its been a while.......

Not had a chance really to blog lately loads has been happening, so a quick update in this blog and then ill post another.

We ventured up to the Caldon Canal over the Easter break and although it was very beautiful, Tony & I  decided we are not cruising anywhere in the snow or ice anymore if we don't have to, cold just didn't come close! Then the water pump broke, so all in all a bit of a stressful week, not the enjoyable cruise we wanted it to be.

In other news the inspiration for our boat "Vera the VW " passed hands to her new owner, a very sad day, but the realisation that a new journey is about to begin. Plans are now being put in place for notices to be handed in and which canals we are going to discover first! So exciting times!

We have a new hall carpet at last, after the "loo" incident! and we finally got round to stripping the wallpaper off and repainting the saloon.

Men at work... Allegedly

As i type Tony is being assisted by a Kev a fellow professional engineer in putting back together our unit! I just had to write this as they do it. You see there is a reason for them both rushing do finish it..... The pub.
So far they have lost screws, and managed to put one of the doors on the wrong way! Just now a collective shout of "Knobs" was heard i can only imagine they are fitting them to the doors? or could be insulting each other??? who knows?
Jon took our unit last week, shaved 2 inches off the depth and sanded it down and polished it..... OH MY its fantastic we cannot thank him enough, i really mean that. The boat after 4 months of living aboard is now finished on the inside at least! Although Tony is threatening to cut down the ikea sofa bed to make it more comfy! (Over my cold and lifeless body, if he does any type of cutting in the boat again!)

Men at work!

In Place

Change the Loo... Blokes stuff...

OK, so I gave up with the pump-out loo... annoyed me that we had a system (that wouldn't work) and had to change it BUT, given the arguments for and against:

For Pump-out:
Tank / loo already installed.
Requires emptying every 4 - 5 weeks (when operating properly)
Cost / time / effort to change (already there!)

Against Pump out:
It wouldn't pump out properly (empty)
Cost of pumping out
Restricted sites to pump out
History of efficiency of operation (bad)
Julie had had enough of it!

For Cassette:
Ease / sites to empty
Simplicity of operation / installation
No cost to empty
Julie wanted it!

Against Cassette:
Removal of existing system
Repetition of emptying

Given the above - and a bit of arm-bending, the cassette option seemed to be the only way forward and, although it entailed the removal of the loo and tank that was built-in, to be fair its a better system for our future plans (cruising the cut)...

It took about an hour to remove the loo and the window, dismantle the bed over the tank and cut a hole in the top to extend the inspection hatch enough to fit the pipe to remove the 3/4 full cack in it. It took a further hour to pump out and swill / clean the tank to empty (4 tokens later!!). Then a total of 15 cutting disks, 4 hours work and a lot of dust and scraping cack later; the top front and one side of the tank were out and the remainder cleaned and blackened to seal it... rebuilt the bed and cleaned the rest of the boat (at this point Julie came back (from walking the dogs for 3 hours to stay out of the way) to finish off - best she wasn't there for the mucky bits really) - 8 hours graft... Day 2 entailed cutting and boxing-out the rest of the under-bed cavity after filling the tray of the tank with the ballast blocks that were under the kitchen units to counter-balance the tank that was now 70% gone... another 4 hours work then more cleaning (sawdust this time!)... I fitted the cassette loo (Thetford C200CS) in a couple of hours (including cutting a hole in the bathroom wall to facilitate cassette replenishment, the water and 12V supply were there from the Tecma macerator and only had to be 'adjusted' slightly)...

All in all a reasonably simple (if shitty) job but having the peace of mind that the loo can't overfill, won't cost anything but effort every 3-4 days to empty, will pay for itself in 4-5 months and we have another 1cu m to use as storage space PLUS less power and water consumption, a job worth the aggro of doing - I know, 'in heinsight' should've done it when the initial refurb was in operation and the boat was a proper building site... Oh well - the joys of liveaboards!! Hee!

Bog Blog

I promise this will be the last blog about a loo ever!

New loo arrived at the weekend and its the first chance we have had to fit it, well i say we i mean Tony as I'm going no where near the thing!

