Hello from the marina

Things are moving on at a good pace on the boat, the kitchen ( sorry galley) now actually looks like a kitchen. Base units installed and the plywood worktop installed with sink and tap . It would have been helpful if the timber yard had cut the ply to the right dimensions but it worked in the end. And I now have a working gas hob/oven/grill which by the looks of things has never been used, its absolutely spotless. And the 12v fridge that was left, although a bit tired looking, works perfectly.

Getting an Ikea base unit to fit into a 6ft wide narrow boat with sloping walls and a floor mounted waterpump and pipes is an interesting excercise. But after some head scratching and the removal of quite a lot of the carcass its in. Something a bit galling about buying a unit and then removing about a third of it just to install it, but it was cheaper than building from scratch.

The current state of play is :

• Bedroom - 80% complete, bed frame installed walls/ceilings have 2 coats of paint and lighting, air vent installed

• Kitchen - 90% complete, all units installed along with worktop, lighting and ventilation. Tap and tiles now installed.

• Living space - Lighting, electrics, painting of walls/ceiling complete, homemade sofa well underway

• Bathroom - Installation of sink, taps and painting to be completed.

Safety Certificate

Well it was a fail….BUT not the end of the world the points it failed on are so minor it will cost very little to put right and take about an hour. Now some of the failures are due to me not being there during the inspection so he could advise, it would have been nice if that had told me I had to be present !

Then we get to the kicker, I am no fan of health and safety as its usually extreme and has very little to do with common sense. But during the check the inspector unplugged my shore link power cable to test the battery system, unfortunately he left it laying on the the path next to the water. He also turned off all the electric systems in the boat but didnt bother to turn then back on . Leaving my safety flooring rolled up on the roof wasnt great either. But onwards and upwards.