drawing board. Si went off to Wickes to buy some 6mm MDF for the kitchen door panels. The plan was to recess 12mm for the centre as it was much stronger and less flexible than 6mm, but on visiting my parents he noticed my mums expensive oak kitchen has 6mm centre panels. I also asked him to get me a tub of tile adhesive as I was not willing to pay the money for Topps Tiles smallest bag -10kg, I’m just hoping it sticks as well. On his return he placed 2 sides of the MDF frame around the 6mm sheet to give us an idea of what it would look like, pretty good! Well off he went with his Japanese hand saw. I went the other end of the boat with Ness as I was suffering from a swollen knee, must see my long suffering physio. I was back an hour later to find Si had done a door and two drawer fronts which were held in place in the cabinet carcass by the shims. They looked really good, even Si was chuffed with himself. 

We took Ness out for her evening perambulation and stick retrieving in the shallows of the lake. On our return, Si started dinner while I looked at removing the wooden tiling strips from the shower walls. We needed to test the shower plug outlet and plumbing having had several miss-haps with the bathroom sink plug outlet. I took out the screws and the tiles remained in place so I prised the wood strips off with a flathead screwdriver. I gave the shower tray a hovering and removed the plastic dust cover. I tipped 8 litres of water down the plug while Si turned on the shower pump and went outside to see if any water was coming out. Luckily the outlet is below the pontoon as it was coming out with some force. We will just have to keep trying it before I can put in the last row of tiles at the bottom just in case we need to remove the shower tray. After dinner Si turned his attention to gluing the smaller set of doors for the electrics cupboard, but he came to bed saying he wasn’t happy with them. He’d had to use 12mm centre panels as we had no decent 6mm ash faced left and they stuck out at the back. I did say no one will see them, only if they open the doors.

Sunny intervals

19 C     9 C (night)

We were now off work for 17 days, the plan: to boat build like mad, yet today was our first day on the boat. Friday we drove up to my parents, returned Saturday afternoon to clean and tidy up for a visit from Si’s parents and Great Aunt Marion. Chris and Sandy hadn’t seen the boat for a year so we checked back on our photo gallery to remind ourselves where we were last Easter - which was without a ceiling. All of them came aboard for a tour and a cup of tea. Hopefully on their next visit we will be able to show them a complete and finished boat. Apparently I’m not supposed to be using the ‘f’ (finished) word, as boats are never finished. After the tour Chris drove us all to the pub for dinner and then they had to leave. Needless to say, we stayed on for another few pints. Considering we had been to the pub last night, we were awake by 9am. 

The morning was at a slow pace, we walked Ness, cooked pancakes but still started to boat build by midday. Si was working on the electrics cupboard front and I was cutting even more shower tiles. Si was cutting the inner panels (12mm ash faced ply) for the cupboard frames, the hardest decision was to work out which bit to use, for shades and grain patterns. I was using an array of tools for tiling, the diamond cutter, big clinker, saw and file to create the last few intricate tiles. Two tiles required curves, so as you can imagine this was nearly 3 hours of work. Once Si’s inner panels were created he decided to redo one of the frame pieces, due to a chip. By 6pm we had tidied and cleaned the living area and followed it by a walk around the fields with Ness and a tennis ball. On our return we started chatting to our next door neighbours (yep, you guessed it) which then led to many more hours drinking and eating. We finished at midnight, so I’ve already got the feeling tomorrow may not be as productive. 

Sunny

20 C      6 C (night)

I asked my boss nicely if I could take the afternoon off to complete the back deck. I didn’t want us using the back deck until it was all finished. All morning I had been debating whether to use a gloss or emulsion roller for the third and hopefully final coat. I returned at lunch and lightly sanded the hammerite. I had chosen the emulsion roller as my weapon of choice. I had remembered a piece of advice from the boat painters to stop the emulsion rollers from shedding: soak it in white spirit. I thought it was worth a go because 2 coats with a gloss roller hadn’t been good enough. It only took me 45 minutes to complete, it was quicker and seemed to go on thicker. What I didn’t realise was that the easterly had changed to a westerly and I now had blossom on my fresh paint work. Looking to the skies I also saw the threat of rain. I gave up and went to bed for a few hours kip. On waking it still hadn’t rained so I took the opportunity to remove the masking tape around the edges as this had been on 36+ hours. It took some time to remove it, and in places it left residue and in other places it had taken the paint off, with this not going so well the icing on the cake was the heavens opening. Looking on the bright side, at least my deck was going to stay clean for a while longer!

Sunny intervals

20 C     6 C (night)

Today’s task was to continue with the back deck. Si was starting to get a little too attached to the red of the primer and thought it was a shame we had to paint it silver. He was all for the 1980’s colour scheme whereas I was more millennium. I realised I had run out of paint trays so Si made an impromptu visit to Homebase. I also asked him to get another tin of hammerite as I was shocked with the quantity of primer I’d used. On his return he kindly lightly sanded the primer down to create a good painting surface. It took me another 1½ to complete the first coat of Hammerite; I was lucky the wind was an easterly as had it been a westerly my paint work would have been covered in blossom. While I was resting in between coats Si was running the 85mm MDF strips through the router table again to create the rail for the 6mm inner MDF panel. I gave the first coat of hammerite 4 hours to dry before applying the second coat, although this only took me an hour. On completion it looked very silver but unfortunately still patchy and I was gutted to realise a 3^rd coat was required. 

Sunny intervals

19 C     8 C (night)

We were supposed to be heading west to my parents but decided instead to take advantage of the freak weather to repaint the back deck. It was in a state and considering it was only 18 months old I can see this is going to be a regular job. Si and I started on getting the rust off, I was armed with the orbital sander with 80 grit pads while Si had the angle grinder and wire brushes. In all it took us 2 hours and very numb fingers to remove the rust patches. The next task was to use white spirit to wipe the deck clean and masking tape the edges. I was now ready to paint the first coat of red primer, bought very cheaply from Screwfix - £6.50 for 1 litre. Armed with a tray, 4 inch gloss roller and long handle it took me 1½ to complete. By this time the pub was out of the question, so instead we had faggots and chips. While I was painting through the day, Si was putting his 85mm MDF strips through the router table to make sure they were exactly 85mm and straight. 

The other exciting news is that the washing machine is working; the marina facilities are still out of action. We did have a slight hiccup, on the rinse stage all the washing machine lights started flashing. Looking at the instructions it identified we had a blockage. Si wanted to pull out the washing machine but I went outside to see if it was out there. I couldn’t see the silver of the skin fitting and presumed the fender was blocking the outlet. Si didn’t believe me but I asked him to humour me and have a look. I wasn’t right about the fender but I wasn’t too far from the cause. The reason I couldn’t see the skin fitting was because it had black duck tape over it. Once the tape was removed all was fine and I now had clean underwear for another 16 days.

Sunny

21 C     8 C (night)

Today was role reversal, it was Si’s turn to have the day off and boat build. In my absence he was cutting 85mm MDF strips to create the kitchen drawer and cupboard frames. Earlier in the week we had visited our local Dulux Trade Centre to purchase a tin of MDF primer and undercoat. The plan to paint a drawer front to see if the 2mm allowance he had given would be enough.

Sunny intervals

14 C    4 C (night)

Si was up and out early to go to work, I was taking advantage of my day off and sleeping in till 9 am. Ness and I were supposed to be going for a walk today with her Wheaten pal but we had to cancel because Ness wasn’t well at all, so it was lucky I had chosen to book the day off. My day consisted of being domesticated; I started cutting and tiling part 5, another 14 tiles, in place. Then I turned my attention to cleaning the boat and cooking a batch of bolognaise. By the time Si returned at 7pm I was desperate to sit down. He seemed chuffed but amazed at my hard work tiling and a clean boat and dinner cooked. 

Sunny intervals

15 C     5 C (night)

I measured up the 2 tiles that require 19mm holes in to allow the shower pipes to come through. Si offered his assistance in drilling. We half expected this to be as long winded as drilling the 6mm holes in the bathroom floor but it wasn’t. We made a template by cutting a 19mm hole through a batten which was attached to the tile by mini sash clamps. We presume the ease was due to the tile being ceramic rather than porcelain. Now I had these two tiles it would allow me to complete tiling part 5 - tomorrow. We were going to make the most of the weather and copied last weeks Sunday afternoon walk to Chertsey and a visit to the pub.

Sunny intervals

14 C     5 C (night)

Si was off work again today and in my absence was going to router the MDF frames. Si had attempted to glue the drawer pan frame together, in his eagerness to get rid of the glue he sanded a corner too heavily and created a dent in the wood. I didn’t think it was that noticeable but he wasn’t happy, so he wanted to do the left hand strip again. It was when he came to pull the frame apart and it didn’t take much that he realised glue alone wasn’t going to be strong enough. So his aim now was to biscuit spline them as well. He glued the frame together again, cut the biscuit holes, glued in a whole biscuit and once dry sawed off the half sticking out. He did this for 3 of the frames. On my return we discussed how to attach the frames to the carcass, Si’s original plan was to glue, but we both realised this wasn’t great. He thought about pilot holes from the inside of the carcass, but we had both seen screws splitting the MDF. I suggested dowelling, Si was not overly keen but gave it a go and what do you know; extremely secure and accurate, so the method of attaching the frames was sorted. 

Sunny

15 C     4 C (night)

I drove back from my parents, I would have been on time had it not been for the change of the clocks, although I wasn’t going to complain as light evenings is what we’ve both been desperate for. On my return Ness and I met Si on the back deck who was still going with his MDF cutting list. I really didn’t feel like tiling so planted the seed into his head about walking into Chertsey and going to the pub - little persuasion was needed. At 3pm we set off and didn’t return till 8pm, in that time we had a lovely afternoon, we spoke honestly about the boat and agreed we had almost out grown it, as we originally signed the contract in September 2007, 3½ years ago. We made the decision on completion we would put her up for sale, but that still could be sometime away, we may change our mind again, we’ll have to wait and see. 

Sunny intervals

16 C     6 C (night)

Everyone was off work today, my mother and I were off to the NEC for an exhibition, my father was off looking after the dogs and Si was off work to take advantage of Ness and I not being there to cut lots of MDF. During the week he had created a cutting list for the weekend. Last night before I left the boat we went through the design of the starboard wardrobe with the intention of Si purchasing the 2x2 timber to erect the wardrobe carcass.

Cloudy

13 C     6 C (night)

This morning I was up early and enthused enough to start a batch of adhesive to tile but thought this was too mean as Si was still sleeping. Instead I turned my attention to sorting the kitchen cupboards out. The pots and pans had moved into the open pan drawers leaving the corner cupboard space so I moved all the food from the 2^nd bedroom, throwing out of date items and placing them neatly into the corner cupboard. Looking much better but difficult to see the contents. So I researched through the Screwfix catalogue to find a two tier 300mm pull out rack that would be perfect for the tins and jars. Si surfaced at 11.30am, maybe I should I have started tiling instead! Si was impressed with my efforts but more impressed when I started making a batch of adhesive to put up the cut tiles from yesterday. My tiling lines were already starting to wander, gaining or loosing a mm each row, to help keep them straight I needed thicker tile dividers so I came up with the idea of wrapping them in masking tape to increase the thickness. Once part 2 was completed I was onto cutting part 3, another set of double L’s on a single tile but least I was practiced. Si was getting rather frustrated as I had taken over the lounge with my tiling implements and he couldn’t do anything, for a change the shoe was on the other foot. I was desperate to tile part 3 but it was getting late and we had to be up at 6am for work, so looks like I’ll have a date next weekend. 