The boat is currently like a bomb site! not just because he is taking out the old loo, but the side board that holds the TV etc has gone to our friends to see if he can sand her down to get rid of the in grained coal dust and take 2 inches off the back of it so we can cross our legs! (as its located in front of the couch) All well and good designing something, but until you actually live with it you can never tell. So hopefully at the weekend we will have it back and be able to use it more effectively. This by the way was not without some drama! it always seem to happen when Tony steps off the boat, we had put it by the tiler awaitng collection from our friends, as yesterday was a very windy day, somehow i heard this thud, looked out and saw it floating in the canal 5 mins after Tony had gone to work! It was at least minus 2 yesterday, picture the scene, me dragging the nearly 6 foot wooden unit weighing about 40kg out of the cut! Well i lie i only got half of it out, managed to sit on it, with hands going blue shouting help! (Why would i be shouting help?) anyway about 2 mins later someone walked along the jetty and helped me load it onto the roof!

So we need to make a few adjustments to the bathroom door to get the cassette out but its in!

Gotta goto work now!

The Male Perspective (Contd)

Thought I'd catch-up with Julie and proffer a couple of pics of the conversion process...

The forward cabin area was set up as a galley (consisting of a sink, fridge, cooker and one cupboard), and a large communal seating area... Note the contemporary (for the 70's) decor. We re-used the benching and (cut down) table. Turned the whole lot through 90 degrees and pushed it to the front to form a diner. The biggest problem of course was the working area and juggling the schedule of what had to be done in logical order. In addition, the services for the heating, gas and water / waste supplies had to be re-routed (again, thanks to the guys at the marina for advice / help)...



Work in progress... benches and table cut down and re-located, radiator removed on port gunnel and replaced with the small one from under the aft doors to the space on the right gunnel.

Moving the cooker proved to be more complicated than I thought as it involved employing a Corgi-registered tradesman and having the work inspected and passed... the Ikea kitchen units I pre-fabricated and bundled into Vera (its amazing how much you can fit in a 1979 VW Camper when needed) before fitting.

The finished (?) kitchen has 4 units space for the washer / dryer (new fridge/freezer as the original wasn't suitable for live-aboard use), tiling by Julie, chequered lino bought from van fest and Roman blinds with magnets to 'adjust' them flush to the angled wall above the gunnel. The other work involved a new bulk-head and ceiling panel and the obvious decorating of the remaining wall areas. I left the carpeting on the walls behind the units where possible to aid insulation for heat and sound...

In addition, after a bit of research / pricing, we bought under-car LED units (with a 1700 combination output lighting controller) from Halfords in the sale and fitted them under the gunnel, table and kitchen units as down-lighters - they are waterproof and robust and, being 12V LED, use very little power. Also replaced the fluorescent ceiling lights with LED spots.

The hallway was reasonably straightforward and involved replacing the carpet on the wall, flooring (which has since been replaced thanks to the loo incident), and decorating / replacing the lighting and curtains as above.

We re-cycled the kitchen units into both bedrooms to provide additional storage and fitted blackout versions of the Roman blinds with the magnet conversions - these are a great success and aid heat retention in the space too. To reduce the condensation problem I fitted secondary glazing to the frames in the form of plastic sheeting (bought for 18 quid with enough to cover 80% of the windows and works a treat!)... I have also since, had to fill the gaps behind the ceiling architrave with expanding foam / carpet strips to reduce same condensation... 

Note - ex-hire boats don't get used in Winter so don't have the problem of having to be heated in prolonged cold spells. Consequently, the cold-bridge points / flaws are not a problem until you live-aboard and they manifest / drip on Julie...

Last bit - promise.... The aft cabin was two single bunks, a second loo, sink and cupboard. Part of the negotiated price for the boat was that we have an empty, boarded out space, minimal equipment and in return the marina would strip-out and keep the kit for spares for their fleet. Fortunately, they agreed as the work involved in removing and making good the WC and associated tank (under the port side rear bunk was extensive to say the least!  

