Hello! All over the place this week, but on Tuesday I finished the bathroom ceiling, with a coat of varnish on Thursday: I went to do another coat on Friday, but "3 hours dry-to-touch" expands to 36 in this wet, cold weather. Instead I fitted some Munsen Rings
To ensure a system works, you have options: test the individual components ("unit testing"), or test the system as a whole, end-to-end ("integration testing"). Maybe a mix of both, depending on the context. In the case of pressure-testing the bathroom plumbing, I've done the
Hello! And happy December. It feels good to be back in the homeland. While stateside I made it to the Shenandoah Valley, and it turns out the song was right, the Blue Ridge Mountains really do look blue! I only got back yesterday, and continued with chiselling concrete today. It’
Hello! Happy Sunday, happy boat-less week. Still in the USA, I’ve been on the road for work, now visiting some family in the capital. The bathroom plumbing will be fun to get back to, and until then, here’re some boats at sunset in front of the Washington Monument:
Hello! Boat updates…?! I have found myself in New York, and didn’t sufficiently have my shit together beforehand to get any boat work done this week. The forecast at home is cold and wet, so I’m not too mad, and it gives me a chance to get parts
Hello! It didn’t feel like a huge boat progress week, but on Saturday I was back in the tank, sealing the crannies and nooks before I can fill it. I wouldn’t call it aesthetic, but a generous dose and I hope function prevails. And it wouldn’t be
Hello, and happy November! The thought of building out the boat over winter didn’t excite me to start with, but there’s something wholesome about working when it’s dark, lit by lamps and nothing much happening outside in the cold. Speaking of, on Monday evening I re-did the
Slam it to the left… if you’re havin’ a good time? Mostly confident in my socket wiring last week, but I got a plug tester to be sure. The dopamine hit worked; there’s no substitute for the 2 green lights telling me “well done, you’re not an
Hello! Moar varnish this week, and buoy was it boring. Also hard to see given it’s clear, but that is the bedroom done. Some new work lights helped, for day-round daylight inside: Then, lighting. Or at least the wire-y parts… I forgot fuses for the LED strips, so everything
G’day, from the UK. Happy Sunday! Not much boat time this week, but on Thursday I started working on some tile samples: These by hand, but I’ll get a pasta-maker type thing (a “slab roller”) for the rest, and I’ll spend a few weeks experimenting with clays,
Sat on the balcony of my room, listening to Shania with the boys (my brother and cousin), nothing but blue sky and ocean waves; this week I’m in North Carolina, U.S.A, for a wedding. I would have said hungover, but thanks to magical chemistry it’s only
Hello! Flooding season is upon us. This is 4 feet above normal, and I’m staying on the other side of the Avon, which I can no longer reach by foot along the river path. In fact I’m staying by the church, and on Tuesday evening I went along
Hello! It’s been a while since I started the engine, and on Tuesday I felt like giving it a little razzmatazzle for good juju. I went to crank it and sure enough, the starter hardly engaged. Sometimes it did but sounded painful, like a bodybuilder trying to force out
Hello! Happy warm weather again. This week, more bedroom trim. I’ve now done most of it, but it’s like playing pick-up sticks and I can only do a few pieces each time while the glue dries: For the lighting coves I was planning to also glue them, but
Sunday already?! Golly, after the flurry of woodwork last weekend, it was another of those “have fun programming” weeks. Buuut on Thursday my new mattress arrived; 4 inches of Reflex Superior™ foam with a 2 inch memory foam layer on top, super king. It’s a rectangle I need to
Hello, and happy September! Also, happy 52nd blog post; a year of updates, with a winter hiatus. In those terms we’re definitely past halfway — I don’t think I’ll get to 100 posts before finishing. Then again, I’m terrible at predicting timescales so ignore me. On Monday
In carpenting a curved boat bedroom (aka the “forward cabin”), you quickly hit the question of symmetry. Namely, to where do you reference the measurements? It turns out the portholes aren’t in the same place, nor are the steel supports, and it doesn’t help that the boat isn’
Troubled by my one-track mind, I had a blast programming this week yet lacked the luster to carpent. But then came Saturday and that all changed, in flow and I wouldn’t stop; I couldn’t find the hours to keep cutting wood. The portholes-on-pine look so damn good, and
Away this weekend, I had a few evenings to continue the bedroom panelling: The curves are challenging with 12mm-thick wood, but on Friday my dentist had a bright idea, from his experience curving MDF: using a circular saw, cut shallow slits along the wood’s rear to weaken it. More
Hello, and happy August! This week started the carpentry, and sawdust everywhere — in my hair, where I sleep, on the chair, where I eat. I finished the bedroom ceiling, and a top wall: I knew it already, but now I feel it in my fingers: it’s a lot of
Remember the water tank? I forgot something: the level sensor. Previously I knew the water level through vibes, but they’re not always accurate and too many times I’d be mid-shower and hear the dreaded churn of a water-less pump. That arrived this week, and I’m now waiting
There’ve been a few checklists during this project for major milestones, the first being “move back onboard” for getting the bow habitable last year. No stranger to camping, on Tuesday I did that again, airbed and sleeping bag in tow. It still feels a bit homeless but compared to
When I pressure-washed the water tank last Sunday, I dried it out but not quickly enough: it started flash rusting… but this time I only needed a quick angle grind with a wire brush, followed by a regular vacuum and wipe-down before it was ready to paint. The paint I’
The car won’t start, it’s falling apart. — Shania Twain But I was not late for work: I took Monday off this week, starting with a trip to Tamworth — an hour away — to pick up some extra insulation. Not long after leaving I fell slightly forwards as the clutch