River's edge

The end of an era

2010-03-31T15:52:00.002+01:00

With just a couple of days left until we hand Thomas over to her new owners we have now moved most of our belongings out and are trying not to think about it too much. A mourning period will begin after the weekend.

Please Help Keira

2010-03-19T20:41:00.001Z

Please, please help Jason and Sally help their little girl. Every time someone looks at the website, www.keiraswish.org, a contribution is made by sponsors to the fund to help Keira, but if you can make a donation too, that'd be even better.

I promise that this is genuine, I've met Jason and he's a good mate of one of my best friends.

Thanks, Karen.

P.S. pass it on!

1 - The Trip To Kent

2010-03-13T14:24:00.002Z

A very rough cut of our trip to Faversham in September last year.

Another river trip

2010-02-16T13:07:00.002Z

New flooring for the kitchen

2010-01-11T12:39:00.001Z

Simon's put a new floor in the kitchen. He's a good man!

The Marina is frozen over, again.

2010-01-09T18:48:00.001Z

Simon took these shots today so I thought I'd post them. The water's been frozen for a while, but it's getting thicker and getting a good layer of snow on it now. Pretty though.

RIP Mike

2009-12-01T21:48:00.001Z

We have only just heard and are very sad that Mike Gough was found dead in Faversham Creek just a week after we left dry dock. By all accounts, Mike seems to have died from a fall from the dock in the early hours of the morning.

When we arrived at Faversham in September, Mike was the first person to greet us as we moored up next to Henry, the Thames Sailing Barge on which he lived. Mike was very welcoming and we will always remember him with fondness. He was only 55 and it's a terrible waste.

Rest in peace Mike. You were kind and eccentric and memorable.

Archive photos of Thomas working on the rivers

2009-11-21T18:44:00.016Z

Here're some old photos from when Brian Hunt (above) had Thomas working on the Trent and Humber in the 70s & 80s.

Brian and two friends bought Thomas from the company they used to work for and used her to perform repairs and maintenance around Goole docks and further up and down river.

They welded in a frame on which they put a small crane with which to perform many miracles (the main miracle being that they didn't end up badly injured if the tales of daring do are to be believed!).

Thomas rescues a friend in need. Preparing for the ballast going in. The wheel house before it was enclosed.

The tide goes out...

...and out

... and then comes in again really rather suddenly!

The trip back from dry dock; Home again, home again clickety click!

2009-10-19T00:09:00.008+01:00

We're home, and it's so good to be back.

Am including a photo of Tower Bridge taken from the wheel-house when we were moored up for a few days and nights on the way home. Can't upload any photos at the moment, as have leant the batteries to my camera to the eldest. Will update properly later...

Refloating Thomas - the work is finished, hurray!

2009-10-06T11:01:00.007+01:00

We're all done, Thomas looks all shiney and new and we're ready to go. The tide is coming in, the valves are open and the dry dock is starting to fill up. We'll be afloat again by 2pm. Can't wait, it's felt so strange for Thomas not to be in the water.

No time to post all the photos or cation them so I'll just put up a selection. Ooo, it's all so exciting (how pathetic am I?!).

The work begins in dry dock but starts well with a glowing report from the surveyor.

2009-09-25T17:41:00.016+01:00

The fabulous Chris Holmes has just left us with a glowing survey report for Thomas. Hurrah!

On the whole it seems that the tales were true and she's been really well doubled, with 10mm steel. The anodes were in really good nick and there's just very little damage so we're so happy.

There are a couple of bits to do, but really nothing too unexpected. It's our first time in dry dock, so all those scare stories people like to tell were repeating themselves in our heads but, as ever, Thomas has held herself high.

Simon spent most of the previous day pressure washing the hull down. He and Richard had already had the horrible job of scraping off the weed and mussels that were stuck on (luckily, the slat water had persuaded most of the mussels to fall off on their own).

Your caption here....

Think we might just head off to the pub now to celebrate.

But soon enough it was time to get back to work, so while Simon got to work with the angle grinder cleaning back along the waterline, I set to with the big power washer on the underneath of the boat.

I've never felt more glamerous.

On the plus side, Simon wasn't much better himself.

While Simon fixed a weld on the whisker, I started with the Bitumen, which seems like a much better job once you've done the pressure washing. Suddenly she started to look all shiney and new(ish). Linden is currently burning off some spots on the underside with the OA where they're going to put a plate (it's a spot unbetween two plates that has some pits so it's safer to plate it). Then we're pretty much there. I feel like I know every inch of Thomas inside and out now. It's enough to make a girl proud.

Really should add that Colin Frakes at standard wharf has been a star, as have Linden and Mac. The dry dock is really easy to use, once I calmed my vertigo down anyway, so we're really happy right now (although we're still not sleeping too well, perhaps it's a Feng Shui connection to the water type thing...?). Back to the Bitumen. Will keep posting when I'm clean enough to use the laptop, in the hope that people are interested in our labours...

Our trip to dry dock in Kent.

2009-09-15T18:17:00.032+01:00

Now we've got the engine back in we're on our way to Kent to put Thomas in dry dock and do the wash and brush up thing.

Day 1

It was a lovely day out, with our fabulous helpers Phil and Mark, not to mention the younger clays who it turns out are naturals when it comes to barge steerage.

Phil was excited.

The kids too, in their own way.

Mark spots another lovely lady in need of some Irish charm.

Bruno applauds our avoidance technique as yet another Dunkirk boat survives.

Don't mess with the boys!

The satnav confirms that we're still on course.

The sun shone, we breathed in and out of locks, we gallently avoided sinking the Dunkirk boats full of Chelsea Pensioners, we waved and smiled at probably close to a thousand people, we cracked out the port & brandy as the evening crept in...

We've only made it as far as Teddington so far and we've had to leave Thomas there under the watchful gaze of the lock-keepers, while we go to work in the West Country for a couple of days.

We're off on the Tidal Thames and around to the Medway and the Swale on our return, Faversham here we come.

It's all very exciting... tempered with the realisation that we may well have days of freshwater mussell wranging ahead of us...

Wish us luck!

Day 2

...well actually it was nearly a week later, but with new crew members, Mac and Uncle Ted, we were off onto the tidal Thames. Hurrah!

Mac works at the dry dock in Faversham and he knows the water ways well (plus he's been working and sailing barges most of his life) so we were in safe hands and relinquished the wheel happily. With a supply of black coffee and roll ups, Mac stoically piloted us through London, while we buzzed around like small children in a candy store with our cameras.

