Things move along in two days

Build day 92-93
Yesterday we went out for the day, therefore no visit to Yarwood, so today we have two days progress to report!
The  first item on the progress agenda, the portholes, mushroom vents, bulleyes and vents were delivered today.  Yippee and sighs of relief all round...but in fairness to Procast, these are the result of a third casting - a new pattern and mould had to been commissioned to get these double glazed ports right.

One of the nine 15.25" portholes

The tug portholes offered up to Yarwood to see the effect

The stern bands primed ready for painting

 Light cream 1" border on the name panel

Bow flair masked ready for painting

Joe and Stuart discussing the new exhaust

Richard has been busy in the back cabin

Soap 'ole and steerers step in place

The little Faversham stove makes it on to the boat

Tomorrow we will be back at the Barnowl in the morning because Dave Moore, the sign writer, will be there to discuss what is going to be done to Yarwood 

Banking on the Batteries....and paint

Build day 91

Powercell Industrial Battery Engineers turned up this morning and fitted Yarwood's battery bank.   We have opted for a bank 2v traction batteries with a capacity of 945 amp hours.  The traction batteries, though more expensive, allow us to discharge (use) more of their storage capacity.  We provided Powercell with details of what equipment would be aboard Yarwood and how many hours it would be used for; Powercell went away and did the calculations based on the equipment levels and our request that we would want to moor up for say three days and NOT have to run the engine/generator.

Battery bank

Another view of the battery bank...

More importantly, (woman speaking here...) the painter has started glossing the ceiling!  Chris is in all week to get the internal painting done and dusted.

Chris, decorator extraordinaire with a half painted saloon

Back cabin ceiling glossed

Spare beds and things...

Build Day 90
We went into Kidderminster today to buy a small TV that is going to be fitted in the back cabin.  Richard who is building the back cabin needed to know the dimensions in order to work out where 'to stick it'.    The wiring loom included provision to set a TV in the back cabin and we thought that it would give either of us somewhere to go when our viewing choice is not to the other's taste.

ESSENTIALS C16LDVB11 16" HD Ready LED TV with Built-in DVD player

Image care of the Curry's website, thank you Curry's

Primed back cabin cupboard doors

When we arrived at the Barnowl workshop today Stuart and Richard had gone off to London to deliver a widebeam boat that they have just completed.  I think they were following the lowloader down the M1 to assist with the launch.  That left Jack, Richard's son, rubbing down and priming the back cabin, John constructing a cupboard for the folding bed and Pete fitting the breather and connections for the main diesel tank.

Framing for the folding bed cupboard

Progress on all fronts

Build day 89
This morning we got a call from Stuart at Barnowl Narrowboats to say that the shower enclosure we had sourced was not the advertised 1800mm in height but it was 1850mm and too tall to fit in Yarwood.   Joe got on to the supplier and they admitted that there had been an error on the website and they would arrange a collection and refund.  
The next call was to Wesley Windows to see if they had a suitably short enclosure, they did!  So a 1700mm quadrant enclosure is being delivered tomorrow and the too tall version is being collected on Monday; so far so good.
And finally, a call to Pro Cast the supplier of Yarwood's portholes and mushroom vents to find out why we had not seen the goods when they had had the full payment over four months ago. 
They are going to get them to Barnowl for next Tuesday...apparently. 

 Stone shower tray in situ

And today's progress; the low profile stone shower tray is in place and the portside bulkhead has been fitted. we have opted to use wetwall products and avoid tiles so the first panel was cut and fitted by Terry (see below) whilst we were at the boat this afternoon.

First of the wetwall panels in place

Name panels masked ready for the border

Stuart had been masking up the name panels at the stern ready to apply a coat of light cream paint as a border.  Stuart is pressing on with this preparation because next week Dave Moore, the sign writer, is coming to start doing his magic.

The framework for the TV cabinet and book shelves in place

It the saloon, John has been constructing the framework for the TV cabinet and the adjoining cupboards.

The crumb drawer

And in the back cabin Richard has been making and fitting the traditional 'crumb' drawer in the table cupboard and 'hanging' the table cupboard door.

Table cupboard door now fitted

Oh yes, there's Richard...

Belfast...

