The Countdown's On

So it begins now in earnest. We have a date we have to be out of Great Ganett. It’s Friday  23 March, and Pat flies off to New Zealand for two weeks the day after.

The family moving in to the house, Liz and Simon, seem very pleasant, and I hope the cats behave themselves. The family  seem quite happy to take them on, but the cats have never had to be around young children, so it should be an interesting experience all round. I doubt if they will get as spoiled as they are at the moment.

On leaving the house,  I will be homeless for a week until I  take over The Cat’s Whiskers, the following weekend. I am hoping the boys will be finished a couple of days early, but that is going to depend on the weather. Everything is on schedule, but there is still a fair bit of painting to do on the hull, and that will be the deciding factor.

We still have loads to do around the house but it is going to be stuff that will have to be done on the run up to the evacuation. The loft is cleared and all Erica’s stuff has either been dumped or is in boxes in the garage. Pat seems to think the garage is a bit of a Tardis, and I am concerned that once we start getting a few bits of furniture in, it will start thinking very quickly, even though it’s a double garage/workshop. It’s all insulated though and cleared out, ready to receive.

I must say Pat is very organised and has organised a workstream, to get to the final date, involving such things as carpet cleaning and Kev’s departure. My son and heir is hopefully going first week of March.

Took a trip to Long Eaton yesterday for a look round the boat and Mick is well advanced laying the Amtico flooring, though his knees are complaining. The grain is not as dark as we thought, but looks good and Pat is well pleased. The bathroom sink is in, and works, so the bathroom is now finished, apart from putting a mirror up on the wall. The Cratch board is on and the cover has been measured up and will be fitted next week.

Cratch board in. Cover being fitted next week. Washing machine in cardboard box

Steps are in. Wardrobes to left and right

Unfortunately, my guitar will not fit in to the guitar cupboard, that John has made for me, beside the stove. It’s my fault and I still don’t know quite what went wrong,  but  the space can certainly be utilised and I will buy myself a hard guitar case and leave it in one of the wardrobes in the bedroom. We took up a couple of the stools we purchased at Ikea the other week and they fit fine, as well as our safe, the telly and my FM transmitter. Ohh, and the washing machine too.

Washing machine housing built. Going to put a TV on top of ledge.

Bathroom finished now that sink has been plumbed in

John is, at present, building the wall unit that will house the TV, stereo and all our books, DVD’s and CD’s. I have got rid of a load of CD’s but there are around 50 I can’t bear to be parted from and they will come onboard. I have had to redraw the unit a few times, but we know have a plan he can work to. Hopefully by the time we go back up on the 4^th March, that will be in.

These Ikea stools are nice and comfy

Galley and Saloon area showing now defunct guitar cupboard with new Amtico floor down.

So now we need all the ancillary stuff, boathooks, life jackets, windlasses etc, as well as sourcing two 13kg propane bottles. Anybody got any spares out there?

I am planning a bit of a mini snagging cruise down the Trent & Mersey for a few days up to Easter with a couple of pals while Pat is away.

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Boatyard

29 January

We have normally managed to get up to Trent Lock to check on progress of The Cat’s Whiskers every three weeks since Mick and John took her into dry dock in September. But it was on the run-up to Christmas that we last visited last so we were both looking forward to seeing the progress that had been made when we headed north last week. This time we made a city break of it, coming up on Thursday afternoon and leaving Saturday lunchtime, staying in Nottingham city centre at the Britannia Hotel. It was only £28 a night, per room, so we were not expecting much, but apart from the noise of the clubbers (there was a karaoke bar opposite) on Friday night, it was a comfortable stay. Couldn’t say I would recommend it, but I think we would stay there again, if the circumstances demanded it. Very handy for The Olde Salutation Inn, a classic pub I hadn’t visited for 20 years, and we took the opportunity of visiting the local comedy club to see “Ivan Brackenbury”. Never heard of him? Check him out on You Tube. His act is as an inept Hospital Radio DJ. He was marvellous and also did another turn as a spoof Psychic Medium, under the name of Ian D Montfort. His real name is Tom Binns by the way.