As Hammersmith bridge loomed, the tide still looked pretty high. We started to wonder if we were going to make it under. Would we have to hold off for a while? Simon uses his handy stick to measure something. Ted suffers a nervous moment...

...but we make it through with a foot to spare.

It was around here that we discovered that our brand new VHF radio was haveing a small flid and was stuck on transmit so everyone on the tidal thames, including the Port of London Authority had been listening to us whitter on for hours.

Quite a serious matter when you've been jamming the frequencies for hours, but especially mortifying when you realise the rubbish that people must have been forced to listen to us spouting! As night fell, we found a boey to tie up to mid stream near a place that I think was called Erris. (That was hillarious and terrifying at the same time. Simon and I hanging off the side of the ship, Ted holding my feet... next time we're going to get some kind of grappling hook set up in advance!)

Then Mac and Simon were off, litterally. They dropped into the tender, rowed in the pitch black to a nearby jetty and went to the pub to consume ale and sing sea shanties.

Ted and I bravely opted to stay on board to look after Thomas (mostly because we just didn't fancy all the climbing when there was a pasta dinner and a couple of bottles of wine with our names on them on board).

Simon and Mac appeared later, gamely climbing up the side of the ship and slurring nicely. Much port was then drunk.

Day 3 - the final push.

Up at dawn and we caste off (which is alot easier than tying on).

The view got distinctly less interesti8nbg for a while, so I decided to make the most of my time.

I was woken by Simon calling out distances to Mac and, when I looked up through the skylights, by the sight of a very low bridge passing overhead.

If we thought that Hammersmith was low, the bridge over to the Isle of Sheppy left us with only 4 inches to spare due the very high tide. As the waterway became narrower and the land flatter, we crept and wiggled our way into the Swale and toward Faversham. Despite the very high tide, the waterway was quickly becoming very shallow and we passed various floundering pleasure boaters on our way in (feeling very guilty, but knowing that we couldn't help them without ending up aground ourselves). Coming into Faversham, everyone seemed to be on the Thames barges and we quickly felt very outclassed by these great 19th century ships. We tied up beside a Thames Barge called Henry, and Mac was in the pub within moments. Very quickly the water was gone and we could see below the waterline, which was looking pretty good actually. Getting over to Thomas proved to be more of a problem as she shifted on the mud and tipped away from us, but a strategically placed plank from Mike on Henry gave us a route onto the deck.

Our friends Richard and Marina came down to see us and their little boy Louis was eager to come aboard, but it just wasn't safe so he was pretty disappointed, but it's tricky enough with big legs. That night, Richard and Marina made us chilli, gave us wine and let us use their shower. How great is it to have good friends! Now we just have to wait for the dry dock to be vacated and we're in. Hurray!

The return of the engine. Hurray!

2009-08-13T11:14:00.018+01:00

At last, the engine came home on Tuesday.

Our day started early as Simon and I moved Thomas into place on the ropes, which is a strangely peaceful operation.

We'd been looking forward to this happening for ages but, as you can see by the look on Si's face, it didn't stop us feeling pensive.

Then around the corner came Steve with our engine on the front of the JCB.

In case you're wondering by the way, the engine's at an angle to make it easier to drop through the hole.

As you can see, Simon's wheelhouse design includes a removeable section of roof so we can get the engine in and out (also makes a nice sun roof we've descovered).

Ready for the engine being removed, Si cut a hatch behind the wheel in the original footprint of the wheelhouse. Once the engine was out (so we knew that the hole was big enough), Si welded some angle iron to the edges and voila... a nice hatch.

Now Rob just has to connect it all back up again and we shoud be back on our mooring in just a few days.

We're so happy!

We've taken out the crew cabin (what a filthy job that was) and refurbished the engine.

2009-07-31T18:34:00.031+01:00

I wanted to do something nice for Simon, so while he was away in the States I got busy and started to knock out the crew cabin.

Romantic, huh.

It was a really horrible job, years of dust and spiders web and, as it was 39 degrees outside and the cabin is the only room without insulation, it was REALLY hot in there despite the industrial sized fan I had going.

The cabin's woodwork was really well constructed. It took ages to get it apart.

I found a joiner's mark from 1984 and we noticed that there is some older woodwork that shows scorch marks so we think that there must have been a fire that damaged the original cabin and they had to replace it.

By the time Si got back I'd knocked out the top half, leaving the benches and the struts under the floor, which he knocked out himself using a crowbar (that I could really have done with having while he was away!).

Once all the woodwork was gone, it was amazing to see how much space had been wasted by the construction. It's actually really big in there.

Simon then spent the next few days wire brushing, treating and priming the metal.

I thought the kids would be sad to see it all emptied out, especially Simon's youngest who always loved sleeping in the cabin, but they're all enthused by how big the room is now.

Meanwhile, have I mentioned that we've had the engine pulled?

It's been completely overhauled, has lots of new parts, the crank has been reground, polished and given new shells, every single part has been removed, cleaned and replaced... basically everything that could be done has been done. It's like a whole new engine and should be good to go for years without any problems.

It's taken ages, but now it's back together and is currently in ProRig's workshop being bench tested before being craned back into Thomas. It's very exciting, not least because we've not been able to take her out for ages and we miss pottering around on the river!

Having an empty engine room has given Simon the chance to do lots of work down there though, so he's cleaned it out thoroughly and repainted in there. It's looking very smart, and he's made a nice new hatch too. Clever old stick!

Did you notice the new fresh water tanks in the corner there? Simon's bought a black water tank too which is currently waiting for us at Tek Tanks.

Si's busy at the moment making a new frame for the floor in the bathroom (crew cabin). Let me tell you, to us this is VERY exciting!

Boat makeover In Progress - Stand Back.

2009-02-09T09:11:00.063Z

THE LONG VIEW

How we found Thomas, late in 2005.

We bought her from Alan Pease in Goole and he and his team did all the big structural work on her for us too.

At this point, she's in need of a deck, a mast, a winch, stairs... well the list goes on...

...hang on, she's shiny. This must have been taken after we'd started repainting her.

Spring 2007 Repainted? Check. New deck? Check. All the above, plus some? Check. Sailed around the coast from Yorkshire and up the Thames? Yeah baby! Yeah!

October 2007 New wheelhouse, new sky lights. It's all good. Still lots to do though...

January 2009 and we're nearly finished. Has it really been that long? Wish I'd filmed more!

THE HULL

Summer 2006

The lovely Alan pilots Thomas back from the slip in readiness for the journey down to the Thames.

See the post dated April 25th 2008 entitled "Thomas pics 4 - December 2006. The Journey From The Trent to the Thames" for the whole story on the trip.

