12th March 2017 – My parents came to help painting. Once they were busy, I continued with the wooden frame in the Library room, drilling holes, bolting wood and gluing sheets of plywood. I went to all the neighbours in the street asking if there would be an issue if I put a crane on Friday, blocking the road behind their houses.
Friends from London came to my ship in the afternoon. We had a drink and sat outside. Spring is coming!
11th March 2017 – Earlier this week I found an ad on a second hand website for doors. It was a separation of two living rooms in an old house. Three door panels with glass. The price was right and bought them. Transport had to be done carefully since it was carved glass. While I was at this persons home, he had some more doors for sale. I bought another one so the Library Room aboard will have four doors with the same glass.
It took me more then one hour to unload them aboard. These doors are extremely heavy and I had to lower them slowly in the hold.
9th March 2017 – I managed to get a set of portholes. They are looking good, but I wouldn’t want to use them anymore for their original purpose. They will serve in the Library room as decoration. The intention, for the Library room, is to recreate the feeling of a cargo hold that was converted as a houseboat. Fake wooden hatches and portholes to make it look more traditional.
7th March 2017 – It wasn’t raining today. I had a few hours left, so I managed to paint another few areas in the hold. By the time the wheelhouse will be arriving, the hold needs to be painted, or at least the area behind it.
5th March 2017 – I finished the floor and started building one wall. A few neighbours came for a drink. Late in the evening, I painted the floor to protect it from possible water leaks or dirt that could come during the rest of the conversion.
4th March 2017 – While my father was putting insulation between the beams, I screwed and glued the sheets of wood on the beams. After two days of work, I felt every muscle in my body. I was broken, but happy with the result!
3rd March 2017 – My wood arrived. It didn’t look that much till I had to start bringing it aboard. The wooden beams of 6.7m long were heavy. With the two of us we managed to lower them in the hold. Sadly enough it was raining the whole morning while we were loading the wood.
I build the frame for the Library room in the afternoon. It seems easy, but over 1000 screws were used to connect the beams together.
26th February 2017 – I got up early. It was windy again and I decided to have my coffee in the wheelhouse. When I had nearly finished my coffee, the phone rang. A wheelhouse roof in Bruges blew of. Since it was a good friend of mine and he was abroad, I drove there to cover it.
In the afternoon I painted some more of the hold. It will take ages, but as I wrote in all my previous blogs, you learn to know your ship by cleaning and painting. It must have taken a long time to build the Tordino in 1922. So many rivets, so many different plates.
25th February 2017 – It was windy again, but I decided to open my hatches anyway. Most of they day I painted the hold. A second coat on what had been last weekend. I’m looking forward to see the whole hold painted cream white!
24th February 2017 – Time to order my wood and get some more materials for the weekend. The whole afternoon, I was driving around to arrange my stuff. Sometimes I just wonder what takes more time and energy. Getting the stuff or doing the conversion.
21st February 2017 – I just managed to fix the issue with the lorry. I can now easily open my hatches again.
20th February 2017 – Just went shopping, new steel cable for the lorry, brackets for my workshop and paint for the hold.
19th February 2017 – The day started with bad luck. One of the cables of the winch on my lorry for the hatches broke. I could solve it with an old rope since all my tools were in the hold and I couldn’t get to it.
Once I was in the hold, I continued painting where I stopped yesterday evening. I was annoyed by some of the wooden cargo floor that was lifted out. I took it all out and rebuilt it. I will have to bolt a few planks, but I need my drilling machine for this.
18th February 2017 – I cleaned bilges today. The smell was terrible, but now the hold doesn’t have that smell anymore. My father cleaned the sides and all of us painted the bulkhead in the afternoon.
7th February 2017 – The macerator is broken in the Watergeus. To get to this device, I need to empty the workshop under my deck. It is filled up with wood, old tools and spare parts for my other ships. I started emptying this place to bring it over to the Tordino where I will need most of it. I had a van full of old wooden pieces, small lists and profiles.