NB CreamCheese - Project Number 2

Spring update! - Bit long, sorry!

2011-05-26T20:29:00.044+01:00

Edit: This turned out rather longer than expected - guess that's what you get for a month and a half of work! :)

Well, the last update was back in April, and we're now at the end of May - a lot's happened since then!

I've unexpectedly had a load of time off work, whilst still being paid at the same time - I've taken that opportunity to get some progress made on finishing the boat. It's more a case of the time/money equation now having more time than money in it! :)

So, a fair bit of progress has been made. I'm not going to belabour too much of it, or this update will be three pages long, but a quick run through with pictures... :)

First up, the saloon got a few coats of the terracotta paint - very latin I think... :)

The wardrobe gained a water-pump cover shelf, and a bit of finishing...

Next thing to see some paint was the service void cover - these central bits of ceiling cover the wiring runs down the boat - made out of reversed T+G. They're just too resinous on the back sides to oil up well - hence a coat of ivory satin...

A week or two has been spent on bedroom work, starting with sorting the under-bed storage. This uses wooden framing to support IKEA baskets for maximum clothes+tat storage! :)

The left hand end of the bed is actually in the bathroom - with a wrap-around wall, this forms towel storage shelves below the bed:

Amongst all this work, there was a bit of time out, the mutnut has been watching the progress with much interest - especially the height of the bed and how likely it is she'll manage to get on it!

...and a Blue String Pudding came round for a sunny BBQ and beers...

Moving on, the boat work went a little Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen with oil, paint and pictures!

Oil for the shelves, trim and ceiling:

Satin, gloss and some decadent red for the 'sinful' bedroom theme (!) :)

I also framed up these photos from my friend Pete who produced them for my birthday a while back - all of Lapworth:

One practical 'feature' was to install a wipe-clean surface under the bed. It's not as bad as it sounds, honest, the bath pump lives under there and on the other boat, the whole area gets generally damp and cold and manky. I used some vinyl tiles which're self-adhesive. They're quite easy to install when you get the hang of them. Not sure I'd like them in well-used areas but okay for here:

and here, on the towel shelf:

Carrying on with the LLB stuff, the headboard got covered and trimmed:

I'm quite pleased with how the above turned out - looks tidy and the blue goes with the red and black theme to come later on!

The first experiments with the Unika oil went quite well - doing the end shelf and the 'media unit' (!) :

The bedroom started its transition to a lovely deep red colour:

and gained some wallpaper too - not very traditional for a boat environment, but I thought it worth a go. This needs varnishing on the door for when it goes out in the rain! It's held on with spray adhesive which wasn't a complete success - might redo it with paste in the future!

Back into the saloon, a long standing job has been installing a few sockets along the wall - along with trimming them up too:

The above are hooked into one of the two radial circuits down the boat - one on each side...

I finally got around to sanding and oiling the sealing too - was a pain of a job which knackered my back for ages!

I'm quite chuffed with it though, it gives a decent satin shine. It could do with more than one coat, but I just can't face redoing it at the moment - maybe when it's trimmed!

I finally grouted the remaining stove tiles and around the trimming too - a job that's been on the list for ages :

Another easily avoidable job has been running the wiring from the service void to both a set of reading lights and all the speakers in the boat. The cables have been in place for about a year, but I've only just gotten around to sorting the actual things themselves. Been putting it off 'cause it's a pain taking the service void down on your own, and I had to get the cable rods out to poke them across...

...and the start of the speakers:

There are six inside the boat, and two outside. The latter two are waiting for the new deck boards and pin lockers to be made!

Another 'big' thing has been getting skirting boards installed - they're all done now more or less, but it started rather like this:

The bedroom skirting gained black gloss as a finish to go with the colour scheme!

...while the rest gained a lovely creamy gloss:

Much sewing came next, to create an covering curtain for the baskets, black lace drapes for around the bed, and a new set of crushed velvet curtains. The latter were put on hold when I failed miserably to get the sewing machine to behave with them.

She's an old girl though: :)

The effort led to the following:

...which does a good job of covering up the clothes storage and sort of goes with the black and red.

The lace drapes though, are just fantastic, darlings... ;) Kinky... ;)

Back onto more practical topics, some of the last of the tiling involved doing the upstand around the kitchen worksurfaces, hence hiding the very last of the exposed plywood in the boat! :)

More free-to-do and longstanding jobs have been the bath panel - finally hiding the underside of the 4' bath:

...and providing some panelling around the gas inlet pipe, while still leaving the joint accessible for future BSS exams:

The bathroom gained some silicone around the bath and the tiling, black and white where necessary... ;)

The bathroom even gained its own set of speakers - not quite matching the rest, but a similar idea. It'll need a small sub somewhere to improve the bass with all these satellites in...

The speakers are all routed to a switch which allows a choice of any or all of the rooms at the same time. It's a cheap bit of kit but manages the load on the amp to not drive it too hard!

It also allows, of course, for music in the bath, whilst not disturbing someone watching the TV or lying in bed! ;)

Another bit of a break was managed with a trip to Rickmansworth Festival, for some live music, food, beer and canal tug'o'war!

Sorry for the length of this update, last three pics here...!

So, final jobs to date, have been one small and two big!

First was fitting an experimental pump to empty the bath - it's a diesel transfer pump, and works okay once I remembered it doesn't self prime and needs to be under the bath itself...!

That was the minor one. The first major one has been buying and installing the loo - a Thetford C200! It was always an expensive one-off and has been on the back burner for ages and ages. Good to get it done, tiled and plumbed in - even if I'd forgotten it'd need a water feed and was on the wrong side of the boat! :)

The last big milestone has been today, with the delivery of some of the first 46mm hardwood trim, and putting the first bits of it up on the ceiling! So chuffed with how this is going to look - it really finishes things off!

Blimey, that was a long update!

Feels good to be getting things done though - I've ordered up a water pump gauge but more importantly a new engine control and new engine cables, so she might move under her own power again soon. I'm toying with the idea of spinning her around and bringing her up for the Lapworth Banter that's coming up - we'll see! 7 locks down to turn, and 14 back up to Lapworth, single handed!

Anyhoo, I'll try not to leave it so long next time!

PC

Bits and bobs - a tale of carpet and curtains

2011-04-09T20:37:00.012+01:00

I had high hopes of getting painting and the like done today, but the day was just too lovely to be moving furniture and sanding stuff.

Me best friend, Ben, popped round to see how things'd been going - it's been a while since he's seen the boat. He was the chap who bought me a tonne of ballast for my birthday, and laid the floor... :) He also supplied the gorgeous solid-oak custom kitchen, in case you like the look of them... www.mpsbuilding.co.uk

Anyhoo, with the aid of some new curtain track, and a pair of spare curtains from the other boat, the last of the temporary window coverings are now gone. I'll swap the curtains out later on, when I can afford something more fancy.

Then the curtains go up:

The hold-back bar at the bottom was knocked up from some light hardwood d-profile, which I seem to have a fair bit of at the moment.

I may change the above for a more conventional brass rod or somesuch, later on.

My parents donated some spare carpet, to use on the back of the headboard, and the removable step sections:

A bit of trim and the skirting will tidy the edges of the above.

The headboard looks like this, with a bit of hardwood trim around the edge:

On the other side, I glued on the foam for the headboard itself, mostly to get it out of the way. This'll get some good quality fabric covering, stapled back in the gap at the edge, with some hardwood quadrant to trim it up...

Last thing to get done were the curtains on the other side of bedroom. Again, to be replaced at a later date with summat posher. :)

Maybe tomorrow I'll get around to some painting and shelves! :)

Sorry that wasn't more interesting!

PC

Update time again!

2011-04-08T20:34:00.028+01:00

Aye, I know, it's been another month of no updates!

Hopefully, I'll manage to get a few more up from now on.

Looking back, last time I'd just finished putting some bamboo down in the bedroom, tiling the bathroom and finally getting that drawer done... :)

Since then, well, quite a few bits and bobs have got done. It's really into all those niggly jobs that've been on the lists for a while, that've been easily avoided but need doing at some point.

After that bedroom floor was laid, the bow step and bedroom cupboard needed creating. The bottom of the cupboard hides the water pump and filter, while the step hides (yet another) bilge pump and the feed from the main water tank.

The wardrobe fits into this gap 'ere like:

Used some spare MFC to create that side of it, for an instant finish, as well as framing it up in planed softwood:

Step construction looks a bit like this:

Which eventually became:

The OSB is in two step sections which can be lifted out to access the space underneath. It'll be carpetted and trimmed around the edges soon.