THE WHEELHOUSE.

Mar 2006 - The original wheelhouse was glazed and had a roof when we found her, but the woodwork was in a terrible state so the inside was full of festering wet carpet and newspapers.

First things first, we repaired the roof and the woodwork, painted and generally made the existing wheelhouse water proof.

There was a well-deck in front which had held a small crane at one stage. It was caked in years of dirt and oil and piled high with rubbish.

Alan cut a big hatch for us and built a stair case down into the main hold. Up to this point the only way down had been by ladder.

Alan welded some angle around the edges and Simon put on a hinged ply door and life got another little bit easier.

Nov 2006 We lived with the open well deck for a while but, since our "front door" was there, it was huge and it was flat to the deck, we kept getting water coming in every time we opened the hatch.

Simon welded a basic frame out of box steel and we put up some tarps to give us some protection from the winter weather.

We started to see it as a room with potential.

Come the spring, it made a nice little breakfast room for us too.

We just took down the sides when we wanted to move the boat.

Oct 2007 - But Simon had bigger plans, so while I was away helping my Mum set up her shop, he moved Thomas around to the crane area, and with Dave Chadwick and Luke at Penton Hook, he cut apart the old wheelhouse and extended it to incorporate the well-deck area.

I popped back to see how they were getting on about halfway through. It was pretty shocking actually. They'd done the most fantastic job, but Simon was more tired than I'd ever seen him.

He gets very serious when he's tired.

Once they'd built the wheelhouse, Simon roofed it, used the old windows to temporarily glaze it, painted it and commissioned removable sides.

Of course, he saved the part of the front wall on which the wheel, chain steering and makers plate are mounted.

Later, we also had the wheelhouse walls spray foam insulated.

Job done.

(By the way, incase you think we're miniature people on a miniature boat, Ian is very, very tall). .

THE NEW DECK.

Jan 2006 - Thomas was built with an open hold to allow large loads to be lowered directly into the barge. The open space was covered with wooden planks when not in use.

While she was very well cared for by the tannery that commisioned her, later in her life she had been left uncovered. Luckily the years of painting her inside with red oxide had saved her from too much water damage.

We decided early on that we wanted to give her a permenant deck and Alan's crew got to work welding steel to the iron combing.

We covered over the bulk of the open hold area with a large curved deck.

Alan and his team did a fantastic job on the deck, as with everything else. It's perfect and exactly what we wanted.

Toward the bow, they built us a nine foot long flat platform... or as we like to call it, the cocktail deck.

May 2007. Simon started cutting holes in the new deck to make skylights.

September 2007. Simon builds a second skylight.

July 2008. And look, now we've decked the deck to go with our deck chairs!

Pass the pimms darling...

THE OLD DECK.

The old deck had suffered. It was pitted, it was rusted, it had leaky portholes, it was generally in need of some TLC.

The combing was, well... wiggly. It'd been beaten up over the years. There were bits that need repair and it was a pretty tricky area to work on as it has all the old hooks and braces from the time when it was covered in boards and tarps.

It took us a very long time to get through the layers of paint to find metal, but slowly (and very painfully) we managed to clean the deck back, treat, prime and paint.

Turned out that it wasn't nearly as bad as we'd initially thought. Alot of the rust we could see on the deck was just dust from the angle grinding people had done on the decks of the neighbouring boats and it was just sitting on top of the undamaged paint-work.

We added some railing for the trip around the coast, and because we wanted the kids to be safe.

Notice the winch. It was a real triumph when we managed to get hold that. They're not as easy to come by as you might think.

We got Alan to put some portholes in the combing too. We realised that, without portholes, as soon as we'd decked over the hold there'd be no light in there at all.

...yes, we know...Blue and Green... Just as soon as we'd painted her, we were inundated by people telling us what bad luck it was. No-one thought to mention it to us before we bought the paint though. Anyway, we liked it and it made us feel like we'd got a lawn.

CREW CABIN.

A quick history lesson: When Thomas was a working boat, she had a two man crew. She would travel up and down from the tannery to the sea ports shipping the raw materials and the finished leather. The only living space was a small semi-circular cabin in the bow separated from the main hold by a thick steel bulkhead.

The cabin has two narrow fold down cots and a tiny fold down table in the centre... that's about it, apart from some cupboards around the sides.

The cabin was cramped and very claustrophobic.

The wood-burner in the centre was the only source of heat and all meals would have been cooked on it.

The only way in or out was through the very small hatch, and that was also the only ventilation.

As we very quickly found though, the lack of ventilation can be a problem once you've got the wood-burner going. We have strong memories of sitting outside when it was snowing one night in Yorkshire because in the cabin it was sauna like and we couldn't breathe.

Beneath the raised floor there's quite a deep space, and behind the cupboards there's more. If we took out the woodwork, there's actually a reasonably sized space in there.

Summer 2006 Simon spent 3 days in the void under the floor chipping and treating the hull before concrete ballast was going to be poured in. Those 3 days were the hottest of the summer and inside the void with no air circulating and the metal hull heated up by the sunshine it was unbearably hot, like being inside a radiator. I swear he actually cooked in those days, he had a huge headache for days and kept throwing up.

It was a hideous job too, clouds of fine dust in the air, in his eyes and in his lungs, despite wearing a mask. He did a cracking job though and we were able to weigh down the bow with the concrete, making the barge much more manoeuvrable.

The other advantage of the concrete is that it seals the metal away from the air and since we know that it was cleaned and treated properly before it was covered up, we can be pretty sure that any damage has been stopped in it's tracks.

The bulkhead wall separating the cabin from the main hold had a couple of holes in it where the rainwater had got in through the old hatch and soaked into the ply floor by the wall. Since it wasn't working as a bulkhead anyway, once we had decked over the hold we decided that it was time to cut a door between the cabin and what was to become our living area.

A couple of hours and a pack of 2mm grinding disks later and I'd cut a door shaped hole.

Simon welded some angle on the sharp edged to make a door frame and a stylish ply door with feature port-hole. Chic huh!

It really made life a lot easier, plus it solved the ventilation problem.

Seems strange to say now, but we actually spent some time living in that little cabin. Comfortable it was not... romantic, no... in fact it has very little to recommend it... really, what the hell were we thinking!

These days, we don't spend much time in there, although Simon's youngest son says it's his favourite place in the world and likes to sleep in there when he's over so Simon's built a new floor and touched up the paintwork. The port bunk is often made up ready for Bruno.

MAIN HOLD.

Welcome to our cosy home.

