Refit Five-
This better be the last one- I can't fit any more buttons in!

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me..... a  bathroom suite, a load of wood and an entire new room!

Now, I have to be honest. This refit may- just may- have been my fault! Jay has been working very hard lately, which is good, but he does tend to take over the entire boat and while he is working I can do nothing. Nada. Zilch. He is on the phone, skype or computer constantly which means I cannot watch dvds, go on the internet or even enter the saloon without disturbing him. It was getting ridiculous and this is before we've even gone cruising. There was no way we were going to survive like that when we were away from a marina.

So we came up with a cunning plan. We would make him an office. It's simple enough to say, but in all practicality where do you find the space for an entire new room in a 36ft boat? No really, where?

We didn't want to change the saloon- we love our saloon. We didn't want to reduce the bedroom- we love our 7ft bed. We certainly didn't want it outside. So that left..... well, the middle bit. In this area we have the galley down the port side and the heads on the starboard. We reckoned we could change that round slightly so we had the heads and galley on the port side (yes- I have to sacrifice work space for peace and quiet. It was a tough call!) and his office is the old heads on the starboard side. Simple.

We had, of course, designed all this on the back of a napkin. And it is, of course, winter- our normal time for boat renovation! So, on the 27th December I was greeted with "Sweetheart, I have a surprise for you". To be honest, I'm not sure what I expected, but being whisked to a caravan breakers in Oldham, (Manchester) was definitely not on the list. Here I was presented with a rotten and half demolished caravan and told to admire the bathroom. Right.

To be fair, it wasn't bad. Mouldy and horrible, but a good clean would see it looking almost new. It even had a mirror, light and shelves! And an in-built vanity unit for more storage. I was smitten. It was difficult to find a good bathroom (hence being in Manchester) as we needed one we could use as a walk-through. Our plan is to put the bathroom in the end of the galley next to the bedroom and use it as the corridor to get in and out of the cabin. Remember, there's only two of us on board 99% of the time and it'll be rare when one of us wants to get into the bedroom and the other is in the bathroom. We hope it will give us the space for our whole new room.
The unit only broke into two parts- the vanity unit and the shower tray- and Jay had carefully and diligently measured the unit to ensure it would fit in our boat. What he had neglected to do is measure the car.... It didn't fit. Not even close.
However, we had already bought the thing by this point and there was no way we were leaving it behind. Remember we have to get it from Manchester to the South coast of England. So we did what everyone would do in the middle of December in minus one degree temperatures- drove all the way home with the thing stuck two foot out of the back window. It was FREEZING! Of course, we did it at night so there was less traffic- although we were still stopped by the police, but that's a different story! Anyway, we made it home (arriving at 4am)and the fun could really begin!

On the 28th December we slept! Followed by a fry up, more napkin planning and a trip to B and Q. We had a budget of £400 for this refit- £170 of which had just gone on this unit. We also spent £109 on a new toilet- a Thetford 465 porta potti. Yes, we have got sick of worrying about stop cocks, holding tanks and maintenance so have opted for a (hopefully) stress free approach to this horrible problem. Fingers crossed!
Anyway, this gave us just over £100 for wood and bits to put it all together. On this trip (of which there were several!) we bought waterproof cladding for the walls which cost £60 but decided most of the rest could be salvaged from the existing structures, so we were still within budget. So far. Oh, we also bought sealant. Lots of it.

Once we got the unit in place in the boat- literally, in the middle of the boat- we realised that it was too tall. Our recent rigging replacement has bowed the deck slightly and a massive wooden support beam was in the way. We certainly weren't going to start cutting that up, so we had to cut about 5 inches off the top and bottom of the vanity unit. But I still had my mirror so all was well. Next we had to rip up the flooring. Word of advice- never, ever, ever put a carpet anywhere near a kitchen, especially on a boat. We thought ours would be well away from the spills and mess, but no- it was manky! And it's impossible to clean. We also took up all the teak which will be under the bathroom so we can use it elsewhere. Lastly, we discovered new bilges! Under the teak flooring (which was already in place when we bought the boat) there was a little hole. We made the hole a bit bigger (which was probably a stupid plan, but hey ho) and found water! Oh no. The weirdest thing is it wasn't stagnant. There was no where for it to drain to, but it obviously hadn't been there long. This is where our leak water had run to! The hole did overflow to the forward bilge, so we cut a couple of through holes to help. There was also another hole forward of that one. Not big enough to put anything in, but big enough to hold an inch or two of water.
We also cut out a new door for the office at the bottom of the stairs as the unit will be covering the old one. Its great having the flexibilty to change things around like this. And after seeing how flimsy walls are made in caravans, we realised our last building efforts may have been somewhat over the top! Our walls are two inches thick! But the best thing about our new door (which is right over the old toilet) is that Jay could have a wee without leaving the galley. He was very excited about this. Men are so weird!

The 29th December was an exciting day. We had to cut away the old sink from the galley. We seem to have a slight permanent list to starboard (that's where the biggest diesel and water tanks are) and here we are cutting a huge heavy lump.... out of the port side. Brilliant. Great plan. Very helpful. We had a bit of leakage when we managed to drop one of the loose hoses which was full of water- not a clever move, but other than that it went quite smoothly.
However, we did have to rebuild that entire area of worktop as it was definitely wonky. So we took the fridge out and rebuilt the entire section. We were lucky- the fridge only just fit back in- we almost had to take it apart again, but as it happens it now fits very snugly! We kept finding 240v sockets, plugs and wiring which we hadn't taken out from our previous refits- so we were able to remove all that as well. We also think we've found space for another water tank. At the moment we only carry 300 litres of water and crossing the Atlantic is going to need much more than that, so hopefully we can squeeze in another 100 litres, and on the port side. Double bonus.
We managed to secure the unit in place, couple up the water and electric for the light and start securing the toilet. We've created an entire wooden stand which you can lift the toilet out of- makes it very secure in a rolling sea.

