Wednesday 22 July 2009

No News is Good News - mostly

I can't believe it is so long since I posted anything.

We managed to sort out our problem with the starter motor, the nice man who does the MOT on my car told us about a place we could get a reconditioned one.

My bathroom is now mostly tiled, my bath is working and all is well with the world. We need to replace the internal window frame before we finish the tiling. No photos at the moment but will get some done soon.
Work on the boat has been largely interrupted by the necessity to earn some money to pay for more things for the boat! A visit to the grandkids slotted in somewhere along the line as well.

At the moment we are enjoying the strange sensation of being a boat on dry land as Ray is busy blacking the bottom (and himself). While we are out of the water we've got the bolts on the rudder tightened as well which hopefully will improve the way she handles. We also got the boatyard to put in a couple more mushrooms and a new water inlet. The list of things to do still seems very long but I'm just about beginning to believe that we will get everything done by next March and before we run out of money!

Thursday 11 June 2009

Murphy's Law

I was full of great expectations that I would be able to say that my vanity unit and bath were plumbed in, fully working and just needing the tiling and a bit of painting done.

All went well on Tuesday, vanity unit plumbed in, no leaks, just needed the doors. Bath plumbed in, couldn't check for leaks as the water supply to it isolated until we get to a water point because we need to have enough water to fill the calorifer before we turn the water supply to it on.

Plan for Wednesday was to go to B&Q, get tiles, grout etc, then do a bit of grocery shopping, back to boat, move up to water point (less than a mile and one lock) and then all systems go.

All went well until we got back to the boat and turned the engine on, or rather didn't. All we got was a clunk! Then the rain came down so poor Ray was stuck with his head in the engine bay, having eliminated the simple answers, like a loose connection to the starter motor it was out with the generator to make sure we had enough power to watch the England match.

Today was spent checking everything, removing the starter motor and now Ray has gone off in search of somewhere that can check it for us.

At least we do have reasonable amount of water for everyday use.

Hopefully, next time, I will be able to include photos of my beautiful completed vanity unit and maybe even at least a partially tiled bathroom.

Friday 5 June 2009

Lit up like a Chistmas Tree!

We spent yesterday playing with power, both solar and battery.

We have installed some solar powered deck lights in the cratch, great for al fresco drinking and dining in the evening, they are very bright from the towpath.

We also added two more leisure batteries to give us more power for the fridge, TV etc. While the weather was good the solar panels were doing a great job of keeping them charged but now I'm having to run the engine to charge them. Who stole the sunshine?

A trip to Uxbridge Boat Centre means we now have all the plumbing bits to finish the bathroom. So by my next post hopefully that will be done.

Monday 1 June 2009

Galley almost complete and other news

I thought it was about time I updated what is happening with Morgana.

There are lots of things that come in the "almost done" category! Most areas of the boat are now functional but not finished off. We still have lots to do but I'm not panicing yet. We are still totally open plan as we haven't decided what style of doors we want!




Closest to complete are the bedroom and galley, the bedroom needs the cupboards over the bed building and the wiring boxing in, then it will just be the painting.


The galley is looking good, fully functional, again the wiring needs boxing in, the painting needs doing and the tiling needs doing behind the sink and cooker.


I've finished my collage surface for the glass sink to sit on in the bathroom so now Ray can finish the plumbing and we can get on with the tiling. I've fallen in love with some stainless steel mosaic tiles, very expensive so they will only get used as a feature! A complete wall of them would be too much anyway.

The lounge still has a long way to go, we haven't done much except putting in a table and bookcases and building a coat cupboard inside the front doors.







Tuesday 3 March 2009

Destiny Sold!

With a year to go until Ray retires Morgana is about halfway to being fitted out the way we want. Destiny is now sold so we are back to being a one boat partnership.
At the moment we are on winter moorings at Batchworth working hard to get as much as possible of the internal construction work done before we move from here at the end of March.