As you can see, Thomas was full of... well...stuff.
Big stuff.
Big metal things that towered above me. Some of them welded in.
It was a little daunting.

Still, although everyone thought we were crazy, right from the early days we had a very clear vision of what Thomas could be and would be to us. We could look around the hold and see where we would put the furniture. So, slowly but surely (and with the help of a very happy scrap metal merchant) Alan, John and Nikky made all that steel, wood, debris disappear. The large tanks were cut out and Thomas began to look naked.

Don't be fooled into thinking that it took a quick sweep around to clean up though. In our house the above photo is known as "before the lung transplants".

Here we see lovely John sweeping up the piles of angle-grinder dust and saw dust and general oomscar that had built up in the hold over the years.

God only knows how many times the hold was swept and vacumed. It barely seemed to make a dent.

The dust was so fine that any breeze will send it swirling into the air, ready to settle again later, and so cloying that it seems to hide in any rough surface.

For months it was ingrained so deep that we couldn't wash it out of our pores.

The metalwork inside the hold was covered in years and years worth of red oxide paint.

It had helped to seal it against the elements, but there was still damage there so we had to chip, wire brush, clean, treat and paint every single panel and rib. That takes a very long time and it's a horrible job. I recommend having a big supply of hot chocolate, a good mask, goggles and a big strong boyfriend to do it for you.

Luckily, Thomas has been doubled between her bulkheads, so any damage that was there was just cosmetic.

Still, it took weeks of work. The chipping gave me terrible tennis elbow (I couldn't even lift a cup of tea, which was a huge problem!), so I ended up passing the job onto poor old Simon. Have I mentioned how lovely he is yet?

One problem we found with the interior walls, was that some bright spark had painted some of the pannels with Bitumen which is almost impossible to strip or paint on. We tried lots of things, got tips from practically everyone, but nothing made any impression on it and in the end we just had to cover the Bitumen with gloss paint.

Gradually we started to replace the dark red with grey primer and our lives became a little lighter.

By this stage we were actually living on the boat and it was filthy work. We put up tarpaulin walls to try to minimise how much the dust could travel and to help us to heat up our living area. It helped a little I think, but you'd have had to be used to it to not think you were walking into hell at that stage.

The bilge was a worry. There always seemed to water in it in the early days. Fear told us there was a hole somewhere, that we were going to sink and that the sky was going to cave in...

But happily, once we got the deck put on, we found that the bilge dried up and all our fears turned out to be unfounded.

These days the bilge is shiny and clean. We've got an access panel over it in the kids room and we check it every so often, like you do. I think Simon just likes to stroke it really, he likes to show it off to friends and neighbours.

Sounds a bit odd when I say it out loud...

The panel in the bulkhead between the engine room and the main hold had been removed so the engines could be swapped. When they bolted it back we bunged up the gaps with expanding foam so no fumes can leak through, but it'll be easy to remove again if we ever need to.

The living conditions...

Now you won't believe this, but...

...we moved onto Thomas in January 2007, when we were stuck at Teddington lock because the water was running too fast to go any further up stream.

Somehow, Simon had convinced me to give up the flat we lived in. I think he'd convinced himself it was going to be exciting and fun to live aboard while we converted her. God knows why I said yes.

We had no insulation or electricity. At first we slept in the crew cabin on the bunks, but we soon got a sofa bed in the main hold so we could keep each other warm in the night. We put up a tarpaulin at the cabin end of the boat to try to keep some heat in.

We used to get woken up by the icicles falling off the ceiling onto our heads as the morning sun warmed them up.

A moment at this point to mention just how lovely Sally Woodward is.

Sally and Tony have a Humber Barge called Daybreak which they have moored at Staines. They restored and converted Daybreak from scratch, and have converted her to sail so they often take her out to sea and sail around the coast.

Anyway, Sally came to visit early in January, bearing cake and words of encouragement. It wasn't until she came that we realised just how much we needed those words.

Sometimes it takes someone like Sally, who doesn't look at you like you've lost the plot, to bring back a sense of normality.

Gradually we started to make the place more livable. In our bedroom / living room, we got some polystyrene sheeting and stuck it to the ceiling. We also got some loft lagging and stuck it on the walls.

Once we moved the boat up-stream we had shore power and we could have lights some electric heaters and a TV with Eastenders. Oh, what luxury.

When Spring came, we had a different problem. As soon as the sun came out, the metal of the boat would heat up and it was like living in a radiator.

You can see below that we put some celetex siver-sided foam insulation against the walls which helped a little, but by summer 2007 it regularly reached more than 40 degrees inside the boat and there was little we could do to ventilate.

Simon had a plan though, and I arrived back from Japan to find that he'd cut a fabulous skylight in the curved deck and our dark tunnel was suddenly a bright and open space. The ventilation too was great.

It was very heavy work, Simon had worked so hard to get it done before I got back. He was so tired, but justifiably proud.

... on the 3rd day, Simon said "Let there be light!" and there was light. And Simon saw that it was good.

Notice the tents. For a while there they were the walk-in wardrobe and the kids' bedrooms.

Oct 2007

I arrived home from another trip to check up on how the wheelhouse redesign was going and Simon had cut another skylight.

Here's the view from the top of the new wheelhouse while he builds them.

The amount of light that these skylights let in is amazing.

After months living in a darkened tunnel, we also suddenly felt connected to the outside world. Now you can see the sky and it makes you feel happy.

The big push - Come December, we had another huge job on our hands.

Christmas was coming and we were to have the kids. Having been through one winter on a boat with no insulation, we decided we really needed to address the problem. It was going to be expensive, but worth it

We'd arranged a date for the spray foam insulation guys to come, but then we got a unexpected phone call telling us that they were coming a week earlier.

Suddenly, we were faced with having a week and half to clear everything out of the boat and get it battened before they arrive.

Doable.

The trouble was that we had to go away for work for the first week of that, which left us only 4 days to do all the work!

Without battens, we'd have no way of attaching our finished walls and ceiling to the hull and deck. It just had to be done.

So... Simon cut tags, ground the paint off the ribs where the tags were to go and welded them at 4 inch; intervals to the ribs. To these we had to attach over 1000 feet; of 2x1 battens.

The big push

It was a huge job.

We realised early on that we wouldn't have time to batten out the front cabin and that, since we would need to keep the fire going in the crew cabin through the winter, we will have to insulate that area at a later date.

In 4 days, and with the enormous help of Peter, Tim, Debs and Alex (thank god for family), we managed it, just.