Sunny

12 C     5 C (night)

Si was on the boat alone this morning as I had driven up to my parents last night for two reasons, firstly Ness had a haircut and secondly I was out of knickers, well clean ones. Our washing machine is ready to go but we have no way of drying them. We should have bought a washer dryer but we’ve had these in two previous flats and never used the dryer part. The marina has both a washer and dryer on site, but these have been out of action for 3 weeks and apparently it will be another 7 weeks to get a new one. Not brilliant: one washer for 560+ births and especially as we pay £6500 a year to moor. Moan over. Anyway I returned later than expected as the M40 was closed but got straight into cutting more tiles: the next batch for the insets and these were double L’s on each tile, honestly Si’s great ideas! I had planned to stick these up tonight but by the time I had finished cutting it was 6.30pm and there’s always tomorrow.  

Sunny intervals

12 C     4 C (night)

I was up early blogging and then took myself off for a shower, on my return Si had only just woken and of course Ness was still asleep. I’m sure Ness is the only lazy Wheaten Terrier we know, all the others are bonkers. To leave the pair of them to wake in their own time I took myself off to Sainsbury’s with a shopping list. I realised on the other side was a list of boat building tasks I’d written at the start of our week off work and I hadn’t been able to tick one off. 

So on my return I had a master plan and that was the toilet. The toilet needed attaching to the floor, and the floor was now beautifully prepared, it just needed 4 holes in it. Well this went to two as Si realised two were going to be in the grout. This will still make it secure enough as it’s clipped onto the toilet arm rest as well. Si was struggling to mark the holes and came up with a logical idea of dropping water into the 5cm deep holes to get his placement. Earlier in the week we had visited Topps Tiles to purchases 2 diamond cutting drill bits, a 19mm & 6mm. Well we came away with the 19mm as apparently a lady had purchased all 89 6mm’s in stock, you do wonder… Luckily Homebase had one, plus it came with a guide with sticky pads. While Si drilled I hovered in a nervous fashion as I was petrified of hearing a crack, but to be fair he took his time and time it did take to get through 1cm of porcelain. He had several breaks cooling the drill tip in a mug of water, very professional. He attached the toilet and we were ready to wire and plumb it in, this only took 30 minutes. We turned on the electric and water and no fuses tripped, all we had to do was press the blue button…flushing toilet! Now this was big progress, we had been onboard 14 months without a flushing toilet. I was so excited I recorded a video and uploaded it to facebook. 

To Si’s surprise I started making a batch of adhesive to place the first shower tiles in place. Earlier in the day I had cut the first two L shapes to place around the insets, honestly theses insets are going to be the bane of my life! At 8.30pm I had stuck 15 tiles on, cleared up, changed into my PJ’s and was served dinner and beer.

Cloudy & rain

12 C    3 C (night)

I had more good boat building intentions this morning and I started so well. I was up at 8am blogging but made the fatal mistake of climbing back into bed, when we both woke it was midday. Once we did get up & going Si wanted to cut more dreaded MDF, Ness and I were banished to the other end of the boat. While she was on the bed I was in the shower desperately trying to find a straight edge of wall or anything, on a boat a spirit level is as useful as a chocolate teapot. Si did help towards my quest, he was actually making a square jig for his router table but it had a second use for me. I managed to draw 2 straight lines as starting points for tiling and then screwed in 2 battens. My intention was to start one tile higher than the shower base, not sure why because nothing is straight anyway. Si managed to cut one of the kitchen unit end panels and glue the pan drawer kitchen carcass frame front together. He’d also had a find in the router box, the hoover attachment, it really did reduce the sawdust on the router table. I went back to the 3^rd un-straight wall in the shower enclosure but at 8.30pm Si suggested to give up and have a glass of wine, an offer you can’t refuse. 

Sunny intervals

13 C     2 C (night)

We had good boat building intentions last night, to prepare we both had an early night but we had done a 60 hour working week and were knackered, which resulted in a very long lye-in. We were waiting for a visitor, a carpenter. Si had spoken to the marina office trying to find premises to store and use the table saw in. The marina suggested talking to the “resident” carpenter. Well it turned out he rents it off the marina and he isn’t currently renting it because the space in question is £22,000 a year. We were all slightly bemused of the marinas logic in this, but we got to meet a very nice carpenter in the meantime. We headed out to Homebase as I needed the shower tile beading to carry on working out how on earth I was going to tile the shower insets. 

Cloudy

7 C     2 C (night)

I was sensible last night and stopped drinking early, Si carried on till 2am, hence the late appearance of him and Ness. It was also our last day of our week off work and our next long break isn’t for another 7 weeks. So I was determined to tick something off my list. The tiles in the toilet area and back of the stove needed polishing and we were now in possession of a machine to do it. It was larger than I was expecting so was unable to fit it behind the stove or in the corners. It will be great for polishing the boat and car but not for intricate areas; saying that it still saved me a lot of time not having to do it by hand. Si focused on cutting the ends of his now railed oak pieces. He first attempted practice pieces. When it came to the real oak pieces 7 out of 8 were perfect. In the afternoon I spent my time sat in the shower as I needed to re-configure the tiling. When I ordered the tiles I worked off a photograph on the internet of a completed wall. I had taken the measurements as 33cm high x 23.5cm wide and had worked out their placement in beautiful neat diagrams. Well they turned out to be 23.5cm high x 33cm wide so I had to go back to the drawing board. 

Cloudy

7 C      1 C (night)

We attempted to boat build today before and after an art exhibition. Our old pontoon neighbour Viv was having an exhibition upriver. We had been invited by next door to jump onboard and go by boat but sensibly we realised no boat building would be done and drinking would start at midday, so we declined the offer. Si ran his cut oak for the electrics panel through the router table to create the rail for the ash ply panel to sit in. He also glued and sash clamped the spruce he’d cut previously to make the frame for the Houdini hatch which will require routering at some point. I made up another batch of grout in an attempt to improve the kitchen tiles. I also swept the bathroom clean, it was in desperate need, but the main reason was to do another coat of porcelain protector. The whole floor needs doing but if I did this I’d render the bathroom out of bounds for 12+ hours, so I was just going to do the toilet area so we could fix the proper loo into place. 

On doing this and lifting the temporary lino I noticed a lot of the black grout was more grey/white in places. I washed the whole floor with soapy water to see if it improved, well it did until it dried. I logged on to the tile forums to find page after page of similar experiences. Apparently with black grout it’s the salt – natural minerals coming through if it hasn’t cured properly. Guess what,  it gets worse when you wash it with water and even worse if you add washing up liquid…..typical. This does explain why behind the stove hasn’t gone the same way, because the water couldn’t sit in the grooves. Anyway the solution is to buy some stuff at £40 to bring back the colour and then seal it for another £20; or re-grout and seal. I really wished we’d not tiled but used laminate.

Cloudy

9 C     1 C (night)

If we were on Grand Designs and Kevin Macleod was doing his closing piece to camera as he walked slowly away from the boat, he would describe our dedication to drinking and absolutely nothing to do with boat building. To show my dedication and willing I started grouting the kitchen tiles with Si’s as assistant (my finishing finger). At the end we agreed we’d need to grout again in places. Unfortunately while grouting there was another loud bang, the worktop appears to have split some more. With the ever-growing gap we discussed tactics, this corner was the least supported and the sink weighs a tonne. Si set to cutting and screwing in supports within the corner cupboard. We received the news the van had failed its MOT on a tyre and steering rack. With the knowledge that it was going to cost, we decided on a quieter evening as nether of us needed a 4^th hang over in 4 days. 

Sunny intervals

8 C     3 C (night)

This morning the van was dropped off for its MOT, this got us up nice and early but my day was going to be consumed with photography. This evening I was going round to Becks & Andy to show them their wedding photos. Si took advantage of me being out in Staines to run the table saw. He ran oak through for the outer frames of the electric cupboard doors and spruce for the Houdini hatch. On my return he looked like he’d been floured but he wasn’t the only thing, the boat was a state. We both agreed the table saw needed to find a new home, especially once Si had spent well over an hour cleaning up. In the evening I went over to Becks & Andy while Si multi tasked by cooking chilli and re-oiling the oak worktop. On my return I popped next door to wish Nat happy birthday, unfortunately this turned into a heavy drinking session, tomorrow was not going to be pretty!

Sunny intervals

9 C     2 C (night)

On getting up this morning the clean tiles looked really good, the tile cleaning fairy had been hard at work, it was just a shame about the dirty great crack in the worktop. Yesterday we should have collected several sheets of MDF (plain & ash faced) but we ran out of time so Si went off today to get it. He had been looking for ash faced block board but no one had any stock, we were starting to think a cargo ship must have sunk. It was Jewson’s who suggested the ash faced MDF, it has its perks and pitfalls. It is less susceptible to moisture but lethal to cut due to the dust particles, and is much heavier (that could a for or against). Normally the wood would stay in the travelling shed but unfortunately the van had its MOT tomorrow. We managed to carry 6 of the sheets down to the boat, leaving two in the van, and I was in pain. It’s not just that they are heavy and cumbersome but they seem to gain weight as you carry them. To get them onboard it was 25ft to the pontoon ramp, 15ft down the ramp, 80ft of pontoon and then the circumnavigation through the 3ft doors. In the evening Si fitted the three pan drawers to the 600mm carcass while I winced in pain on my laptop.  

Cloudy

9 C     4 C (night)

Once again the grand plan of starting early was scuppered by the amount of alcohol we drank at the pub last night. Boat building should come with a health warning – your liver will be punished. I was up early blogging, while Si and Ness relaxed till 11.30am, honestly they’re two peas in a pod. Today’s task was to adhesive the pre-cut tiles to create the kitchen splash back. I made a batch of adhesive up and luckily Si had remembered to bring the mixing paddle back from my parents. I started off doing the first 5 tiles but I was going to be here for years, so Si became my adhesive applicator and I then thought completion in 2 hours. It was once the bottom row was done that I realised the new tile spacers I was using were a different size to the ones I had used when cutting the tiles! So we had to scrabble around to find enough of the old ones and replace the spacers on the bottom row. Once the second row was in we could attach the beading. 

All in all it took us 4 hours to complete with the two of us. In the evening I continued to do wedding photos and cooked pasta bake while Si put together the 3 slow close drawer units we’d bought from Screwfix. I retired to bed and Si stayed up to clean off the adhesive from the tiles. When I heard this ‘Oh No’, I thought one of the tiles must have fallen off. Well that would have been the least of our worries, as it have been easily rectifiable. Unfortunately there was a massive split in the kitchen worktop. Si had mentioned that he was concerned about the worktop as he’d seen the state of the left over pieces in my parents garage. The difference should have been that these had been oiled 4 times and weren’t left in a cold and damp garage! Possibly, by putting sheets of cardboard on to protect the worktop, the card had soaked up the oil? The split is in the corner and is 30 cm long, it’s between the join of 2 strips of oak. This was all starting to make sense as a few weeks ago Ness and I were onboard when there was an almighty bang. We were in the bedroom at the time, but it was so loud I ducked. Unfortunately this is a habit of mine to loud noises, it comes from your father telling you not to worry it’s only the car back firing when actually it was a rocket propelled grenade. I looked everywhere inside and out the boat but couldn’t see anything and the reason being the worktop was hidden under the oil sucking cardboard. 

