The seating, which paint, and the wardrobe

Well things are now moving on... as we walked in the seating was being made up by Stuart for the dayroom, so we had to decide which freezer was going in, so the design of the bed configuration could be sorted out. We were then taken by Julia to the upholsterers workshop to pick the fabric (which we were having trouble with)
And came up with this, which ticked all the boxes to give us that rich, warm, comfy feeling we want from the dayroom. We were both quite excited about it.....

On our last visit to Fernwood, we had to make a decision on the paint and Ken had very kindly done some sprayouts for us. (a lot of spray gun cleaning)

So as the colours are very traditional, it was not too hard making up our minds. This is how these colours will be used.
When you go through the boat now you start to get a feeling that it will be a home, and although one of our team was away on holiday, Chris and Stuart had been working hard on the panelwork and the bedroom in particular.

The wardrobe had been put into place and we could see how much space we had in there (not a lot, but more than expected)
This will have a by-folding door which will open up onto the chest of drawers, and it will also give us access to the shower pump. We were suprised to see some extra storage above the wardrobe as well.

We now have been given the task of how the side and stern doors need to look (ie either traditional blocks added to them or inserts). We also need to find a painter for the right style of signwriting for the exterior side panels, roses and castles and the engine room decoration. Ummm ......................

What a feeling the've started on the ceiling

We went up to Fernwood last week and more floor boards had been laid and the roof woodwork had been installed. Once again we checked the head height and were happy with the clearance.

The dayroom and the bedroom has now been panelled out, but this will all come out again at a later date. Also the saloon has been worked on.

We got a call saying we needed another mushroom vent in the roof at the galley which means we will be now having ten (that's a hell of a lot of brass cleaning) but we got it's location sorted in the end.
We are now trying to sort out the paint colours, which are done in hard two pack enamel paints. Looking at colour charts is not the easiest thing to do and we need to make sure it is right, so we will be checking this out with Ken the next time we go up. We know the colours, but it's just getting the shade right.

The 180 gallon water tank turned up as well, this had to be specially made to fit into the bow and under the cratch deck, which had been specially lowered to allow for this bigger tank.

As for us we have now been with Alison's parents for a week and are learning how to share the shower. But we must say we love the tea in bed and the good English breakfast in the morning..... could get used to this !!!!

Move on out!

At 2.00pm on the the 2nd June, we moved out of our house that we thought we would live in for the rest of our lives.

How wrong we were! It was a very emotional day as we have very happy memories of living there, incuding the great leaving party we had last Saturday!!! We are now living with our parents and trying to stay with friends and family when we can for the next three months.
Everyone has been fantastic and we have had so much support from all our friends and family (thanks everyone, you know who you are)

Its the end of a era, but the start of a new beginning.

Up the Crick without a paddle

Can you believe it!!!!!!!!!! another wet Crick boat show.


It was a nice day Saturday with blustery winds, poured all day Sunday, and cancelled on Monday.. but we were happy!

We managed to pick up a few bargains, like we got our painted buckby can, at a good price, and we picked up our Ecofan for just £64.95

It was great to see all our Fernwood friends and also meet up with some of our blogging friends as well.

Well, we're sitting here with no furniture, even the TV has gone and we're using the washing basket as a computer chair. (but we can't get rid of the computer just yet..) We are off to see Bruce Springsteen on Friday, and on Saturday we are having big a leaving party for all our friends and family, and then on Monday it's back to live with the parents for a bit.

Busy Busy Busy !!!!!

Exchanged Contracts

Hi all

Just a quick note to say we have now exchanged contracts on the house (so no turning back now)

We feel we have sold just at the the right time and we know the new owners will be very happy in our old Derwent6, just as we have been over the last 15 years.

We are now busy selling and delivering all our stuff, to friends and family and fitting in the crick boat show in between.

Hope to see some of you at Crick!

Bulkheads fitted

What a surprise when we got to Fernwood!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stuart, Rob and Chris had all been working hard on Derwent6 and some of the side panels and lower tougue and groove panels had been fitted, and it looked just Fab....

The floor in the Saloon had been marked out for the furniture and all the wiring fed through into place. Here you can just see the markings on the floor for the two seater settee, and the mockup of the wood burner. On the port side you can see the sockets for the TV and speakers

Here you can see the bulkheads fitted from the galley into the dayroom and then into the bathroom, with the shower tray at the far end.

The floor was being laid as we checked the measurements in the bedroom.

It was good to see some progress to our new home, as we are so close to selling the one we are in at the moment.......We hope!!!!!!

Falls, Country, Disney, and Rock till we drop

Hi all

Well as you can see we've been away for the last three weeks and we have just had a blast!!!!

Derwent6 got put on the back burner for a while, as we just did our roadie bit, touring with Bon Jovi (and chilling out a bit)

It started in Toronto, Canada with us going to Niagara falls with temperatures in the 75's, a great sight.

Checking out the glass floor at the CN Tower..this is me laying down with Al standing over me, Scary stuff!