Along the way, some wiring in the bathroom managed to get finished.

Yeah, I know, a 13A socket in a bathroom eh? Not exactly what I'd get away with in a house, but quite useful for hairdriers, clippers and the like. It's part of the main corridor through the boat, and is fully RCD protected anyway. :)

The last month also saw the start of the painted wall panels - some colour appearing at last!

Nice and bright, perhaps a bit much so, but I'll see how it grows on me!

Another easily avoided task has been the cupboard to surround the electrical consumer units and inverter. It'll eventually have a shelf on the top, set at sofa height to make for a convenient place to put a mug of coffee (sorry, beer) down.

With some ply panelling, it became:

Not very exciting, but needed doing!

Another useful milestone was putting up the remaining IKEA blinds - they've been hanging around for a while, waiting for the fixing of the bendy wall panels to be fixed. We finally replaced the bent ones, pilot drilling them for brass pins into new battens to hold them straight.

Good to see them up though!

The next trip consisted of a set of easy 'low hanging fruit' targets! :)

We've decided to put off the construction of a fixed 'pullman' style dinette until the future shows whether we need the storage afforded by it or not. In the mean time, I treated us to a dining table and chairs to fill the gap:

Makes it look very much like home, I reckon!

Other easy 'just put it up' things included this splashback. Well, it's officially a noticeboard, but the etched glass should do the job... :)

The aforementioned electricity cupboard gained a beech blockboard lid, courtesy of some leftover worktop...

The blockboard will get waxed or oiled at some point soon and should look quite smart, I reckon...?

The other easy item to get done were the handles for the kitchen and bathroom cupboards, which again have been on the list for ages and ages...

The following are from IKEA again, and are simple but quite smart and easy to install.

Kate was busy undercoating the world...

(Using a decent 'trade' oil-based undercoat to protect the ply and sand back to a decent finish)

...and cleaning up after me!

I got on with creating a fold-down front for the under-oven space - should be useful for baking trays and the like. I'd fancied a drawer but it was vetoed on the basis of lost space from the drawer box...

The other main 'avoidable' task has been to create a framework of shelving around the TV and to hold the car radio that'll drive all the speakers in the boat (when they get fitted!)...

It started a bit like this, making it out of more leftover blockboard...

Moving on and using some dowels to extend it, got it to the following:

And finally, it became this!

There are some more shelves to add, but it's a good start. I'll box the cables in at some point and create a frame to hold the car radio in the top left 'square'. The bunch of speakers cables on the left will be shortened and routed to a speaker sharing switchbox which can sit on the top.

Not a huge amount more has been done, but I have had a good tidy up finally, moving all the leftover materials and tools to the house out of the way. It's created a bit more space at least, especially under the bed, which will gain some lino soon to provide a neat waterproof finish...

A shelf has appeared in the kitchen to the left of the oven - another long-standing task:

Last useful thing done has been to paint the bathroom - it's an interesting violet colour, which I guess goes quite well with the black tiles? :)

The boat's looking quite colourful now:

...and yes, I've given the kitchen a good clean, which has been long overdue!

Next steps, hmm, there's a lot on the list. Some tiling in the kitchen, lots more painting, under-bed storage, a bath pump, and huge amounts of trim! :)

I'll get there eventually!

PC

Last two years... (Pic heavy)

2011-04-08T20:16:00.004+01:00

Thought I'd post some piccies from the last couple of years of work. We put these together for my Grandfather for his birthday, in an album so he could see what'd been going on!

:)

PC

Floored, and clean.

2011-02-28T10:53:00.023Z

Edited: Forgot to add that Pete came round to say hello, have a brew and a chat, and drop off a lovely bottle of port from Christmas. Good to see him. Daft nutter is planning on running a half marathon soon. Crazy, I tell you. Port has come home with me, for evening enjoyment!

Yupyup, spent a fairly steady day on Sunday, working on the boat. Once the usual pump-the-bilge, light-the-fire, check-the-bow-tank stuff was out of the way, I spent quite a while with a mug of coffee staring at the walls. I'm feeling a bit underplanned at the moment, and although it's good to be taking things a bit easier, and trickling along with work, I do find myself looking around wondering where to start.

This is entirely my own fault, mind, and is slightly exacerbated by having all the materials for a range of small jobs, in stock - meaning there's loads I could do, rather than having a we've-just-bought-this-xxxxxx-thing, now-to-install-it. :)

Anyhow, good news is the water tank, after a good flush, is still producing clean and shiny water, and making good cups of coffee. Definitely a good thing! :)

Even the old Morco has cheered up a bit and started working properly again. It really doesn't like being left unused. Perhaps it'd benefit from a strip down and clean?

So, started off by cleaning the bathroom after getting black grout over everything - took a while, but I'm feeling quite houseproud after waving the multipurpose cleaner around. :)

I'm quite pleased with the end-of-bath void shelf - the basin plumbing and wiring runs behind here, and it's that height to allow a fall to the basin skin fitting. I ply-lined the frame last weekend, before tiling it.

I think after painting the walls, it'll look more like a bathroom. We're looking forward to hooking the bath pump up (temporary one until swapping the new gulper off the other boat) and having a first soak. There's still a little wiring to do, for the shaver socket and bath pump switch, but otherwise, it's about there. Needs a bath panel creating too.

Next task for the day was to try and finish some of the outstanding Bamboo flooring. We've had a new pack of it acclimatising in the boat for a few weeks now, and getting in the way. The bedroom needed doing, and had been bordered off with pine, to denote the thresholds and where the bow step will be.

So, down with the underlay:

The first row is the most difficult, as it keeps moving about!

This is an odd shaped bit of floor, due to the curve up to the bow, and the angled step at one end, so a bit of cutting was needed. Worked okay in the end though, and it's clamped up till the glue goes off.

Next remaining bit of bamboo to complete were the sections that run under the kitchen plinths - I'd run out of bamboo when doing the kitchen last time! These were a bit of a pain as they needed notching to get them close to the cabinet legs and around the fridge, which was wedged up out of the way.

You can just about see the notching here:

Makes it look a lot more finished though, just needs Ben to find the plinths and it'll look spanking:

Last job for the day was to put the solid oak drawer front onto the temporary drawer unit in the sink cupboard. Ben's ordering a new 15mm base, rather than using my temporary routed-down 18mm one, but by sticking it on, it's out of the way. This uses Blum's fully-adjustable fixing system, with two d-shaped dogs on the back of the oak front, that engage in the runners.

Looks better anyway:

That's it for the next couple of weeks, apart from the usual regular checks to make sure it's still floating. We're busy with visiting family for the next two weekends, although I may take a couple of days off to work on it at some point in that time. Depends if we can get a good plan together... :D

PC

Update time...!

2011-02-26T18:35:00.009Z

Righty, 's been a month since I last updated the blog, so it must be about time... We've been taking things a bit easier on the boat, especially in the rubbish weather we've been having, but now things are warming up a little, and hopefully drying out, we can get on with it a bit more.

To start with, there's been the start of a big visual change inside, with Kate sanding and painting. We're going for a decent trade oil-based undercoat over the ply to start with, and we're looking to use an eggshell finish on top.

It's made quite a difference to the light inside...

Another big thing has been the water tank. That water tank - the self-filling one... I mentioned that we were going to use Vactan to rust convert it, after cleaning it all out. Well, the Vactan failed, but mostly likely it was my fault, as it was -8 or so the first night, and it only works above 5deg.

So instead, we reverted to old-ship technology and have tried a cement wash. This's just a loose cement slurry, painted on with rollers, brushes or even a broom if you've a ship-sized tank. We added both a waterproofing, and frostproofing admixture to it, to ensure it set in a timely way.

It's, so far, worked a treat, and after a good rinse out afterwards, we now have clean, drinkable water.

IKEA and their crazy european waste systems did fox me a little while plumbing the basin in though!

The bathroom has moved on somewhat too, as I've finally gotten around to tiling around the bath and basin, with the bargain basement fake-granite tiles:

Today, I've grouted these with a Mapei flexible black grout, which has worked really well, I reckon...

Coming together quite well, finally - just needs some paint and a bath panel now!

Next targets on our list are lots and lots of painting, a bit more tiling in the kitchen, and finishing some outstanding half-done tasks like the rest of the bamboo floor in the bedroom (and kitchen, under-plinth) and creating the wardrobe and electricity cupboard.