Sunny intervals

9 C    2 C (night)

Last night on the way home from work I popped into Topps Tiles to buy another strip of 8mm tile beading. Honestly I do worry the guy in Topps Tiles is going to start thinking I fancy him, considering the time I spend in there. I do think we could have done it cheaper but the staff in Topps Tiles are extremely helpful and knowledgeable and it’s just around the corner from work. This morning wasn’t as early start as I’d hoped, while Si slept I did my usual, blogged on bean bag with heater (BOBBWH). Once everyone was up we set to the task of tiling the kitchen splash back with the plan to complete it today. I set to cutting the tiles to size with our famous tile cutter – the Big Clinker. We had no room to put it though, the only free space was the floor. I struggled to cut them, so I’d measure it up, score the tile and ask Si to use brute force…we make a good team. With all the tiles cut and with the help of the blu-tack we could cut the aluminium beading. Si was extremely excited by this as he could swap his saw blade over on his new Nobex champion mitre saw. Honestly who comes up with theses names: the Big Clinker and Nobex Champion? To start with we cut 2cm lengths at the required angles to aid in sizing. 

At 4.50pm we decided to call it a day, we hadn’t got as far as hoped but had still achieved. We loaded the car as we were off to my parents for 2 nights with at least 5 loads of washing and this was the start of our first week off work since Christmas.  

Today I found out I have passed my Chartered Institute for Personnel Development Certificate in Training Practice with a Merit, a whole years work completed and a reason for the boat taking longer to do…..but anyway congratulations to me! We now have two bottles of champagne as my boss bought me another to celebrate my result. Also Si made cardboard cupboard doors, he’s not loosing the plot but was trying to establish if the doors should have a 40mm or 50mm oak frame. 

Sunny intetrvals

6 C     4 C (night)

I woke up earlier than Si, wrote blog and emptied the toilet. On Si surfacing we managed to do everything domesticated and consume lots in the pub…. that’s what Sunday’s should be about.

Rain

6 C     3 C (night)

Last weekend we were not boat building. We actually got away to Scotland for two days for our friends Becks & Andy’s wedding. The wedding was fantastic and we had the most amazing room, courtesy of the happy couple. Unfortunately on Sunday night I came down with a Scottish lurgy which pretty much wrote my entire week off. This morning I woke at 9am, sat in the kitchen writing blog and doing wedding photos while Si was sleeping. I made him a cuppa and took myself off for a shower. 

On my return Si was up but Ness was having a very lazy morning. I made a start on working out the layout and size for the kitchen splash back tiles using blu-tack to stick the tiles on to the wall. Si was finishing off the corner cupboard supports, so we were both in the same area of the boat, that’s good planning for you. Once I was content with the tile layout I drew a border line to show me where to paint the bond sealer. Yesterday I had gone to Topps Tiles to buy more tile adhesive and two strips of flat brushed chrome tile edging. Unfortunately I only bought 2 strips and realised this morning I required 3. Si finished in the corner cupboard and moved to the other end of the boat to gain access to water tank and pump in the bow. To his amazement and delight by tightening the cock stop to the water tank the other week he had completely stopped it leaking and the bow was completely dry. 

We turned the water pump on and typically it didn’t work and tripped the fuse in the electrics panel. Si decided to rewire by bypassing the water sender. With a few snips and by replacing the bullets the pump worked! Si released the stop cock valve to listen to the water going into the system, it made a couple of glugs and that was it. We then opened the stop cock on the other side of the water sender / filter / pump and the pump ran briefly. We then opened the stop cock under the bathroom sink cold tap and turned it on – water! Blessed running water!!! Not only did I take photographic evidence but video footage too! He opened the next stop cock and tested the kitchen tap, more running water. Ness came bolting into the kitchen from the bedroom direction. It took us a little while but worked out that she was scared of the water pump. It was only when we left the tap running and went back into the bedroom did we realise how loud the pump was, I suppose it being contained in the steel drum that is the bow wasn’t going to help matters. The water pump had now been nick named the water monster.

Sunny intervals

12 C     10 C (night)

I woke at the same time as yesterday, sat in the kitchen on the beanbag in front of the heater and wrote the blog. An hour later I made Si a cuppa to try and tempt him out of bed. The aim today was to drain the heating system and insert the drain cock because we’d failed to do anything yesterday. I started the preparation by collecting the towels and ran through the process twice with Si. We had decided the best place to cut the pipe to attach the drain cock was under the steps in the stern. Si was conscious of the weight of the drain cock so placed it on the steps supporting beams. Si was on his knees through the third step frame and I was lying on my stomach with my head through the fourth step frame. He marked where he was going to make the first cut. My role was to use the power of my thumb to stop the water flow. Si made the cut with the pipe cutters and the water surged out but I was armed with my Jedi thumb. We had half expected the water to come from two sides, but the left side was only a short run up into the engine bay and this seemed to be more of an air lock. Si attached the drain cock contraption (a 15x15x15mm tee + 15mm pipe + stop cock + 15mm pipe + 15mm to a 22mm connector + 22mm pipe). We inserted the 15mm Hep2o insert into the pipe I was covering, we practiced and agreed the numbering system (1…2…3…thumb off). Timing is everything, especially where lots of water is concerned. 

The next step was to insert my end of the pipe into the drain/stop cock contraption. It was much easier than we both thought, sounds odd but when things go well we question ourselves. So now the next task was to get the water out of the heating system. Si had already shut the radiators off prior to starting, to minimise the water flow. We connected the ¾ inch clear pipe to the 22mm hep2o and the other end to the draper drill pump, out of that was another section of clear piping into a bucket. We used the battery electric drill but nothing was coming out, so we tried again….nothing. See things don’t go right for long! I decided to look at the instructions and it stated it sucks from a height of 2m and can pump out to 15m high, impressive stats but not helping us. Looking at the instruction diagrams the sucking pipe was sub-merged in water, and maybe there was too much air in the system. I thought it would be an idea to see if would work if we tried pumping water out of the marina, still nothing. We tried the other battery operated drill, nothing again so we went onto the electric powered drill, the noise was horrific but water started coming out at quite a rate. We attached it back to the heating system and after ¾ of a bucket and then a lot of spluttering we turned our attention to the 2 leaking elbow joints. 

With the laws of gravity we were hoping there wasn’t going to be any water in the upright pipes to the header tank. Si took the elbows off and luckily the piping wasn’t damaged which meant a straight swap of joints. I popped out as it was Sunday hours and we needed more anti freeze and compression olives. On my return Si had cut a larger hole for the new Hep2o elbows. The new version Hep2o is now guaranteed for 50 years and the parts are bigger for it. The new Hep2o also does not require tightening up, they just clip on, but be warned if you need to undo them because you need a special device. Supposedly the older stuff requires a device but you can undo it. Once all fitted securely Si started filling the system up and waited to see if the level dropped. Si took Ness for a walk around the field and I made the 2^nd flat pack shelving unit up. These are to go into the second bedroom and will be used for the tools, books etc. After dinner we cranked up the central heating and bled all the radiators. After adding an extra 4 litres the water level seemed to settle down but we needed more convincing so were checking the inspection hatch every hour, just in case… 

Sunny intervals

13 C     11 C (night)

Earlier in the week Si had varnished the corridor plumbing box top and put together the bits for a drain cock. Yesterday, in his lunch time he visited Topps Tiles and Plumb Centre for the bits required. I went in the other direction because I needed to hand in my final assignment and portfolio, but went via Shepperton Chandlers to purchase clear pipe, jubilee rings and thread sealant. The thread sealant is hopefully to seal the leaky water tank fitting and is used by putting it on the first three threads of the fitting before screwing it in. Also earlier in the week I had purchased a Draper drill powered pump, the plan to pump  out the central heating loop to enable us to change the two leaking elbow joints. Plus if the domestic water ever leaks we now have a pump that defies gravity. 

Anyway this morning was a slow start after 4 pints in the pub last night. I got up at 9.45am and went off for a shower. The weather has become so much warmer recently and last night temperatures were in double figures. It was so warm I had to take my socks off in bed - that means it’s almost tropical! On my return I started the washing up. Over the last few weeks the sink has been getting damaged but only on the left hand side, little black scratches on white ceramic and they were progressively getting worse. I suddenly had a eureka moment, Si’s watch strap! Later in the afternoon we had a visitor, Shufty, Si showed him the progress so far and then they cracked open a beer. Pretty much no boat building done today but sometimes you need those days off. 

Sunny intervals

5 C     -1 C (night)

If you are in any way sensitive with bodily fluids, please do not read the rest of today’s blog and read from tomorrow. You have been warned! But if you want a cartridge toilet you need to understand the consequences! I woke up at 9am, not bad considering I didn’t arrive home till 2am, and went off for a shower. I didn’t have much choice in this because as I went to go to the toilet Si announced that ‘it’s full and over flowing’. On my return I decided to tackle the toilet and proceeded to have the most disgusting experience of my life so far. Unfortunately we have both become quite lax (excuse the pun) in not going to the big loo, blame it on the weather or the novelty of having to go for a stroll for a No 2 wearing off. Basically, to be able to close the lid on the cartridge I first had to get rid of some floaters. Luckily on taking out Ness for a walk this morning she brought back a stick with her and this came in handy to poke the floaters back down to be able to close the trap. I then had to mop up the overflow on top of the trap and it wasn’t just urine. I struggled to lift the cartridge out of the boat, down the pontoon, up the ramp and onto a trolley, this was going to be the least of my worries. It took a good 10 flush outs to remove all the contents of these nightmare floaters and I had two splash backs to the face! On my return to the boat the first 10 minutes were spent with OCD, desperately trying to feel clean again. A lesson most boating folk will know, no 2’s are not designed for boating. I continued with my final assignment for two hours while Si was still sleeping. Eventually he surfaced at 12.30pm, his bad mood from yesterday hadn’t disappeared with 10 hours of sleep….oh joy! He started tidying the lounge to make room for cutting a plumbing box skirting top. I was off to Sainsbury’s for the weekly shop as a roast dinner was planned for tonight. On my return Si was drilling out the holes for the radiator pipes. The process shouldn’t take too long as all the skirting top boxes are already cut to the 6 degree wall angle and the opposite side routered over. I sorted out my photo gear as our next door neighbour had asked me to take photographs of his oil painting to advertise. Within minutes of returning, my friend Becks (whose hen night it was) had arrived to catch up on the boats latest progress. She didn’t stay too long as we needed to walk Ness around the lake before the night drew in. Unfortunately the heating pipe is still leaking as the epoxy resin hasn’t cured to it, that’s next weekend’s worry!

Sunny intervals

2 C     0 C (night)

A manic week and I was recovering from two hangovers in two days. I had handed in the draft copy of my final assignment and let my hair down with three bottles of beer and half a bottle of wine. I struggled into work and blamed my mysterious illness on stress and managed to get some sympathy from my colleagues. Then on Friday night we had three visitors, Al, Lizzie & Laura. To Al’s horror Ness gave her usual greeting to him (not a dog lover). We gave them the guided tour and their feedback was great, they loved the kitchen and bathroom sink. We didn’t hang around on the boat too long as our visitors hadn’t acclimatised to the 9 C temperature, so we all headed straight to the pub for dinner. We had a lovely evening, its not often we socialise. We were in the pub till 11.30pm then said our goodbyes and walked home, this explains hangover number two. 

