On the right hand side of the cabin, beside the bed, there is a boxed in section with a hinged lid. There is a false bottom in it and storage for not a lot below. With a 4 foot bed, this leaves very little floor space and I was continually bashing my shins.
So this had to come out. What was inside? A curb stone and a dozen house bricks. The bricks I piled under the side hatch step, but I didn't know what to do with the curb. Taking it off the boat resulted in the boat developing a noticeable list, so it is clearly needed. I thought I'd try my luck at breaking it and the gods must have been on my side as it cracked neatly into two pieces. These should fit in the bottom of the wardrobe and help restore the balance.
My curtains, which were made for me by a very nice lady who did them for pocket money (I did try and give her a decent payment) are hung on 22mm copper pipe reused from the old plumbing. I bought a bag of 30 drawer knobs on ebay to use as finials, but had a problem fixing them to the pipe. I tried drilling a 22mm hole in the knobs but they just fell to pieces. In the end I glued some sections of plastic hose to the knobs which fit in the pipe with a dab of glue to keep them in place. They just need painting now.
There wont be many more sunny afternoons this year, so Sunday we went for a little cruise up the Little Ouse. This was Murphy's first time on the boat and although he was a little nervous at first, he soon made himself at home.
The worktop was lashed to my motor bike trailer in the pouring rain and taken over to the boat. The fragile, thin bit around the hob suffered on way there and needed gluing and clamping. Big thank you to my colleague Crispin who came out on the most atrocious night to help me manoeuvre the thing onto the boat.
One problem is the tap. The shaft that passes through the worktop is 40mm long. This worktop is 60mm thick. Not sure quite how to get around this at the moment. I certainly cant cut the wood. That's for sure!
Not a huge amount to show for all the work that has been going on. Its mostly been prep for the final assault on the heating system. I have managed to re cycle the bedroom radiator and simply move it from one side to the other. It now sits beside the bed and should be nice to snuggle upn against in the depths of a winters night.
The radiator that I removed from the bathroom was, at 500mm high a bit too tall to fit between the out and return pipes. A radiator that sits either above or below the big feed pipes is always going to cause issues with the thermo siphoning system. Wicks do a very reasonable 300mm high radiator so this was used instead. Oh, and I decided to spray them green too.
The side wall needed to be paneled and painted before hanging the radiator. I'm not sure about the colour. It might turn the bedroom into a tart's boudoir!
I filled the system with water and lit a fire. Both bathroom and bedroom warmed up, and nothing leaked - well nothing that could not be fixed by a little tweak here and there.
I was very limited on time, hence the lack of pictures so I was not able to get a good fire going. A system like to need to be heating for many hours to really start functioning as it should, but early indications are that it will work well.
The shower tray that I removed was in a poor state but I have been unable to find a suitable replacement. The parameters of the shower enclosure are pretty much set so in the end I decided to re use the old tray. I rubbed it down, filled all the cracks and dings with P38 and painted it with shower tray paint. The result was better than I expected.
While I am happy to tackle most jobs and enjoy learning new skills along the way, I know my limitations and so I employed local carpenter Scott to cut my worktop for me. It is 60mm oak butchers block and impervious to my DIY tools.
He made a fantastic job of it, the job took him and his mate 5 hours. I now need to lightly sand it and get plenty of Danish oil into it before I can take it to the boat and fit it. Quite how I am going to get it on the boat I don't yet know....