Aft cabin stripped and almost boarded out... this is how we took possession of the boat in early October (we immediately went on a weekend trip along the Llangollen to Trevor (across the Pronty Aqueduct!!), with no heating, little experience but a warm feeling of ownership and adventure amongst our cockles...

Work in the Livingroom involved removing the small rad under the ladder access, replacing such with steps / storage that both we and the dogs could negotiate safely, lighting) as above on the ceiling and a second LED downlighter set with controller, installing a stove heater, hearth and surround, boarding out, laminate flooring and decorating... 

We got a great deal on the stove (complete system) from The Boatman, on the net... very knowledgeable chap and helpful... also help from the guys at Chirk to install it... bit of welding to adjust the flue angle above the roof was beyond my skill-set...

Note: Although the Regulations say you need a double-skin flue on a new installation, if it is to an existing boat, a single flue is acceptable (from an inspector)... 

The other major item for the conversion was the 240V installation. Hire boats are generally 12V and 240V is provided (in a limited fashion) via an inverter. We plumbed for onshore 240V connection and a 3kW inverter for when away... Cousin Chris (and Steve), installed the second-fix circuit / sockets over a weekend but we paid the experts at Chirk to install the rest of the system... most of our kit is 12V anyway but chargers, washing machine and the obligatory PS3 need 240V...

Last pic for this session - LED set up and working on blue in the living room and down the corridor... Heee!! Boys toys eh?

If anyone wants details of any of the components - not a problem... happy to help with my limited knowledge.

The Male Perspective - Refurbish to the Move-in...

Thought I'd give you the other side of the story... in short; the planning was over a year with most of the plans being 'roughed-out' by guess work and estimating dimensions until I had the opportunity to get to the boat at Chirk in March and do a measuring survey... produced the following (this is the final version - gives the latest layout ish):

The image on the right was taken from the website and is the original layout of the '6 to 8 berth floating caravan' version.

The drawing in the middle is the stripped out layout...

On the left is the drawing of the finished article... in plan view and produced on a Mac to scale on EZDraw...

To explain... the boat was bought after reading lots of articles and forums that recommended buying an ex-hire one if plumbing for second-hand. The conversion was done on a budget that meant we had to (and wanted to anyway), recycle / use most of what was already there.

In Summary, we ripped out the aft cabin, WC and sink to form the living room, the bedrooms and bathroom had minor adjustments and the galley / dining area was rebuilt to form a full kitchen and diner.



The aft cabin removal and re-covering of the walls was part of the negotiated price for the boat (luckily... the rear poo tank was a lot harder to cut out than the boatyard thought... we took possession and the back half was still a construction site!!) I got to do the rest of the reconstruction (with a lot of technical / skills help from the marina experts at Chirk - can't thank them enough for their 'over-and-above' attitude. The conversion took 2 months of hard slog (4 days a week, 12+ hours and living in the construction site... ) the marina at Chirk kept me plied with coffee and I survived on 'boil-in-the-bag' RatPacs... (ex-Army)... and yes, it was like being on exercise!! I lost about a stone in the process - too focused to bother eating regularly, but it was very rewarding.

Anyways, the finished article (I say finished but have come to realise its always going to be 'a work in progress', happened in early December and we chugged the 80 miles (and 80 locks!) from Chirk to Aston in the second week in December (via the Llangollen, Middlewich and Trent and Mersey Canals without major dramas - mainly thanks to help from youngest son, Luke (who was a star and came up from Kent to help), and some very nice CWT workers who helped us through emergency work at Minshull lock (that was supposed to be closed the day before we got there!! More later...

Whoo Hooo New Loo!!!

Oh My God how sad am i? That the high light of my morning is that i have put forward my case to Tony and made him see that a cassette loo is the way forward........ He's only gripe was that the pump out should work and he was fed up that it wasn't working properly.

As you know i've documented the revenge of the loo and how its always on my mind, well i see it this way, if we have to pay minimum £12 every 10 days or sooner to pump this thing out thats nearly £100 a month, and our plan is to go off at the end of the year & we will have less funds, and that is two meals out in the pub!