We didn’t get up till 11am and I was supposed to be off to a hen do this afternoon. While Si took Ness for a walk to the pub to retrieve the car, I did the washing up and made amendments to my final assignment. Although it was a bit late in the day, I felt obliged to suggest bleeding the leaky radiator. Still in my PJ’s we prepared the area. I still had visions of water fountains crossed with protest water canons. So for my preparation I had 6 towels, 3 buckets and 2 washing up bowls. Si removed the skirting board to allow the bowl to fit directly underneath the radiator. Si, forever the optimist, kept on saying ‘its not going to go everywhere, its not under pressure’. Forever the pessimist I changed into my flip flops. Si locked off the other radiator valves, a note to future boat builders – lock valves are essential. Si loosened the end cap and I was proven wrong and was quite content with this. The water came out controlled, with the water speeding up on releasing the vacuum with the drain screws. We filled one washing-up bowl, the plan was to put it back into the system but on sight of it we realised it was too dirty and would need to dispose of it later. 

I was now late for my hen party but felt that for Si’s sanity draining the radiator was needed. Si dropped me off and returned back to the boat. He found that the radiator valve hadn’t been PTFE taped when installed so rectified this and put it all back together again. He then filled the system back up and turned the heating on to flush out the air. After 20 litres of water it looked likely that something else was wrong, also the 2^nd bedroom where the boiler is was getting a little humid so he decided to check the pipes. The two elbows directly underneath the header tank and boiler had been leaking all this time. His mood plummeted. Si attempted to use the epoxy resin he had originally bought for the leaking water tank but it would take a while to cure. To use the time he attached the silver radiator pipe snaps to the 15mm Hep2o uprights, they look rather impressive but it would take a lot more than £10 rad snaps to improve his mood.

We came back from work and attempted to light the fire, the main reason was because we had only just remembered my 6 paper logs I’d made back in the summer and we wanted to try them! The paper log making had created a debate on how long each would last in the fire. We cut the brick into thirds and placed one third in the fire. Si gave it a generous 30 seconds, I was far more optimistic and went for 10 minutes. Well the log burned for 15 minutes, so we put the other two thirds on and guess what? 45 minutes! I was told it was a gimmick, well not so gimmicky now and I know what I’ll be doing on the hot days of summer 2011 – hopefully there will be some!

Sunny intervals

8 C    6 C (night)

Sunny intervals & rain

7 C     1 C (night)

We awoke to find we were all alive and quite proud of our achievement on having had our first fire. We’d learnt that burning one log at time wasn’t enough to keep the fire consistent. We were also in need of a companion set and at a minimum a poker. Si was placing the logs in with his bare hands, you’d never see me do that. The stove did come with a glove which is needed for the door handle and vent sliders. I wore it when touching the stove, Si did a heat check without the glove to see if he needed it or not. Once again I was off west to my parents for more studying; my original hand in date was 14^th January but I had received an extension till the 14^th February, my excuse: boat building. 

In my absence Si removed the twice leaking bathroom sink plug unit to replace it. We had even tried a newer and tougher sealant last time, but still not good enough. I had purchased the original plug unit from Homebase for £26, not realising our tap came with a unit too. Si removed the Homebase one and cleaned the sink up to be sealant free, he then swapped it with the other unit and tightened it in with no sealant. He emptied the casserole dish to start the testing session. On the last two occasions it has taken several days for the leak to appear. Interestingly the new unit has a second seal underneath (o ring), we will now just have to wait and see! He glued the kitchen extractor fan surround in place and reconnected the wiring because it had come detached from dangling down for so long. I spoke to Si this evening, hoping he wouldn’t have a fire, as I was not there to calm his pyromaniac tendencies, he promised me he would restrain himself.

Sunny intervals

4 C    -1 C (night)

We had both taken the day off . I was supposed to be studying but we had bigger fish to fry, well, burn. Today was the day of getting the stove fixed in and lit but this was going to be no easy day as the list to get to the end result was bloody long. Si made a start by heading north to Iver chandlers. We’d been looking for some bolts to secure the collar into place, we’d been looking in an array of brochures but why it never dawned on us that surely the company who makes the collar should also make bolts to fit it. In the week Si had finished the plumbing under the kitchen sink to let the water out, I had gone shopping in the week to John Lewis and bought a rather expensive sink drainer with Christmas vouchers which I was now building. It has extremely high sides, definitely what you need when stacking the washing up but also on those windy days when bouncing off the pontoon. 

On Si’s return he was up on the roof within minutes, well after a roll up. He started by marking the 2 holes with the punch, and started with a 2mm drill bit to work up to the 12mm to fit in his recent purchase of collar bolts. While he was doing this I made 2 wood blocks for the back of the bolts to give them purchase. We spent the next 15 minutes faffing trying to get the nuts onto the bolts in a confined space. Even though we had covered the collar since installing it with Nessies dog bowl, the condensation had caused quite a reaction with more rust on the inside. Si used a wire brush to remove it while I stood underneath with a bucket catching all the debris, we didn’t want to mucky our shiny flue. We carefully placed the flue surround on the stove, inserted the flue and pushed up the surround to the ceiling, so Si was able to drill the holes as a guide. Stupidly we removed the surround before marking which was the front, so we had to do it all again. We were in deliberation on how the surround was going to be attached to the ceiling. There were two methods, screw plugs or visible cups and screws. I preferred the latter but we compromised and went for the 4 screw plugs rather than his proposed 12. In the end I got my wish as in the process of making the holes, Si drilled too deep and had to revert back to the visible screws plan. 

Si then went out side to insert the fire rope, I remained underneath to push it up. We had now lost sight of each other and had to revert to shouting at one another. The next stage was the fire cement, which looks and feels like putty. Si proceeded to roll it into worms/sausages and fed it between the collar and the flue, both inside and out. We screwed the flue surround into place again, unfortunately I realised we hadn’t cut all the celotex away for the stated 50mm clearance. Begrudgingly Si unscrewed to regain access. Finally our attention could turn to the chimney, all 18 inches of black and chrome. We had heard a few stories of rain caps disappearing through high winds and light fingered people, so Si wanted to put a screw into it to attach it to the chimney. We attempted to insert the liner inside but this wasn’t going to happen because it was too sprung loaded. We tried to shrink it by using out belts because we had no ratchet straps. In the end we decided the putty was too soft for the inner to sit on, so we’d attempt it again once it had hardened off. 

It was now 16:30, we were already to go but had nothing to burn! The 3 of us jumped in the car to race off to the garden centre in a hunt for logs, kindling, coal and possibly a companion set. Typically the first garden centre only had logs and the next garden centre had been demolished so we ended up buying kindling from the garage. On our return we read the stove instructions to get all the vent positions correct. The instructions even told you how to build the fire, which was my job… 6 bits of newspaper screwed up, kindling stacked and fire lighters squeezed on top. Si did the honorary lighting, while I hovered in the background with a fire extinguisher. Then our two personalities became very apparent, Si is the pyromaniac and I’m the fire hater. It’s no secret I’m afraid of fire, a few events in my life have made me give it the respect it deserves, but Si’s a boy, the bigger the better. Every time the flames got a little too rambunctious, I’d panic. Si would leave the room, I’d turn the vents down to starve the fire, I’d leave the room and he’d open them up. Basically this went on for a good hour until it had settled down into a good glow and so had my fear factor. It does seem bonkers to light afire inside a boat, especially as all the interior is wood. We let the fire virtually die out but both of us were still nervous going to bed, even if all the vents were closed. 

Sunny intervals

12 C     9 C (night)

I woke up at 10 am sprightly and decided to paint the toilet wall again. I then took Ness for a walk to the pub. Don’t worry, not turning into an alcoholic, but we were lazy last night and drove to the pub rather than walk both ways, it’s always much easier to walk home, as it takes no time at all after a few. On our return Si was putting the plumbing kit together for the kitchen 1 ½ sink. Within 5 minutes I was out again, this time the weekly food shop. On my return walking down the pontoon a king fisher flew 6ft away from me, really perked me up and reminded me why we chose this lifestyle. Si was measuring and then measuring again, as he was about to drill a hole in the side of the boat. The mad measuring was to make sure the kitchen sink out hole was above the water line but below the sink outlet. This process can not be rushed, and I was asked to sanity check his markings. I was then off again at 2pm to a friends house to discuss her wedding photographs and didn’t return till 5pm. On my final return of the day, Si had only just finished the hole, starting with a 2mm drill bit and graduating up to the 19mm hole saw. I took myself off to the bathroom trying to work out the physics of gravity, well more why the hell was the sink plug still leaking, especially as Si had sealed this twice now. With no eureka moment I stated on dinner, while Si drilled 4 holes into the prepared masterboard which will eventually fix the chrome flue surround with bolts. 

Sunny intervals

11 C     7 C

It was Si’s birthday yesterday, so we took the day off, well I took the day off, he’d been off all week with flu. The only boat building done today was painting the stove surround white, the rest of the day was spent relaxing and shopping. Although it wasn’t a heavy night last night we still didn’t rise till 10.30 am. Si had a boat shopping list, which ended up being a 4 hour round trip. He was off to Iver for fenders, Twickenham for plumbing parts, Kingston for Screwfix, Staines for Homebase, Ashford for the Tackle shop and finally Sunbury for the beer shop, obviously the latter two having nothing to do with boat building, they just keep him happy. 

In Si’s absence I repainted the back of the toilet area, this and resealing the bathroom tiles is required before we put the toilet into place. I also discovered the bathroom sink plug was still leaking down the column. Maybe when Si rang from Homebase probably wasn’t the best time to inform him of this, as his mood on his return wasn’t what you call a happy one. I cleaned the stainless steel flue with Brasso in preparation for its installation. The plan was to install it and light the stove this weekend, but I found out the boat insurance had run out today so it didn’t seem the wisest of ideas to start a fire, all be it in a woodburner, its still a fire. On Si’s final return to the boat, I mentioned giving it all up and heading to the pub and that was the end of that. 

Sunny Intervals

7 C     0 C (night)

Si left my parents at 11 am to head back to the boat, I was staying on for a few more days to study. On his return he routered the pre-glued ceiling flue surround, it now just needed painting white.

Sunny Intervals

10 C     1 C (night)

I drove to my parents with Nessie last night, leaving Si on the boat today but he would be joining us later this evening. The reason for the two trips was it was my mothers birthday, Nessie’s haircut and it gave me a chance to study in the warm. Although before I left last night I did help Si lift the wood burning stove into place, well nearly into place. The fixing brackets were too snug. Si started today by re-drilling the holes for the stove brackets, to nudge them apart by 1cm. He then set up the table saw to run strips of solid ash through to create the ceiling flue surround (to keep the masterboard in place). He was also making 8mm x 18mm ash strips to face the kitchen cupboard shelves. He glued the stove ceiling surround together holding it in place with sash clamps. By now it had reached 4pm and he needed a shower and to get back to Oxfordshire for 7pm. 

He was greeted by a white wheaten terrier (doesn’t happen that often) and within 10 minutes he was out the door again. A birthday meal at my parents favourite restaurant, a major treat for us because it only happens twice a year. I offered to drive because on our last visit (Papa’s birthday) I was on crutches, so it was my turn, especially as we weren’t paying. I’d like to go there for my birthday but as we’ll have to pay for it, it will be more of a Pizza Express budget, mustn’t grumble, that’s still a major treat for us boat building folk.