Ivan Brackebury

First stop on Thursday was to Ikea, to the north of the city. You know, I defy anybody to walk around Ikea and not buy something. We only had a short list of things we needed but by the time we got to the checkouts it needed both of us to carry the stuff bought to the car. There are still loads of things we need to source and discount or no discount, it looks likely we will get them from our Scandinavian friends. And I do like their meatballs!

One of the main reasons for our visit was to deliver the Amtico Spacia flooring that is going down throughout the boat. The boys will start on that next week. Mick has shoe-horned the battery set into the engine compartment, but I don’t think it will be me who will eventually change them, due to their position and the state of my back. We run the engine at last and it was good to turn the key and hear the sound that will become such an important part of our lives over the months to come.

Battery bank installed and engine now working

The Bubble Corner stove, installed with tiled surround

The galley, looking into the saloon area

Central Heating boiler on left. Microwave and oven installed.
Fridge/freezer to go below

In the galley area, the microwave and oven have been fitted and are working. There was water coming from the taps and apart from some tidying up and putting handles on the drawers that area is almost complete and looks good. We are well pleased with it. Moving into the saloon area the Bubble solid-fuel corner stove has been installed and Mick has put in the black tiled surround. I don’t think we were expecting to see this finished so it was a nice surprise. Evidently, new safety guidelines have made this installation quite tricky, as it now needs to incorporate an air lock. Next to the fire John has made me a guitar cupboard. Moving to the rear of the boat the bathroom is almost finished as well. The shower, loo and all the furniture has been built and installed, apart from the sink, which is proving a bit hard to source. The bathroom is very small, but very functional.

Pat tries the shower for size

Nothing much will be happening in the bedroom area until the flooring is down. Over the requisite doughnuts in John’s workshop we talked about safes and paint schemes. The boys are still on schedule to finish on 31 March. Progress now, especially on the outside of the boat, will depend on the weather.

Meanwhile, at home, I have not been slack. For the last three weeks I have insulating and boarding out our large, wooden double garage/workshop. It was certainly a challenge, especially  re-routing all the electrics, but it is now complete and this week I will  confine over half of its contents to the local dump. This is in order to store stuff we can’t take on the boat, and needs storing. Certain bits of furniture, pictures, tools etc. The garage will not be part of the house rental and Kev will be able to gain access when he requires his fishing stuff. We have sent out to our interested neighbours a proposal form for renting the house, and we hope to have them round later this to discuss terms.

That’s it for now.

Tool time

6 January

There’s loads of provisioning to do before we move on to the boat at the end of March. Well, to be more accurate, it looks like I will move in a week or so ahead of Pat, as she will be in New Zealand at that time, as our daughter Erica and her husband James, are expecting their first born around that time.

I  found some Garden vouchers in a drawer while clearing out some clothes on our return home after Christmas and I discovered they could be used in Homebase, so we had a bit of a spend up in the Hatfield branch on Tuesday.

I got a tool box, a toffee hammer, small bow saw and some wire cutters (essential for cutting away any foreign bodies wrapped round the propeller). We also bought a hose for filling up the water tank and a safe which John is going to hide in a secret location. Just hope he remembers to tell us where he puts it! We also got one of those fold up porters trolleys for moving our gas bottles around on a half price deal. I am still trying to persuade Pat to get a head torch, but she won’t have it. I have one and think they’re great.

Part of our shopping haul at Homebase for essential supplies

We also went into John Lewis on Wednesday and ordered the Amtico Spacia floor. We have chosen a dark oak pattern. It’s pretty expensive, but we know it’s hard wearing and looks good, and will complement the light oak woodwork and cream walls.

Spacial Royal Oak - Our flooring

Yesterday, while in Boots we kicked off provisioning the first aid box and yesterday afternoon I posted a note on one of the boating forums about the sort of first aid stuff experienced boaters have on hand and got some very interesting replies. One of them was to have a can of Coke close by. If you go overboard and get a mouthful of canal water, drinking the coke kills all the bugs you have imbibed. Evidently this technique is used a lot by canoeists.