From there we moved onto Nashville, Tennessee with the temperatures still in the high 70's and what a place...music coming out your ears from every bar in town....It's five o clock somewhere so rude not to try them all,

and finishing with Jovi playing in the Sommet Centre that night.

From there we went onto the Country music Hall of Fame and the Grand Ole Opry

Then on to follow the band at Fort Laurderdale, Florida. Here we met up with a friend Al used to work with, and had a really good night out (Thanks Louise and great ribs)

Next day beach and boats.....We chilled out on the beach in the morning and hired a plastic tub in the afternoon around the mansions on the Fort Laurderdale canals. The guy was well impressed when we told him we owned a 65 foot boat and let us go off into the yonder in his well powerful speed boat....He He !!

Hardly canals though, but some lovely places owned by Madonna and Gloria Estefan with a small boat to pop to the shops in.

with Jovi that evening!!

After that we took a drive across the Everglades on our way up to Tampa, dodging the gators in the canals and the flies hitting the screen on cruise control.

With Bon Jovi that evening we just had enough time to throw our cases down and head of to St Petes Times Forum with Al's greatest moment with Jon high fiving us both (well lets face it he knew us well by now) and us capturing it on video.(see below)

From then we moved on to Orlando and the Kingdom of Mickey Mouse, weather now in the low 90's. It made us realise how much we love winters in England, but we had a great time.

Oh! and by the way we are now back down to earth with a splash!!!!!!

Boat, Boxes and Bon Jovi

Sorry we haven't blogged for a long time, but God it's been manic here.......

We have been updating Fernwood on the boat and trying to sort out the house with everything going into boxes and moving stuff to friends and family.

And as you may or may not know, Alison is one of the biggest Bon Jovi fans on the planet. So we are trying to organise our tour with them this year around the USA and UK. This kicks off with seeing them next week in Nashville and Florida.

As for Derwent6, we don't seem to have seen much progress, but the vent holes have now been cut out in the roof and while we were there, she was being sanded down for the undercoat to go on the roof.

The other good thing was that the engine arrived while we were there.

You can see this was very well protected and took some manovering to get it in the workshop.

When we opened the box there was not much to see, but Beta had supplied the two spare belts we asked for. Well done guys!

So we are trying to find homes for all our furniture and belongings for when we move out of our house, (hopefully at the end of May) and Ebay has helped. We have also been trying to arrange our holiday trip to America, with hotels and car hire etc, and on top of all that, make arrangements for our leaving party with all our friends and family.

It's so exciting!!!!

Car in the locker

The lockers have now been made up and the bikes tried and tested in them. Blimey! we won't have a car (how green is that)........ The floor was mocked up over the waste tank and we got a good idea of how the engine room will look.

You actually got a good feeling of space in this room and it will make a great office or laundry area, and the bikes were not too difficult to get in and out. We were very pleased with the outcome...

As we turned up, so did a lorry load of slabs,the ballast for Derwent6. These were then laid in the boat and onto the base plate. It was great to see so much going on.........

We have so much going on at the moment, our feet haven't touched the ground. What with the house move, solicitors, selling house items, arranging the big party, and to sort out our holiday which was our present to each other for Our 25th Wedding Anniversary. All good fun!

While we were in the boat, we noticed these two cuddling right above where our bed will be, our favourite place to cuddle. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Sold (we hope)

Well today an offer was made on the house and we have accepted. We are so pleased, as this is difficult times for everyone.
We still have to sign contracts, but the couple who are buying can't wait so there shouldn't be any problems, as it is a very small chain.

This should move things along nicely, as we will soon be able to get on with selling our furniture to all our friends and family. (They will be pleased)

Quick Quick Slow (guess who the slow is!)

Fernwood were working fast to get one boat out of the workshop three weeks ago, and then it was all speed ahead to get the Whitefield boat (which was shown on Waterworld) out last week.

But Derwent6 is still coming on very slowly.....not much has happened over the last three weeks as Fernwood have still been trying to get another boat out, and doing snagging on the ones which have gone out. The good news is that that boat is near completion, and for some, is that it has now made some space in the workshop, but there is alot of work to do for those who are waiting to get in the workshop.
As for Derwent6 the waste tank had been put into place, but thats about it.

As for us we have been busy. What with our Wedding Anniversary and planning our holiday and selling the house, let alone building a boat.

All good fun!!!!!!!!!!!

Surprise!!!!!!!!!!

And there we were, thinking we were going to have a nice quite Wedding Anniversary....Not!

The plan was that we were going to be taken out for a nice meal with our friends, Rich and Lisa but on arriving at our favorite beeches restaurant , it turned out we had a party of twenty.. What a lovely surprise!

So much work had gone into this since December last year and we knew nothing about it... We thank you all...................

What did we learn? All friends and family are liers.............

This was the best thing that could of happened to us, as we always wanted to have a bit of a bash, and boy did we get it.

We would just like to thank everyone who made this day so special for us, and it will remain a memory for ever.

It was the icing on the cake!