Sunny intervals

2 C     1 C (night)

Today was our last day of the Christmas break and unfortunately we were back at work tomorrow, work so gets in the way of enjoying life! Quite hung-over, the morning came and thankfully went. In the afternoon I decided the scratch marks and divots on the master board were not going to be filled with paint and required a more drastic measure…..white wood filler. We made another visits to Topps Tiles & Homebase; our plan to beat the VAT rise from 17.5% to 20%. Our plans were scuppered as we wanted to exchange the surplus tiles for our chosen shower tiles. Unfortunately the shower tiles were special order, not in stock and they could only be exchanged with another product. Hopefully they will arrive in a week but now costing an extra 2.5%. Homebase didn’t have what we wanted either, although we came away with some chrome radiator snaps, not the plan but at least it made it the trip more worthwhile.

Sunny Intervals

4 C     2 C (night) 

2011 had well and truly started on the boat building front, Si sealed in the 2 plug drainers in the kitchen sink while I was measuring out a piece of master board. The stove flue had been a large talking point over the last few weeks but this beautiful pipe has had to slum it on the floor in the corridor for weeks. We finally had made a decision to cut 2 pieces of master board to double up for strength, to hold the 4” flue collar ring in place by using bolts instead of screws. All this effort is also an attempt to be able to undo it at a later point if needed. Si glued the 2 pieces of master board together then turned his attention to the roof. We had cut the 164mm hole in the interior roof previously but it didn’t conform to the safety standard. We required a 50mm non flammable material gap all around the flu pipe so Si took the jigsaw to the ceiling to remove any flammable contents . We were a little perplexed with the nice shiney 4” flue collar, as the screw holes to secure would need to go into a batten of some form, yet the screw holes were closer than 50mm non flammable restrictions. We had gone to town with the floor plate, the back and the sides with safety for the stove, this was certainly not the part to ignore the safety measures, especially as this was going to be one of the hottest parts. While Si was cutting the ceiling up I was in the bedroom with Ness trying to study. The pub was mooted, although I did paint the master board in an attempt to fill the scratches and marks that had been created trying to get it to its correct shape and size.

Sunny Intervals + light rain

7 C     4 C (night)

I arrived back at the boat this afternoon with my parents and 3 dogs in tow. Si had returned on Wednesday with the idea of leaving me at my parents to study. In my absence Si had plumbed in the bathroom sink and attached the taps. He’d also bought a lot of kitchen tiles at Topps Tiles as the £100 Tesco Club Card voucher expired today. To enable him to purchase the tiles, I was giving him instructions from 70 miles away whilst on their website. I could see the shape and work out the size but the colour was a little difficult, so his instructions were to get both the cream & white tiles and I would choose on my return. To make it up to the £100 voucher he ended up buying twice as many than we need but the master plan is to return these in part payment for the shower tiles. 

My parents hadn’t seen the boat since September and were very impressed with the progress. We had a picnic lunch, Christmas leftovers, turkey, mince pies etc. My parents didn’t stay too long as they had a New Year party to get back for. We were going to have a quiet New Year, neither of us are fans of New Years Eve, the plan was to have another nice meal. Well this didn’t happen as we discovered the corridor radiator was leaking and this plummeted us into bad moods with me ending up in bed by 10pm. At 11.55pm I was awoken by the noise of fireworks so decided to stand on the back deck in my PJ’s with Si & Ness to watch the free show. Both of us woke up grumpy due to the heating system only lasting 3 weeks. One of our friends always says we must have done something bad in a former life to have ended up with so much bad karma, maybe not the greatest moral boosting comment but some times you do wonder. 

Today’s main aim was to put the kitchen sink into place, it’s been taking up too much valuable floor space. The sink is nearly £300 of ceramic, so when you are faced with having to punch a hole in it to fit the taps, no wonder it started heart palpitations. The ceramic is much thinner in the target area but it still means taking a mallet to it. Si decided to use the hole punch with the hammer and gently tap it away bit by bit. I had a great excuse not to watch as we needed food, so I slunk off to Sainsbury’s. On my return he had just finished, we used sealant around the oak work top and lifted the sink into place.

Cloudy 

1 C     - 2 C (night)

Merry Christmas! This morning we woke up on our boat, something we had been desperate to do on two counts. The first was not to have to travel anywhere and the second was for our first Christmas day by ourselves, and of course Ness. Anyway we had a lazy (and warm!) morning, by 11.30am it was late enough to make some noise so Si started up the jigsaw… don’t worry we weren’t boat building, we are not that stupid. Instead we were destroying the pile of rubbish ply on the floor, all in aid of being able to put up a dining room table. It sounds grand but it’s my parents’ battered old lime green camping table! Si cut the 6 sheets up into quarters and we did several trips to store it in our “mobile shed”, the van. We’ve been living with a raised ply platform in the “lounge” since October 2009. The pile has gradually been eroded overtime, so when Si stumbled as he put his foot on the pile that wasn’t there anymore I laughed and said you idiot. That’ll teach me as we both proceeded to do it all day. We took Ness for a Christmas day walk and on our return she opened up her stocking. Inside were toys and treats, her main present was a fluffy duck that on squeezing went quack, possibly a dangerous toy living on a boat. She is ok with ducks, interested but relatively ok, we often nickname a pair of ducks ‘Aromatic & Crispy’. 

Back to Christmas, Si started the cooking as I set up the room, something else that is important to me. Living in a permanent workshop isn’t always that easy, I dressed the (still not properly fitted) wood burning stove with led fairy lights inside and powered up the candles with AA batteries. A fantastic invention, proper wax candles with fake drips and LED lights, extremely realistic and safe. I laid the table courtesy of a mad dash around ASDA yesterday, a white table cloth: £4. 4x goblet wine glasses: £4. Plus an LED candle. With Si cooking with the oven we hadn’t bothered turning on the heating as it was 15 C, positively balmy! Dinner was going to be a Waitrose stuffed duck (I know a duck theme emerging), Waitrose pigs in blankets, Waitrose stuffing, roast potatoes, carrots, parsnips and Brussel sprouts. We sat on the beanbags and opened up our presents to each other. The evening was mellow and the day had been one of my best ever Christmas’s, just the 3 of us and the boat. 

Cloudy + Light Snow 

1 C     - 10 C (night)

We took the day off from work today, it wasn’t planned but a quick explanation of our degree of tiredness to our bosses did the trick. The morning consisted of sleeping till Midday. In the afternoon we tidied up the mess created from yesterday’s efforts and went out to Sainsbury’s to buy celebratory pizza. Neither of us are pizza mad but when you can’t have something, and we have not had an oven since September 2008, pizza means a lot. So while I was being all domesticated, Si turned on the central heating system. I received a text from my sister asking me if I was walking around the boat in a bikini now? Not quite, it had reached a whopping 16 C inside whilst it was well into minus outside, although not bikini temperatures we were down to 2 layers rather than the compulsory five. Bliss!

Cloudy + Light Snow 

0 C     - 6 C (night)

Amazingly Tim turned up at 10am, he had travelled from his friends house in Surrey (17 miles away) but it had still taken 2 hours. We really appreciated his efforts and knew today was going to be long and hard to get what we needed done. He started by going through our box of bits he’d ordered back in October 2009. We were missing a few bits so, braving the icy roads, Si & Tim went off to Homebase, Halfords and Shepperton chandlers. On their return Tim started on the gas, first in the bow locker and then to the Alde boiler and finally the hob. It was at this point Tim realised he was missing 2 gas taps that were needed by regulation. I went off to see what our local chandlers had, we needed 2 and they only had one. I didn’t purchase it because we are not fans of the chandlers (expensive!). Tim said Shepperton will have loads as it’s usually a stocked item. Si, braving the roads again, went off to Shepperton and guess what? They only had one as well! I went running round to our chandlers… it had closed at 1pm. Crying was now definitely on the cards. Si sat in the car and phoned Wickes and a few other places but nothing. He decided to go to Walton chandlers, they were also closed but a lady said that there is another one on the other side of the river (Bridge Marine), it will be shut but the owner lives on a boat next door and he doesn’t normally mind opening up. Running out of options off Si went and had to knock on the boat, the owner was more than helpful; this one lovely man had saved our Christmas. 

While Si was away Tim and I had started on the central heating system, he had attached the radiator valves because Si was unsure of their fit. Tim did concur they weren’t fantastic fits and used PTFE tape to help. We needed to fill the heating system up but the issue was all the water on the marina was frozen! The only place you could fill up was in the ladies shower! The head of the shower had been removed and a stool placed inside the cubicle, for the past week this is how we’d been filling up our water bottles. It wasn’t just that the hosepipes had frozen, the marina had turned the water off pretty much to the whole site, including the laundry. During the week I had met people doing their washing up, clothes washing and even men in the ladies toilet filling up, times were desperate. Anyway back to the heating system. I filled nine 2L bottles at a time and transported them back in a little trolley my parents had given us. Back & forth I went. Si still hadn’t returned and it was now my job to check for leaks on each radiator valve. Tim continued pouring the water in, I went frantically up & down the boat running my fingers underneath each valve to see if there were any leaks. There were loads! One valve was even bubbling over so we had to change it to a cheap spare valve Tim had. Every valve needed tightening again and again. Once Tim was happy and there were no major leaks he poured in the 5L of anti freeze. Si finally arrived whilst I was still frantically checking for leaks. I was so pleased to see him. 

During the week Si had converted the LPG jets over on the hob, he needed Tim to check these over and convert the oven as this was more difficult. While Tim was occupied with the oven Si had to cut holes out of the back of the hob carcass and corner cupboard out. This was to gain access to the plugs as the hob and oven need a 240 volt feed. I was still going back & forth filling bottles and filling the central heating system. I made everyone a cheese and toasted sandwich, this was the only 10 minute break we had all day. Tim then moved onto connecting the gas supply to the appliances and checking with his manometer for any gas leaks. All seemed to be ok, the only thing to do was turn on the hob & oven… “We were cooking on gas!” Our attention turned back to the heating system, Tim turned on the boiler and the header tank started making rather strange noises, we were assured this was normal. The levels were going to drop while the system got rid of its air, so to move this on we were all bleeding radiators. The heating loop kept on wanting more & more water. While Tim was packing up, we talked about getting the boat the RCD (recreational craft directive) and asked him a few questions we had regarding the stove and calorifier. Tim eventually left at 7pm. We paid him in cash and gave him extra for his gargantuan effort. Throughout the evening we could not stray far from 2nd bedroom as the header tank was forever running out of water, so I continued to fill the bottles for at least another 2 hours. We took the delight in texting friends and family of our new found heat and cooking facilities. Chin Chin!

Heavy Snow 

0 C     -7 C (night)

Tim was supposed to be arriving this morning but on pulling the Celotex out of the window we were greeted with a winter wonderland, very beautiful and neither of us had seen snow like it in years. Unfortunately it wasn’t just Chertsey with snow, the whole country was being blanketed. Tim had set off at 7am from the Midlands, and at 10am he was now stuck on the M40 (bumper to bumper). We spoke to him a few times and realised there was no way he was going to make it because we’d also listened to the radio reports, the UK’s roads where a disaster area. Tim eventually arrived in Surrey at his mates house, 10 hours later. We had become rather stressed over today and what we were calling D Day. 

With Tim not coming we took the opportunity to have a chilled day. In the week Si had put 2 more coats on the hob worktop and by Tim being delayed it meant we could get the 4 coats on that we had wanted to. I decided to use the day to make Christmas cards, earlier in month on the first freeze I took photographs of the boat and was now compiling the finished article, the card was from Captain White, First Mate Seviour & Boat Look-Out Nessie. We took Ness out to the field as she loves the snow, bless her though we kept on having to pick her up and de-snow her, as it clings to her fur in big clumps and she can’t walk. 

