Week 259: Before and After

Before I get into the bulk of the post, which, as promised, will be some before and after photos of Delfine celebrating both the marketing shoot and one year since we purchased her, I'll recap the week quickly.

It's been hard, at least at the start.

After the high of the marketing shoot and that significant milestone, everything we touched felt like a step backwards. The fancy flowers died off. A couple of the hastily potted plants didn't survive the heat. We had to move things from the stern cabin, turning the salon and the Simone cabin into a temporary storage zone. We felt so close, and now we'd taken a step back.

It was not helped by the fact that I discovered the AC in the dining room wasn't cooling. Some quick diagnosis, and it seems that when the wall went in to cover the cover pipes for the refrigerant, one must have been bent. Unfortunately, that means we're going to have to remove a section of the wall. So we're going to have to destroy something that was otherwise complete. Uggh.

When we came back home on Monday, we were both in a foul mood and struggling. This project is an emotional rollercoaster.

But, we slept on it, cheered each other on and got back into it on Tuesday.

From there, while it's still frustrating, we've made excellent progress. We're getting very close to "complete" on the things we can do ourselves.

We completed the epoxy of the upper section of the wheelhouse and painted the wheelhouse ceiling, which looks fantastic!

We stained and epoxied all the trim, and I managed to fit it without too many mistakes (at least, none you notice unless you look very close). The missing trim that can be fitted has now been fitted, and it looks good, completing the guest bedrooms, behind the sofa and the bathrooms.

It involved a lot of detailed work, including trimming and chiselling pieces to fit over where the hinges of doors were hung previously. With the right tools, it would be a lot faster, but I had to do it by hand.

By Saturday, we'd completed all that we could throughout the guest areas of the boat, and now, the only room left for us to finish is the crew cabin. We expect that to be mostly complete by the end of this week.

It was time to take stock. Of the progress, of our energy levels and what's left to do. We've decided that, after 12 months of working six days a week – Monday to Saturday, it's time to slow down a bit more. We've declared this Saturday as our "last" official Saturday work day. From next week, we're going to start back to two-day weekends and, perhaps, a bit more travelling and exploring Belgium by car.

We also had a fire safety inspection. We knew that we wouldn't pass (there's a lot of detail, in Dutch, in the standards, and while we've done our best, it felt easiest just to get someone in to go "you need A, B and C.") Turns out we need A (to have our evacuation instructions in 4 languages), B (more fire alarms, and to a different European Standard than the ones we'd purchased) and C, (maybe, maybe not – there's some debate about an electrical safety certificate that we might, or might not, need. It's confusing, we're a boat, not a house.) All that is fine. It went smoothly, and we expect to have that locked away in the next week or two.

The complete set of marketing photos has been edited and released to us now, with over 120 photos in total. It feels like a good spot to sit back and share a few "before and after" shots of Delfine.

Delfine Overview

On the outside, Delfine was dry-docked, sandblasted back to bare metal, primed, and painted black and blue. The top surfaces were sandblasted and primed, then painted by us. We sanded back all the sides of the salon and wheelhouse (around the windows), primed and painted. Every piece of wood was sanded back and re-oiled.

Delfine Exterior

The guest deck had access from a very poorly designed hatch that leaked, skylights into the guest rooms and wood that was rotting away. We removed it all, welded up the hatches, sanded back all the railings and painted. We added the new hatch on top of the stairs from the salon, to provide easy guest access.

Delfine Interior

On the inside, we demolished the kitchen, sanded back the floors and with the architects, designed new stairs and a seating area that minimised the risk of tripping on the step down in the centre of the room.

Delfine Kitchen

The kitchen was completely gutted and a new, modern "Chef's Kitchen" created, with stainless steel surfaces. We also removed the range hood and shifted it, to open up the sight lines inside.

Delfine Bedrooms

While the Albert Cabin is largely structurally untouched, we still filled in the skylights, demolished a wardrobe, patched, painted, replaced all the lights, removed the false wooden floor and added curtains and carpet as well as air conditioning.

In Simone, which was primarily used as an office, we also added new cupboards and a bed head to bring the bed out from under the overhang, as well as painting, carpets and air conditioning.

Delfine Wheelhouse

A lot more than expected went on here! We replaced the roof, painted the ceiling, removed stubborn sticky wallpaper, refreshed the walls, and replaced the console up front. Upgraded all electronics and added new upholstery.

Enjoy the photos! It's been fun compiling a few before-and-after shots. This week, we're hoping that some of our suppliers return from holiday so that we can start to complete the last few things that we require others to do for us.

Until next time,

Tim & Karina