Compost Toilet and all my own plumbing ...

Isn't it cute?









This little pigs ear is all my own work! For reference red and blue are hot and cold. Red/White, Blue/White are the central heating Flow and Return.

I watched George as he plumbed in the three radiators and thought I can do that!

So today whilst Bryan was away working for someone else I did some oiling of some wall boards and also put in these pipes for the washing machine under floor, basin straight up and just the bit behind the bath where the pipes for the loo basin and the bath taps branch off. Need something to attach them to before I can continue here. But I will do them myself. It gave me a great feeling of satisfaction and some ownership of the boat build.

I will do some more on Monday. I did miss Bryan's power tools in a way but found greater accuracy using old fashioned grunt. The downside is both my wrists hurt. I was quite pleased that I managed to bring all the tools I needed from home bar a hammer but a foot worked just as well for what I needed the hammer for so all was not lost.

Fancy Portholes way hay kaloo kallay

From the inside



and from the outside.

It wasn't a sunny day today but I imagine in the sunshine they will be even better!

http://www.purpleglass.co.uk/

Bonnie has faithfully reproduced my drawing ( see Dec 2008 ) into two fabulous 3d portholes made of fused glass. Two of the leaves stand very proud so that you have something to hold onto when placing it in the frames. I am very pleased indeed.

Painting under engine

I nipped out to the boat today to hoover up the engine bay whilst it is accessible and to paint under the engine. I used a spray can of radiator paint as I felt it wouldn't mind getting a little bit hot! But darn it not sure it was such a good idea because as you can see

there are places you cannot reach to spray properly as the can would prefer to be a little bit upright! Ah well at least a bit of a layer is better than none at all.

I have asked Mel if it is possible to re route those yellow diesel lines a tad so that they do not restrict valuable storage space and also to make it easier to box the engine in for easy access. I also took another load of cardboard to the dump it site. Boat feels much bigger already!

Little things

Please little minds

I got so excited by the appearance of my centre rope ring doo hicky



and also by the back navigation light ...



I am so sad!

C D W M update and tank gauge indicator

The meal went very well and I found these fabulous coffee cups in a charity shop for the princely sum of £2.00. This was so that I could offer little cups of coffee instead of large cups with a small amount of coffee in the bottom as previously!







If I can find other such gems I think that is where I will do my crockery shopping for the boat.







the table laid up ready.

The table as it looks now! These are the porthole covers. I am oiling them prior to them being attached to the porthole liners. They have been made from chesnut and are coming up a treat with the oiling. I have yet to source hinges for them as ideally I would like black piano hinges but not found any yet.

Mel has been busy in the engine room. To the left of the weed hatch are the two holes drilled for the tank level indicator. He has informed me of the distance from the centres so that I can order the kit.

My surveyor says currently the rules stipulate that all of a dry exhaust needs lagging even if it is out of the way. They are apparently discussing this matter on Monday but as the results of the discussion could take weeks to be reported we have decided to lag now anyway just in case.

Mel has also put the front electric diesel tank sender into the front tank. I missed it but he actually squeezed himself into the front locker to do the welding and nearly got stuck but also more crucially nearly set fire to his leg!

Willington Marina

If you look at their website you will see many many pictures of the boats being dropped in the water. Lovely one of Mel!

Come Dine With Me

I in my infinite wisdom thought it would be a good thing if we did a sort of come dine with me where once a month one of us has to do the whole meal etc. As it was my idea I am doing the first one tomorrow night. Luckily there will not be a film crew following me around.

I have cheated a little bit in that tonight I have done the dessert. This is because tomorrow morning I will have to work and that is my excuse and I am sticking to it. Here is my menu which I have done with lovely borders and fancy writing. They are all rolled up waiting to be handed over to the lucky lucky recipients ...

Come Dine With Me


Starter

Stir-fried salad
of
Ginger and Chilli Prawns with mini courgettes



Main Course

Katarina Má
Moroccan Style Curry with steamed white and brown basmati rice



Dessert

Lady Grey, Red Square Lemon and Raspberry Licor Beiraõ
Sorbet Medley in a ginger snap basket

I am feeling a little bit tipsy now due to having licked out the ice cream maker twice!

So that is the fun bit over - tomorrow I have to work, make room for four people to dine around the table by moving narrowboat bits and pieces out of the way and hoovering/cleaning at the same time. And then cook, oh tittle I knew there was a flaw in this plan. Still I should get three nice meals out of it without having to lift a finger.

Does Yvonne know?

That I was allowed to play with one of his tools?



So where the pipework would be visible we are making a box for them to go in. Here I have been allowed to play and install the pipe grabs. Cold fresh water bottom front, return central heating bottom back. Flow central heating top front, hot water top back.



This is where the central heating pipes go under to the towel radiator on the otherside of the boat. And also the cold feed to the washing machine.



George the plumber arrived in the evening and we put the radiator bits and pieces on so they are now complete and stored them in the 'loo'.

It was too late to cut the pipes and put the fittings on to connect them up and anyway we discovered that one cannot just attach the front two legs. The legs are only 4" long below the rad and the pipe box is 5" tall!

So
a) Bryan will have to cut the back legs down and
b) make a plinth for the front legs to stand on.


Mice and Men Mice and Men - exits stage left muttering ...

Bling - for your delectation

Engine room bulkhead

Well Bryan made the engine room bulkhead using the floor space requirements for my batteries. However at four feet this does make the doorway a little tight.