We got the Christmas tree we’d bought earlier in the week from the van and set it up on the back deck and dressed it up with outdoor led lights. It sounds strange but there are many things I’ve wanted in my life and this has been one for years. An outside small Christmas tree with lights, simple - but perfect. Later in the evening we attached the bathroom radiator to the bathroom skirting board top so that all the radiators were done and ready to go. Today we had conditioned ourselves that Christmas was going to be at my parents as the likelihood of Tim reaching us tomorrow was slim. Our caveat for having Christmas onboard was a working oven and heating. 

Cloudy 

5 C     0 C (night)

The worktops required 4 coats of Danish oil, the only issue is the 24hours needed in between each coat that the instructions request. Si sanded the smaller of the worktops down with a sanding block, he wiped it down with white spirit and brushed on the first coat. I had originally bought lint free cloths with the Danish oil but he chose to use a brush to apply and take off the excess with the cloths. The worktop oil I had bought was Ronseal, it was more expensive but apparently had anti bacterial qualities, not sure if I just fell for the marketing to be true. This is the first Danish oil we have used on the boat. Once upon a time all boat interior wood was covered in the stuff. We decided against it because Big Fish boat builders had tried an experiment with a blow torch. The results were that when set alight, Danish oil flashes and is burning in seconds. Water based varnish slowly burns. Then the stuff we are using on the panelling etc: Ronseal Diamond Hard (nice plug!) is really very resistant to catching. Si carried on into the evening with more plumbing and then with drawing diagrams of his work to be able to check his logic with Tim at the weekend.

Sunny 

6 C     1 C (night)

I came back from my parents to help Si move the kitchen worktops because this was definitely a two person job. Before I arrived Si had bought two more router bits because the previous one was minus a few edges. He only needed one but you know what would have happened. When ordering the worktops they did have a kit with router bits, pull rods and accessories all for £15. I didn’t purchase it because Si already had a router bit and the other bits could be easily picked up cheaper from Screwfix. Hindsight would have informed me of the requirement of more than one router bit. Never mind! With my presence and the male worktop not fitting brilliantly, he decided to give it another go. Unfortunately I heard the ‘**** **’ that normally indicates it’s not going too well. I looked over his shoulder, quite a section of worktop had broken off. Thankfully it would be underneath the worktop and with a bit of tape and the two worktops being pushed together no one would know if they don’t read this blog. I helped him lift it onto the counter, the join was better but not brilliant still so Si wanted to attempt the female length again. I helped him to manoeuvre everything and off he went again. He now had got it down to an art, well sort of. Once the two fitted together, we needed to trim the worktops to length. We couldn’t use the circular saw, all previous attempts had failed. We presumed the glue in the worktop stopped it from flowing. The new method was to use the jigsaw to cut off the excess and then router the few millimetres for a perfect straight finish. Si was now absolutely knackered mentally and physically, and it wasn’t over as we now needed to cut the hob insert out. While Si had time out on the back deck with a roll up I measured the hob and measured again. On his return I asked him to re check my measurements before he went wild with the jigsaw. If he hadn’t done enough tonight he was now putting the gulper water pump into place and attaching the piping. That is a true boat building hero for you!

Cloudy 

8 C     4 C (night)

As I had an early morning yesterday, Si made up for it by an early start this morning (well, that’s what he said anyway…). He cleaned the excess grout off the tiles I had completed yesterday and gave it a good polish. This OCD being his speciality. Today he was attempting the first major external hole in the boat for the washing machine out. A scary job, the out holes are rather close to the waterline. He took the sensible option of drilling a 2mm hole first, because if the hole was below the waterline it still could be filled. Thankfully he did not need a rescue remedy of chewing gum as he’d measured it correctly and probably checked it a good dozen times. As usual the 2mm hole needs to become a 6.5mm hole to be able to fit the holesaw arbor in, to start drilling the “real” hole. It took him a good few hours from start to finish as the steel here is 8mm thick, so time consuming when doing it in several stages. He continued with the plumbing theme by teeing off the main Hep2o domestic pipe up to the kitchen sink. To work out the placement for the tee and the taps he used the photograph from the catalogue to roughly work out the placement. In the evening there was no rest as he was varnishing the bathroom skirting board top with indoor varnish and the gulper water pump platform with exterior.

Cloudy 

7 C     0 C (night)

Another day off work, sounds great but we are rattling through our annual leave. Most people use it for a relaxing two week holiday, not us! While Si was still asleep this morning I masking taped the bathroom floor in preparation to grout. It makes him sound incredibly lazy but most nights he’s continued to work till midnight if not later. Once Si was up and about I made up the grout, I find this the best part of tiling – remember mud cakes!? I also made my first attempt at painting the stove floor plate with zinc primer. I chose to do it on the back to see how brushing it on went. We had to primer it because the plate is zinc coated. Normally a gloss roller gives a good cover but the instructions said “not rollable”. Well it looked rubbish so I ignored the instructions and rollered over the top of my brush work. While I was in the painting mood I also painted 2 mushroom vent surrounds, one for the kitchen extractor fan and the other for the CO2 & smoke alarm. By the afternoon I was once again abandoning Si for my parents warm house which is more conducive to study… well a good excuse. 

Sunny 

4 C     - 2 C (night)

We took the afternoon off because we believed we would finish the worktops in a matter of hours, how misguided can we get? We also had the nice shiny stainless steel flue and floor plate our lovely neighbour made for us delivered last night. We put it in place and stepped back, it really looked the part and we paid our neighbour in kindness… 48 cans of Fosters. By the time we started the kitchen worktops it had gone 3pm. We unpacked and prepared the longest piece to cut first (female part). We read the jig instructions, and decided to reinforce the jig in place with sash clamps rather than the pegs it came with. Si had to use his old router for the job, it took him ages to create the curve because the router can only take 5mm off at a time. We then turned the worktop over and Si routered the bolt holes. It was now time to do the shorter male piece but unfortunately the router bit had lost an edge (yep, dangerous) so it just wasn’t worth the risk. Luckily we had a shorter spare bit. We had no choice but to carry on as we had loads to do before Tim came down and the worktop was crucial to getting the hob & oven in time for Christmas. Eventually both were complete, we put the two together and typically they didn’t fit…

Cloudy 

0 C     - 2 C (night)

This morning, while we were waiting for the worktop delivery Si set up the table saw and the two of us created a right old racket cutting lots of wood to size. We will have a lot of trim to do in this boat, so we were experimenting with cutting the solid ash down and using a Roman ogee router bit to create the desired affect. I had sent full instructions to the company of which gate to use, plus a map, but we still received a phone call ‘I’m at Gate 1’. I directed him round and waited at the top to flag him down. Luckily Si and the lorry driver carried the 3m & 2m worktops down the pontoon, while I was left holding the jig. The lorry driver went on his way but we still had to get them into the boat. I couldn’t even lift an end, Si had to lift it for me so I could get my foot wedged underneath to then grab the bottom. We eventually got them inside but it was bloody hard work. We unpacked them to have a look, we had ordered “prime oak”, description: good quality and not very knotty. Indeed they looked very smart and were reasonably priced at £390 including delivery and the cutting jig.

Sunny 

5 C     2 C (night)

Earlier in the week Si had tried to collect the bathroom sink waste/plug unit from Homebase but was denied the goods even though he had all the paper work. All because we don’t have the same surname, they did tried to phone me whilst he was there but it went straight to voicemail, the message they left asked me if I knew this man… literally! It is all a bit much that we need to get married to collect items from Homebase. In the end I had to go and collect them. 

On my return I prepared the bathroom sink fixings before Si siliconed the bottom of the sink. It was now ready to put in place. I was underneath the unit telling Si whether it was in the centre. Once the sink was on the countertop we measured the front to check it was straight and finished it off with a bead of clear sealant all the way round. Si was back into the engine bay attaching bendy tap connectors to the calorifier unit, while I walked Ness around the top field. We then cleared the temporary kitchen worktops to enable us to fix the kitchen cabinets together and to the wall, all in preparation for tomorrows delivery of the oak worktops. I again attempted to paint the bathroom border strip white with a decent emulsion roller this time. Si cleaned the newly laid bathroom floor with tile cleaner and primer, followed by intense polishing, maybe an electric polisher is required… where’s the Screwfix catalogue!

Cloudy + Rain 

6 C     - 4 C (night)

Feeling rather hung over this morning, I took Ness out to the loo. When we got back I said to Si about the snowman outside, he then informed me it was my doing. There was more - not only was there another snowman on the 18th hole, I had also (rather noisily) tried to smash the ice with snowballs at midnight, between pontoon M&N. Rather embarrassed by my drunken antics I decided Ness and my head could do with a proper walk. On returning I noticed a ‘Pontoon Closed’ sign, all week the pontoons have been lethal with ice but today was the warmest day for a week, the ice was actually melting for the first time. Marina fuzzy logic. Maybe they couldn’t get to the pontoon for the ice… It wasn’t just our pontoon, walking around the marina all of the pontoons were “closed”. We supposed it was to stop us suing them in case of an accident, but everyone was still walking up and down them. 

The roads were a vast improvement so Si went on a road trip to Sainsbury’s, Shepperton chandlers and Plumb Centre to purchase more bits to finish off the plumbing. I remained on the boat feeling very green. I did attempt to paint a strip of 12mm ply white for the bathroom sink area, it’s needed so we can measure for a bathroom sink mirror. Unfortunately I might as well not have bothered as I had to wipe it all off because I used a very cheap mini emulsion roller that shed badly. I moved on to the next task, masking taping the granite top in the bathroom in preparation to seal the gaps with black sealant. It took me nearly an hour to prep and 10 minutes to do but it was worth all the preparation as I then just peeled off the masking tape and it was done. On Si’s return he spent his time in the engine bay doing more plumbing. Still plumbing, he changed his scenery to the 2nd bedroom to plumb the Alde boiler to the header tank. My hang over finally got the better of me and I was in bed by 7.30pm. 

Snowing

2 C      -5 C (night)

This week was freezing, the cold was now set in, the snow had fallen and the memories of those glorious summer days weren’t just fading, they had gone! Warm - what is that! Our next door neighbour had meant to be popping over to measure the flue angles for the last couple of weekends, so we took the initiative on Tuesday night and called him. Bless him he came over straight away with his measuring tools and apologised as he hadn’t realised the boat was so perishing, in fact 2C on return from work - on the inside! They have the same halogen heater as we do but their area is a quarter the size of ours to heat. I was supposed to go to London today for a hospital appointment but cancelled it due to no trains, snow and poor weather conditions. We took the afternoon off work instead. Si put it to good use and called Tim to say we weren’t going to be ready for him to come down and luckily he didn’t have time either, so we re-arranged him for Saturday 18^th December. We walked Ness to tire her out before going to Lindsay and Mikes for dinner (our friends with the barge and matching dog). We had a fantastic night, once again amazing food and far too much wine. On the return journey home apparently I made two snowmen, one on the 18^th hole of the golf course and another on the entrance to the marina. 

Cloudy

2 C      -2 C (night)

Funnily enough I was off work sick today - sciatica. I spent the day in bed with the electric blanket on but used my time well studying.  While I was lording it up in bed, Si was next door on his knees cleaning the adhesive mess from the bathroom floor tiles. He faced his demons and re-cut the bathroom skirting top again. Unfortunately he cut it wrong again, although this time it was minor compared to yesterdays efforts and it still was removable, just a bit more patience and skill required to get it out.