Battoning on roof with skylights

There are a couple of areas we wish we'd done more to, but it nearly killed us and we just didn't have time.

Battoning on roof

Our lovely helpers did the most amazing job. They worked so hard and with such skill and dedication... You suddenly realise how lucky you are at times like that.

We were so tired though and we knew we had to stop when we actually set fire to Simon's feet just through exhaustion.

That's a pretty good sign that you're too tired to carry on we thought and so on the 4th night we slept.

On the 5th day, Clive and Bill arrived and within a day, they'd almost finished. It was amazing.

Looking aft, along port wall, after 1st day spraying.

Battoning on roof after 1st day spraying

They came back the next morning to do the wheelhouse. The difference in temperature was immediate. It was like being in a cosy igloo.

Looking aft after the second day spray foaming.

After they'd left, I put the house back in some kind of order and Simon returned that night to something resembling a loft apartment in Alaska.

But there was no rest. The very next day, we bought more wood and ply and began to build dividing walls.

Simon building forward wall

Above and below; a new dividing wall separating the living area from our new bedroom area. How lovely!

Below; looking aft. The new wall of the kids' bedroom, half built

Notice the newly installed heating system. Peter gave us the wood-burner, and we picked up some chimney parts from France when we were there in October. Simon then chocked up the fire and connected all the dots. Warmth, hurrah!

Rear Cabin - Matthew Schofield came over for a drink one night and ended up helping Simon build another room at the back which will be the kids' room.

Toilet goes up - Next door, I built a small utility room that will house the chemical loo for a while until we get the proper bathroom sorted.

Simon gets stuck into building beds for the boys.

In the space of a week we'd emptied the boat, welded, angle ground, battened, insulated, built 3 rooms, put flooring into one of them, gathered furniture from across the country, fallen over, set fire to ourselves... we were absolutely exhausted.

And on the 7th day, we flaked out and wished to god we had a week to sleep before christmas came.

But we didn't and were up again early the next day.

We decorated and wrapped and shopped and gathered...

Now, if we could just get the cooker connected to the gas, we'd be ready for christmas...but that's another story.

The kids open their presents.

Simon put a ply floor in the kids' room and built platforms beds.

Obviously, being a room that houses 4 boys at various times, it gets very messy and I'm almost afraid to go in there sometimes.

As an xmas pressie, Alex has donated a huge TV, DVD and video to the land of boys, so it can be gaming central. Ah, it's the 37' things that make a home!

March 2008 - Karen paints the floor

and builds a larder and shelves for the kitchen area.

October 2008 - Simon starts to lay the reclaimed flooring that he's worked so hard on.

He made a floating frame from 2x2, fitting celotex insulation neatly into the gaps. We've had lots of people telling us how we should fix the floor onto the sides or drill into the concrete ballast underneath. Both these ideas had possible problems attached though.

Fixing the floor to the sides was not only alot of work (involving stripping insulation and welding), but could prove problematic when you take into account the huge expansion and contraction of the iron hull over the different seasons.

Drilling into the concrete floor to fix the wood was far too scary an option. If we create weaknesses in the ballast, we just don't know how well it'll hold up to the constant strain of the floor moving. We just couldn't take that risk.

So, we opted to create a completely free floating floor, which appears to be working wonderfully well. There's very little movement as it's supported by the concrete floor and it feels absolutely solid.

See how clever my lovely man is!

...and look how great this reclaimed, weathered wood is.

It's so great to have a wooden floor to walk on and it's made a real difference to the overall temperature of the main living space.

We just arrived back after new year and were overcome by how lovely and homely it seems even when it's been left empty for days. It's suddenly struck us that it's a real home now and not just a skip that we're converting. Hurrah!

... now, about the plumbing...?

Kitchen - Jan 2009 We got some kitchen counters and a sink and viola... a kitchen! Well, sort of...

So, the bedroom...

Let me introduce you to our mate Andrew. He's a bloody star.

He's a builder and tiler, who lives on a boat near us and he's like a whirl-wind. Simon had mentioned to Andrew that he planned to build a raised floor in our bedroom and Andrew offered to come over and lend a hand.

It became very clear though that Andrew knew so, so much more than we did about building and happily he was OK with taking charge and showing us how it was done. Where we would have put in a 1.5 foot gap between struts, Andrew put in a 1 foot gap. Where we would have put in a couple of screws, he put in 2 screws and 2 nails at different directions to allow for all the stresses. It made so much sense once he showed you. Another thing about Andrew, is that his work is really precise and well thought out. If it's not perfect, he'll take it out and start again, but he works so fast it's like having hired two men rather than one! Simon and Andrew worked so hard and it really shows. The raised platform is so solid that there's no movement. You'd think it was bedded into the concrete.

They worked so hard that in about 8 hours, from scratch they managed to construct everything but the step. Quite a feat, and it was perfect.

The next day, Simon made a removable curved step to butt up to the curved platform. There's a removable hatch to the left of the curve for easy access under the platform.

Later Andrew returned and helped Simon put in extra support for the bedroom wall and put some plaster board on it.

ENGINE ROOM

REAR DECK

Before & After - the shortened version!

2009-01-02T22:43:00.010Z

I've added so much to my last post that it now stands as an depth breakdown of the work so far.

I thought I'd better add a shortened selection of the before and after photos so Simon can log on and have a look when he feels uninspired!

The long view.

The wheelhouse.

The hold gets decked over.

The fore deck.

The main hold - looking toward the bow.

The main hold - looking aft.

Coming soon!

2008-08-24T15:24:00.006+01:00

So, having seen the blogs for Peter, Wendy Ann 2, Real and a few others, I now have terrible blog envy.

I've started adding more photos to the older posts so everyone can see more evidence of us actually having done something to Thomas, but I've decided that a before and after collection of photos is long overdue.

I'll start next week, I promise...

Meantime, if you want to see what a boat blog should look like (and what sado-masochism really really is) have a look at the following blogs:

http://boatsareforlosers.blogspot.com
http://thevoyageofwendyann2.blogspot.com
http://slowboat-real.blogspot.com
http://www.livingafloat.com/watergeus/conversion.html
http://www.thanatopsic.org/hendrik/
http://mv-strathspey.blogspot.com/
http://timzim.blogspot.com/

Deck

2008-08-23T11:02:00.004+01:00

We've got a deck on our deck!

All we need now are some warm evenings when we can sit out and drink wine.

Jealous of our new neighbours we just said 'fuck it', went to Homebase, bought some ready-made squares and presto, half an hour later... a deck.

Simon's out there right now eating his porridge, drinking coffee and thinking about how to edge it.