We'll get there, slow and steady! :)

PC

Been a while! Apologies!

2011-01-19T00:26:00.011Z

Christmas, and life in general, are good excuses for me not updating the blog in a while - so here's a quick update of what's happened over the last month...

We've got some useful stuff done, along with a new plan to take things a bit easier on CreamCheese. Since floating, it's been easy to get wrapped up in getting it finished, as the prospect of living on it feels a little like fulfilling a utopian dream! The reality is that it'll get done when it gets done, and if that's sometime this year, then that'll be fine.

Anyhow, the bathroom has progressed a bit to the point where the bath is plumbed, and glued in place, and the floor is about done:

The floor is *genuiiiiiine* :) travertine, so needed a bit of faffing around to install, including white adhesive, ivory grout as well as sealing. Looks good though, I think...

We picked some wall tiles for the bathroom and kitchen, together, too. These were on offer at Topps and are a sort of fake sparkly granite-effect ceramic. Cheep, and should look good with anthracite grout...

Ben, from MPS Building, supplied the solid oak kitchen doors and drawer fronts, and I managed to get some of those fitted fairly neatly:

Some cheap chocolate-coloured blackout blinds have tidied up the look inside, too:

One of the really big improvements, has been to install some flooring - to hide the OSB which has been around for ages and ages now! It's made the boat feel much more homely and more boat-like. We've gone for a horizontal, caramelised bamboo. It's a solid floor which would usually be nailed, but has been floated in this case. None of this click-together stuff, it's a glue the T+G job.

Midway through making a start:

...and looking more like it, despite having to 'float' the sofa in mid-air to install underneath it! Some nice chunky skirting will finish it off lovely, I reckon.

One of the really important tasks, which we've been putting off for ages and ages, is doing something about the previously-leaking water tank.

A few weeks back, I de-rusted it, but didn't have time to paint it with anything. Finally though, I've emptied it of rainwater again, dried it out, and painted it with vactan, which will hopefully convert the rusty tank into a lovely, shiny, black one... We'll see eh? The tank top got the same treatment too!

The other item of note is that we've replaced the set of three domestic batteries, with a new set. We've been running a second-hand set of Delphi freedom batteries for quite a while now, and either because we've abused them, or they weren't brilliant to begin with, they've become sulphated and useless. The new set are a non-sealed bank of three cheapy 110ah leisures from an online retailer. Let's hope they do better than a couple of hours of TV out of 330ah.

Anyhow, need some sleep now, but we'll try and keep up with more regular updates on the steady progress. Probably less dramatic stuff, but slow and steady, hare + tortoise-like stuff.

:)

PC

The bathroom continues...

2010-12-08T21:44:00.001Z

Or, rather, it will at the weekend when I can get the bath plumbed in and this IKEA basin unit installed.

It's in a Birch veneer and needs a handle and tap sorting, but does go a long way towards completing the bathroom. It even comes with a set of towel hooks to hang on the edge!

Upcoming work includes ply lining the end of bath shelf, building the electricity cupboard, and making progress on the wardrobe. With all these done, there's not much to prevent the new bamboo floor being laid. Nearly decided on traversing for bathroom floor, too.

My best friend, Ben, has been cooerced into floor laying in a few weeks... He'll be able to do a much more professional job than I could manage!

Pc

Bathroom - a start

2010-12-06T21:43:00.001Z

We've had the bath for ages, mostly used for storage! It was second hand and has tap holes drilled at an odd distance apart...

So no shower mixer, just plain taps. No great loss as no bedroom for a shower!

Built the end wall / shelf too - that'll be tiled. It allows the basin skin fitting to be a sane height...

IKEA basin next...

Progress

2010-12-06T21:34:00.001Z

Lights - 12 of them! Well, it's better than nothing...

Project abandoned

2010-11-13T15:41:00.002Z

More or less anyway.

I was supposed to be fitting lights and lightswitches this weekend, but no generator, despite lots of new parts, means no power. Even when working, it won't power the nailer, so I can't try and fix the walls that have become damaged by damp - I think they'll all need replacing - another few hundred quid I don't have.

So I've deadlocked the boat and walked away from it, with a resolution not to return unless new power and finance plans are in place.

What a waste of time this project is turning out to be.

PC

Not much going on!

2010-11-11T18:16:00.002Z

Well, that's the truth!

We've been busy (ish) with work this week, and still feeling a bit iffy. I'm on the mend, and Kate's getting worse, so we've been skiving off a bit early and taking it easy.

It's Kate's birthday tomorrow, 31 (she says, but I reckon she's caught me up!) but not looking a day over 20, or 18, if you go by the amount of times she gets IDd buying alcohol etc. We're both fairly broke at the moment, so she's got a range of small pressies from me, some practical, some less so! :)

This weekend will have me sorting out the flooring on the walls, that's changed shape, and then working on the electricity - lights and the like. We've had a big parcel turn up today full of lamps, fittings and switches, most exciting. Need to repair the gennie too, with a new carb and pull cord.

Kate's off to visit her relatives on Sat, so I'm onboard the good ship CreamCheese on my own. Looking forward to getting the fire lit!

PC

Finally at the fit-out location!

2010-11-07T18:39:00.003Z

Yup, we've made it down the last stretch to take up the mooring I won on auction, at Lowsonford.

It's from here the rest of the inside will get fitted out, hopefully over the next two months up to Christmas. It'd be good to get it nailed before the start of the post-Christmas stoppages which affect both Hatton and the South Stratford locks, above us, towards Kingswood. We'll see eh?

We did have a moment in the last lock before the above - the throttle cable came loose and left the boat with tickover in reverse only, meaning the front fender was put to good use in bouncing off the gate... :) Kate very nearly came a cropper getting caught up in the stern rope but managed to get away with it, a good thing or it could've been nasty...

PC

Boaty floaty!

2010-11-04T19:02:00.003Z

Right, I know we've been absolutely useless in updating anything in the last few months! Apologies to all, and I'm going to make recompense by uploading a stack of photos to show what we've been doing for the last few months, when I'm back on my other laptop.

But the big news is that we're floating!

Yup, we finally gave up on fannying around, did the last minute bits, and stuck it in the water!

Okay, it had to come out again to fix a dodgy weld of mine, but it's back in again, and we've crewed it up to Lapworth!

Brill, eh?

Piccies of floating boaty:

PC

The Big Boat Week

2010-05-10T21:55:00.004+01:00

This won't be a long post, I'm shattered. We're having a big boat week. Basically - week off work, weekend either side, do lots on the good ship CreamCheese.

Got there Saturday morning (via the usual sort the dog out, fill the car with guff and go to screwfix) with our overnight bags ready for a two night stay to increase productivity. I'm aware I'm a bit pants with the blog updates, so in case I haven't told you, we have a bed, a kitchen and some deck chairs - all the home comforts.

Saturday = rain = install ceiling until no more ceiling materials available (including realising the big bits of wood we bought for the service void cover in the ceiling are a little industriual and using reversed tongue and groove instead)

In between on Saturday = blow up air bed as we've not bought a mattress yet and I was too pikey to buy a pump

Saturday evening = air mattress has puncture = try and fix with any random sticky stuff

Saturday night = pub, beer, food, more beer, sleep

Early hours of Sunday morning = wake up in the middle of the night, air bed has gone flat = regret making a bed with slats rather than a sheet of wood

Sunday morning = ouch - slats are really bad for hips, knees, backs etc etc

Sunday 10am = arrive at Tesco for new air bed AND pump

Sunday = Paul weld, strop, stress, run out of gas = Kate keeps busy, some blacking, wire brushing, painting and stuff

Sunday evening = Kate cook, drink beer, sleep, pumped up mattress = happy

Monday morning = Paul bugger off for hours to go and get his Dad who's coming to help with the blacking (on his birthday as well!), Kate gets jiggy with lots of power tools :-D

Monday = Daddy Catch (aka Mr C, aka Gren) does lots of painting; Baby Catch (aka Paul, aka lots of other names that I wouldn't repeat) also paints and wanders around a lot because Kate has taken over the power tools; Kate power tools! (I have no earthly idea what has been painted on this boat in the past, but it's a little bit of b1tch to get off, to say the least)

Anyway, it's 3 days in to the 9 day boat work extravaganza. I'd like to say I'll blog again before the week's out, but I may be too broken.

So, I know the words bore some of you blog readers (if there are any out there), so here's a couple of pictures....

Kate cooking dinner in front of the telly. (Note the kitchen, hob, cooker, morco, ceiling etc)

Daddy Catch getting busy with a paintbrush

It nearly looks like a boat!