Sunny 

2 C     -5 C (night)

I arrived back from parents this afternoon with Ness and clean washing in tow.Si showed me what he’d been up to with the bathroom skirting top. Unfortunately I saw it and realised that it wasn’t going to work. The part that needed removing to access the pipes was pinned in by the radiator feet. Dilemma, at what point do you say ‘you’ve done it wrong’. So in diplomatic style I phrased it ‘Honey, I’m not sure if that’s quite right’. Within seconds he realised, followed by an eerie silence, almost with tears in the eye. I totally felt for him as this piece had been table sawed, jig-sawed, sanded, routered, 2x 25mm holes drilled in and then hand cut to make it 3 pieces. While Si rightfully sulked I started making a batch of tile adhesive but this time mixed twice the quantity, it’s such a faff to make more when you’re in full tiling flow. I started laying the final part of the bathroom flooring while Si was cooking a stew. Luckily he came in just as I’d laid two tiles the wrong way round, in someway it showed him we all make mistakes. The problem being is that once these tiles are down, they want to stay down. By the time I was coming to the last few tiles Si had to take over because I couldn’t bend anymore.  Sounds pathetic but when you can’t kneel or squat, you do everything with straight legs, which is totally wrong if you’ve ever experienced a manual handling course, but I have no choice. I can go for an hour before the shooting sciatica pains win. Anyway bathroom floor porcelain tiles finished!

Cloudy

2 C     -3C (night)

This morning Si went off shopping, not food shopping or clothes shopping but drill shopping. I received a text that morning from what appeared to be an over excited boy in a toy shop. He went to a shop in Twickenham called D&M….’totally awesome’ were his exact words. Apparently there was not a small display rack of black & yellow DeWalt but a whole entire walls worth!!!!!! He eventually stopped drooling enough to buy the Makita drill he’d gone for - £180 worth. These are the items I didn’t expect to come out of the boat budget but -

A. We need a drill, and

B. There is no point in buying cheap.

This is why when attempting a project like this you need your 10% contingency fund. Unfortunately we don’t have one as we started this project minus £20,000 already. While he was in Twickenham he went on to Plumb Centre for more Hep2o insets and jubilee clips. By the time he arrived back on the boat it was 12.30pm. His task this afternoon was to make a platform for the Gulpa water pump to sit on. It will be fitted in the bow to give us more storage options in the bow steps plus we will still be able to access the pump and water tank by removing the steps, apparently replacing a water pump is not uncommon. In the afternoon I also went shopping though in my parents nearest town, I bought us an electric blanket. Si has been against one but he’s been slowly realising everyone else on the marina has one - he came round eventually. The one I’ve bought you can leave on all night and has separate controls for each side. This is perfect for us because I’m always cold and mine will be set on 9 and Si is a human radiator so he’ll set his on 1… Perfect. My other job this evening was to order loads over the Internet, chimney + accessories from Midland Chandlers and oak worktops. 

Sunny

4 C      -2 C (night)

Si had the afternoon off to carry on with some more plumbing. In the evening we moved the oven from the van to the boat on a marina trolley. We lifted it over the newly installed taff rails and in the process christened them by adding some character building scuffs. We went through the ovens instructions… rubbish, and it wasn’t cheap. It’s a Baumatic, a double oven with flame fail device on both ovens - a legal requirement onboard a floating vessel. Si went online using his Phone and it turned out the included instructions had a few pages missing! In the grand scheme of things we see this as quite important when installing a gas appliance. We also unpacked and had a nosy at our 5 ring gas hob, mainly looking at how to convert it from mains gas to LPG (kit provided). Today Si shortened the bow steps after a consultation period last night; he needs to do more plumbing in the bow. I was off to my parents tonight, you guessed it, more study (and a washing machine). It’s not fantastic your postal address is 75 miles away, but it’s a bit extreme to do a round trip of 150 miles for clean knickers! 

Cloudy

8 C     5 C (night)

I woke up really early, 8am… very wrong for a Sunday, but whilst still in my PJ’s I Hammerited the flue collar. It required 2 coats, so 2hrs later I was putting another one on as I needed it touch dry by this afternoon. I got dressed to put a second coat of Hammerite onto the taff rail supports. Si was drilling through the steel roof for the flue/chimney collar. He increased the hole drilled yesterday from 2mm to 6mm, big enough to fit the hole saw arbor. Then whilst he was trying to drill the 168mm hole through 5mm of roof steel the DeWalt began to smoke, then smoke a lot more, then flash… bang went £150. He had not managed to get through 2mm of the steel. Plan B was to drill several small holes to fit a jigsaw blade in. A while ago I had made Si buy a very nice DeWalt jigsaw and it has been worth its weight in gold. Apparently it went through the steel like a knife through butter - his words not mine. Now we had a great whacking hole in our roof and it was my job to Hammerite the cut edge. Si went off to screw the toilet arm rest in place which would enable me to adhesive the bathroom floor tiles. The next job was to seal the collar into place. Si was on the roof and I was precariously hanging from the gunnel to assist in using the fire retardant sealant to stick the heavy collar into place. Si reckons it weighs around 20kg, I have absolutely no idea of its weight but I concur its bloody heavy. It was difficult to see where the centre was, so we had to guess. We put a bead of sealant around the collar and inside the bolt holes and dropped it into the hole in the roof. On returning inside, we could see it wasn’t quite in the middle but would have to do. With the collar in we now had a large hole in the roof that needed covering, Nessie kindly offered one of her dog bowls and the off-cut of steel from the hole as a weight. I was now prepping the bathroom floor with masking tape to lay part 2 of the tiles and Si was attempting to put the taff rails into place. Our lovely neighbour had made us some metal plates to widen the taff rail supports. The original supports weren’t wide enough and we’re sure the rails would have rocked on them. The screws Si was attempting to use were snapping in the oak so he disappeared off to Shepperton Chandlers to buy some better ones. These also turned out to not be perfect when the first one snapped and a few were difficult to get in. By now Si was working in the dark with only his head torch. I made up a bucket of tile adhesive and started laying the left hand side bathroom floor tiles, I started by myself but due to not being able to kneel down I required help to place them in around the toilet arm rest…bloody knees! It took a lot longer than expected and was gone 9pm by the time we started to clear up.

Cloudy

8 C    6 C (night)

This week we had been closely watching the weather and it wasn’t meant to rain today. We took the opportunity to take the hatch off with the intention of spray foaming it. It’s so heavy it needs both of us to lift it off, Si had to help me onto the roof, once I’m there I’m fine. We did our usual discuss the process and then go for it. Si had one can of spray foam already, he attempted to use it but it was rubbish, maybe the hot summer hadn’t done it any favours. He went off to by two more cans and on his return he covered 6mm ply in plastic sheet to contain the spray foam. He only used one can in the end and waited an hour for it to cure before cutting it back. While he was on the roof I re- sanded the bathroom floor because I wasn’t happy with the edges of the floor ply. 

Once happier I recoated again with the tile primer. I was then outside armed with a steel wire brush cleaning up the tops of the taff rail supports to hammerite in preparation for the taff rails….finally they were ready! Si then came in to cut the hole in the ceiling for the flue pipe. It required the 168mm hole saw. Once cut he drilled the centre of the steel with a 2mm bit and covered the hole with duct tape to keep the rain out. In the evening we went to Homebase, Si’s second visit of the day. We ordered the kitchen sink, bathroom sink waste unit and a space saving plumbing kit for the 1½ kitchen sink. Probably far more expensive than online, but with online it has to be delivered and collected from Oxfordshire, not to mention the hassle for my parents. At least this way we had made a decision. By the time I had gone to bed, Si was putting another coat on the taff rails, displaying more of his dedication quality. 

Sunny Intervals

12 C      3 C (night)

Today Si collected the granite bathroom top from the showroom in Epsom, even in 4 pieces it looked excellent. We put the pieces together on the kitchen top to see how it would look, very smart… just what we were after. We only had a couple of issues but these were where they had to coat the edges, it just meant that Si had to file back some edges and take some of the wall out to slide it in. 

Rain

8 C     8 C (night)

Today Si cut the bathroom skirting top and routered the front edge. I was waiting for him to finish because I wanted to make the black grout. This was going to be another new experience. Previously, much like the adhesive, I had used it from a tub. I prepared the back of the hearth with lots of masking tape. I was following the advice of the tile forums and their description of the degree of staining created by black grout. I did start with a tool to smooth the grout over, but soon cast it aside in favour of my finger tip. Luckily we’ve managed to borrow most of the tiling tools from my parents, though they were originally mine back in March 2003. It always used to wind me up about my parents hoarding, but I’m now starting to see the advantages of it. Unfortunately we don’t have the space, so we hoard at theirs too! Once the grouting was done we put the stove in the centre of the hearth plate and used a 4 inch plastic down-pipe (replicating the flue) to work out the distance from back and sides. It needs to be a minimum of 12 inches to conform with the draft regulations on stoves. These are draft regulations but we know by that by the time we finish the boat they would have come into force (what with our luck…). I used a plumb-line to work out the centre of the flue, then marked out a hole to cut in the ceiling. We needed to attempt the U shaped tile to go around the toilet armrest again. We had first tried it last week. I measured, cut the two insertions with the diamond cutter, scored between these with the Big Clinker and tried the pressure arm on the tile cutter to break it - this was take two! Whist I was holding my breath Si took the mallet to it instead of the tile cutter because I wasn’t brave enough to. It wasn’t perfect but good enough by taking a file to it. Si also varnished the taff rails again; you have to give it to him for “dedication to the cause” for the taff rails.

Cloudy

10 C     8 C (night)

This morning was a slow start, we were both knackered from the last few days. Si re-cut the bathroom skirting, originally he had carefully made wooden semi circle feet to support the bathroom radiator, but after discussion we decided to bring the skirting board out further. Si put the last coat of varnish on the toilet arm rest and swapped from interior varnish to exterior varnish to do the taff rails. Our treat this evening was a Domino pizza meal deal. Nessie’s treat was the new halogen heater I’d bought earlier in the week. It was half price for one day, £17.50 reduced from £35 in Argos. I thought right, I’m having that. Anyway, whether it’s the heat or the mesmerising glow, Nessie’s rather partial to it. We’ve placed it on the hearth, to give us the inspiration to fit the proper wood burner stove.

Rain 12 C     10 C (night)

Yesterday evening we drove to my parents from work because my grandmother was staying with them and it was the eve of her 91^st birthday. Unfortunately I had to go back to work the next day, courtesy of all my management booking the day off. Not impressed. Si was taking the day off though, so dropped me off at work and went back to the boat with Ness, to do more plumbing.

Rain 10 C     4 C (night)

Although I had removed the frame from the two base tiles, we were still nervous to step on them. This proved interesting as the tiles were in the entrance to the bathroom. You had two choices: a 4ft long step or a straddle approach, either way neither were natural. I continued to cut the rest of the tiles needed to do the next two parts of floor laying.  

Sunny Intervals

10 C    4 C (night)

This morning I took the excess tile protector film off, rather hard work. Si & I took it in turn to scrub…it came up really shiny eventually, enough to see your reflection.

I read on a tile forum that its good practice to use the protector before and after grouting, apparently black grout has a very heavy dye content. In the bathroom I now had the two tiles as a starting point so I could cut the others around either side using the Big Clinker. 