Anyway, since we're not doing any major work right now, I've made cushion covers and curtains. I also found a model boat in a charity shop which I've glued back together and found a nice 60s coffee table so (if you ignore the lack of walls, plumbing, kitchen and any form of modcon) it's looking a bit more homey in Thomas.

...and on the second third and forth days, she rested...

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Comparison of this year and last

2008-05-20T09:47:00.001+01:00

Here are two videos of the boat. The first I did this
spring, the second I did last summer.

You can see the difference now we have insulation, and
walls.

What you can't see is the fact that it doesn't smell
like rust and diesel any more and that it's finally
clean. It took so, so long to get rid of all the
general dust that comes from years of it being a
working boat and from the metal dust from all the
angle grinding.

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Thomas pics 10 - Spring 2008.

2008-04-25T15:29:00.002+01:00

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Thomas pics 9 - Autumn / Winter 2007. Wheelhouse, battening, insulating and building walls... all in time for Christmas

2008-04-25T15:21:00.007+01:00

September / October, and while I'm at Mum's helping her with her new shop Simon extends the wheelhouse, with the help of local welders Dave and Luke.

Sounds easy doesn't it; it's a bloody horrible job. It's all metal dust and welding detritus and angle grinding through steel. It's dirty and tiring and heavy and god am I glad I wasn't around.

By the time I come home though, there's the beginnings of this fantastic room on deck. He also built the second skylight.

Come December, we've got a huge job on our hands again.

We've got the spray foam insulation guys coming, so we've got to clear everything out of the boat and get it battened before they arrive.

If we don't put up battens, we'll have no way of attaching our finished walls and ceiling to the hull and deck.

So... Simon has to cut tags, grind the paint off the ribs where the tags will go, weld them at 4' intervals to the ribs, then we have to attach over 1000' of 2x1 to them.

We realise early on that we've run out of time to batten out the front cabin and that we will need to keep the fire going in the crew cabin through the winter because without plumbing we have no other heating up there yet. We will have to insulate that area at a later date.

In 4 days, and with the enormous help of Peter, Tim, Debs and Alex (thank god for family), we managed it, just.

There are a couple of areas we wish we'd done more to, but it nearly killed us and we couldn't have done more.

Our lovely helpers did the most amazing job. They worked so hard and with such skill and dedication... You suddenly realise how lucky you are at times like that.

We were so tired though and we knew we had to stop when we actually set fire to a corner of the boat just through exhaustion. That's a pretty good sign that you're too tired to carry on we thought and so on the 4th night we slept.

On the 5th day, Clive and Bill arrived and within a day, they'd almost finished. It was amazing.

They came back the next morning to do the wheelhouse. The difference in temperature was immediate. It was like being in a cosy igloo.

Within days we'd built walls and moved in some furniture. Then we thought, if we can just get the cooker connected to the gas, we'll be ready for christmas...but that's another story.

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Thomas pics 8 - Spring / Summer 2007.

2008-04-25T14:43:00.001+01:00

In April I came home from Japan to find Simon had
constructed the most fantastic skylight. Suddenly the
dark tunnel we'd been living in was bathed in light
and we could see the clouds. It was marvellous. A
few months later, he made another and the effect doubled.

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Thomas pics 7 - January 2007. Our first few weeks in Chertsey.

2008-04-25T14:33:00.002+01:00

Tuesday 20th January
Been at the marina for a few weeks now and it's all
starting to look and feel a bit more like a home now.

Simon's been fantastic. My back's been playing up and
he's been doing almost all the work. I've sorted out
the wiring, but he's been chipping and painting the
walls, which is a huge, laborious, time consuming and
really quite disgusting job.

He's painted part of the floor and created tarpaulin
walls now to divide the hold into rooms after a
fashion. We've got a lounge / bedroom area (which
includes the old crew cabin and woodburner) with a
sofabed and TV, a bathroom (chemical toilet in a
tarpaulin tunnel), the main room (which holds all the
kitchen stuff and a tent full of bedding and clothes)
and down the back a final space where we keep all the
dirty nasty detritus of the DIY process. The crew
cabin still has it's bunks, but Simon and I are
sleeping on the sofa bed. The kids use the bunks when
they come over, until we can sort out the big
woodburner, at which point we can start to organise
rooms for them to sleep in.

The cold snap's suddenly arrived. We'd been very lucky
with the weather for people living in an un-insulated
steel bucket, but now it's snowy and pretty nasty.
We've put up some loft lagging and polystyrene in the
last couple of days to try to keep in some of the heat
that our little woodburner generates. It seems to be
making a difference. Also, I have Eastenders
(hurrah!). It's very bad reception at the moment but
I'll get a better aerial sorted out and maybe some sky
eventually.

To us it all seems quite homely, well in comparison,
but damn... it's cold.

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Thomas pics 6 - January 2007. The Final stage. The Journey From Teddington to Chertsey.

2008-04-25T14:28:00.003+01:00

Waking up in Teddington was nice but, it seemed we
were to go no further. The water was running so fast
that they had put up red warning boards and we were
advised that it would be very dangerous for us to try
to make it up the river any further. We would have to
wait where we were until the water went down and the
stream slowed.

...and so we learned to love Teddington. Well sort of.
The thing is, if you're going to be stuck anywhere for
two months, Teddington's a pretty civilised choice.
The trouble was, we had no electricity (no lights,
etc.), no toilet, no washing facilities... So while
Teddington was very civilised, we looked like
something out of the dark ages and were shunned
accordingly.

It was very peaceful though, living by the woods,
listening to the lapping of the water against the
hull, and the sound of the birds singing (well except
for those bloody geese!). To be honest, just a few
minutes of Eastenders would have been lovely, but
that's just me.

A moment at this point to mention just how lovely
Sally Woodward is. Sally and Tony have a Humber Barge
called Daybreak which they have moored at Staines.
They restored and converted Daybreak from scratch, and
have converted her to sail so they often take her out
to sea and sail around the coast. Anyway, Sally came
to visit early in January, bearing cake and words of
encouragement. It wasn't until she came that we
realised just how much we needed those words,
everyone's been great but it takes someone like Sally
who doesn't look at you like you've lost the plot to
bring back a sense of normality.

Saturday 24th February
So today we moved the boat up to Penton Hook Marina at
last. Hurrah! The trip up river from Teddington all
went very well really. Only bumped into a few things
on the way into the locks (that's why they put up
those wooden barriers surely) and we managed to get
into the marina almost perfectly with the help of some
crib sheet copies of Edward Burrell's drawings.

