In this weeks exciting episode we find out what the door turned out like. Well, it works anyway as can be seen below. Not sure what to do about the newly added wood. Paint white? Contrasting colour? Or stain with something? All these choices eh?

These next couple of pictures show the side steps being constructed; note the efficient use of odd bits of wood and stuff.

The second picture shows them being glued and clamped. I’m using some really dark wood dye on them to get an almost black finish. Not sure why, just going with a hunch. I got the dye at hardware store in Kilburn, London.

While I was there I also picked up a sample pack of SPAX screws. I’d previously been using screws from Focus DIY etc. and really, a screws a screw right? But these SPAX screws are top German quality and seem to go into the wood like they’re Teflon coated. No slipping from using the drill to drive them in either. Paying extra is worth it – I’ll be going back for more.

Although there are no pictures, I have my new toilet sitting in its packing in the living room. A guy came round on Saturday to quote for plumbing it in, so it might even happen this side of Christmas.

Again, not much done really, but I’ve managed to widen the bathroom door. I did this by taking the old one and building an overlapping ‘picture frame’ to make it about 100mm wider. I managed to find some wood the right width to fill in around the back and it actually seems to work fine. I re-hung the door on its original piano hinge, just need to put in the millions of screws to secure it properly now.

I also decided that building a raised base for the bed would be a good idea. Taking inspiration from Sarah’s Warrior blog, I pretty much copied what they did using £45 worth of wood from Travis Perkins. Only took a couple of hours to make – amazing what you can achieve if you’re willing to let precision slide.

The CO and smoke detector both failed within a week of buying them. In a fit of pique I decided to phone the manufacturer, FireAngel (http://www.fireangel.co.uk/) and was pleasantly surprised by their concern. They sent out a returns envelope so they could inspect both units and ended up replacing them for no cost. Guess I’ll need to find some other organisation to complain about – London Transport possibly?

The bathroom re-modelling is happening in the background, the new toilet arrived last week and the new tank has been made. Just need to sort out the final fittings and then the fun job of installing it all can begin.

The Friday evening project was to begin making some steps for the side hatch, currently there are a set of portable steps being used for this. I’ve been trying to use up some of my surplus wood that has been on the boat for one reason or another, and I find it quite entertaining scheming as to how I can use what I have, rather than go out and buy more. Simple pleasures eh?

Not massive amounts of progress this week, but I’ve made a little partition by the side door. This’ll be somewhere to hang a few coats etc. It also is a good place to store the ironing board (once I’d modified the board), but this was more by accident than design. Still, I’ll claim it as a good idea.

This all needs painting, but I’ve got a couple of other things to make before I have a painting-fest, so it’ll stay as it is for now.

The eco fan (sitting on top of the stove) has been working well. It runs off of the heat generated by the stove and just helps to circulate the air around. Given that the boat is fairly open plan, things seem to stay warm. I’ve been running the stove on its lowest setting, and unless the temperature is in single figures it tends to be too warm. Apparently the stove only uses .25 litre of fuel an hour on this setting – amazing the trivia you can find on the internet.

On Wednesday lunchtime I took the boat round the corner to refuel. Bit of an adventure, lightly hit one boat on the way in. I chose midweek at lunch to do this, thinking that it'll be quiet, but oh no, when I came back to my mooring a small crowd had gathered to watch me cock it up. Got reversed into my berth on the second attempt. Was nice to go for a little trip, even if only was a couple of hundred meters.

Well, been up to a few things over the last week. First of all, I've been carrying on in the evenings with my worktop project. When my parents moved back here from New Zealand earlier this year, my brother put about 30m of old rimu (native NZ wood) floorboards into the container with my parents furniture. There seems to be an endless supply of reclaimed wood underneath my house back at home. I'm thinking of using this to make some kitchen worktops, but thought I'd have a practice run making a top for the old chest of drawers that came with the boat. As I don’t have a workbench on IRIS, I thought I'd use the chest of drawers as a base to build it on. Having selected the least warped pieces of wood, I worked from the back fastening the planks in place. They are tongue and groove, so they are glued along those joins, while I've used coach screws into holes drilled underneath to fasten the planks to the chest of drawers.

These two pictures show the process of building up the worktop.

Once the glue had dried, I set to with a hand plane. I found this incredibly satisfying (once I'd got the hang of it) and happily spent most of a friday night creating a huge pile of shavings. This reminded me of my grandfather, who was a carpenter/builder - he would've loved all this. Hope he can see it from wherever he is ;-)

The wood didn't always plane cleanly, and after some online discussions with my friend Kev (woodworking consultant to the stars), it seems like its just a 'feature' of the wood and the way it was cut from the tree. Remember kids, a bad workman always blames his tools, but a good consultant will never fail to blame the materials.

This is the finished article, once I'd used some Danish oil (good that your country can produce at least one useful thing eh Tobias ;-) and a coat of wax. I really like the finished effect of using this reclaimed wood, the grain and colour looks lovely.

A more modest project was to make some fenders to keep the sides of the boat away from the jetty. As I'm now using the side doors to get in and out this seemed like a good idea, as the doors would not open unless I pushed the boat away from the dock each time I wanted to go out. When I was down in Hampshire at the specialist that looks after my car to get something checked, I asked the guys at the tyre place next door if I could take a couple of discarded tyres away to use. I chose a pair of 205/50x16" Dunlops, selected especially for their high performance characteristics, and not simply because they were on top of the pile. Turns out that 225 wide tyres would've been better, but I'm not changing them now :-). Still, not bad for ten minutes work.

I've also added a CO2 sensor (to avoid the big sleep) and a smoke detector. I now feel happier leaving the heater on overnight. It was a little chilly in the mornings without this; I took these pictures on the morning of friday the 3rd November at about 8:00am. Nice eerie effect of the mist on the water.

The bathroom project has been coming along slowly; I can't find anyone locally who has the time to fit a new toilet, so I guess I'll do it myself. One of the first jobs was to make the bathroom door a decent width. This helped pass another friday evening - you make your own entertainment on the river.

Finally a word of thanks to our sponsor, Brian Gatt, without whose camera this would not be possible (did you want it back?).

Nothing new to report today, so I thought I'd just mention how social things seem to be around here. This is who I chatted to today;

0630am - bumped into the young woman who lives on the boat in front of me walking her little dog, she was getting up early to drive to the midlands for the day.

0900 - whilst waiting for the marina shop to open (to get a few screws to fix a shelf up) I got chatting to an old couple on a neat little narrowboat tug. They were on their way down the Thames from the Kennet and Avon canal when the flood warning went up, so had taken refuge here. We had a chat about the river, boats and Leicester, where I studied engineering and from where they bought their boat back in '81.

1100 - on my way back from putting something in the car, stopped by to talk to a guy who is fitting out a 62 foot narrowboat. Had a quick tour and a lenghty disscussion about toilets, as he'd just installed the type I'm thinking of getting. Very informative.

1500 - On my way out to post something, talked to a couple of guys who were drinking tea and chopping wood for the stove. They told me about giant pike that live in the lake we're on.

Also discovered that my water tank is only 50 gallons, so I guess more frequent re-fills are on the cards. Tested out both the washer/dryer and the oven - both working fine.

Am I living the dream or what?

No boat work this weekend as I'm helping a friend build his garage and going out in London.