Sunny Intervals + Rain

12 C     8 C (night)

I had been at my parents because yesterday I had a Mother and daughter day at the NEC – Hobby Craft. I arrived back at the boat at 2pm. On the phone Si had said he had a surprise for me. As I climbed into the boat I saw a bunch of red roses but apparently that wasn’t the surprise (!) Looking around I couldn’t see anything else, I went into the corridor… DOOR! He’d made a temporary door out of odds & sods to the exact shape for the kitchen/corridor bulkhead. Currently all we have stopping the draft into the bedroom is a flimsy curtain held up by two screws. The new door will make such a difference and will also stop the bedroom getting so dusty. I proceeded to clean the stove tiles with proper cleaner to remove the protective wax residue, then brushed on a layer of tile protector, which will need 12 hours before rubbing off. 

Rain

12 C     9 C (night)

I spent most of the morning measuring the bathroom floor and drawing diagrams, all this effort was to position the first 2 floor tiles into place because this dictated every other tile shape, size and awkward cuts.  We are going to use flexible adhesive, the stuff you have to mix yourself. I do come with previous tiling experience but that was “out of the pot” adhesive experience. This is similar to mixing concrete and just as messy, plus this stuff is not cheap £45 for a 5kg bag. When I had the tile budget in mind I didn’t cost in £50 bags of tile adhesive, once again my forecasting is up the creek. Anyway I started mixing the adhesive but eventually required Si to take over as I had major arm ache from stirring large lumps. I started by tiling the back of the fireplace, it was really difficult to make it stick to the wall so presumed the consistency was wrong. I added more water and had a debate with Si how thick should it go? The instructions read ‘harmful/irritant to skin’, I have sensitive skin at the best of times and therefore trying to use gloves. Seven pairs later I gave up. The place looked like we’d had a food fight with adhesive though eventually all the tiles were clinging to the wall. Now for the 2 starting tiles in the bathroom. I knew exactly where these were going, earlier I had made a frame out of 12mm strips of ply and screwed it to the floor in preparation. Spooning big dollops of adhesive out into the frame, I ran out! Si had to make an emergency batch. Once we’d finished I went off to clean the bucket & tools in the Elsat, it originally being my mess. The water was freezing cold, then it over flowed and soaked my overalls, so now I had freezing cold clinging clothes… What fun… Bbbbbrrrrrrrr!

Sunny intervals

15 C    9 C (night)

Si was in the engine bay continuing to do more plumbing on the calorifier while I was playing with a new toy. After the poor diamond cutter I went back on the forums. I had originally written off the traditional tile cutters (score & cut) as you spent more time breaking than cutting, plus they wouldn’t do porcelain. Well, I found the ‘Big Clinker’ a £100 tile cutter from Screw Fix and we had it delivered earlier in the week. To say it’s awesome is an understatement. It just goes to show you get what you pay for! Within an hour I had cut all of the tiles for the back of the stove. All straight and not a chip in sight, I was also still chuckling to myself about the name ‘Big Clinker’. Si persevered with the cramped and awkward conditions in the engine bay for some time before he moved onto screwing the first skirting board kick plate in the corridor with the block fixings into place. 

Rain

15 C     12 C (night)

Today while I was at work Si glued the ash trim inside the newly named ‘toilet arm rest’ and some more on the electrics cupboard. During the week he had been varnishing the Taff Rails and today he applied another coat.

Sunny

11 C     3 C (night)

Going back to my parents yesterday meant I could pick up our post, especially as the new diamond wheel blades for the tile cutter had arrived. I set the machine up again and asked Si to help me too, they didn’t chip but it was still taking several minutes for a whole tile. It wouldn’t be so bad, had it not been that it wasn’t just the fireplace tiles to cut. I had an entire bathroom floor to do as well. Within 6 tiles the 8cm blade was struggling and chips were starting to appear….back to the drawing board and the online tile forums.

Sunny Intervals + rain

12 C     9 C (night)

I showed my father the damage to the flue today and he also believes the damage must have been done at the manufacturing stage and he has the experience to know, him being a senior engineer on fighter planes for 38 years. So he said he’d take on the battle as well. On arriving back to the boat I suggested the pub, so everyone could see what Nessie is supposed to look like, and she could show her new hairstyle of to her mate ‘Marley’ – a giant Labradoodle. 

Cloudy

14 C    4 C (night)

Si had the day off today and so did I, but not together. Si was bracing the cold weather while I was lavishing in my parent’s central heating. Sounds totally selfish, but I was up at my folks as Nessie had her date with the groomer and I desperately needed to study. Studying and 9C inside do not good bedfellows make. It had been a freezing cold week, with it freezing outside on two nights. The first morning I rolled over and saw the weather station was reading 9C inside and 0C out, I said to Si it had frozen outside, his reply was ’Don’t be silly, is not that cold’. I got up and headed out to the shower, to be greeted by a frozen boat roof, icy pontoon and the ramp was more of an obstacle course, two steps up and slide one down, it was almost a hands and knees job. I reached the car, where I had to scrape off the ice, I was seriously considering an abusive text to Si….’****** Freezing!’ I went in for a shower, came out and had to re-scrape my car again. I used the slats on the ramp of the pontoon, to slide, stop, slide stop, I carefully walked down the pontoon to see Si stood on the back deck with the reply ‘I think I might have been wrong’, ‘if you say so honey!’ The 3 of us left the boat, Si attempted going up the ramp, it was more of a classic cartoon scene and I realised how stupid I must have looked. We all headed for warmth in the form of dog day carer and work. 

Earlier in the week on Tuesday and Wednesday evening Si had been gluing the ash trim to the inside of electric cupboard front, while I was sat on a beanbag with my back against the radiator writing blog. On the Wednesday evening the boat was so cold I put Nessie’s fleece coat on her. She gave us the look that says “you’ve got to be joking, I look ridiculous”, within minutes she seemed a very content dog…..a very warm dog. 

Anyway back to today, Si glued the plumbing batten holder in the engine bay after giving it several coats of outdoor varnish in the week. He then went on a road trip, first stop Epsom to drop off the vanity cupboard worktop at Granite Transformations, then on to Plumb Centre, Wickes and finally to Shufty’s local for a quick pint. At Plumb Centre Si hoped to return some fittings that the Clevedon branch had sold to him but were the wrong size, but apparently not. Si was told you have to return them to the same branch that you bought them. You do have to ask what is the point of having a chain of stores. I will follow that one up! Talking of annoying firms, I had spoken to Stoves R Us, they had received my letter of complaint. Their offer was to credit me £20 as a good will gesture, so we’ve only lost £115! I did ask whether I could return the adapter as we had no use for it, he agreed, so I should eventually get another £20 back, but still not happy.

Cloudy 

14 C     3 C (night)

Another day off work, oh how I love long weekends (and being a civil servant). To be fair we work bloody hard in the week, especially as both of us are the only people doing our jobs. Enough of me trying to justify having another day off work… I was on the phone a lot this morning, mainly admin but the main phone call was to granite transformations because we wanted to drop the bathroom sink vanity top off at the Epsom showroom, unfortunately Monday is the only day they are closed…typical. Si made a start building the toilet unit, it will be a rectangle box that hides the electrics and plumbing and will hold the door to access the cartridge, Si prefers the term ‘toilet arm rest’.

Sunny Intervals

14 C     4 C (night)

This morning was another slow morning, another hangover, I know this seems to be a running theme. Although this time we were at a party and not in the pub. We were on a boat on our pontoon for 5 hours. We met a lovely couple we spent most of the night talking to, we swapped business cards to keep in contact. This morning I still hadn’t done much so decided to take Ness for a walk, just as I was about to leave I received a phone call from Ian, the guy we had met last night. Ian & Penny were on the visitors pontoon, they had cruised their boat from Shepperton marina. I agreed to meet them so Ness and I walked over. Ness recognised Ian and Penny from last night out of a group of 6, so I let her off to give them the full Wheaten Greeten. I was introduced to a couple with them who are looking at building a widebeam and was asked if they could look at our “project”. All of them jumped on their boat and cruised round while I walked Ness back and phoned ahead to ask Si to make the boat look more respectable. Ian moored up on the pontoon next to us, a tight squeeze! Once all were aboard I saw Si had put the bedspread on the bed to try to make an effort. Unfortunately though, Si had been routing and the lounge was 1cm deep in sawdust, Si looked like he had a severe case of dandruff. As we were giving the guided tour we realised this was the most people September Air had ever seen, a whopping 8 onboard with no movement. Everyone seemed really impressed with our hard work, we said goodbye and arranged to hopefully see them again at an Open Mic Night, as Ian and the wanabee widebeam building couple all played instruments. 

It was now 5pm and the only thing I’d done was to put the diamond tile cutter together, so I thought I’d try cutting one of the porcelain tiles. We set it up, I used Si as my assistant as the 60x30cm tiles are quite large and heavy. I put the first one through the cutter, very straight but rather chipped. We tried cutting another tile upside down, still chipped. So I tried an ordinary ceramic tile, still slightly chipped but better. I gave up and consulted the online tile forums, it turns out porcelain need a special cutting wheel, typical. I hunted around the Internet for the best price and found one to fit the machine we had borrowed from my parents. Feeling guilty of my lack of work I also sealed the shower tray in with bathroom sealant. Tonight I decided no more alcohol. Now if I said the same for Si, you’d think there would be something wrong, don’t worry Si’s beer jacket was still in good form. 

Sunny Intervals

13 C     6 C (night)

Yesterday Si took the afternoon off work, I decided I couldn’t be bothered with work either so I arranged it too. I made a suggestion to Si ‘shall we walk Ness to the pub?’ its very rare for him to think it isn’t a good idea. Anyway 5 pints and a sambuca later we returned home to continue drinking, dancing and generally being drunkards. So it is no surprise we weren’t feeling great, and terribly hung over. 

We eventually started boat building and managed to achieve quite a lot considering our heads were pounding. It took both of us to glue the shower roof in to place. This is 3mm PVC square I bought off the Internet which we cut to size, its main aim of being wipable in an area that will suffer from possible damp/mould. I then sanded down the stove base concrete block, trying to get it level and managed to create a dust cloud. Si cut the bathroom sink top and splash backs out of 12mm ply. It was now my job to write the instructions for granite transformations. The instructions needed to be idiot proof, as the jigsaw puzzle sink top was complicated, also the granite coating was required on some edges and not others, it took several attempts to create.

Sunny interval

18 C 11 C (night)

Today we had taken the day off work (pre-arranged), lucky for us as we both had hangovers. Once I felt human again I went off to an industrial estate in West Molesey to collect our sink - it was free delivery if we collected it from the logistics centre rather than the showroom. In my absence Si started to fit the calorifier to the wooden frame to pre drill the holes. On my return I came back with the sink and called Si for him to help me from the car with it. We un-wrapped it to check it over having learned our lesson from the damaged flue pipe, which reminds me - I have written to the directors to express my disappointment in their company. We will have to wait and see if we get a reply. 

We packed the sink back up but put more bubble wrap in – better safe than sorry! I made a start on brunch - ham & cheese pancakes. After my domestication I changed into my Dickies overalls to paint the masterboard behind the hearth and the shower cubicle with tile primer. I had bought the primer from Topps tiles as I had read that watered down PVA wasn’t good enough. I used PVA in my last flat but as we are paranoid about movement I thought I should go for the real deal after reading some tiling forums. It should be the real deal at £13.99 for a pot. I put glasses and gloves on as the instructions depicted a slow and painful death if you got it on you. The white liquid was rather potent, much more than I’d expected. I did the hearth fir