We had some marvellous friends to help; Richard and
Ray came along again to finish the trip they began
with us at Grays on New Year's Day. Also the Wood
boys, Tom and Tom joined us on our adventure.

It's so lovely here. We have electricity (without the
noise of a generator), water, showers, wifi internet
access and the ability to curl up on the sofa together
and watch a movie, which really helps to make it feel
like home.

We even have a cooker, which, OK... we can't actually
use yet until we can get the gas plumbed properly, but
we have one, donated (can you believe it) by Carl and
Debbie who have a fabulous barge, "De Hoop Concordia",
moored just around the corner. We also have lovely
neighbours and now we can start the process of sorting
out the living accommodation, which was all a bit
tricky at Teddington.

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Thomas pics 5 - January 2007. The Journey From Greys to the Teddington.

2008-04-25T14:26:00.003+01:00

After a couple of days santuary and a few more days
preparing Thomas for the next leg (which largely
involved getting in enough hot chocolate), we were
ready to set off up the Thames on New year's day 2007.

With the help of friends, the kids and some very
lovely members of the Grey's Yacht Club who could
pilot for us, we waited for the tide and we were off.
Simon and I couldn't pilot Thomas on the tidal Thames
because we didn't have a radio licence plus we didn't
feel we had enough experience at the time.

What a great way to spend New Year's Day, motoring up
the Thames, right through London. It may have been
cold, but what an experience for us all, especially
the kids.

The water was running very fast, so it took us all
day, with very slow progress under some bridges
especially. We finally arrived at Teddington, the
first lock on the Thames, at about 11pm. I didn't want
to miss any of the journey so I spent most of it
sitting on the deck, occasionally covered in bin bags
to keep the rain off.

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Thomas pics 4 - December 2006. The Journey From The Trent to the Thames.

2008-04-25T14:17:00.000+01:00

And so we waited...
And waited...
For a month...
Then another month...
Then suddenly, a week before Christmas, the wind
dropped and they were off, Simon, Alan, Little John
and a salty sea dog called Trevor; a crew of hearty
men furnished with bacon, beans, fizzy pop and so many
cigs that if they'd been stopped the cops would have
thought they were smuggling.

The trip started well, they travelled down the Trent,
along the Humber and out to sea. They made it across
the wash with out any problems and they did fine
(barring a little sea sickness from the younger
members of the crew) until they reached the Thames.

Once in the Thames the possible traces of mist, turned
into such a heavy fog that London practically shut
down. Thomas was stuck at Tilbury unable to tell where
they were going except for GPS, which didn't help them
navigate away from several large container ships which
seemed to ignore trivial matters like collisions with
smaller ships.

Two days later and the fog hadn't lifted, they
couldn't see the shore, the coal was running out, as
was the petrol for the generator, the cooking gas and
worst of all, the bacon. The phone batteries were
running out and I was frantic.

They managed to fight their way up as far as Greys in
Essex and dropped anchor. They took a chance and set
out in the dingy in the direction (they hoped) of the
shore for supplies and rescuers. It was christmas eve
and they were desperate.

I met them there and wouldn't you know it, they'd
managed to anchor right next to Greys Yacht Club, a
place with gas, beer and bacon sandwiches! Not only
that, but those truly lovely people let us moor up in
a gully they had; giving us sanctuary for christmas,
allowing me to get the crew back to Yorkshire for
christmas and letting me hug Simon to make sure he
really was alive after all the worrying.

So on Christmas eve we finally arrived at Simon's
Mum's, dirty tired and totally drained. Thank god for family.

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Thomas pics 3 - Autumn / Winter 2006

2008-04-25T13:56:00.005+01:00

Summer moved into Autumn and the deck was finished.
Mallo came and helped to paint again, he's such a
star. The deck looked so great and we got very
excited, we could suddenly picture ourselves sitting
on the flat deck in the sunshine with beer in our
hands.

Of course, once we'd spent weeks painting and a
fortune on the paint itself... we were suddenly
decended on by a swarm of people telling us what bad
luck it is to paint a boat blue and green. Still we
like it and are very pleased with the effect.

In fact, we met quite a few people while we were
moored in Goole who knew Thomas from her previous life
when she was part of the tannery fleet. It was lovely
to hear about how proud the skippers had been of their
ships and how they had lived.

Alan put a mast and navigation lights on and started to wire up a make shift control panel in the wheel house.

Over the autumn and into the winter, the Iveco engine
that we'd had put in the place of the old Lister JP3
was finally coupled up and we were ready for our
maiden voyage. This was exciting for us, but not
exactly a white knuckle ride as it became immediately
evident that we didn't have much in the way of
acceleration and we'd have to get the propeller
pitched before we could make the trip out to sea.

So there followed a flurry of activity as Alan sorted out: a slip that we could use for a day to get the boat out of the water, taking the prop off, rushing it to a yard that could alter the pitch of the blades so that they'd work with the new engine, rushing it back to the slip, getting the prop put back on and getting Thomas back into the water before the next boat booked to use the slip appeared.

Suddenly though we were ready, ready to get Thomas out to sea, around the coast and into the Thames. It was all very exciting and a little bit scary.

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Thomas pics 2 - Spring / Summer 2006

2008-04-25T13:25:00.004+01:00

We bought Thomas H from Alan Pease in Goole in February 2006.

We then paid Alan, his son John and welder Nikki, + a couple of other helpers to work on Thomas for the next few months doing all the things that we just couldn't afford to pay anyone down south to do.

We also travelled up every other weekend from Berkshire for an insane numbers of months to work on the boat ourselves. Simon's friends Mallo and Rich were great and provided help and sanity. We got the kids to help a couple of times too, but it's amazing how quickly they learn to hate the idea of being on the boat when you make them paint and scrape in the cold.

Alan and Lynne Pease also allowed us to stay in a nearby property when we were up there, allowing us some actual rest and a bath, for which I will always be grateful to them.

Once the rubbish and steel tanks had been emptied out,
an enormous job, Alan's team started to construct a
deck over what had always been an open hold.

We wanted low curve over most of the hold, but a flat
deck section toward the bow.

Meanwhile, Simon helped to clean out the inside of the
hull at the bow, under the crew cabin, so that it
could be sealed and have concrete ballast poured in.

There was so much dirt and oil and dust and rust around, it's hard to explain how disgusting it was to try to clean her up. Sweeping was an endless and filthy job. Richard and Mallo came and helped out, which shows just what great mates they are coz if it'd been me I would definitely have made some excuse and got the hell away from there!

