One Thing After Another...

It's been a busy few days. Although it would seem that not a lot has been done aboard the boat. That's the funny thing though...be it a boat or a house, bungalow or apartment, the smaller jobs are always the jobs that take the longest. They're also usually the messiest and frustrating! I finally managed to get a final coat of varnish on the front bow doors yesterday. I'd done 3 coats in danish oil and the final coat had dried grainy - a quick sand and wipe over with white spirit and I decided to do a final "top coat" using an outdoor varnish - at least I knew that it wouldn't dry grainy, gritty and white again. Ideally, I suppose I should have completely sanded them back and re-done them in the varnish alone, or I should at least do another coat of varnish, but I think they should be fine and have enough protection. Next year I will completely strip them and re-varnish. Just the masking tape to remove and white spirit the windows to clean up... Of course,...

As always, work has never really stopped on the boat even in all the time we weren't blogging - there's always something to keep on top of or... something that we want to change or enhance upon (more likely!) I suppose you could say it's our "hobby". Whereas some people like to eat out, or go on holiday....collect classic cars or buy handbags and shoes(!) we love doing stuff to the boat and trying to make it as nice as we can! We've had this job booked in for a few months now and it had always got delayed - at one point the company who was doing the work had broken what they were supposed to be fitting - a granite worktop! But finally the day had arrived! Removing the sink, ready for the fitting: We originally decided last year that we would have the wooden worktop around the sink replaced or veneered in Granite as it makes life easier. The worktop was sound but wood and water is never a good mix! Not only that, but I'm fed up with oiling and varnishing...

We finally got the toilet finished off the other day and super-smart it's looking too!! All we really had to do was put it into the final position and bolt it down, replace the boxing in and then fit the service hatch (on the bedroom side of the wall). All the service hatch consists off was just a lockable plastic frame, where you can put an insert into it to match your wall etc. These toilets are predominately designed for caravan use, so usually the service hatch would be on the outside of the caravan or RV (whatever they're called these days!) and is also lockable to protect theft of your cassette! Either way, it came with the toilet, so was perfect for us to fit into the wall to give it a clean, smart finish The access hatch to the cassette from the bedroom before the service hatch was fitted: After fitting the service hatch : As I was talking about in my last post, the old vacuum cassette was sat in the area where there is no carpet in the picture above! Originally there...

We're still here after fitting the toilet - just about.... No walls came down, there was only 3 or 4 miniature floods(!) and the toilet is more or less in and just needs fixing into place properly! For a few different reasons, we didn't get started on it yesterday until about 3PM. We started by removing the old toilet 'throne' first followed by the vacuum unit that was in the bedroom. I've always hated having the vacuum cassette in the bedroom, not only because it's not a nice idea (toilet contents in the bedroom! Eww!) but because it was hideously boxed in and was in a place that was basically in the way! The new toilet is a Dometic CTS4110 and the cassette sits directly underneath the actual toilet, which means everything is in the bathroom - where it should be! Old toilet just behind the new one: If you have a look just behind Pav's shoulder, you can see what looks like a brown leather box - thats where the old vacuum cassette lived. Anyway, all that will...

It's been nearly 9 months since I last blogged and I can't actually believe it's been that long - feels like it was just a few weeks ago really. At this stage then, I'm not sure if there'll be any readers out there, but I suppose if I want to carry on chronicling life on the boat, I need to make a start somewhere! I think the reason for the lack of blogging is, in part, because I was boring myself (never mind anyone else that reads it!) and it was starting to feel a bit too personal. I seemed to be detailing my life over the internet for anyone to read and I suppose in some ways, I was starting to get a little uncomfortable with that. However, that's what blogging is, I know! It's a diary of sorts, which is obviously only one 'facet-of-a-diamond' in terms of "our life", but still somewhat a diary and not what I initially thought would be just a way of referencing what we had done or had fitted (etc) in the boat. I have missed blogging somet...