Week 245: Stepping on up
Our new stairs are in and we can use the hatch to enter and exit Delfine onto the guest deck.
The stairs are in! And what a milestone. This is the first real piece of construction on Delfine, a big step up (pun intended) towards her new layout as a hotel barge. It feels like such a long process. It's taken 30 weeks – over 6 months – to complete just this piece of the puzzle.
I want to break down the work involved and the significant milestones because it's a great way to remind myself why some of these things feel like they take so long! And this is only one of the many projects we're tackling to upgrade Delfine.
- Week 215: Heading for Reims, as we were on the canals in France, I started the demo and removed the old stairs.
- Week 218: Plans within plans, we received the first sketches from the architects, and the layout of the new stairs was selected.
- Week 220: Sparks fly we had the welders come and close out the old stair hatch.
- Week 225: Winding down, just before Christmas, where Simon came onboard and we measured up everything to get the exact location for the new hatch to go in and the dimensions for the plan.
- Week 229: On the cusp? After Christmas, when Simon showed the plans for the new hatch. We locked those in and I started working with him to build it.
- Week 230: One stressful hole The welders returned to cut an access hole into the deck for the new location of the stairs.
- Week 232: The hatch goes in We cover the hole with the new hatch.
- I can't find it, but at some point around Week 235, the stairs were measured for production.
- And then, finally, this week, Week 245 the stairs go in.
Last week, we had a wonderful Sunday afternoon on our mid-century architecture tour in Gent. Emile, Eva, and Steven from Marge Architecten, our architects, joined us.
Of course, it's not finished yet. That would be too easy. Now we need to paint (varnish) the treads and the side. We have to get a banister in. Trim needs to be put back, and we have to work out the safest way to use the stairs on the deck, but it's progress!
The stairs went in quickly - 3 hours from start to finish.
Aside from the stairs, I returned to Simon's workshop to continue painting the panels. Two finishing coats were done on those; now, we're waiting for some insulation to arrive before those panels can be completed and go back on for the final time.
The weather was hot this week, 28 - 30 degrees, a scorcher for Belgium, and frankly quite humid and sticky on the canal with no breeze. We worked hard on the stern, Karina did a lot of sanding out there, and it was ready for painting by Thursday.
Kaizen is cutting me some wood to make up some trim for the bathroom in the stern cabin. I measured, sanded, designed, routed and installed it.
Thursday was, of course, May 1st, which in most parts of the world (except notably Australia, which has it at a different time, and the US, which doesn't celebrate that because it's all a bit communist or something), is May Day – International Labour Day. We celebrated by getting the primer onto the stern cabin, then heading into the "Friday" Market square, the centre of the celebrations and watching the sea of people dressed in red while we drank a beer.
Friday, we put on the "between layer", which is the final colour, and then Saturday, we put on the first of the finishing layers. We're debating if we can get away with one finishing layer or two. It's one of those things where, in our hearts, we know we should do two, but one will probably do.
Thursday to Saturday progress on the stern cabin for Delfine.
After that was completed, we looked for a couple of smaller jobs for the afternoon and, of course, picked two things that turned into major pieces of work! Karina started cleaning the radiators to prepare them for painting before they go back up at some point, while I headed down into the engine room to tackle a job I'd been avoiding for a while: cleaning the bilges.
In one of those photos, all you can see is some flashes of orange on my pants - I'm deep back along the prop shaft there!
Delfine doesn't leak. But the bilge under the engine bay was full of water. Mostly this has come from the heating system, which has spilt water on several occasions as it's been maintained, as I've screwed things up, etc. It's possible that the old prop shaft leaked a small amount of water as it was operating too.
Fortunately, there's little danger of rust; there's such a thick layer of grease under there that it's all sealed up well, but I still wanted the water gone to monitor things better. It's a lesson I've learned over the years – if things are clean, it's easy to spot leaks early. "I'll just pump it out," I thought. But before long, I was down on hands and knees, with sponges squeezing out the water, then rags wiping up the excess grease. It's mostly clean now. But it took a lot longer than I expected and left me filthy by the end of it!
The new stern cabin. It's hard to see, but the green around the portal is where I put the new trim (it's been taped up to protect it here)
YouTube video of the last weeks' progress
We're not exactly sure what next week will bring. I'll return to Simon's and continue on the roofing panels. The painters tell us they'll be finished on Tuesday. Kristof returns for more measurements, especially under the stairs–we believe they are starting the build in their workshop this week, which is the final step before bringing it all out to Delfine to install the kitchen, sofa etc.
Regardless, there's plenty of work to keep us out of mischief. For once, we're starting to feel like we've caught up, and other people are slowing us down, not us desperately trying to get things done so the next thing can happen.
Today we're having a relaxed Sunday and pottering around home, starting to think about our move soon. I'm going to head out to a cafe and settle down and do some writing for a bit, and we're planning to see a movie this evening.
Until next time,
Tim & Karina