Duckling season

Hello, and happy Summer! ☀️ (also happy duckling season.)

With the mattress out of the way, job #1 on Monday was cleaning that mess. The room was covered with sanded foam particles that stick to you for their life, but no match for a vacuum.

I could then add skirting boards, and I fitted the ceiling vent:

Finish sauna vibes, and I felt like a dash of colour so I painted them "Hague Blue":

I also ordered some bedding, and I couldn't skimp given everything thus far... ChatGPT sold me on feeling coddled by ancestral spirits and the "weighted cloud in a Scottish meadow vibe," so I went with the cashmere and Scottish wool of Ava Innes , plus some Flax linen sheets.

Then on Tuesday, my first bell ringing lesson ! With Vicky & Mark teaching myself and one other, there's a "training bell" which is a modern invention to spare the locals, but I still had a go on the real ones to give William a wiggle in his grave below. And we also went up to the belfry which was cool:

Trinity keep theirs in the up position so they're easy to stop and start, otherwise you have to "ring them up" which, depending on the weight (250–975kg), is a lot of effort after a long, narrow spiral staircase. And Mark with his 66 years of experience assured me that yes, the bells at St. Paul's were indeed excellent, but Liverpool Cathedral was just *chef's kiss*.

On Wednesday I started the gunwale boards, and individually they're the most time-consuming piece of carpentry; fitting in place, aligning to the panelling, trimming, sanding, routing, more sanding, the final fitting... and the first piece, after carefully trimming, I routed on the wrong side god dammit. I was so mad, but re-doing it the second time went quicker and it feels just right:

I've innovated since the bedroom, with some little screws going up and into the wall panelling, keeping them tight together.

I chose the next morning to finally install the bedroom window, and the coldest one to be out in shorts. After swinging the boat around, I took off my old window (duck-taped plastic) and prepared the opening with some painstaking drilling and tapping, followed by the installation and sealing the edges:

The nice thing about black is that you can't see the messy sealant around the edge (jk it's perfect).

It's so much better than the old one, and I can't wait to paint the boat orange:

Only slight issue, the window is fully removable but the trim inside is too high so I can't get it past the hinges without taking them off...

And on Saturday, after some incredible work by my mum's neighbour Bev, I collected the finished mattress. It fits perfectly, and she even did the porthole carve-outs!

Followed by finally sealing the bathroom floor with LTP Mattstone . A couple of coats and no water on it for 3 days it warns, so I have until Tuesday which should nicely coincide with the battery arriving to power the plumbing.

That evening, yesterday, I spent the first night onboard since camping on here last summer, covered in sawdust, and 3 years since living on Katona's previous incarnation before I started tearing everything apart. None of the new bedding arrived alas, so I nabbed some for a few days (thanks Mum!).

I was so excited to sleep there that I couldn't fall asleep, but waking up to the glimmering water through the portholes was divine.

The clothes rail is temporary (future-Nick problems), and I'm desperately trying to find a chest of drawers that's just right. 30-32cm deep, no more than 78cm high and crucially not ugly. It's so difficult!

Today, Sunday, I continued with some panelling and running wires, and my cousins Charlie and Agata have joined me for a few days, so I put them to work dismantling the rusty, seized wood burner: