Katona

Rebuilding a narrowboat.

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Nick

Nick

If I were a sparky

— Beyoncé Hello, and happy April! Sometimes I think about what I’d do for work if everything went to shit with a demon cursing all computers and their programmers. Electrician is up there, and carpenter maybe. But tiler? Fuck no. Anyway the final wall tiles arrived on Saturday, and I

By Nick 6 Apr 2025

Making shapes

Hello! Happy Sunday :) This week I did start on the grouting, and dark grey on light tiles is a mess: I’ve since become more efficient, and it looks pretty! I imagined having the bathroom done this week — a bit more tiling, and the grouting, and some lights — but damn,

By Nick 30 Mar 2025

Magnets and membranes, Penrose and pizza

Hello! Happy Sunday. The expectations were indeed grout, but I did more tiling this week. Continuing the bathroom walls, and then on Thursday the concrete floor tiles arrived, all 170kg of them. Before starting on those, I stuck down a waterproof membrane and ordered some pizza. Also I fit the

By Nick 23 Mar 2025

Grout expectations

Hello! So tiling is was great; the little section I did last Sunday was a first-time mess (I also didn't have a decent second trowel), but since then the monotony set in, and I'm looking forward to the end. But mostly done, and I love how

By Nick 16 Mar 2025

Eating the sunk cost

Hello! And happy Sunday. Those bathroom drains... eurgh, they were bugging me, and they leaked. They were also horribly inaccessible, and my brother's obsession with maintainability was ringing in my ears. These were anything but: completely sealed, and fragile. And I read Antifragile this week, so it'

By Nick 9 Mar 2025

Future Nick problems

Hello! And happy March :D First thing on the list this week, heating pipes: I found a better way to lay them this time, but they're still a pain. And then installing the drains: With some tests they do drain, mostly, but given the small tolerances I'

By Nick 2 Mar 2025

Fair weather working

Halløjsa! In what may be a record for my shortest update, this week I managed some varnishing around work work before heading to Denmark this weekend. And the rest of the windows did arrive! Let's hope they fit, but I won't try until I take the

By Nick 23 Feb 2025

You can just weld things

Hello, and happy Sunday! With parts in hand, on Monday I could finally finish those shower drains: You know that feeling of swizzling butter around a pan to cover the base, filling in the gaps? This is just like that, with liquid metal — it's the same little dopamine

By Nick 16 Feb 2025

NO RADIOACTIVITY

Happy Sunday! I've been procrastinating on these shower drains, but on Tuesday I got myself together to finally figure them out. Going through the welder manual to set things up, I looked for the torch, squinted, then looked back at the manual. There in parenthesis, "torch not

By Nick 9 Feb 2025

Mind the gaps

Hello! And happy February :D I remember hearing some advice on project management, something like you should finish the first thing first. And it makes sense — the more you start, the more unfinished things to overwhelm you. This was always my strategy, except I wanted the bedroom and bathroom floors

By Nick 2 Feb 2025

Blood and sweat, oak and steel

Hello! Happy last-Sunday-of-January :) This week I continued with some of the tiling boards: Followed by fitting the bathroom shelves: And they're gonna look so good! After routing some nice edges on the bottom one, I started varnishing it with Epifanes, a mighty-hardy marine varnish, and complete overkill: Because

By Nick 26 Jan 2025

Tidy wiring, happy plumbing

Hello! Happy Sunday. This week I finished the bathroom electrics, and... I went overboard: 48V coming in (because thinner wire for a smaller voltage drop across longer distances, the same principal behind our national grid), then dropping to 12V and distributing to the 4 components via relays — electronic switches triggered

By Nick 19 Jan 2025
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Katona

Rebuilding a narrowboat.