When a work lifts your spirits and inspires bold and
noble thoughts in you, do not look for any other standard to judge by:
the work is good, the product of a master craftsman. ~Jean de la Bruyere
We started thinking about the changes we wanted to make to the very
front of the interior bow which is the entry to our saloon (living room
for non-boat folk) in the dark of last December.
I drew up an idea on paper and we stuck it to the fridge with a magnet.
There it stayed, yellowing with the returning sun, the paper edges
growing frayed over a period of seven months. We finally rescued the
drawing from refrigerator obscurity, and after a dozen rounds of
discussion and re-drawing, Dear Sir and I settled on our plans: Extend
the cupboard on the left side, mounting the TV and radio on the outside
wall, providing a peek-a-boo spot for the DVD and Skybox
to provide accessibility without having them sitting in the open, and
inside the cupboard, a set of drawers for Les' tools, shelves for shoes
and boots, hooks for coats, allowing us to empty out the contents of the
front stairs and find another use for that space.
I wanted a neat, streamlined look which would also make it easier to
keep clean. We also wanted new front steps--all the same width and
rise--instead of the different widths and rises we currently had which
made stepping inside the boat an unsettling feeling. Re-building the
steps for conformity would also provide us with additional storage space
inside.
Finally, we wanted to extend the wood stove hearth and re-tile it. This
was something Les spoke of in February 2011 when he proposed to me. He
had been thinking of undertaking this project for some time, as the
original hearth was in his experience, too short. Live coals often
bounced out of the open stove door and left burn marks on the floor. A
high wooden lip around the edge of the hearth also trapped coal dust and
wood ashes and made it near impossible to sweep clean. Les said he
wanted to wait until we were married and living together on board so I
could choose the tiles.
Finally we were ready to begin. We visited Topps Tiles in Macclesfield
and I showed Les what I wanted. He told me afterward he was very unsure
of my choice but he trusted my taste explicitly and didn't say anything
until the project was done.
What he was thinking was "Oh red tiles and black grout. I couldn't
really imagine it. I'd never done a running subway pattern in tiling and
it would not have occurred to me to use it around the stove. I think I
would have chosen a light beige tile in five inch squares and used beige
grout. But I wanted you to choose the tiles and I was willing to trust
your decision--which has proven brilliant." Bless him!
I had spent the winter months noticing the bright red knob on the
fireplace poker winking at me from the drab, black shadows of the
hearth. I knew what I wanted--bright red, rectangular tiles running in a
staggered subway pattern, with black grout to keep the red from
screaming out too loud and which would also pull in the matt black of the wood stove.
We agreed this ambitious project should be broken down into three
parts: part I would include the new steps. They needed to be heavy and
solid enough to support our weight and stay in place but easy enough to
lift out and access the water pump, which hides behind them. I chose a
black and white pattern of carpet squares to cover the stairs, helping
them blend in with my color scheme for the hearth.
Phase II would include removing the low corner cupboard on the left, lifting the
book shelf up, making it three shelves instead of two;
building a new floor to ceiling cupboard on which the Telly would be
mounted on an adjustable arm, and Les' tools would find a new home in
hidden drawers.
Phase III would include removing the cast iron wood stove and stove pipe, repainting them in matt
black stove paint, extending the hearth, adding a low angled wall
between the stairs and the hearth to contain heat. Les added a thin
sheet of heat reflecting aluminum and Firebacker board to ensure safety.
Finally the entire right front corner would be re-tiled in my choice of
tiling, and the stove would be refitted into its new space.
We began this ambitious phase of our interior boat remodeling Thursday,
August 16th. NB Valerie was moored at High Lane bridge, Stockport, on the Macclesfield canal for a week while Les made numerous trips by foot up to the local DIY store nearby.
They were brilliant, and for a nominal fee of £4 they delivered all the
cut pieces of stair and cupboard right to the boat. One week later
Valerie sported lovely new steps--with long, wide treads of an even
width, and a low, comfy rise.
The cupboard was also in and the exterior bits were installed. A break in work ensued with a visit from American friends. Topps Tiles also has a location in Leek at the end of the Leek arm so after the visit with Kialynn and Alana, off we cruised from the Trent & Mersey onto the Caldon, to moor up in Leek for almost a week.
It takes Dear Sir a fair amount of time thinking about a project. He
has to mull the entire thing over in detail in his head to be sure he
knows how he wants to proceed. Once Les gets stuck in though--look out!
He's a lean, mean, working machine, and his attention to detail is
superb.
Les berates his work, saying it is the best he could do with a hand saw, a
jig saw, a level, and a power drill. I am amazed and over the moon!!
I could see what I wanted in my mind's eye; I can even draw it quite
accurately. But I could no more build it than I could fly to the moon. I
am thrilled with how everything turned out. The bow area of our saloon is clean, streamlined, and every inch of
space is used now; before there was a ton of wasted space.
The small
corner cabinet previously housing the DVD player and Skybox--and
upon which the telly sat, took up a lot of room and provided hardly any
storage. One had to get on hands and knees and literally stick one's
head in the cupboard to find anything.
The stairs were hard on my
knees coming in and going out; dirt always got caught up in the seams on
either side and in the corners in front of each stair.
The old hearth was tiled in dark brown which overall made the corner
look like the black hole of Calcutta. The corner was always dirty with
ash we couldn't get up from the lip at the edge and we couldn't reach
under the stove.
Now the hearth is cheery and bright. It glows with light reflected from
the tiles; there is plenty of room to sweep under the stove, and we can
catch any live coals tumbling from the open stove door without anything
hot landing on the floor.
There
is a uniformity of cupboard/stairs/hearth that didn't exist previously.
We gained a ton of storage space, and the saloon is much easier to
sweep, mop, and keep tidy.
Our finished project is a combination of me and Les--our personalities,
our joint needs and desires for comfort, storage, utility, and beauty.
Thank you my love, for making our floating home such a lovely and loving
place to live.
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| Half old tiling--half new! |
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| Dear Sir using spacers to set each row of tiles. |
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| Les painting the stove pipe. |
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| Close up of our bright, cheery, newly re-tiled hearth! |
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boat? And in relation to same, the fuel tank, the weed hatch and related. The engine/prime mover is a marine version of a Mitsubishi design for what originally? Starting the engine utilizes electricity and what are referred as glow plugs? Water cooled using water from the canal?
Would an air-cooled design with a fan
work as well?
Interesting to meis how many Honda marine designs are in use?
As to the weed hatch, is there not some
form of protective cover surrounding the propeller which is how many blades and
of what diameter, RPM when underway?
Transmission is mechanical or electrical,
and range of speeds/throttle settings?
And I'd never fit vertically in any narrow boat. My friend Mike tells me they
don't make NB's as high inside as I stand vertically. Maybe what we call here a
cabin cruiser perhaps, however the draft is often deeper than a flat-bottomed NB