So i put this to Tony and he agreed ( I knew if i mentioned beer his thinking would be swayed lol )

No seriously, my argument was this: Pros for a pump out, we have a ceramic loo and you press a button & it quite like a "land loo" The cons are: Its costs money to flush ya body waste away, (waste of money in my eyes) If we are on the cut and frozen in then we have to think about going to the loo. If we are cruising and need a pump out and cant find one then we are in the poo literally. Pros for a cassette: It cost nothing to empty, it will have paid for itself in 3 months, i will have peace of mind that it will never spill its contents over my home again. Cons: will have to take the tank out, and re jig pipe work & got to empty it every 3-4 days........big deal..

So with the help of Jon of topnotchboatbuilder we will choose our new loo this week, Jon has been so helpful to us with not just this but, boat painting and box building we cannot thank him enough, generous with time and advice.

After the loo is fitted i promise i will NEVER post about the bloody loo again!

Laters

Random pic of doggies sun bathing on my bed as i type ( just so blog I'snt totally about loo's!)

Bloody bog

First moaning blog, but have to get it out there..........................

The loo situation still isn't sorted, we only pumped out 8 days ago, we were away for two days of that! and the tank was full today. Tony un screwed the inspection cap and saw that it was full. So we took the boat to the pump out area on the marina, all was going well, after 6 minutes the machine stopped and Tony said it still isn't empty, we don't have a large tank just a normal one. So another £12 and we start all over again, the machine stops again and Tony said he still didn't think it was empty as there was liquid still being drawn through the hose. How are we ever going to be able to afford to live on the cut when at present its going to cost £24 a week to pump out?

The boat is now not listing to the right but level, but it doesn't feel right, as after we had the initial loo incident we listed to the left (that took 4 pump outs) to be honest its getting me down, i am constantly thinking about my toilet habits, not going, and dreading looking in the bathroom, that tonight i told Tony this might be a boat breaker for me. I cant go on thinking that this bloody loo situation will never be sorted. I just want to take a hammer to it, weld the hole up and get a cassette.

To add to this i have had to put up with a constant drip of water that drops onto the bed, not from the window but from the wood rail and we don't know where its coming from so i've put a towel there, but this becomes damp, trying to save the brand new mattress. Last night i was so conscious i would lie on it that it kept me awake.

Tony is trying his best to sort things out i know that, i just wish we could sort the loo situation out, i can deal with the rest as a drip on ya bad is hardly a drama is it? but the loo drama is making little things seem allot worse. A bog is one thing you cant really live without isn't it?

So today isn't a good day for me to be a live aboard :(

Adopted Home!

Kev & Sue did us a favour and let out  Mozzer & Diddie for a comfort break when Tony was at work & i was away on Friday night

They had other ideas though, and didn't want to go back to an empty boat! 

Thank You!

ASBO (AKA Mozzer) & Diddie

Thought id introduce my babies ASBO AKA Mozzer and Miss Diddie

This is them on the way to Stone

Mozzer has been given his nick name by friends on the marina, because he is a little sod, ha! into everything and everyones boat! Other friends have told me that after his morning pee, he regularly nips onto their boat to see whats going on and to say hello!

All wrapped up! 

Mr Cool

Waiting for a treat!

Sat PM snoozeeeeee

They really have adapted to living on the boat very well, Tony built bigger steps in the saloon so they can get out easier, they have a routine now of morning pee pee, food sleep walk, more food then Miss Diddie likes to sleep on the sofa, and ASBO like to curl up under the duvet on my feet! Great hot water bottle. Most Wednesday's we walk upto the Star in Stone where they love to curl up on the seats with their muddy paws (the landlord doesn't seem to mind) 

They make us smile everyday, such different personalities, Miss Diddie is quite independent and will have a little love & attention on her terms, and ASBO has to be with you 24/7 he cant be left on his own, he has abandonment issues, as he was rescued from 2 other homes He used to shake when you left him, but is much better at coping, when occasionally he is left. He is the more sensitive one! 

New Floor & expanding foam

On Tonys day off this week he had time to fill the gunnels with expanding foam to help with the condensation as it was so bad it had stained the paint with running drips. It seems to have worked, although the one that leaks down from my bedroom window is doing my head in, as i've now had to put a towel on top of the bed linen to stop it soaking through. I suppose if the foam doesn't work over that side ill just have to find another way of sorting it.