The Eastern Leisure team at John Lewis brought me “Water Way” as a retirement gift and I got around to loading it this week on to one of the laptops we have. This is a very detailed mapping system of the whole river and canal network of Britain, Ireland and France.  I must say I am very impressed with it and I am sure it is going to be very useful. You can get a lot of what is on there from the various editions of Nicholson’s canal guides but this mapping system gives you the local dentists, bakers, doctors, florists etc, with phone numbers and links to their web sites.  It also has details on all the pubs, restaurants, library’s and WiFi hotspots it knows of, and encourages its users to keep it updated.  It’s also great for calculating journey times, and takes into account “real boating”. You can attach a boating sat nav to it, or so Mike Kelly, the brains behind this system told me, when I rang him to get an access code, but I can’t really see the point of that. At three miles an hour at the max, you can hardly get lost.

The water-Way Mapping CD

Finally, and most importantly, my lump sum has reached my bank account. At the beginning of this week that seemed very doubtful and with a deadline approaching for us to make a major payment to the Kingfisher boys, we found that John Lewis had been dragging their feet, getting everything in place, and blaming it on a third party insurer, who my contributory pension was with. It took several phone calls and for me to call in my old boss, but it has been resolved, which was great relief to us both.

New Year, New Life

Sunday 1 January

Happy New Year to all our followers – all eight of you! Hope you had a cool Yule.

We are recently back from venturing up to the Norfolk/Suffolk borders to celebrate the Christmas holidays with our pals the Tubridy/Deans (and Murray the Spaniel). It’s the first time we had done something like this, hiring a holiday home for the festive season, and it worked out very well overall, with only one hiccup.

Mendam Mill - Our Christmas Retreat - Pat & John in the pic, along with our little Mercedes A Class

But even though we were in the wilds of East Anglia, the Cat’s Whiskers was never very far from our thoughts. Thankfully we received no boat-related Christmas presents (I got plenty of those as retirement gifts) but I did get a book on baking bread from my son Kev, and want to start practicing immediately we return to Welwyn Garden City. I think it might be very handy skill to develop and quite therapeutic.

And on our return to WGC my pal Dorothy at the branch had sent us a home-made embroidered sampler of the boat, which I proudly reproduce below. This will have to be framed and be displayed somewhere prominently methinks

We were thrilled and delighted to receive this from my pal Dorothy at John Lewis

The mild weather over the Christmas period  enabled us to enjoy the grounds of the Mill and to make excursions to Southwold, (Knightsbridge by the sea, as Paul called it) and on the day after Boxing Day to Norwich for a bit of sales shopping and to look around the city centre. I visit Norwich twice a year for meetings at John Lewis, but only ever walk from the station to the branch, and had never had a good look round. Both Pat and I thought it an impressive city centre. We also got a bit of Greyhound Racing in one night at Great Yarmouth and between the four of us who went got an impressive run of nine winners on the trot. So a very diverse few days and one I will not forget in a hurry.

The boat though, is always at the back of our minds, and Pat bought a stripy jumper on Christmas Eve that she thinks will be very suitable for cruising in, and we did look at the bargain towels in John Lewis Norwich. Good to see lots of people at the tills topping up my pension.

The period between Christmas and New Year is always a strange one, as most of the county goes into limbo and the boys at Kingfisher have not been  immune, coming back at work on the boat this coming week. We hear the new oven has arrived to replace the one that was delivered damaged a couple of weeks back, so Pat’s nice man at Smev did deliver, as promised.

The week before Christmas we also had the letting agent round to value the house and give us tips on what to leave, what to put in storage, and the legal requirements we have to comply with if we want to rent our house out. Most of it we knew, as we rented  several years ago when I had my six month long leave, but this time we have to clear the house out almost completely. The agent thinks we will have no problem finding a suitable family who want a large four-bedroomed house, but, of course, we have the added issue of our cats. They are both elderly. It is impractical to take them on the boat, and we would like anybody who rents the house to take the cats on, and the monthly rental will reflect this. Pat is adamant that we will not return there to live after we start renting, and she may very well be right. Luckily, it seems, we might already have found somebody interested. A neighbour on the green has a daughter who already lives locally , that needs to rent a larger home as she is expecting her third child in the spring. They have already popped in for an informal look around and were impressed so watch this space for more news.