Well, it started

2010-05-01T22:20:00.003+01:00

We have been very busy over the last few weeks, and I'm too knackered to write an update at the moment. However, as a quick update, there's been lots of talk on propulsion related matters on CWDF recently, and the people on there have been brilliant.

So we thought it was time to make sure the big lump in the engine hole would start...

It took a good few tries, but it got there in the end (and, yes I was very excited about it!)

Ennin good!!!

Promise to give a more serious and detailed update soon!

KJ

New bits!

2010-03-16T20:51:00.004Z

In the run-up to next weekend where we hope to get the rest of the kitchen all sorted and nailed, we've been ordering up some new bits.

This includes some weird fittings and pipe from a koi-pond supplier (!) as well as slightly more excitingly, the sink:

and tap - which is a low height one, as we need to think about the tumblehome!

So, exciting times ahead - well as exciting as boat building gets...

:)

PC

Big Kitchen Weekend!

2010-03-16T13:08:00.010Z

Righty, thought I'd add to Kate's update on the big kitchen weekend.

I'd taken the Friday and Monday off work to try and get as much work done on the kitchen as possible. In the end, I finished feeling a little frustrated that we'd got *so* close but yet *so* far from actually attaching everything permanently, able to move on and forget this 'room' as done.

But anyhow...

As Kate's talked about, putting the flat packed units together wasn't too difficult - they're all dowelled and glued. We'd not spotted that the back of the large unit uses cams, which were supplied but missing the metal dowel pegs. I reckon the posh kitchen company we got these from aren't very used to supplying their quality products as flat pack! :)

The advent of the kitchen meant Kate's magic table (a story for another time) got reduced to a sort of tea-tray on legs...

With the oven unit in place, we could see the space available for our extension to it... Yes, I know we could have paid the kitchen company to custom make it, but the MFC sheet was only £25 and I was feeling positive about careful woodwork, probably foolishly...

So, careful woodwork it was... Note Kate's carefully drilled holes giving the choice of shelf positions already mentioned in her post! :)

I was quite chuffed with how this turned out, here it is in a near to final position...

The fridge and oven / hob electric supplies are going in the bottom of this shelving unit, with the central heating pump going underneath, behind the plinth...

Kate measured up the end wall of the kitchen visible in this shot. Fitted perfectly first time. This is 12mm ply, which will have Aquaboard on the reverse side, then tiled, as it forms the area around the solid-fuel stove...

I managed to get the kitchen sockets installed - the ply that the socket is mounted into in the pic, is a backer for the tiling that'll go along above the worktop. The pattresses are conventional steel ones, which are screwed and glued into the ply...

With the worktop test fitted, it even looks like a kitchen. The hob needs cutting into the space above the oven. They're both gas and the LPG jets for the oven are on order. They come free with the hob. Goodness knows how you're supposed to connect both on rigid pipe without being able to get to the fittings, and cutting the worktop so close to the edge is giving me nightmares.

I managed to connect the fridge socket and FCUs. This is connected 'in' the radial so in to the end socket, through the middle and out the other end to continue down the boat. The two FCUs need fusing down to 3A for the oven and hob.

Bit scared about cutting this in:

So that's about it for the four day kitchen-fest.

I also managed a few other jobs, like moving the Morco to somewhere closer to its final position, and attempting a bit of soldered bit of copper piping which was a bit of an epic fail due to trying to get five small pieces of pipe and elbows into about a total of 120mm. Ah well.

More to come soon, as I'm hoping we can get the rest of the bits ordered to complete the kitchen this week and get it nailed next weekend...

:)

PC

Busy busy and nearly a kitchen

2010-03-14T18:36:00.003Z

Righty, update time. For once the reason there have been no updates is because we've been busy actually doing stuff. Over the last few weeks we've finished the battens and insulation below the gunwhales, run the pipes for the hot and cold water and radiators, run the 230V cable, put the oven and fridge into the boat before the last wall went up, put the last wall up, realised the oven was the wrong side of the last wall, taken the last wall down, moved the oven so it is in the kitchen and not the bathroom, put the last wall up and... made a kitchen!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we ordered the kitchen through Ben the Builder. These are rather nice kitchens that usually turn up put together and ready to go. As ours was such a small order and to make it easier to get into the boat, we arranged to collect it flat packed. Handily, the company that builds them is in Nottingham, and Paul's parents are in Nottingham twice a week so they collected it for us (Thanks Gren and Rita!). After checking we had all the bits we put the first unit together which is for the built in oven:

This unit goes at one end of one side of the kitchen, and at the other end is the fridge. Therefore we had to construct a cupboardy-shelfy thing to extend the oven unit so it filled the gap. Usually when we make anything out of wood we stick a load of gripfill on and screw it in place. This time we decided to do it properly! We'd ordered an extra sheet of coloured woody stuff so to make the extension we had to do lots of this:

Careful measuring, guides for the saw clamped in place, cuts the right way round, dowels... lots and lots of thinking! We even managed evenly matched holes ready for shelf supports to give an option of two shelves splitting the unit into thirds, or one shelf splitting it in half. This gave us an exntension to the oven unit:

In place, I thought it was lacking a major feature...

So in goes the oven. Tis a proper kitchen and everything!

We already have the hob and the work surface, so very soon this is going to be a completed side of the kitchen.

The other side is a larger base unit, with two cupboards, one real drawer, one false drawer and a sink above (well, it will be).

To be able to buy a standard size unit, this side needs a little extra construction to extend the unit as far as the walls. These extensions will be a perfect size for a wine bottle. Not sure how that worked out but it suits us!

Oh, and both sides have 12mm ply lining up to the gunwhales ready to be tiled and there will be a double 230V socket on each side for those essential kitchen gadgets:

So, we've been busy busy bees. Paul's got the day off work tomorrow so will be finishing off the extension bits and making the plumbing stuff appear in the right places.

The next couple of weekends really need to see us sorting out the bit that makes me groan when I look upwards. It is definitely time to get the handrail supports up, batten and insulate the ceiling and get jiggy with fibreglassing take 2. We'll then be able to run the 12V cables and start to line out. Exciting times ahead!

Definitely in gear...

2010-02-15T20:37:00.002Z

Hey hey, thanks to Kate for the excellent, detailed and motivational blog post...

It really is feeling like we're back in gear with it all now. Helped somewhat by the deadlines mentioned - CavEmp runs out of licence et al in July and hence we need to get CreamCheese finished and launched around then.

The planning has been going on aplenty, and we're making it slightly more believable by ignoring anything south of the stern bulkhead, so engine, counter, fuel tanks and the rest can go hang until nearer the time (and better weather!)...

To add to Kate's list of things going in soon are a permanent mains feed to the boat where it is, for continuous heating purposes, along with keeping the batteries topped up. The internal mains cabling is going in, along with the start of the service runs now Kate's installed the battens down the boat that they'll be clipped to - so that's hot and cold water feeds and the main gas run from the locker down to the kitchen.

I'm really looking forward to receiving the kitchen from Ben - it's made by his supplier of £20k+ kitchens, to order, and we've gone for lots of funky stuff like solid oak doors and Blumotion drawers and hinges. The oak look should keep with the 'traditional' feeling of this boat we hope! The worktops are a basic sparkly black laminate, which we've already picked up as an unmissable offer!

This is the sort of idea, albeit very much smaller and narrower! :)

Also exciting is getting the oven and hob into the boat - think we were really lucky to find the exact matching oven to our spanking new hob on Ebay at just the right time and an excellent price. Just need to order the LPG jets for it...

There's no escaping we've loads of work to do, but it's really feeling like it'll all come together soon!

A quick note on the handrails too - normally you'd expect a GRP topped boat to have wooden rails, but we quite fancy smart (and strong) steel ones, so I've got a quote for the required steel and have drafted up a design including captive fixings and big spreader plates. Should be able to get that ordered soon and welded up on a sunny day at the boat ready to just bolt in place. With luck we may be able to get at least the fenders hung off them, even if not a centre-line.

The cabling is all planned out, with volt drop calcs done and an order sorted out, so that'll be quite a move forward when it's first-fixed. Despite being traditional, this boat at least will be cabled in the correct size cables, proper earthing, galvanic isolator, RCD and smartgauge...

Exciting stuff anyway!

More to come very soon!

