1st night on the boat and Dinettes completed (ish)

We're still ill by the way - this particular strain of man-flu is quite vicious.  Poor old Andy has been poorly for over 2 weeks now - I'm just entering my second week and it's now moved from my head to my chest...

It's a bit of a beggar actually because last week I got a call from the hospital to offer me a cancelled appointment to see the Neurosurgeons on Thursday...  (the call was Tuesday) - by Wednesday afternoon I was totally streaming... coughing, sneezing and dribbling like something terrible.  I called to explain whilst I WOULD be perfectly happy to come to the appointment, I didn't think it the responsible thing to do... mainly because no doubt the same bloke I would be seeing might then have to cancel some poor souls operations the next week that had been waiting a year like I have...

Oddly, the receptionist suggested that if I COULD make it, I should... cancellations being like "hen's teeth"...

I took the high moral ground and declined  - which means I'm back in the pile waiting for my original appointment ... whenever that might be.

After another busy week at work, we decided that so long as the heating was still working, we'd spend Saturday working on the boat and then camp out for the night - with a few glasses of wine of course.  THAT way we could work late and start early.

I'd wanted to get the dinettes finished (well ish) so I set to cutting and fitting bits to make the raised seating area.

I'm quite enjoying using that pocket jig now - it does allow you to make quite tight and neat joints... well it does when you use the correct size screws that don't go all the way through!!!  - lesson learned there.  

When I'd got the port side done, I then set to on the starboard - oddly, despite measuring things, they re NOT symmetrical... no matter... I believe the saying is if it looks level on a boat - it is.

I made sure to leave enough space to remove the cassette from the 2nd toilet. 

The plan is to put an oak floor down and cut holes through the bottom and sides to let the heat out from the fin rads beneath...  

I needed a guinea pig to test it out.

They're not TOO bad - I'm about 6 ft in my shoes and whilst I can't stretch out, I can lay there reasonably ok...  

The starboard table is a bit tight to fit so I'm going to have to take a grinder to the desmo leg and shorten it a bit - it would do for now but by the time I put the oak flooring down, it'd make it a pig to remove.

Having worked all day, we packed up and went to the pub for tea... leaving the heating on for our return.

I have to say, the heating has worked out quite well - a pretty balanced heat throughout the boat... WAY too hot but well balanced lol. We had to turn it off about half nine.  I WAS pleased I'd managed to set it to come on at 5 am though so when I eventually crawled out of the make-shift cabin about 6.30am, the whole boat was lovely and warm... 

I was lovely to wake up on the boat, have a shower and then fling open the hatch to watch a couple of  swans paddle by... a perfect hangover cure.

This week we've a washing machine, tumble dyer, kitchen units and hopefully a macerater toilet to come - the fridge is ordered but wont be "converted" for a couple of weeks.

Until next time...