21st March 2015 – Drilling more holes and pulling wires through. This was mainly what I have been doing today. I have two power sockets, two switches and two lights. I was surprised to see how many wires ran though that wall.
I added some more wood and gave it a good coat of paint.
19th March 2015 – Time to think how to put the electricity. First drilling some holes in the wooden frame. I had to finish the t&g on one side before making the holes for the sockets and switches. All these little things cost a lot of time. The idea of working on electricity gives the project a more finished feeling. It is another step closer to finishing the conversion. I’ll be happy that I have decent sockets instead of the eleven extension cables at the moment.
18th March 2015 – Just doing something different. A friend is having her exhibition this weekend and one of the art pieces is having moving parts. In my workshop I managed to find some bolts, hooks and winches to help her. I welded a few pieces.
17th March 2015 – I need to find a solution for the floor. This was the idea to start the evenings work on the Aquarel. Once the multiplex was bolted to the frame through the metal sheet, it still made to much noise when you stepped on it. The second issue was I had no decent frame for the inspection hatches. Between a design on paper and reality, there is much difference.
A few hours later, a lot of wood later and tired, but I had a descent floor. Solid, waterproof and good looking. Finishing is for tomorrow. I’ll do the corners with silicon and give the whole wooden construction a good coat of oil based paint.
16th March 2015 – Struggling to build the floor in the bathroom. It doesn’t go as planned. The metal sheet is not solid and with a sheet of multiplex, it barely feels any better. I need to think how to continue with the floor. So I started finishing one side of the wall with t&g. The idea of building a simple bathroom is taking much more time then planned.
15th March 2015 – The bilge was dry so I decided to continue working on the wall between the living room and the bathroom. By the end of the afternoon, the frame was finished and the door mounted. I shot some t&G against the wall but was to tired to continue. A job for tomorrow.
14th March 2015 – Knowing that I had a leak on the boat over a year ago, I’m always careful opening a part of my floor. Will it be dry or will there be a leak? During the removal of the first few sheets, the area for the bathroom was dry. The last sheet was barely open or I noticed a puddle of water in the bilges. For a few hours, I had enough of the boat and everything attached to it.
What should I do? I decided to go home and have another go tomorrow. I’m sure many people have more water in their bilges than what I have, but just the thought of having water coming in from below annoys me!
13th March 2015 – The next step is to build the bathroom. Last week I bought a small bath. The only way to enter the ship with a bath is through a big hatch. It takes over one hour to open the hatch and you need a hammer and a few chisels. While it was open, I changed the size of the bolts and the holes in the plate. it took me a few hours to adopt the hatch, but now it opens slightly better. It was also painted to prevent it from rusting.
11th March 2015 – Underneath the bath in the bathroom will be a metal frame at a certain height from the bottom. In case they ever need to weld, there is enough space to prevent fire and to make sure I don’t have to break down the bathroom.
The metal frame is an old door from the ‘coffee shop boat’.
5th March 2015 – Such a nice weather. I could do so many things, but I decided to clean the hold a bit more. While doing so, I started thinking on the boiler and the water pump. I build a wall to support the boiler. I’ll mount it Saturday when I’m finished painting that corner.
At the end of the evening, the conclusion was simple. I started with one job and finished another one. Maybe cleaning tomorrow?
3rd March 2015 – Using up what is left. This is how I spent my evening aboard the Aquarel. I’m running out on screws, t&g and wooden beams.It is getting finished and the next job is to clear some tools out of the way. A job for tomorrow….
1st March 2015 – I did finish the side and had some time left to build the frame for the remaining bit under the waterline. It feels great to be that far and to realize that I still have a lot to do …
The hold is looking bigger with the t&g. It feels warmer as well since 90% is already insulated.
28th February 2015 – One big area needs to be insulated and finished with t&g. Once this area is done, I only have to work below the waterline and a few corners. I did half of it today and I hope to finish the rest tomorrow.
15th February 2015 – Running out of wood gave me time to continue building the kitchen. Since the wall is build, I can now easily finish the kitchen. I still need to build one cupboard, an inspection hatch for the side of the ship, a cooker and room for a fridge. I’m happy I can reuse the old paneling from my neighbours spits barge. It gives a good contrast between old and new.
14th February 2015 – I spent most of the day cleaning the ship and building the wall. Every month I make one day free for cleaning the hold. When buying t&g, insulation and other items from the shop, there is a lot of packaging. There was some old wood I no longer needed. When finished, the hold seemed slightly bigger again….