It’s unlikely now that we will go to the boatyard until late January, unless there are any major issues. Then we will make a weekend of it as Ivan Brackenbury is appearing in a comedy club in Nottingham. If you have never experienced this chap, who does a complete spoof hospital radio DJ show as part of his act, then check him out on You Tube. It’s quite dark humour, but very clever. He rarely comes south, so this is good way of catching his act and spending some time at Trent Lock as well. I expect we will stay at the Premier Inn next to the Castle Marina in the city centre, like we did back in the summer. We will be taking up our new washing machine, and start to put things in the kitchen which will be totally finished by then.

Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Looks Like The Kitchens Nearly In

Just back from a flying visit to Long Eaton to see what progress the boys have made over the last couple of weeks, and also to meet up with Marion, our pal from way, way, back, who we hadn’t  seen for several years.

All is OK at Trent Lock. The kitchen is almost there though we still await the oven. It’s a SMEV. It’s been delivered once damaged and Pat has had assurances from the chandlery it came from that it is due to be re-delivered any day. Ummmm. We’ll see. She is convinced because the man on the end of the phone was very nice!

That apart, we are very pleased with the kitchen, sorry, galley. The Ikea units have gone in well and the large circular breakfast bar, where we do most of our eating, looks great. John had to make it from two pieces of American Oak, and you would be hard pressed to see the join. Getting to this stage, with the bathroom also partitioned, means we can now visualise the space we have in the saloon. I had been a bit concerned it was going to be a bit small, but I think now I’ve had another look it will be fine.

John gets very emotional on the completion of our breakfast bar.

The American light oak worktop. The wooden trims around the windows have been completed as well.

The Thetford Ceramic loo in situ

John is going to make me a guitar cupboard,  that is going to sit beside the Bubble multi-fuel stove. I had sent him some plans and we firmed them up as well as choosing taps for the basin in the bathroom, in between doughnuts and mice pies. We also took up four packs of ceramic tiles so Mick can start tiling in the kitchen. It’s only a couple of rows, and follows the red theme we will have running through the boat.

Then we drove over to a pub I found in the `Good Beer Guide` and met up with Marion, who had driven over from Leominster, to see us, and we spend a couple of hours, talking about the past, our kids, our aches and pains, and travel.

When we got back home the FM transmitter, I had purchased on line from the USA had arrived, so will try that out tomorrow, which is my official last day with the John Lewis Partnership after 34 years. My boss Helen, and her boss Jon, are both coming in to see me in the morning, but I need to get away after lunch as I have a huge Christmas shop to do at Waitrose across the road, before we leave for our Christmas cottage in Suffolk with my bestest pal John and his family.

Well that was work then

Well that was work then. It would be flippant to say that my 34 years at John Lewis have gone by with a flash, for that is certainly not the case. But the last ten years at Welwyn have certainly flown by and have been the happiest time in my working life.

The last two weeks have been a whirl. Everyday there has been a party or an event. I spent some time with all my leisure pals at the John Lewis country club in Cookham, in Berks, and they bought me a canal on-line mapping system as a leaving gift, which is what I wanted, so the hints I had made didn’t get ignored, and my bestest Partnership pal Colin gave me the Cat tiller pin, he had purchased for me when we met up with him and Stuart, his Partner, at Crick in May.

The previous night had been our branch Christmas Pirate Party - my last one - so the cake they presented me with, seen here, was quite apt.

The Choir I sing with in the branch, the Welwyn Chorus, brought us both a lovely carriage clock to put on the wall as well as “Captain” and “First Mate” wooly hats, and my step-brother Gary went one better with the full Captain’s hat, complete with scambled eggs. I have been very touched with the messages and the many cards and gifts Partners have given me over the last few days. Although it’s my job to give my colleagues a good time, I have been surprised at the level of  affection shown towards me.