Alan also made a staircase for us and they cut a hatch in the well deck and mounted it for us.

Meanwhile, we started the huge job of chipping, scraping sanding, priming and painting the exterior. Damn, she takes a lot of painting!

My other big contribution at this stage, was to cut a door in the (already far from watertight) steel bulkhead between the hold and the crew cabin. Apart from the practicalities of being able to move between, the only living space on the boat and the main area, this door means that we have an escape route in case of fire.

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Thomas Pics 1 - How we found her

2008-04-25T13:06:00.010+01:00

Here are some pictures of how Thomas was when Simon
first bought her in February 2006. As you can see, she was full of debris and still had huge tanks welded in place in her hold.

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2008-03-26T22:18:00.000Z

Thomas H - 1940 Humber Keel Background We are currently converting “Thomas H”, a 62’ Humber Keel Barge. Thomas was built for Hodgson’s Tannery in 1940 and paired with “Richard”. The barges were named after the Hodgson brothers. Thomas has a rough crew cabin in the bow (not original), but is otherwise unconverted. She has concrete ballast. Since buying her early in 2006, we have had the hold decked over and some railings put around, added some portholes and a winch, replaced the old JP3 engine with an Eveco and worked endless weekends on smartening her up. In the last few years of her working life, Thomas was used to pull concrete pilings out of the river bed, and so she has been modified for this purpose. The crane deck still exists and will eventually provide the footprint of an extended wheelhouse. In the beginning was a bucket full of bits... Thomas was bought via Alan Pease in Goole, Yorkshire. In fact it was Alan who decked her over, replaced the engine, etc and bought her down to the Thames for us (which was a saga I’ll explain at a later date). Alan, along with Nikki and his son John have done a huge amount of work to Thomas, as well as putting us up on our visits to Goole. When we got Thomas, she was full of old bits of metal and bit and pieces, as you can see. She also had a couple of very large tanks welding into her near the forward bulkhead. All of this had to emptied and cut out leaving an empty hold with which to work. The crew cabin at the front had no concrete in at the time, which meant she sat very high in the water at the bow. All the metal work had to be cleaned and treated before new concrete was poured in. This was a horrible job, which Simon decided to do during the hottest summer days on record, resulting in his brain getting cooked. He had a headache for about 2 weeks solid after that. We’ve put railings along the sides, a safety stipulation for her journey around the coast. The deck we’ve put onto the combing is largely arched, but we did put an area of flat deck toward the bow so we can eat and entertain on the deck once the weather improves! Thomas was bought and remained in Goole, East Yorkshire while Alan sorted out the structural steelwork and replaced the engine. But once the work was done, we needed to bring her down to the Thames where we have a mooring waiting for her near Chertsey. The plan was to bring her down the coast, but in order to do this we had to have low seas and winds of not more than force four. After more than two months of waiting for a window in the weather, two months of gales and shocking storms, a window arrived just a week before Christmas. Hurrah, we thought, we can get the boat down to the Thames in time for Christmas and prep it for a seasonal moment with the kids. So at 2am one morning, with much persuasion and a job lot of bacon and white sliced, Thomas H set off for London crewed by Simon, Alan, little John and a salty sea dog called Trevor set off for London. The sea conditions were ideal, although there was a chance of fog inland .................... ...and so we learned to love Teddington. Well sort of. The thing is, if you’re going to be stuck anywhere for two months, Teddington’s a pretty civilised choice. The trouble was, we had no electricity (no lights, etc.), no toilet, no washing facilities... So while Teddington was very civilised, we looked like something out of the dark ages and were shunned accordingly. It was very peaceful though, living by the woods, listening to the lapping of the water against the hull, and the sound of the birds singing (well except for those bloody geese!). To be honest, just a few minutes of Eastenders would have been lovely, but that’s just me. A moment at this point to mention just how lovely Sally Woodward is. Sally and Tony have a Humber Barge called Daybreak which they have moored at Staines. They restored and converted Daybreak from scratch, and have converted her to sail so they often take her out to sea and sail around the coast. Anyway, Sally came to visit early in January, bearing cake and words of encouragement. It wasn’t until she came that we realised just how much we needed those words, everyone’s been great but it takes someone like Sally who doesn’t look at you like you’ve lost the plot to bring back a sense of normality. Saturday 24th February So today we moved the boat up to Penton Hook Marina at last. Hurrah! The trip up river from Teddington all went very well really. Only bumped into a few things on the way into the locks (that’s why they put up those wooden barriers surely) and we managed to get into the marina almost perfectly with the help of some crib sheet copies of Edward Burrell’s drawings. We had some marvellous friends to help; Richard and Ray came along again to finish the trip they began with us at Grays on New Year’s Day. Also the Wood boys, Tom and Tom joined us on our adventure. It’s so lovely here. We have electricity (without the noise of a generator), water, showers, wifi internet access and the ability to curl up on the sofa together and watch a movie, which really helps to make it feel like home. We have a cooker, which we can’t actually use yet until we can get the gas plumbed properly, but we have one... donated (can you believe it) by Carla and Debbie who have a fabulous barge, “De Hoop Concordia”, moored just around the corner. We also have lovely neighbours and now we can start the process of sorting out the living accommodation, which was all a bit tricky at Teddington. Tuesday 20th January Been at the marina for a few weeks now and it’s all starting to look and feel a bit more like a home now. Simon’s been fantastic. My back’s been playing up and he’s been doing almost all the work. I’ve sorted out the wiring, but he’s been chipping and painting the walls, which is a huge, laborious, time consuming and really quite disgusting job. He’s painted part of the floor and created tarpaulin walls now to divide the hold into rooms after a fashion. We’ve got a lounge / bedroom area (which includes the old crew cabin and woodburner) with a sofabed and TV, a bathroom (chemical toilet in a tarpaulin tunnel), the main room (which holds all the kitchen stuff and a tent full of bedding and clothes) and down the back a final space where we keep all the dirty nasty detritus of the DIY process. The crew cabin still has it’s bunks, but Simon and I are sleeping on the sofa bed. The kids use the bunks when they come over, until we can sort out the big woodburner, at which point we can start to organise rooms for them to sleep in. The cold snap’s suddenly arrived. We’d been very lucky with the weather for people living in an un-insulated steel bucket, but now it’s snowy and pretty nasty. We’ve put up some loft lagging and polystyrene in the last couple of days to try to keep in some of the heat that our little woodburner generates. It seems to be making a difference. Also, I have Eastenders (hurrah!). It’s very bad reception at the moment but I’ll get a better aerial sorted out and maybe some sky eventually.