Build day 87
When we saw Yarwood yesterday afternoon the Belfast sink was in situ and the worktop fitted.  The galley is really starting to take shape now.

The Belfast sink care of Armitage Shanks

The ceiling had had its first coat of primer

Drawers at the bottom of the wardrobe.

Table cupboard and..

Build day 86

The table cupboard is taking shape, frame in place now

Richard has skilfully built the table cupboard door/table and is refining the fit

Table cupboard door 'shot' in

Moving into the engine room the battery box has been built - batteries due for delivery on Friday

The galley worktop on the starboard side has been fitted

And, the Hurricane central heating boiler now resides on its bracket in the hold.

Generator and drawers

Build day 85

A cocooned diesel generator with hospital silencer

 Work has been going on all last week to complete the fitting of the diesel generator below Yarwood's tug deck.   Work continues to sort out  discreet venting for this 7.2kva  beast. 

 Also brackets for the Hurricane central heating boiler have been welded in so sometime this week that will be fitted as well.

And above stairs....the side steps are coming along nicely.  The drawers are made and fitted they just need the finishing touch of fronts and furniture.

Taps...for Lisa

Brass monobloc for the galley - apologies for the quality of the images but they were lifted from the B&Q website, thank you B&Q

Lisa has asked me to show the taps we bought yesterday for Yarwood, and here they are.

Single lever pillar style for the glass wash basin in the shower room.

Floor covering and progress..

Build day 80
Yesterday morning Joe and I went into Kidderminster to select the taps for the galley and the showeroom as well as to find and order floor coverings for Yarwood.

We have opted not to have solid wood floor covering, lovely as it is, in this boat.   We have chosen a tough, 15 year guaranteed, vinyl for the shower room and galley.   The reasons for that choice is that it is waterproof, it is non slip, it is warm to walk on and it is quiet to walk on, especially if you have four paws with claws attached!!
 In the saloon we are fitting tough velour type carpet tiles; once again experience tells us that these type of carpet tiles are so easy to live with.  They are as tough as old boots, they are versatile, waterproof and practical, e.g. you can lift one if necessary and hose it down outside, dry it on the boat roof and put it back, job done.

The shopping done we then went to see the progress on Yarwood and deliver the new taps.

Richard had progressed the 'fitted furniture' in the back cabin.  The bed'ole is taking shape and Richard was beginning to construct the table cupboard that traditionally sits alongside.

Top step in place

The drawer carcases  that will fit into the steps -  all on soft-close runners

And the newly arrived little addition for the back cabin, the Faversham stove, arrhh, cute or what?

Worktops, stairs and bed'oles

Build day 79

Portside galley worktop, glued and cramped.

The planks that were being prepared yesterday have now been glued and cramped together to formed the solid wood worktops.

Starboard galley worktop also glued and cramped

 The steps (stringers?) for the side stairs

 The side stairs now framed

 Richard has made progress on the bed'ole, all 5' of it.

Richard refining the bed base

more refinement...

Frames and planks

Build day 78

Our task yesterday morning was to see if we could source a shallow shower tray and a shorter shower enclosure, shorter than the norm that is.  Our original plans were to have a pentagonal shower tray, possibly made to measure out of stainless steel because that would allow the wetwall boards we intend to use in place of tiles to be fitted 'inside' the tray - nullifying the  possibility of leaks.  Things changed when Stuart our boat fitter had concerns about the finish quality of a stainless steel tray and the difficulty of creating a watertight seal with the bi-fold doors we wanted.  The framing for a bi-fold is designed to be fitted at a 90 or 180 degree angle, a pentagonal tray doesn't present those angles..  So it was rethink time.  With tape measures and pencils we crowded into the space set aside for our shower room and re planned and yesterday I found the right stuff...
From www.bathempire.com I was able to get a 900x900 quadrant shower enclosure that is only 1810mm tall and a shower tray that is a mere 40mm thick.

Hardwood framing for the cupboards

Yesterday afternoon we went up to see Yarwood again.

More hardwood framing

Richard had been out buying more wood and was busy with John preparing it to make the worktops for the galley.

Fiddly finishing touches in the back cabin -

Space for the drawers under the side bed in the back cabin