Right of passage!

Just had to share our day yesterday, what a laugh! We were all set for a quiet afternoon in, Sunday dinner as funds are low.  We ended up in the pub with 3 couples from the marina, and left at well past dark! Once we got back we were invited onto one of there boats and had beef, onions & chips to finish the night off!

Everyone here is so generous, with knowledge, time and possessions, i really don't know how we would have coped if we hadn't had their help. From where to get the best coal, logs even bringing it to the boat for us, how to tie the boat up when the water level rises, who makes top boxes and bike racks. Even some fresh eggs and some potted herbs are winging my way at the weekend. Stories of snakes and being told that now i had had my "loo experience" i had now earnt my right of passage to live on a boat which really made me laugh, its taken me a week to get over that incident.

The saloon journey

As i've said DamperVan was an ex hire boat this was the saloon before, 2 x bunks and then the doors left & right of picture are loo & sink

Gutted

Tony had rebuilt the steps made two larger steps instead of 3, the dogs found it much easier and increased the storage space. The T&G mis all one piece and very effective.

Wallpaper on, (although this is going to have be adjusted when we get time, as its coming away behind the fire flue) something we didn't think about before. The cabinet Tony made and houses the TV PC and PS3. The Sofa bed is from ikea and although takes up a fair bit of room it is worth it, as we didn't want captains chairs. It has a memory foam mattress and a box that attaches underneath to store the bedding, the covers are fitted and if you get bored you can buy different colours. It is very comfy and cost about £340 a bargain compared to other sofas that i priced up.

Here is our fire, my cousin tiled it! Good job Ste! It is a boatman, small but really does kick out some heat, i keep having to move Mozzer as he was burning last night! muppet!

Revenge of the pump out loo

We have had Dampervan since October 2012 she has a pump out loo system called Tecma, its one with a machinator. All was well with the loo until last Monday when Tony was a work. I got home about 4pm and as soon as i got inside the boat i thought the dogs had had an accident.... the smell was that bad. In hind sight that would have been a whole lot easier to deal with. 

Now i don't have a very strong stomach and as soon as i saw what awaited me the retching started, what i discovered was that the loo had decided to push out all of its contents, 2 inches deep in the bathroom and down the hall carpet. 

I cannot begin to describe the smell, not having a mop bucket i grabbed the kitchen sink bowl and started to clean it up, cut a very long story short it took me 2 and half hours of hell. I had to un screw the skirting boards and rip up the carpet and lino. I boiled water to disinfect every surface in the boat and sat down and cried.

We had only pumped out 17 days ago, had no visitors so we thought we were ok, apparently not eh? The boat had always listed to the right, and Tony had spent a number of hours placing concrete blocks under the kick plates of the kitchen, under diner seating and even some in the engine bay. So Tony went to pump out, and the pipe was frozen so the marina defrosted it, ( Tony has been convinced that the marina pump out system hasn't worked properly since we got here) Once the pipe was defrosted it took 4 full 6 minute cycles to empty the boat. Tony is now even more convinced that it wasn't working before.

Once the boat was back in its mooring, Tony saw how far the boat was now listing to the left! He then took out 17 concrete blocks, now the boat slightly lists to the left, with the thinking being as the water tank fills up on the right side of the boat we will level out and it will help us to know when we need to pump out.

Tony has called the loo maker and he told him to check the outlet return valve, so thats why I'm sat in the kitchen writing this, so i cant smell it! While he checks. He has just checked it and all is good. So the only thing we can put it down to is that the tank was so full, that maybe some of it had frozen and then when thawed had become to much for it. 

If anyone has any other ideas please leave a comment, needless to say, we are now going to pump out every two weeks at the longest.

That was the scale of it...........

Wow what a difference a thaw makes

 

Woke up this morning to beautiful sun shine and blue skies, the boat has raised up 4 inches due to the thaw. These days have been very rare since moving aboard.
This is Diddie my westie and Mozzer my jack russell enjoying the sun on my bed!