New floor, Tony has made it go up the skirting just in case we have another "incident"

New corridor lino, we couldn't really decide on a wood effect or this stone one, as i thought it might be a bit cold looking, but with the double underlay on it, its quite squiggly and nice to walk on, and i don't think it looks to cold?

Even though the new floors are down now, Tony still isn't convinced that the last pump out (Monday) completely emptied it he is convinced the marinas machine doesn't work as well as it should. Which is making me constantly worry every time i flush the loo, and i don't really know what we are going to do about it. We will pump out every two weeks without fail, maybe even more, if anyone reading this has any advice i would appreciate as its beginning to become an obsession and i just want to be able to relax about it!

Think some ASBO posts are next!

Poker face loo

Had a little thought this morning that made Tony smile, so I thought I'd share. As we don't have an indicator to tell us when the loo is full I have been looking at ways we might be able to tell. Anyway I reckon that my loo is like a game of poker and that I've got to work out its "tell" as to when it needs emptying instead of me having to be telepathic!

So this morning, I flushed and noticed the basin was a little fuller than normal (with clean water) and that when you flushed it didn't take all of it away. So I think that might be a tell? This next bit sounds a like confession..... It's been 13 days since my last pump out father, and we have been away for two of those days, so it should be ok but...... Since "loogate" I'm airing (literally) on the side of caution, so we pumped out this morning.

I rang Tony and asked "did it suck all it out" " is the boat listing now" I can't believe my life has come to this, paranoia about my pokerloo

That is all

Funny old weekend

Jumped onto Kev & Sues boat Saturday morning as they were going up to Stone, really nice getting out of the Marina, cold, but sun blazing, I cannot wait for Tony not to have to work weekends so we can get away, he has spoken to work and it looks like he will stop doing them from March so just in time for better weather we hope!

Anyway had a good mooch around the farmers market, tried some fab Indian chutney and blew my head off with trying one of the pastes, I never learn. Then it was off to the Swan to try the cider they have on offer, bad idea really as I'd had a piece of toast and nothing else, and had to cycle back up the tow path, but I will never learn!

Cider in system & no food = wobbly Julie, but as I'm a stubborn Capricorn I wasn't going to let that stop me cycling back to the Marina. So to try my new(ish) bike, it's a fold up one, made by a UK company called Kansi, and I can't give it a bigger thumbs up. It only weighs 11k so is very light, even i can get it on and off the bus! It had never been down the tow path though and it was a great journey back to Aston, I can't wait for the paths to be a bit less muddy so we can cycle down them all the time. a couple of pics attached bike up & bike folded.

Sunday arrives and another impromptu get together toasting absent friends ;) Sue has added another string to her bow, not only does she make the strongest g&t, it has now been confirmed she makes the strongest whiskey coffee! Hic

Dont wanna become a blogger bore

Been having a bit of a think over the past couple of days about this blog and i don't want it to become a couple of things, firstly i don't want it to become boring, as we wont be doing any continuios cruising for another year as Tony works weekends and i work in the week and we plan to ditch both jobs at Christmas. So apart from when we take our holidays, posts will be about experiences on the marina and the boat of course. The second thing i don't want this blog to become like some I've read, & that is a bitch fest, moaning about people they meet and expressing opinions about all sorts of crap that have nothing to do with their blog, ( you have Facebook for that don't you? :)

So now thats out there, back to Dampervan update, we went out and got some Lino yesterday to replace the soiled one. We also got some expanding foam that Tony is going squirt into the gunnel to try and stop the condensation running down the walls as there are nice brown stains in a couple of places now. He has to work Fri & Sat so Sunday we should have a nice looking boat again after "loo gate"

We also got a Aldi bargain today a new mixer tap for the kitchen its raised up square if you know what i mean? £29 bargain for a tap!  it works allot better than the last one as when we moved the kitchen round the turner for the tap was a bit difficult to turn.

No plans apart from that, we shall see how the wind blows eh?

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