Another helper

More help from Margaret who has painted the kitchen door much more accurately than I ever would have.

And yet more help with childcare and food. Thanks!

Fitting a new window

We put the plywood box in first then screwed fixings onto the window and pushed it gently in place. It fits perfectly. Just a bit of patching up to do on the interior.
Whoops! That pontoon is a bit wobbly.

Removing a bay window

I only nipped out to drop the children off at my mum's (thanks mum!) and when I came back the end of the boat was missing!

Tongue and groove

We're really charging ahead on this bank holiday Sunday. Jeremy has made a jig for his fake tongue and groove boarding. This is on the right of the picture. He simply cramps it to a sheet of ply and routes the groove right in. His first test piece is on the left. It just needs sanding, undercoating, end grain sealing, and two coats of opaque wood coating.

Polythene

So the first layer is on. We had to wrap the boat (neatly!) in polythene to make a windproof barrier. This will be underneath the insulation layer so will prevent interstitial condensation. Wow!

More windows

We now have five new windows. Slightly smaller than the windows we took out, so they're a bit gappy.

Windows

And the second original window is out. Jeremy has boarded it up for now, so the boat looks even more scruffy than usual!

Apron

The apron is partially fibre glassed. It has to be done while kneeling on a platform standing in the shallow part of the canal. It took Jeremy nearly a whole day to do nearl yone full side. The other side of the boat is going to be very interesting, as everything will be so much more difficlut and done with an audience.

Hard work

It is an amazing place to work. And there's entertainment too.

Gunwale construction

Jeremy has decided to construct a plywood trim around the edge of the boat. This will be covered with fibre glass to ensure the boat is completely waterproof. (It isn't currently, we've just pumped about 50 gallons of water out from under the floor!)

One small window in, twelve to go

They got so much done today, took the first window out and put the new one in. It is quite a bit smaller, and the frames are quite thick, so it'll be interesting to see how it affects light in the boat.

Day three: Aran fell in

Oh no! Third day on the job and Aran fell in! I can't believe Jeremy rushed to pull him out instead of rushing for the camera!
And those trestles don't look very safe balanced like that in the canal...who's next..?

End of day two

The second day went well, only a fe interuptions, lots of painting got done, and the window boxes are ready to put in after another coat of paint.

The real work begins

Finally, the time has come for the real work to start. We got loads done today, and spent a fortune on paint.
Keep watching...

Another distraction

The beauty of having a boat made out of wood (and a carpenter for a husband) is that you can rearrange the walls on a whim. We're thinking of building an extra wall in the kitchen to create storage behind, and screen off the toilet so we don't have to watch the kids 'at work' while we're eating our lunch.

We really must get on with the exterior...

Another willing helper

Tina only popped round for a cup of tea, but she really got stuck in with those tiles!

Thanks Tina!

Lola's bed

We should have been concentrating on the exterior but it was just too tempting to make Lola's bedroom use the space better...

...and every child wants a secret door through to another room!

Canoeing lessons

In between tile stripping we just managed to squeeze in a quick canoeing lesson for the kids. Billy picked it up really quickly, Lola just needs to grow another foot taller.

Helper

Things haven't been moving very fast, so we got help from our friend Doctor Sinead. Ripping the tiles off is really hard on the hands.