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!)