I am writing this in the kitchen trying not to think about what Tony is doing.......

Which brings me to my next post......

Toilet drama!!!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh

The kitchen diner before & after

This is the kitchen diner area before, you can just see the cooker, and up against the bulk head was the sink and kitchen rack hold cups plates etc.

This is it after, we wanted an american diner feel, with booth seats, we had extra seats made so we can put more down as seating when guests come to stay

The first 6 weeks as a liveaboard!

So much has happened in the last 6 weeks, so much has been learnt and some of it has been the hard way! We are now moored in Aston Marina for two reasons, first is for work, as we need to continue for the next ten months, to pay back monies owed to family to buy the boat and to save a little, also we felt it was a slightly easier introduction to living aboard, with the comfort of 240v, pump out & water on tap literally.
In this post i am going to concentrate on what its been like on the boat, my next post is going to be on the people we have met as its a mixed bag and deserves its own post.

Tony my hubby found it easier than me to adapt to the boat, in hindsight i wish we had kept the house for a while longer so we could have dealt with the issues we had easier, without sometimes having to live with various bits of the boat pulled apart while we make adjustments, but then on the other hand, we would have to do it sometime in the future where we wouldn't have the option. I think the biggest thing for me was just the change in routine, having to really think about what you need and making sure its there when you need it. For example, making sure the fire ash is cleared out, ( where to put it, i started with a plastic bag which isn't a good idea is it!) then met someone who told me about a tilly box so sorted. I suppose what I'm trying to say is thinking ahead, making sure the coal bucket is filled up, the logs are drying out behind the stove while dried out ones are used in the right order. If we haven't run the engine then boiling the kettle so i can wash up properly. Emptying the small bin the night before and putting it in the cratch to take out on way to work. I don't know if this is going to be of interest to anyone reading this, i suppose ill see, but if its boring the crap out of people let me know!

Issues we have had to sort out are, washing machine not wired in right, so when we turned it on it tripped the whole boat. Thats now fixed. The fridge was the original one that came with the boat and i know many people live with the little top box freezer but ours wouldn't even freeze ice, and i wasn't making a trip to the supermarket everyday. So i found a 2/3 fridge 1/3 freezer an inlander, from Midland Chandler, £475 from there eBay page, and i cant praise it enough. Flushing the loo & the TV went off, this was lack of 12v power, Tony had knocked the trip switch but couldn't figure it out for a while! Condensation! i know you cant get away from it, but we have found something to make it a bit better its a plastic sheet that you attach to the window with supplied sticky then hair dryer it in place, and its considerably reduced it. 

Right i think thats enough of that,  there are two other issues that I'm going to write about in the next blog, as they deserve there own dedicated blog! 

7 months later and there's allot to write about!

Apologies for the second instalment that's if anyone is reading this! It's all been a bit hectic.
Well where to start, we signed for our boat in October and set to work on ripping the insides out, first job that needing doing was the removal of the two beds, loo and sink that would become our saloon. Then the removal of radiators, the ripping of the kitchen out, moving of the seats, installing the kitchen, led lights, tiling, flooring, 240v and stove. I am not going to write about the technical aspects as I didn't complete the work, my hubby Tony will do that as he will be able to give more insight and help to others.

Well after the work was competed we had to move "Dampervan" ( said named as we have a 1979 vw camper van) from Chirk to Aston Marina nr Stone. Some 74 miles, 72 locks I think ( off the top of my head) we started on 2nd December and the planner said 6.5 days travelling at 7hrs 34 mins per day. We made very good time, we actually made up a day as there was nothing on the cut. Then our early arrival was scupperd due to Harecastle tunnel only being open on certain days. So we had a nice rest just short of the tunnel.

We get through the tunnel, which Tony steered and i stayed in doors by the fire! one more over night stay and we arrive at Aston Marina.

We then find our mooring, pump out and fill up with diesel before its back to the house to finish off packing and prepare for the big move on Dec 14th