Rugby yet again.

Well here it is our nice new dinette complete with upholstery, nice colour eh! Have to get some nice cushions now.

Ready to try out as a bed.

The seat cushions on the dinette are sprung so when we use it as a bed it is like a proper mattress not like before when the cushions were foam and it was so uncomfortable to sleep on. Was worth paying the extra to get a comfortable seat. Although we have altered the design we haven't lost any storage and it has opened up the saloon area. Next buy is a couple of rugs.

We got to Rugby this morning and within half an hour were in Wickes getting bits for the new table that Paul is making. While he got stuck in to the said table I wandered to Tesco and it was lovely to be able to browse without a lot of huffing behind me. When I got back all the trim work had been done and Paul was up to his ankles in shavings.

Now you may be wondering just why we have had all this work done when we were quite happy before. Well yes we were happy but Paul would like an engine room and a more traditional looking narrowboat. So was a new boat on the cards? we made various enquiries over the past 6 months and found that in the present economic climate it wasn't a viable option, as we would lose out on the sale of Piston Broke. Paul as usual put his thinking cap on and came up with the idea that as Piston Broke was only 4 years old we would look at having some major surgery carried out. So over a period of 5 weeks various measurements were taken and drawings were done to remodel the boat. We came up with the perfect combination that suited us both. This entailed moving the stern and forward bulkheads and we had assigned a position to have her stretched by 6ft. The old Beta 43 would have been removed and a new JD3 installed in its own engine room. The only major refitting would have been to the galley, and the bathroom would have been remodeled to a walk through. Whereas, what we have had done will stay in situ, also due to the stretch she would be completely repainted. Estimates have been obtained from various boatyards and all are within this budget. So at the time everything was ready to go next month, however we were relying on monies from an investment but due to a cockup on our behalf these funds will not be available until next November. Although these alterations are still on the cards we will have to see how the financial market is at the time. No doubt after we have lived with our revamped boat for the next year it will give us time to adjust any plans for the future.