But enough of looking back. This blog is about building a narrowboat, so let’s move on and look forward.

Kingfisher are updating their own build blog on their website on a weekly basis, so we are keenly following their progress, between our regular three-weekly visits to Trent Lock. John has been busy with fitting out the kitchen and I hope that when we visit next Wednesday, just before Christmas, it will be almost complete. The boys are also concerning themselves with the bathroom. The loo is in and John has been asking about bowls and taps.

The new ceramic cassette loo has been installed

The shower tray is in

And the galley is taking shape

One of the presents I did get was a plain metal watering can, which I hope to paint the same blue as the boat and then ask Jan to decorate for us. That will be cool.

More news next week, if I fit in a posting before leaving Welwyn Garden City for Suffolk for the Christmas break.

I Love It When A Plan Comes Together

A good week on the boat front. Our visit yesterday found things very much on target with the boys comfortable with their progress and lots to see and decide on.

The day before I got a text saying we had won a prize in a competition I had entered a few weeks back. This had been on a new TV programme, “UK Boating”, which is on a satellite channel, and it was to win a year’s free marine insurance, which we have won, saving us, I would think, around £350. Luverly jubbly!

Sky 231 Freesat 402

We took up the Siemens hob I had sourced from John Lewis, but it is too big to go where we want. It can be used, but not without redesigning the galley, which both of us are loathe to do, so it.s back to Spinflow, which the boys will get from Midland Chandlers.

Spinflo 9 Hob

We took a new microwave with us, the Sony car stereo, and two Wharfedale 9 Diamond speakers. It has become apparent that I was not going to get the car speakers I wanted. The roof space they are to be mounted in is too shallow. I looked around and Richer Sounds are selling off these Wharfedale speakers at less than half price. Reduced from £100 to £39. And they sound really good for the money, so I am well pleased. Wiring them up to the Sony unit might be a bit challenging, but I am sure Mick will overcome any issues in that department.

Wharfedale Diamond 9 Bookshelf speakers

A walk through the boat found the instrumentation panels in place, and I am well pleased with them. The only thing still to go on this panel is the controller for the solar panels. The water tank is in position and the bedroom, as well as the other fixtures have been laid out with masking tape. This gives us a much better idea of how the different areas of the boat will affect each other, and we are both very happy with what we have designed. It seems to be working well.

The instument panel

There is a fair bit of space in the bedroom area, as we are having a small washine machine in there. The pipework is all done to the rads and the pipework is also in place in the bathroom. At the other end of the boat, John has started to assemble the kitchen. That should all be in when we go back, just before Christmas. The boiler is in as are the ceiling lights, which are just perfect.

Galley area with the large breakfast bar taped out

The bathroom area

The bedroom area

We are going for full LED lighting, and there followed a demo from John and Mick showing Pat the differences between soft and hard lights available. I’ve also got to design a cupboard to put my guitar in, and I haven’t got a clue what that will look like as of yet.

After leaving Trent Lock we drove over to Tamworth to Elite Furnishing, who specialise in making furniture for narrowboats. We had seen a really funky chair on their website, but found out on arrival that the patterns we wanted had been deleted during the summer.

We are ordering a settee/sofa bed from them. We might be able to squeeze a chair in as well into the saloon area, but we are going to wait to see if this is possible once we are on board.

The settee/Sofa bed will have a stripes and dots scheme

After looking through what seemed like every book of fabrics in the shop, Pat finally chose the colour scheme she wanted. It’s dark red. She wanted a burnt orange look, but I don’t want people thinking the boat is part of the Easy Jet family!

It’s a good combination, and Glen from Elite is going to Trent Lock on Tuesday to measure up for it. It’s going to cost us a bit over £1000 but we think it is worth it.

This morning I purchased our TV/DVD – an Avtex 12v combination, that I got from John Lewis, so lots of luverly discount off it. The instructions say it can accept memory sticks with films in a MP4 format, but at the moment that is not my experience. Will have to read the manual through, me thinks.

So, all is well and we are very happy. Let’s hope that continues to be the case.