PC

Bottoms in gear

2010-02-15T20:04:00.003Z

Right, the weather's getting warmer and time is running out before we need to have CreamCheese floating and be living on it. With this in mind we've been making lots of plans for the coming weeks and months in an attempt to get ourselves organised. A couple of weeks ago we went down to the boat (yeah yeah for the first time in a while) armed with mountains of cleaning products. Our fibreglassing hasn't been a complete success and the roof still leaks. This means that inside was damp and musty. We've temporarily covered the back of the boat in a large tarp to stop the leaks and give us that true project boat look. I got jiggy with a bucket full of hot water and thin bleach (thanks Kim and Aggie) to wipe all the mildew off the walls while Paul cleaned all the windows. I know we have more to worry about than whether the windows are clean, but it felt so much nicer being able to look out of the windows without peering through green moss! Lots of sweeping up and organising of tools saw the boat looking ready for work to start. So we went home :-)

We did, however invest in some new notepads to enable us to do lots of planning while sitting in the pub. Using said notepads we've been working out the order things need doing (like big stuff in before last wall goes up!). Along with this is what we can afford at each stage. We don't have thousands to throw at this project all in one go, so careful consideration is needed for when certain stuff can be paid for.

Last weekend was a relatively cheap one as we needed to get the battens and insulation below the gunwhales finished. All this needed in terms of purchases was a pack of sticks (approx 10 squid) and some sticky stuff to stick the insulation down. We had a very productive day on Saturday but failing light means we have a few battens left to finish. Sunday was spent driving to Wiltshire and back to pick up a shiny, lovely cooker....

So enough of the waffle. Things we already have which will be installed/fitted/bunged in place over the next few weeks:

*Gas pipe
*Hob (bought as a Christmas pressie from Paul's parents - thanks Gren and Rita!)
*Oven (bargain purchase off eBay which matches the hob - money temporarily borrowed from Gren and Rita - Thank you!)
*Some other stuff that I can't remember right now as my brain is tired and reaching for the magic notepad feels like hard work

Stuff to be bought to install/fit/bung in place over the coming weeks:

*Kitchen units (ordered off Ben the Builder of MPS Building - fine quality kitchens at very reasonable prices [and Paul's oldest friend!])
*Other services (electrickery and water)
*Fridge
*More ballast (currently sat waiting in Gren and Rita's back garden - thanks Gren and Rita!)
*More roof fibreglassing
*Funky new handrails
*Ceiling battens and insulation
*Stern door framing
*And more stuff that Paul will remind me about as soon as I publish this....

So, there you have it. All relaxing weekend mornings are cancelled for a good while. Muscles need to be built up again. I need to learn a hell of a lot about stuff I have no experience of (my careers adviser at school said I'd be good at anything I turn my hand to, let's hope she was right all those years ago!)

If anybody is reading this, motivational messages would be appreciated!

I am so pants

2009-12-31T17:19:00.002Z

Yep, I've let the blog slip, a lot, again.

We actually haven't done anything since my last mini update so there's not a lot to say. However I know my mini update was supposed to turn into a more detailed one. I think the reason I haven't gone into more detail is that it will depress the hell out of me how little we've done over the last couple of months. Reflective, aren't I? That psychology degree that hasn't yet got me a job must be doing something right. Anyone want a research assistant?

So, boat. We did actually go and see the good ship CreamCheese yesterday just to make sure the roof hadn't gone, or owt like that. We knew our fibreglassing skills weren't great so expected a fair few drips. It wasn't as bad as we thought, but there were a few wet patches. We're now looking at how to "re-do" bits of the roof in deepest, darkest winter. This really needs doing before we move on with any more of the fit-out.

So, brains back in gear for moving on with the boat in January, we just need to earn more cash to pay for it all!

Happy New Year All!

Motivation!

2009-11-27T21:08:00.003Z

To provide myself and him-on-the-other-end-of-the-sofa with a bit of motivation, here is a reminder. We've gone from this....

Through lots and lots of this (and thank the lord that bit's finished with!)....

To this!

Who cares if people can build whole boats in this time, with one hand tied behind their back. I'm darn proud of us!

TTFN

Work, sleep, work sleep

2009-11-27T20:33:00.002Z

I've had a gentle nudge from someone on the Canal World Forums that it has been a long time since I updated the blog. I have let it slip a lot as sometimes you forget that there are actually people out there who read it! One of the reasons progress is slow is we did a bit of this....

Yep, actually out boating on Bouncing Ben! We don't get to do much of the actual boating stuff now we've got Cream Cheese to work on and we have to remind ourselves that we're doing all this so we can enjoy boating a bit more. We headed up to Birmingham for a week to do a bit of this....

I finally graduated! I always said I'd get a degree before I was 30 after dropping out of uni when I was 20, so it was a proud and happy moment to graduate with a First a few weeks before my birthday. I'll give Paul a kick to update the Bouncing Ben blog with a bit more info about the trip, engine troubles and bandit country and everything! (Now that blog really hasn't seen an update for a while!)

The trip away and my birthday celebrations and the evil work stuff has meant not too much progress on Cream Cheese. We're also at the stage where it feels like without a big bit of cash to throw at the project, not too much progress is being made. We have to work to make the money to spend on the project, but sometimes we're so shattered from that work, there's no motivation at the weekends to drag ourselves down to the boat and get working. Ho hum!

Anyway, we have actually been doing stuff, so a very quick update with more to follow. I had my first experience of fibre-glassing when we attempted to make the boat a little more rain-proof (with some success). Paul has been battling on with the welding whenever weather permits (and the gas doesn't run out, or the wire run out, or the power trips out etc etc!). He managed to figure out how to bend the big bit of steel on one side of the bow (the other side was already tacked in place when we bought the boat), so that's taking shape...

And on the inside, we now have some walls!

And, no the half height bit with circles cut out isn't some sort of open plan bathroom, we ran out of ply and need to pick up another sheet for the other wall.

I think I may write a list of what needs doing next and stick it on here so we can remind ourselves and get motivated. Just need the motivation to write the list now. Anyone know of anywhere you can buy some motivation on the cheap? :-)

Anyway, thanks for the nudge to get the blog updated, it's reminded me that we have actually achieved something in the last few weeks!

TTFN

BEER TIME!!

2009-09-19T23:07:00.002+01:00

Well, of course, every day is beer time. But, anyone in Brum around 20th October? My three years of hard (honest!) work has paid off and I graduate at Birmingham Symphony Hall on the 20th October. This seems like too good an opportunity to miss so we'll be taking Bouncing Ben up there for a couple of days either side. Cap and gown on the back deck and gin and tonic seems like a bloody good plan to me!

TTFN

Ennin hole holes

2009-09-19T22:47:00.002+01:00

Still no updates for a while as envelope stuffing for a living leaves my brain like mush to the extent that I am no longer capable of turning a computer on, never mind typing anything. So a quick one and Paul can fill you in the the gory details...

Paul's been down in the ennin hole today to investigate a past bodge to see what was going on.

I may not have mentioned this bodge before (mostly cos the engine bit is minging and we've built a deck over it to forget about it for now) but there was a washing up liquid bottle fastened round the stern tube. This is a tube (clever, eh?) that the turning bit from the engine goes through to get to the (currently missing) prop. The concern was, of course, that the washing up liquid bottle was covering something nasty that would aid our sinking when we eventually put the ship in the water. So, off came the bottle today to investigate what was going on...

Under the bottle was exhausty type bandage stuff (techy, aren't I?) that seemed to be smothered in vaseline or similar. This was peeled away and a quick clean up revealed....

Some sort of weird hole. The damage was in an awkward place so Paul had a quick grope (tee hee) then took this picture for later inspection. What the hell caused this? Paul has posted the pics on the ever helpful Canal World Forums in the hope that somebody can enlighten us. Obviously we need to figure out how to fix it, but first I really really want to know what the hell it is. Beer and a chocolate biscuit to whoever figures it out :-D

Quick thought....

2009-09-06T23:41:00.003+01:00

Not a useful contribution, and I realise I need to do more to add interesting stuff...

If we can get a genie to finish the project off, will it be a Djinn palace?

PC

A floor!

2009-09-06T21:02:00.002+01:00

No updates for so long, sorry! I've finally joined the world of the gainfully employed and have been knackered so far so not in the mood for blogging. We've also had other stuff to do like realise there is a big difference between a built-in fridge and built-under fridge (nothing to do with boaty-ness though). I've also managed to squeeze in a little jolly on my dad's boat out of Swanley Bridge Marina.

