Starting to build the Bed

Wednesday and today have been spent starting to build the bed frame. It hardly looks much as it stands at the moment, but a lot of thinking has gone into it as it has been built.

I have also treated all the wood as it has been built. I don't know if this is really necessary but again it seems a good idea to keep away any form of rot.

Next weekend I will finish off the slats and then I need to find something comfy to put on top of it to sleep on. Will have to do some searching for suppliers of mattresses that are 4 foot wide and 6 foot 6 long!

Toilet Install, moving and accumulator Tank

Over the last two days I have had The New Boat Co install a toilet for me. It maybe could have been a job I could do, but with the amount of holes to be drilled in the skin it was just easier to let somebody else have the hassle and the cost was not much higher than the parts anyway.

Here are some nice pictures of my new toilet and 215 litre waste tank which will be hidden under the bed.


After all the problems on Friday of getting Kathlyn back in her mooring the man from New Boat wanted her moved over to the other side of the marina to fit the toilet. I was dreading having to get her back to the moored space. Anyway, I spent a couple of hours during this morning working out how to best get her back. When the time came she spun in the water with the help of the wind just as I had planned and with a little help from another member of the New Boat crew acting a bit as a human fender she went in first time. I suppose everything takes practice.

This afternoon after all the fun of toilets and moving Kathlyn I calmed down and installed an accumulator tank next to my waste tank. I have heard mixed thoughts about accumulator tanks, but they seem to make sense in my head so in it went. Still not got any water in that part of the system to test it yet though!

A day of shopping

Today has been a day of shopping, not so much buying lots of things but looking at lots of exciting goodies to buy for Kathlyn.

The day started out with a trip to Midland Chandlers in Penkridge, Staffordshire. They have a great stock of equipment from the nuts and bolts up to the stoves and cookers. Shame they don't have a catalogue or web site, but it is worth the visit. After some purchases then headed down to Braunston.

Braunston is a fantastic place to visit for many reasons but today's trip was to visit Tradline - Rope & Fenders. I really should have got the name of the chap in the shop today, but you can tell he really loves his work and is very helpful in any question you have to ask.

I wanted a fender(s) for the stern of Kathlyn as that is where she is up against the pontoon. A little discussion later and I had all I need to protect the stern of Kathlyn and I guess as important the rudder.
I will have to come back to buy a bow fender some other time when I have saved up the pennies.

Tradline may be more expensive than the normal fenders you buy from chandlers but you can just tell you are getting the quality. I would recommend anybody to visit and even just to look round the Aladin's cave that is the shop. Will be going back for more goodies soon. I have put their website on my useful links on the right.

Trip out and Finished Radiator

Today my parents came to visit Kathlyn, so it was of course necessary to take her out for a "spin" round the lake to show what she was like. All was well until I tried to get her back into the mooring and the wind across the water was just not liking it. It also did not help that she was still quite high in the water. After a couple of attempts she managed to get back in and moored, hopefully she will now stay there till after winter.

Also managed to finish off the towel radiator in the shower room by getting the pipes finished and connected to the rest of the system. With the help of the parents the system was topped back up with anti-freeze. Shower room now ready for the toilet to be installed next week.

Now for some plumbing

Those that already know me will know I don't like plumbing. Maybe it is something to do with flooding my parents house when I was younger by trying to "mend" a squeaking floorboard, or maybe it just seems a fiddle. Give me electricity any day. At least if you need to do work on it you turn off the electricity and away you go. With plumbing it is all the hassle of draining the system then still getting wet because some has not drained etc etc. Anyway having said all that I needed to do some plumbing on the boat.

I wanted to put an extra radiator / towel rail in the shower room and also needed to move the pipes for the kitchen sink.

Until this weekend I had not really come across this whole push-fit type of plumbing, only really used to copper pipes and soldering. Why don't they use this stuff in the house would make things so much easier?

After a weekend of working out what to buy and some plumbing have managed to put in the radiator (well nearly) and move the kitchen sink pipes. Just got to get one more tee piece from B&Q and all will be sorted.

The good thing about this weekend's plumbing is that I have not actually touched the pipes with water in. That waits till next weekend!

Measuring and thinking about the wiring

I spent the first part of this evening's visit to see Kathlyn doing a good measuring up job of the bathroom, shower room and galley to make sure I have the correct measurements to do my plans with. There is no point working to the plans I originally did for the fit, I have got to work off the actual room sizes now!

The second part was spent thinking about the wiring. The 12V distribution panel is positioned in the centre of the boat on the bulkhead between saloon and shower room. My understanding is that it is positioned here to avoid the voltage drop issues you get with running quite small cables the long length of a narrowboat. The problem is that it is right where I want to put the exit flu of a stove in my saloon.



My first thought was to move the distribution panel to the side of the boat but on the same bulkhead. Luckily for me New Boat leave plenty of length on the tails to do this move. This would still require me to mount the distribution panel in the saloon which may not look the best.

The other option is to move the distribution panel all the way back to the stern with the other electrical equipment. As the kitchen (ie Cooker and fridge) is at the stern they would not require long cable runs so would not be effected. The only items that would end up on long cable runs are the shower and water pumps, but I could just fit those with extra thick cables.

It is not a small job to do this kind of move of distribution panel, but it is a lot easier to do it now than later. What do I do?

The first item of Handy Work

Today saw my first bit of handy work being produced. The step at the back of the boat was just too large to be easily coming in and out, so needed some steps to help. I decided to have a go in wood to start brushing up my woodworking skills again.

Lots of saw dust and chopped bits of wood later saw the following creation.

Not necessarily the best looking steps in the world, but they are practical and work. They will last till I fit out this area properly.