I said the real criteria was the size of the dinette. Ie space for the calorifier and all its pipes. Annoyingly the calorifier has pipe outlets at the other end as well. Will need to contact the suppliers to tell us which pipes are which!

If anyone might have an idea there are two at the port/wall side. One top and one bottom both about 22mm. At the business end by the gangway there are two 22mm ones and two 15mm ones and a third 15mm one which I assume is the drainage one. And also the space for the immersion heater element.

So is it fresh cold in at the bottom port side? Or are these two the engine ones?

In which case at the other end the two 15mm are the fresh water and the two 22mm ones the Mikuni heating source?







This is where my batteries will go. There is room for them on the floor but we think we will raise them up to the height of the engine bulkhead and have the pipes running in the space underneath.

Bryan will reduce the width of the wall from 4ft to maybe 3ft 9 inches. The extra 3 inches in the door way will be a bonus. The step down will be then in the door way itself into the saloon. Original plan had a bit of a well in the engine room side.

Note to self:- Mustn't forget to paint the engine bay before we can no longer have easy access.

Some more photos

And three makes a convoy. The boats and crane arrive at Willington.

Northumberland in the water.

I name this boat ...

Be warned if you see this end of the boat it is coming towards you!

End of an era

Harvest leaves the farm after three years of painstaking work by Paul.

I did take video footage but cannot load it. So you will have to make do with the photos. The video was 11 minutes long so that may or may not be the problem.

We had to knock her off the concrete blocks and roll her forward before the crane could lift her onto the lorry.

Hence the need to thread the needle through the bow thruster.

Northumberland also left the same day and they were both dropped in at Willington Marina. Good weather but a bit blustery.

Paul told us to bring our own cups and plates. He provided a fabulous German Sausage soup. His sons were not sure of ingredients but there were lentils etc. The sausages were HUGE. He also provided kegs of german beer. Unfortunately I was driving so had to make do with half a cup.

Northumberland had a bit of a list on arriving in the water but as she only has a boatman's cabin so far plenty of opportunity to correct this.

Harvest was perfect. She weighed 19tonnes Paul estimated 18.5 so he was pretty accurate. The batteries weighed a tonne in themselves but these had been perfectly balanced by the 10 gas bottles in the bow.

Big items loaded

Today Bryan fetched the large items from my house and took them to the boat. Namely the little washing machine - very heavy, fridge freezer - bigger but not so heavy and the compost loo - very light indeed. Luckily I had made a while ago a board with wheels for moving the heavy chest freezer in and out of the cupboard under the stairs. I had appropriated this when the washing machine had been delivered so I could move it from the front door into the dining room. This meant we only had to man/woman handle the washing machine out the front door and into the Van. Apparently getting it on board was 'interesting' but I wasn't there so can't comment.



Small boy caught the wrong train and so I picked him up on the way down to the boat. As you can see he only just fits on the boat height wise! But he will always be 'small boy' to me.





The galley units in place. The Corian man will be coming next week to give us a price for two straight runs here plus the little one in the bathroom.


And here are the two 'white goods' in situ. Isn't the washing machine cute?

Now that they are on board we can put in the last bulkhead and do the engine room. We are going on a works outing tomorrow to visit Belle at Fradley Junction and will dissect their engine room so that Bryan can replicate. And then repair to the Swan for a swift half.

I have found a man who will fit the Mikuni and he also does gas so that is two things sorted. He advised on exchanging the MX60 for the 40 as that would fit into the front locker better. Mikuni have said yes so I will be posting the MX60 back tomorrow.

And my P35's are all done just not sent online yet.

It was a productive day to day.

First bathroom wall panel

Where the flash is on the panel is where the shower rail will eventually be. This board is going around the bath as the shower panels. I will be finding someone to make glass folding shower panels for the other two sides of the bath so that it will effectivly be a proper shower cubicle with a VERY deep bottom.

diy kitchen units arrived

Typically having told me yesterday that I would be the last drop off and to expect them in the afternoon they would ring me one hour before. I thought that is brilliant as I have a dentist appointment in the morning. So what happens?

Both the mobile and then the land line ring this morning whilst I am in the bath! Change of plan going to be first drop! Be there in an hour. Oh frabjous joy. On the way to the dentist I called in to make sure Steve was aware (Bryan not there today or tomorrow) and narrowly missed meeting the van head on as it was leaving! Called back after the dentist and small boy helped me on with most of the units. Had a problem with the 600mm unit as it just fitted through the door but I had to put it down as I was in danger of falling off the back of the boat and small boy caught his hand between the bottom of the unit and the lip of the door. He was very good and didn't swear in front of his mother but having extricated his mangled hand ran down the other end of the boat to do so. So refined you know.

We left the two 700mm units for Bryan to do on his way back from whereever he was as they would involve lifting through the top of the hatch. Of course they are actually probably lighter than the 600 unit as that has three pan drawers in!!

so here they are still encased in cardboard. Mainly because injured small boy had lost interest in anything to do with Mother's boat but also for protection.






this one is the 400mm waste bin unit. It will be going beside the steps out for easy rubbish removal. Well easy if the tow path is actually on that side! This means that I will have to reverse into my pontoon mooring at Shireoaks if I want to use the side entrance.

Celebrations

Today is mine and my son's joint non birthday. I thought I would be more subtle and arrive late. He was more subtle and arrived even later. Lucky as I really didn't want to share my birthday but am quite happy to share our non birthday.

As I kept telling him as a small boy

"It's good to share"

Sometimes it just isn't...