A weekend of painting

A couple of weeks ago, after much searching, I found the tiles I wanted for the splash back in the kitchen.  As they are rather expensive, I decided to measure the space exactly rather than guess how many I needed and return the following week to buy them.  They are now of course'out of stock'.  Grrr

So with no tiles, I painted the bedroom instead.  I don't mind the painting, its the sanding that I dislike.  It is however necessary to ensure the paint sticks to the many layers of varnish.  The finished result looks good and makes it a room that I would actually want to spend time in rather than just somewhere to crash.  I have ditched the old, filthy, lumpy mattress and will be ordering a new one in time for my next visit.

One little project I have been thinking about is a draining board.  I've made a prototype out of pine and it seems to work fine.  A hardwood one will follow and hopefully I'll make a better job of routering the grooves on that one too.

The heating system got a good test at the weekend and seems to work well with both rads getting fairly hot and it even produced a tank of hot water too!  I think that in practice, I will be using the Alde boiler to heat water for showers but for general washing up and hand washing, the Boatman Stove will suffice.

Bricks in the bedroom

On the right hand side of the cabin, beside the bed, there is a boxed in section with a hinged lid.  There is a false bottom in it and storage for not a lot below.  With a 4 foot bed, this leaves very little floor space and I was continually bashing my shins.

So this had to come out.  What was inside?  A curb stone and a dozen house bricks.  The bricks I piled under the side hatch step, but I didn't know what to do with the curb.  Taking it off the boat resulted in the boat developing a noticeable list, so it is clearly needed.  I thought I'd try my luck at breaking it and the gods must have been on my side as it cracked neatly into two pieces.  These should fit in the bottom of the wardrobe and help restore the balance.

My curtains, which were made for me by a very nice lady who did them for pocket money (I did try and give her a decent payment) are hung on 22mm copper pipe reused from the old plumbing.  I bought a bag of 30 drawer knobs on ebay to use as finials, but had a problem fixing them to the pipe.  I tried drilling a 22mm hole in the knobs but they just fell to pieces.  In the end I glued some sections of plastic hose to the knobs which fit in the pipe with a dab of glue to keep them in place.  They just need painting now.

There wont be many more sunny afternoons this year, so Sunday we went for a little cruise up the Little Ouse.  This was Murphy's first time on the boat and although he was a little nervous at first, he soon made himself at home.

Work top is in

The worktop was lashed to my motor bike trailer in the pouring rain and taken over to the boat.  The fragile, thin bit around the hob suffered on way there and needed gluing and clamping.  Big thank you to my colleague Crispin who came out on the most atrocious night to help me manoeuvre the thing onto the boat.

One problem is the tap.  The shaft that passes through the worktop is 40mm long.  This worktop is 60mm thick.  Not sure quite how to get around this at the moment.  I certainly cant cut the wood.  That's for sure!

Heat and a shower tray.

Not a huge amount to show for all the work that has been going on.  Its mostly been prep for the final assault on the heating system.  I have managed to re cycle the bedroom radiator and simply move it from one side to the other.  It now sits beside the bed and should be nice to snuggle upn against in the depths of a winters night.

The radiator that I removed from the bathroom was, at 500mm high a bit too tall to fit between the out and return pipes.  A radiator that sits either above or below the big feed pipes is always going to cause issues with the thermo siphoning system.  Wicks do a very reasonable 300mm high radiator so this was used instead.  Oh, and I decided to spray them green too.

The side wall needed to be paneled and painted before hanging the radiator.  I'm not sure about the colour.  It might turn the bedroom into a tart's boudoir! 

   
I filled the system with water and lit a fire.  Both bathroom and bedroom warmed up, and nothing leaked - well nothing that could not be fixed by a little tweak here and there.

I was very limited on time, hence the lack of pictures so I was not able to get a good fire going.  A system like to need to be heating for many hours to really start functioning as it should, but early indications are that it will work well.

The shower tray that I removed was in a poor state but I have been unable to find a suitable replacement.  The parameters of the shower enclosure are pretty much set so in the end I decided to re use the old tray.  I rubbed it down, filled all the cracks and dings with P38 and painted it with shower tray paint.  The result was better than I expected.

Worktop

While I am happy to tackle most jobs and enjoy learning new skills along the way, I know my limitations and so I employed local carpenter Scott to cut my worktop for me.  It is 60mm oak butchers block and impervious to my DIY tools.

He made a fantastic job of it, the job took him and his mate 5 hours.  I now need to lightly sand it and get plenty of Danish oil into it before I can take it to the boat and fit it.  Quite how I am going to get it on the boat I don't yet know....

A little more panneling

I managed to continue the paneling along the corridor and finish the timber around the hearth.  I am not really happy with the varnished finish but it will do for now.  At a later date, I might strip it all off and do something else.

I have been collecting quotes to cut out the work top for the kitchen.  This needs to be done soon as I cannot really get on with finishing the fire place and the area above the kitchen units until it is in place.  So far the cheapest quote is £200.  Its a lot of money but something I just cant do myself. Quite how I am going to get the finished item to the boat has yet to be decided.

One topic that will always be raised when boaters meet, is toilets.  Despite having pumped the the tank out a couple of weeks ago, mine is still smelling a bit bad.  I know the seal around the top is not good, but I suspect there might be a crack elsewhere too.  So, if I need to replace it, what do I go for?  Another pump out - cassette - or my current favorite, a dry toilet system.  

Boxing

This weekend I tackled the job of boxing in the cable run and water pipe that go along the edge of the floor.  Because the floor was in such wide boards, there was a gap of around 60mm all round the edge.  This meant I had to make something pretty substantial.  I ripped some 25mm pine down to size and put a bit of detail on it with the router.  It does take away a little of the floor space, but doesn't look too bad.

 

 

I bought another sheet of fire board, but unfortunately it arrived in several pieces.

 

 

Luckily, a replacement was sent the following day so I could make the rest of the fire surround.  It wont be fixed or tiled until the heating system has been tested for leaks.

 

 

I also made the plinth that goes under the kitchen units.