Anway, worky worky tomorrow so just a very quick one to say, "WE'VE GOT A FLOOR"!!! Yep, muchos help from Ben the Builder yesterday saw a load of ballast go in and a floor laid. Makes a massive, massive difference and it hopefully means I will stop talking to the baseplate.

Hopefully this week I'll feel a bit more awake after work so will update more.

TTFN!

Welding tales

2009-08-19T11:12:00.003+01:00

So, the little welder wasn't up to the job of welding a narrowboat back together. Not a great surprise, but a bit of a let-down as we don't really have the cash kicking around to buy a new one. Fortunately, Paul's birthday will soon be upon us so begging for early birthday cash seemed like a good idea.

A search of fleabay led to a big welder with hardly any bids up in Yorkshire. Sounded ideal. Bidding done we won a welder for £132 and just needed to go to Shipley to collect it. Paul likes crazy eBay collections so this wasn't a great problem (we once drove from Manchester to deepest, darkest Lincolnshire to collect a car won from eBay, after a day at work!). Half a day off work and off we went up the M1.

Thank the lord for estate cars as the new ~~toy~~ welder only just fit in the back of the car. Back we went down the M1 to take up some more space in Paul's parents' garage.

Here's the new ~~toy~~ welder with the old one on top, a bit of a difference in size!

There were of course some minor issues with getting the welder working (of course) but I will let Paul bore you with the details of that as I understand sod all about it!

Sunday 9th August

2009-08-19T10:53:00.005+01:00

Another sunny day dawned and I was feeling much happier about life now I did not have to deal with gravel.

The vactan from the day before had done its stuff so it was time to slop some more of it around. I still had hurty hand from the big hammer the day before, but at least painting is easier work. Happy, happy Kate!

As it was a warm day, the vactan worked its magic quite quickly...

So it was time to apply some of the cheap Screwfix red painty stuff...

While my day was going so well, Paul was again cracking on with the welding. The poor little welder gets quite hot and numerous fuses were blown.

In the end the small welder decided it had had enough and produced lots of smoke and packed up. This led to a not very happy Paul...

As we'd also tripped the power out we decided it was time to call it a day. I'd also run out of vactan and red painty stuff. Another productive weekend finished.

Injuries for the weekend: Kate's hand no longer works as it should and we really need a new welder!

Saturday 8th August

2009-08-19T10:34:00.004+01:00

Back to the catch-up...

I really must get better at blogging once we've done something, not a couple of weeks later. I'm usually so knackered after a weekend working on the boat, that I don't want to think about it for a few days!

So, anyway, Saturday 8th August was to be the battle with the gravel part 1,342. It was agreed that I would work on the last really stuck bits of gravel while Paul started on some of the welding. We had considered just leaving the stuck bits there and painting over them, but decided we would actually do the job properly. We'd already shovelled and swept as much up as we could and I'd tried some of the worse bits with a wire brush. Now it was time for some serious action. Very big hammer and a chisel!

There were only two floor sections that needed dealing with in this way, but it was a slow, nasty, evil, bitch of a job. My tiny hands are not made for big hammers and chisels and by the end of it even picking up said hammer made me say very bad words. The result is that the gravel is now finally all gone, but it did leave me a broken woman!

Not my best look!

While I was breaking myself, Paul had been getting busy grinding and welding. Here's a couple of pics but I'll let him tell you the rest himself!

Towards the end of the day I at least had some fun trying out the vactan. I only did one section as time was ticking on, but had some fun as well!

So, another productive day with the rest of the floor ready for the magic vactan and paint and weldy work seeing real progress

Monday 3rd August

2009-08-10T16:30:00.002+01:00

This was the last day of the project-weekend so we'd planned a bit of a slow finish so Paul wasn't too shattered to go back to work. On the basis of this we decided to have a few cheeky drinkies in Sunday night. This turned into far to many cheeky drinkies including cheap vodka. Oops Woke up at 11.15am with a serious hangover. I refused to get out of bed until Paul agreed that we could go to McDonald's on the way to the boat. Now, I know very well that this isn't gourmet food but there is no other thing that can fix a hangover. Large Big Mac Meal with a bucket of diet coke. Sorted. Well, it mostly sorted me except for a slight headache. Ideal for scraping gravel!

We decided today was the day we'd try and dry the back of the boat out and deal with some of the really really struck gravel. We hooked up a bilge pump to a spare batetry and charger and pumped out nearly 50 litres of scummy water. Nice!

Now, it's time to be honest. I helped Paul a bit with the pumping. I also kind of scraped at gravel. But really I was only stroking it as I couldn't stand the noise of scraper hitting gravel. We were only there for a couple of hours before we gave up. We can console ourselves with the fact that we'd been really productive for the four previous days! Homeward bound and time for a snooze! No pictures, mostly because we couldn't be arsed

So, injuries for the weekend....

My sore wrist after Paul dropped his end of the heavy thing we were both holding, numerous bruises (not sure where these keep coming from but I won't be wearing any short skirts for a while), Paul's Blackberry went in the oily bilge water (I got it out quick and it mostly still works!) and the circular saw also went in the minging water (got this out quick as well and after all the oily, lumpy stuff had dripped out it runs better than ever before!)

Overall we were happy with the few days' work and it's quite nice to realise that overall we've only spent 9 days working on the good ship CreamCheese and a lot of those haven't been full days. Not bad really!

Sunday 2nd August

2009-08-10T16:11:00.003+01:00

And the sun was shining. Yay!

Time to get that back deck finished. After another 10am-ish start we sat and drank coffee and contemplated the next stage of the back deck framing. It was decided to cut three pieces that would form the shape in front of the back wall and weld them together off the boat. The idea was that this would allow us to put this whole section into place and get it welded on without worrying about single pieces of channel not having any support while its neighbours were cut and welded. So this bit was duly measured and cut. Basically it consisted of one longer piece that would go against the wall and two shorter pieces that would cross from this to the cross piece we had already welded in place. Great plan. It just abut fit with some wiggling. However, as we were holding the whole assembly in place to check it all fit ok, Paul decided to let go of his end. Now, the oily, scummy stuff in the engine bilge isn't really very nice. Knowing this, I didn't want to just let go of my end when Paul dropped his end. Makes sense, no? Well, this channel is meaty stuff and the bits we'd put together were pretty weighty. This meant a lot of weight suddenly dropped which I tried to hold with my 'iccle, girly hand and wrist. Ouch.

The rest of my day was spent pretty much one handed, doing measurements and such like for the framing. Paul worked like mad to get the pieces into place and it was soon time to get the rest of the temporary deck boards cut. After some careful measuring these went into place quite nicely and the back deck is now in place! This is so much better than that bloody tarp and should stop too much more water turning up in the bilge.

Saturday 1st August

2009-08-10T15:56:00.002+01:00

Right, back to writing catch-ups after yet another busy weekend. The Saturday of the mammoth weekend was a wet day so we had planned to be working on the inside of the boat, back dealing with the dreaded gravel. As we'd stayed at Paul's parents' the night before we had a bit of a slow start supping coffee and laughing at the hound playing in the garden.

We got to the ship at about 10.30 and assessed the wetness. Now CreamCheese has a lot of water kicking around on the inside. We'd started off dealing with some of the smaller puddles by using nappies and were amazed at how quite effective they were. However nappies full of dirty, oily, rusty water weigh quite a bit and smell a hell of a lot so we'd decided to bite the bullet and buy a cheap wet 'n' dry vacuum cleaner.

As you can see from the sheer minging-ness of the vac after a few hours work, it was certainly worth it!

While Paul was busy sucking dirty water, I got busy with a wallpaper scraper and wire brush. We'd removed most of the loose gravel that we could get to with big spades, but there was lots and lots more! Some was tucked up at the edges and was easily scraped away with a wire brush and some required a little bit more persuasion with the scraper. This was a slow and horrid job and by about 3.30 I'd just had enough. We'd cleared most of the boat and it was looking a lot better...

By this time we'd had some Vactan for what felt like ages without being able to try it out, so a bit of a wire brush of the sides later and we slapped a bit on to see what happened!

We gave up for the day knowing that we had to deal with the really stuck, really really wet and really really really smelly gunk towards the back of the boat. We went and retrieved the hound from her stay with Aunty Rita and Uncle Gren and drank some dirty beer while we contemplated progress so far...

Friday 31st July

2009-08-07T16:10:00.004+01:00

After the late finish on the Thursday we decided that it was kinder on the hound to drop her off at Paul's parents' so that she had the run of the garden for the day. Up early and off we went with our flasks empty ready to beg Rita (Paul's mum) to fill them up for us. Well, it saves us a job!