The 30th December is Jay's birthday- stupid time for a birthday, but he refuses to change it! Did we have a quiet day? Did we go for dinner, stroll along the sea side. enjoy the surprisingly nice weather for this time of year? Oh no, we built walls! These lengths of cladding lock together and we made a track so they fit securely to the roof and the floor and they're watertight and wipedownable and brilliant. I'm very excited about my new walls! We also finished off the step round the toilet. We made another trip to B and Q to buy white screw covers, more sealant and a work top for his office. We have just reached our budget. Not doing bad so far!

31st December- Day four. We had hoped that we would be onto the office today, but as usual we'd forgotten about the 'little things'- those pesky jobs which are really fiddly and take hours without looking like you've done anything! We had to silicone the entire bathroom to make it watertight, put up shower curtains (we're not having doors on the bathroom- controversial, but I'm sure people will get over it!) We also had to put the door back on over the fridge- it has to open from the other side now due to our building job and we put up all our storage devices around the heads and galley. Its amazing how much space we have left- we're not entirely sure how, but we have.
One of the major changes to our plan is we have not fitted a galley sink. We were initally going to put one under the microwave (which will be going before we leave) but the sink in the heads is perfect and easily accessible from the galley. The only thing we dont have is somewhere to put hot pans, so we'll probably rig up a bowl/ basket which hooks in place for when we need it. Seems silly to cut a hole in our work surface just for that! We're going to use it for a while and see how we get on, but it takes out a whole lot of pipework and maintenance and simplifies our system- all good things!

We managed to completely finish the heads and the galley- including new plate and glass storage- which was something I desperately lacked. I cannot get over how little space we've lost- basically the galley sink and the under sink cupboard. By making the heads a walk through we've used a dead area of the boat really well. We're over the moon with it.
We then had a tidy up and were free to move onto the office. Now the new toilet was fitted and operational, we could get on with ripping out the old heads- not a job we were looking forward to, but we wanted it done before new year. Jay very valiantly got on with the job of cutting the old toilet hoses (yuck!) and together we lifted it out of the boat and away from anywhere it could do any harm. We have left a length of hose on the stopcocks until we can take the boat out of the water and seal them up properly. Yeah- that's three more holes in the hull we can seal up permanently. (2 for the toilet and one from the old heads sink) I'm loving reducing our sinking odds!
We managed to completely remove the entire heads, including the lino and were able to leave it to dry overnight as an empty room- ready to be transformed into an office extraordinaire! The floor was very wet again, mainly as it wasn't well sealed and also due to our water leak of the last few months, which now appears to be sealed and stopped- I hope.
We then proceeded to celebrate our success by drinking a lot of vodka- Happy New Year to all!

1st January 2009!
Despite our alcohol excess of last night we were actually up nice and early, ready to continue with our creation. First job was another trip to B and Q, where I'm sad to say we completely destroyed our budget by about £100! But we did buy more nice worktop, white wall and carpet, so we felt it was money well spent. (B and Q was manic- why was everyone in B and Q on the first day of the New Year. Haven't these people ever heard of hangovers?!?)
The first job was to fit the worktop- which was a balancing act between being too low and too high for a decent sea berth- which is what the worktop will be at sea- clever, huh?! Yes, we are aware that the office is only 4ft long, but with a hole cut into the skoda next door, we will have a secure 6ft berth. Brilliant!
Anyway, we fitted the worktops, which was surprisingly easy, and they're very strong- which considering they have to take our weight is a good thing! We then moved on to building a cupboard to house paperwork and other important office items. This again went together quite quickly, until it came to fitting the doors. We re-used the doors off the old cupboard beneath the galley sink and they absolutely refused to be fitted. Firstly, they were too close together, then too far apart and then, regardless of what we did, they would not be put on straight. We spent over an hour trying to fit two doors. Grrrr! I was all for not having any, but Jay is a persistant boy and got them right in the end- which is good as they now look lovely.
After this we put whiteboard over the walls- which covered a multitude of sins and the bathroom wallpaper and then finally we put the carpet down, which made everything look a thousand times better!
Then we started the fun job of putting all his stuff into the office. He even found space for the guitar- the bane of my life as it has been clogging up the galley ever since he got it. But now it has a new home to play in- happy days!
After moving things into the new room, we managed to clear out two whole lockers in the saloon- that is a treat indeed. So now I can have an entire locker all to myself to put my stuff in- such pleasures are unheard of! This was a very very good refit. We spent happy hours arranging our new areas and admiring our creation.
The most amazing part of it is that the galley doesn't actually feel any smaller. So far washing up in the heads is easy, the toilet is working well and we feel like we have gained so much space, all by turning a walk-through into a room. It's genius and I highly recommend it.
The other thing that's happened is we've moved lots of weight off the starboard side- who knew how much a marine toilet weighs!- and have moved his (very heavy) work gear forward to a more central part of the boat, so Money is now sitting much better in the water.
It's a winner all round. We are very happy wth our mods- next job is to start on the outside... yes, we have plans for that too. Watch this space.

The dreaded cupboard doors, but its coming together well.

Our very last job of the refit was to add a new shelf in the saloon. Since changing our heating to diesel, there is now a massive space going unused- gold dust in a boat. So we took off the top, rebuilt the entire structure and boarded it in nicely, and then added a huge space for our almanac, logbook and other bits and pieces. It's such a functional thing we're already wondering how we ever did without it!

If you want to see what it looked like before, there are pictures in Refit Four.