The seventh window

The lovely little luxe motor ‘Gudrun’ has six windows in the rear cabin.
Each barge has it’s own details and solutions so to avoid making mistakes before starting to saw the expensive Guariuba for these opening windows I will make a seventh one from bits of pine.

Oak construction

Though the method of construction is the same, the result is surprisingly different, there being something about a piece of furniture made from solid wood that a plywood piece just doesn't have.
The work has to be done very precisely, which is why Claudia is working on this with her Festool tools and I am aboard a barge.

Oak morning

With Claudia in the background sawing long planks of oak for a new cupboard in Beilen and me planing more oak for a farm door the workshop smells sweet this morning.

Merry Christmas

Two inches of snow greeted man and dog this morning but with the temperature already above freezing it'll be gone by teatime.

No job too small

First delivery of 2015. A single oak plank, sawn, planed, jointed, then glued up for stability as it is on it's way to a bathroom.

Reitdiep, last day of 2014

Nice to see our own barge motoring past. Thank you for the video, Maarten.

Lowering the mast

One of the things that Claudia insisted on when contemplating a loading mast, was that it had to be able to be lowered in a few minutes - just like Antoon aboard m.s. Nynke - and raised just as easily.

Here is the proof that I have, as always, listened to her every word.

Now we are ready to leave early next morning, out of Groningen to escape the fireworks.

(Time lapse film was inspired by Dylan Winter at keepturningleft.co.uk - ;)

Fir thwarts for Kees

Kees, our steel dinghy, needed new thwarts to match his shiny new paint job.
Here we've planed and glued up a couple of fir planks.
If it stops blowing and doesn't freeze they won't get finished until next year, because we'll be off with the barge for the New Year. Hooray!

There goes the kitchen

All carefully parcelled up and wrapped in tarps to keep it dry, the Schier kitchen sets off for Lauwersoog. There the trailer will be rolled onto the ferry and on the other side of the Waddenzee another towing hitch will be found to bring it to its new small home.
Once it has been installed we'll post more pictures.

Almost ready to bake bread.

Today the Stefano brothers (natuursteenstefano.nl) delivered this granite countertop to finish the kitchen block we have been working on these last weeks. A nice piece of work with holes in the right places for the tap, sink and induction hob.
Now it all has to come to pieces and be carefully transported to the island of Schiermonnikoog, then put back together again and connected up.

Upstairs in Beilen

Almost finished a set of cupboards and drawers upstair in Beilen.

Back tomorrow to place a light switch and some plug sockets.

I rather like the combination of painted wood and part finished planks, though when the painter has been back all will be shiny in white and blue.

Schier kitchen

While waiting for the paint to dry in Beilen we have started work on a small kitchen project that will end up in a little house on the island of Schiermonnikoog.

The cupboards are beech plywood and the doors, drawer fronts and left and right end panels are from an Ash tree that we bought for the interior of the Willem Johannes in 2010. I new that those last four planks were being saved for a good reason.

Next week the client is coming to do the varnishing work on the cupboards and solid wood and the Italian stone man, Giulio Stefano, is coming round to measure up for a granite worktop.

When finished the whole project will be packed up and transported accross the Waddenzee to the island, to be assembled and installed there. 

A letter a day #letteraday

After way too long I've now got this carved nameboard project moving by challenging myself to do one letter a day and placing the day's letter on Twitter with the tag #letteraday.
The name of the barge, and thus what I am carving, is somewhat ironic. You'll have to wait and see.

Another row of boxes

Tomorrow we'll load these cupboards and drawers into the blue bus and take them South. Once painted we can place them and build another layer of shelves above them, under the sloping roof.

Another row

Claudia, queen of cupboards, has started work on the next row of six for a wall in the upstairs bedroom.
This is in the house where we recently placed the office furniture. The walnut office table will go in next Monday after its last coat of varnish is dry and hardened.

First wall finished

Last week we assembled the painted oak wall cupboards and trial fitted the walnut table top.
Now that has been glued up and delivered to the painter and we've started work on another shelf, cupboard and drawer unit in a room up under the roof.

Mercedes Laser crane

I remember the moment when Em had grown big and strong enough that we could lift her Optimist into the back of the VW van together. Freedom.
The combi trailer/trolley offers a similar freedom but when we stack my Laser on top of hers that is gone. Usually there are plenty of strong sailors or parents around to help but I'm always happier if I know I can solve things alone.
So now we have a Laser crane on the back of the Merc van, capable of lifting a Laser and its stacking trolley high enough to roll another Laser on the trailer underneath.
Next stop Workum.

Just add water

Twenty something years of rain and condensation sneaking under the floor and into the plywood means trouble on this fibreglass motor boat.
I was asked to saw out the rotten bits so that the concrete ballast could be removed, then rebuild floor, galley and steering column.
I've done the sawing, but haven't reached solid wood yet upon which I can start to rebuild.

Karel

Karel is a 50's diuble ender, built of rivetted steel.
To make it possible for Willem de Vries to wire in a battery charger and inverter I've cut two small hatches in these teak panels.
Long live the Japanese saw.

Happy New Year

We've come to the end of our long, hot summer barge trip. Em has a new school diary, a new timetable and a new class. For some reason starting up after a summer break has always felt more like beginning a new year to me than fireworks and champagne on January 1st.
We have plenty to do and lots of new ideas after spending weeks together in the wheelhouse. Now it's time to put things in motion.
First up in the shop is three square meters of walnut table that belongs to the office furniture we put together before the holiday break. Our new year has begun.