While the flask filling was going on we headed to the deepest darkest Black Country to pick up some welding gas. Paul had found a cellar gas supplier who were happy for us to have an 'iccle cylinder for the welder. Twenty squid rental and a tenner a fill seemed a lot cheaper than the rather high price for the little bottles we normally use. Thanks BJE Cellar Gases. Along with a new regulator and expensive bit of hose, this will make welding easier for Paul, so he says.

We headed back via Screwfix to pick up some bits, including a cheap wet 'n' dry vac to attempt to remove some of the water that was still floating around the cabin bilge. We collected the now filled flasks and headed once again to BPS to pick up some more wood.This time it was for 3 sheets of OSB and some more 6mm ply. The reason for the 6mm ply was the very expensive bit we'd bought from Homebase wasn't nearly enough to temorarily make the old hatch hole watertight. Oops. Two of the sheets of OSB were needed for the new back deck (to eventually be replace with some posh anti-slip stuff) and the final one was to build a box. Yep, a box; let me explain... The boat had slowly filled with lots of our tat and this was preventing us taking the old floor out to get good access to all that yummy gravel. Those posh plastic storage thingies you get seem very expensive so we decided to build a box. Sadly, I let Paul do some of the measuring out for the box so some slight modifications were required during construction. He is now definitely banned from anything where exact measurements are required. However the finished product was a decent size and seems very sturdy.

Although I have some concerns about Paul's plans for it...

It's ok though, he fits nicely too so he better be on his best behaviour!

All the tat was unloaded from the boat and put in the nice new box and we could finally remove the floor. The only concern was the oxy-acetylene cylinders that were sat in the boat from the previous owner. I was somewhat wary of the potentially explosive nature of these and they weighed lots and lots. Therefore they'd pretty much stayed put in the boat only being rolled to allow access when needed. We'd contacted the previous owner and he said he would send someone to pick them up. Just as we were about to start removing the floor, a very nice gentlemen appeared for the cylinders. Timing or what! He was hard as nails and the cylinders were out and gone in no time at all. So floor out, I had full access to all that lovely, smelly, stuck down gravel. But that was definitely a job for a rainy day!

After all that fun it was time to get to work on the back deck plan. The idea behind getting this done now is to make the boat as watertight as we can. So far we've just had a tarp over the ennin bay held down by anything we can find. However this still allows a lot of water to trickle in which works its way everywhere. We really need to dry out the inside of the boat so we can sort out the baseplate and get some new floor down. This was a slow process as it involved quite a bit of brain power thinking about what needs to drain where etc etc. We'd come up with a basic design in the pub but needed to actually sit and look at the problem to finalise it. The reason we'd gone for the 75mm channel was that there were already of strips of it temporarily welded in place by the previous owner. However this is some meaty stuff and the deck may be somewhat over-engineered!

After deciding the basic layout of the channel we cut (I measured!) and Paul welded the first two cross pieces in place. This allowed us to put to supporting members (hee hee; sorry, must grow up) in place and cut the first three deck boards.

Imagining life afloat aboard NB CreamCheese!

By the time that was done and we'd cleared up it was 8pm so definitely time to call it a day. In fact we were that shattered that we stayed at Paul's parents' that night as we just didn't have the energy to get the hound back to the boat. A couple of beers and a pizza and we crashed for the night dreaming of a rainy Saturday ahead.

Updating - Thursday 30th July

2009-08-07T15:42:00.007+01:00

So, it was the first day of our mammoth 5 day boat working extravaganza. It was a relatively early start with the hound walked and ready for the off by about 8.30. Two flasks of coffee were filled and the cool bag was cooled ready for provisions. First stop was Lidl to pick up some food for the cool bag. Paul thinks eating when working is for weaklings but I really really need to eat or I just can't function. Luckily Lidl stocks such a range of tat that Paul is happy to stop there and go for a wander. 1 x pack of funny bent paint brushes (I believe for radiators) was purchased as I'm told they will be exceptionally useful when I (yes, I, not we apparently) come to paint the ennin bay.

Next stop was to a timber yard that we had discovered on the interweb. Paul had emailed BPS in Leamington for a price on 18mm ply and OSB (oriented strand board, I'm learning so much new stuff!). We'd had an exceptionally friendly reply with a very reasonable quote so called in there for 2 full sheets of 18mm ply to get us started. Quick and efficient service saw the wood paid for and a fork lift truck maneuvering towards the back of the BMW to dump it on the roof. A couple of heavy duty ratchet straps later and we were off, slowly! Them sheets are big when they're sat on the roof of a car!

It was only as we were leaving that we realised we also needed a bit of 6mm ply. We debated going back to the timber yard, but they looked like the trade counter types who wouldn't suffer fools gladly so wimped out and popped to homebase for an iccle piece for a lot of dosh. We should really swallow our pride more often!

When we arrived at the good ship Cream Cheese, we emptied the essentials out of the car (flask and cool bag) and got a brew on to assess the day ahead. Paul decided he would be able to remove the back wall, door and hatch without my help so I was to get busy with the wallpaper scraper and wirebrushes on the tough bits of gravel that were still everywhere. After another brew, we actually put this plan into action. This bit all went swimmingly and we soon had a very open air boat. Perhaps a see through wall at the back would be a good idea?

We also had the steel delivered at some point during the day. This was the new channel that was going to construct the back deck framing, as well as a bit of angle and some sheet stuff. This was again a great service, with a chap and a truck turning up. Not sure who the supplier was, will have to ask Paul.

Paul got busy with his tape measure to meausure up for the new wall. We're going for a side door at the blunt end with steps outside to maximise the inside space. This means the dinette can be right up against the wall. I was called away from my gravel duties to help with the drawing out of the "shape" on the wood and cutting and lifting duties. Paul's a very precise man so I trusted his measurements and off we went to do some cutting. Now those of you who know boats will know that nothing is straight and simple. I mean really, nothing. There's the wibblyness of the 30 year old hull, the even wibblyerness of the GRP top to mention just two. Just two that are quite important when building a wall.

Chop and carry and the wall was slid into place. Only to find that there was no way it was fitting round the curve of the roof. Sliced a few bits off a few times and in it went. But, it was too short. Well done Paul! A couple of bricks later and it was perfectly balanced in place. Wahoo a new wall.

As the wall measuring was such a success, I was drafted in to measure for the new door. Now, I may have mentioned before that I have no DIY skills. Absolutely none. So I went about it very carefully taking lots and lots of measurements. These were transferred to the wood and I left Paul to do the cutting (need to get better with power tools, I tend to break stuff). We carried the door to its hole and Paul immediately said "it's way off". "Hang on", said I, "you're not holding the bottom where it's supposed to be" (hee hee). Can you guess what happened? Yep, the door fit like a dream. I mean really, an absolute dream! Obviously it's going to have to change from what you see here as it needs framing etc etc and the gaps round the angles on the hull need dealing with, but hell, I'm proud!

As well as other bits and bobs during the day that was about it for day was as it was getting on for 7pm and the poor hound needed attention.

Oops

2009-08-05T17:29:00.002+01:00

It appears to have been a while, sorry!

The last couple of weekends have been farily unproductive with a day of shovelling gravel followed by a weekend in sunny Stalybridge to celebrate my First with my dad. In between has been work for Paul and the never-ending job hunt for me. If only somebody would pay me for gravel removal, I am now an expert!

Paul took some leave so Thursday 30th July to Monday 3rd August was very very productive with lots done on the boat. However, I need to get the piccies together and my head together to remember everything we did.

Will update soon!

TTFN

Welding and holes et al!

2009-07-14T21:02:00.004+01:00

Right! Kate's encouraged me to post on the topic of holes in the boat...

The basic story is that CreamCheese is an ex-hire boat, dating from 1972, and hence has had a bit of a hard life! She's suffered quite a bit of denting to the bows, although the sides and base seem much better than Caveat Emptor, with a good 12mm of baseplate still sticking out beyond the sides.

The previous owner has made a start with repair, with three corners of the boat having 6mm plates tacked in place:

So we need to finish those off, as well as adding a fourth piece, and also dealing with the counter - which is a little colander-like!

So far, we've had two quotes for welding, literally varying by an order of magnitude - the higher of which required a sit down and stiff drink.

So, unsurprisingly, I've had a quick go myself, with a smallish MIG welder.

This is the outside view:

and this from the inside:

I've been seeking opinions on this from all and sundry, including the chaps at www.mig-welding.co.uk, on the following thread:

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk

Anyhow, I'm sure, as the aussies say, she'll be right, no worries!

PC

Holes and Welding

2009-07-14T17:16:00.002+01:00

Yep, we have holes. Yep, they need welding. That is the sum total of my knowledge on this subject. Paul knows his stuff. He now has an account for the blog. This should motivate him to post!

Come on, Paul. The world (well the 2 people who read this) want to know how we're going to float :-D

Brasso

2009-07-14T15:48:00.003+01:00

I'm probably destined to be a boater. Why? Because I love Brasso. A lot. I may take the mick out of people who spend all weekend polishing their mushroom vents, but I am actually jealous that ours are painted over. I was therefore delighted to find a rather tarnished old tiller pin on CreamCheese. We don't even need a tiller pin, but any excuse for a polish! A couple of hours work was very satisfying...

Sad, I know!

Gravel Girl and Ballast Boy!

2009-07-14T14:55:00.009+01:00

Friday 10th July

Wow, what a lot of work over the weekend. Paul booked Friday and Monday off work so we could have a full weekend of taking the boat apart. On Friday we took the rest of the walls and stuff apart which was, again, fantastic fun!

Lots of very satisfying waving of hammer!

We even swept up all the bits of shite leaving it looking lovely and tidy! Trust me when I say, Paul with a brush in his hand cleaning up is a rare sight indeed.

So that was Friday which was a fairly early finish as it was a natural time to finish when we'd cleared it all out. We packed up our flasks and headed to the pub to discuss the day's work and make further plans!

Saturday 11th July

Saturday wasn't spent doing boaty stuff as we had to be around for an eBay buyer to come and collect a chair. We've been storing a lot of stuff in Paul's parents' garage so it was good to get rid of some stuff and they can now walk through their own garage! We also spent hours sorting Paul's old bedroom which has also become a dumping ground for any boating related guff not currently required. Another early finish as we were off to a birthday BBQ, where Paul showed off his grilling talents...

Sunday 12th July - Gravel Day!

So Sunday arrived and as we weren't too hungover from the BBQ it was an early start again (I hate any time before 10am on a Sunday, it did not a happy Kate make). Today was the day we really really were not looking forward to. Let me explain...

Back in the 70s when CreamCheese was built, Rugby boat builders decided to use gravel as ballast in their boats. Yeah, and? I hear you say. Well gravel holds water rather too well which means lots of water kicking around the bilge. Some had suggested we just bung a dry cement mix on it and hey presto, firmly stuck ballast. We decided, cos we is good like that, to do things properly and have it all out to check the state of the base plate and tidy it all up. It looked like the previous owners had shovelled some of it out towards the pointy end, but this left us with lots to move. Cue muchos hard work!

So, on arriving on Sunday morning we immediately grabbed the shovels and got going. No, sorry, that's a lie. We opened flask number one and had a brew. Then we decided to mark out the layout with tape to make sure it works around all the windows etc etc. This was good to do as it gave us an idea of how the space will work. It also put off gravel shoevlling for a while!

Paul even tested the view from the sofa...

So, wasting time done, it was time to get busy with the shovels. We took the floor up one section at a time to be greeted by gravel. Lots and lots of gravel, completely filling the gap between base plate and floor. We didn't have anything sensible like a wheelbarrow so it was buckets to work. Shovel gravel into bucket, tip bucket over side, repeat. The pile grew and grew until no ladder was required to get off the boat. Of course this all then needed moving from the side of the boat so we got busy with the shovels again.

This pic was taken after we'd moved about half the pile, so you can imagine how much there was to start with!

That was enough for the day so we gave up! (Yes, I know we're big girls' blouses, but we don't do manual labour!)

Monday 13th July

Another gravel day!

It was a bit of a later start as we were both stiff and tired from the day before. After arriving at the boat we had the usual cups of coffee while we contemplated the work! We still had a big pile of wood to move from Friday's destruction so we got busy with that first. We thought we only had three "sections" of floor to remove the gravel from under so we were gutted to spot that the sections that we thought were cleared were only clear down the middle. We did the bit that we had planned to do but had become somewhat sick of the sight of gravel so have left the rest for another day!

The success story of the day involved nappies. Yep, that's right, nappies! We'd heard that they are great at removing oily water from bilges so bought a pack on the way to the boat. There was a lot of water kicking around the cabin bilge of CreamCheese. We think this is a combination of it having been a bit sunk at some point and the fact that there are holes in the roof! So we stuck a few nappies in some of the wetter patches and left them for a while. It was amazing quite how much water they sucked up! Like, really really amazing. So much so that I'm going to stop going on about it now!

Well, that's a long enough update. Must go and find some more painkillers for my knackered back!

Kate

(Injuries from the weekend - big gouge from a rusty nail, bit of kneecap missing after an incident with a shovel, lots and lots of bruises on my legs as I have bugger all upper body strength so use my legs to shift things. Ouch)

Layout Ideas

2009-07-08T16:23:00.000+01:00

So, while we can't get to the boat during the week we have been planning and plotting and playing around with ideas for the layout. This is the current plan:

So, that's the dinette at the blunt end which will convert to a double bed. Followed by the sofa which may or may not convert to a bed. Then will be the galley followed by a crossover bathroom with bath. (We love the bath on Bouncing Ben so have decided to have a similar bathroom). After this will be the fixed bed leading to the pointy end doors.

It'll be finished and ready in no time at all! (Honest)

Destruction!

2009-07-08T15:54:00.000+01:00

I love it! We spent the day last Sunday making a start on stripping the interior of the boat. I like jobs that aren't fiddly and require basically no skill, mostly because I have no skills! So, a dirty great hammer and a crow bar and I was away :-)

We produced a hell of a pile of wood. This picture was taken about half way through the day. Although by the end of it the mountain of wood provided a convenient step down from the boat. I did ask my dad if he fancied any kindling, but he didn't seem tempted!

By the end of about 4-5 hours work (yeah, yeah, I know it's not a whole day's work, but it was Sunday!) we'd stripped out about half the boat, although admittedly that was the easier end without the dinette and radiators etc.

It was a bloody hot day for all that manual labour but very satisfying. We gave up at about 5pm to go and get clean, collect the hound and head for a well earned beer.

Paul has booked a couple of days off work so we can have a long weekend this weekend continuing the destruction, before getting down to some serious stuff.

TTFN!

The Inside

2009-07-03T16:22:00.000+01:00

Do you reckon we've got some work to do? :-)

Just a small selection of pics from the inside of the boat

It's officially official!

2009-07-01T22:04:00.000+01:00

We are now the proud owners of a 1972, GRP topped, Rugby boat!

We came across the advert for this boat a couple of months ago on Appollo Duck and got immediately tempted by the low price. But surely we already had a 'project boat' and didn't need another one? Well that was the idea, but what would a quick look hurt? Not at all! After going for a nosey round we did what any sensible people would do and retired to the pub to discuss it. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) the pub is within walking distance so a significant quantity of beer was consumed. So, the more beer we drank, the more we thought buying another boat was a fantastic idea. We could have woken up sober the next day and decided against this crazyness, but the joy of the Blackberry is emails are easy to send from anywhere. So, email sent to owner of said new boat and minds made up!

What followed was a mad dash to raise the cash (savings? pah! Don't be silly!) and new boat has now been purchased.

If I'm honest, I'm still torn between thinking this is the most stupid idea in the world, and thinking it is fantastic. The sensible theory is....

1. The current boat is about half done on the inside and perfectly habitable in its current state

2. We can't spend as much time as we like to onboard the current boat and continue to do the work because
a. it's too small
b. well, that's it really

3. So, live with the dodgy back end of the current boat as there is a fab bedroom and bathroom

4. Pause all work on current boat

5. Kill ourselves completely gutting and re-fitting new boat (oh and the minor issues with the hull)

6. When new boat is done, swap them over and finish re-fit of current boat

7. Sell both and get "something else"

Simples!

Only just...

2009-06-30T23:15:00.000+01:00

...had confirmation that money has been safely received. So not much excitement today. But.... Tis official... We own boat number two!

Wahooo! (Off to have nightmares about how one couple, with one job between them [for now!] completely refit two narrowboats!)

Sweet dreams

Getting excited

2009-06-29T14:02:00.000+01:00

Or should that be nervous and terrified?

Another project? Are we mad? Maybe....

Not saying any more until all is finalised. Come back soon :-)