If I do this, will they laugh me out of the room?

[John V]

I think I understand a bit as well.

 

I just wrote and then erased a very long rambling post. Simple to say I live on a converted Humber barge which I love and have a little narrow beam cruiser for exploring the canals which I also love

[Marjorie]

I think I understand a bit as well.

 

I just wrote and then erased a very long rambling post. Simple to say I live on a converted Humber barge which I love and have a little narrow beam cruiser for exploring the canals which I also love

 

HOORAY! We are not alone

 

That makes complete sense. After marrying the boat next door and blending both our middling-sized boats into one big, sensible grownup narrowboat I now also have my own wee micro-boat office which I rebuilt from scrap to be just as I wanted and which provides 'me' space with no compromises.

 

If simple and with minimal consumption of 'stuff' is how you want your boat to be, and you want to see how things go, then repurposing an old one sounds a fine plan (esp if you have a decent budget to play with) rather than waiting about for a new one which may or may not turn out to be exactly what you want.

 

The woodlands house is beeeeauuutiful! But not mobile - always a problem with houses.....

 

 

I met boyo on the marina too (I was in the process of scaling down, he in the process of scaling up - the only real fly in the ointment!).

 

My first idea was to repurpose an old one (I like the idea of using what's already there), but I can't work out where the sweet spot is - it seems like, to be sure of the hull and mechanics, you have to spend around the £30-40k mark, which is more than a sailaway. Have I just got it wrong somewhere?

 

The woodlands house is beautiful, but yes, not mobile (what is WRONG with people), and also presses a few too many of my 'living simply and being a navel gazing hippy aren't the same thing' buttons )

 

 

Fair play to you both,

Pick away, I think it's always better to ask, than think you know !.

 

I have an inkling of where you're coming from and as Paul says "pick away" if you are smart enough (and I think you are) you will be able to sort the wheat from the chaff. I ceased being in acquisition mode about the time we moved aboard, we sold the house and all our possesions and made a vow to live on our boat not partly on the bank or in some storage lock-up. Tried to work on the KISS principle (keep it simple stupid)

I wish you all the luck and look forward to helping out if I can.

Phil

 

You are some of the kindest people I have never met.

 

[Magic Potion]

You 'get' it. I sold everything I owned including tbe house to buy mine. That was just over a year ago ..... having lived on it for a year, I'm now realising what works and what doesn't regarding the layout and fittings plus what work needs to be done. I went the used boat route and I'm happy I did.

[RLWP]

Also, now I've found all of you, I'm going to pick you clean of all your knowledge and experience, like the information vulture that I am.

 

As you pick us clean can you bear in mind that this is a forum with a lot of boat owners who all love their boats. They love the builders, layouts, engines, in fact all sorts of aspects of them.

 

Sometimes your questions show you are ignorant about them - no problem, everyone has to learn. Sometimes your comments come over as bumptious - I've built this, I want that, I know this, I can't believe that. For instance, will owners of Black Prince boats help you now?

 

While you are gorging on information, remember you are asking us to yield information about a totally irrational thing - owning a boat, so:

 

Tread softly because you tread on our dreams.

 

Richard

Edited June 8, 2014 by RLWP

[Marjorie]

 

As you pick us clean can you bear in mind that this is a forum with a lot of boat owners who all love their boats. They love the builders, layouts, engines, in fact all sorts of aspects of them.

 

Sometimes your questions show you are ignorant about them - no problem, everyone has to learn. Sometimes your comments come over as bumptious - I've built this, I want that, I know this, I can't believe that. For instance, will owners of Black Prince boats help you now?

 

While you are gorging on information, remember you are asking us to yield information about a totally irrational thing - owning a boat, so:

 

Tread softly because you tread on our dreams.

 

Richard

 

Oh I'm sorry, I didn't mean to come across like that at all!

 

I certainly don't think I know everything (but surely it's easier to help me if you know that I do know some things?) - and I certainly didn't mean to knock anyone's beloved home (my Black Prince joke was in bad taste, I can't argue with that).

 

Wrist duly slapped. Thank you for saying it, instead of just being frustrated with me in silence.

[RLWP]

I said you were fitting in well, didn't I

 

Richard

[bizzard]

Well, I'm keeping mum from now on. Marjorie I'm sure will be very thankful for that.

[OldGoat]

A short anecdote to explain my 'worries' about your 'requirements':-

 

When an impressionable teenager my Physics master invited a number of us to his 'houseboat' in Chelsea (things weren't so posh in those days). It was a converted Tank Landing Craft. I was impressed by a large domestic wood burning stove AND a Sunken Bath. I think there were three bedrooms. Later that year I had an evening on a converted sailing barge further down that reach. I was amazed at the spaces in both boats.

 

The point that I'm trying to make is that domestic furniture fitted quite well into both sets of spaces, large Victorian sofas and chairs didn't dominate anything.

 

However, scaling down stuff made for house dimensions just doesn't work (always). You can't chop down a panelled door to fit in a nb passageway, kitchen cabinets are too long and just a tad too deep.

To get fittings to work they've got to be scaled down to 80 or 70 % of the original. That said I have a large hand basin in the principal bathroom, a domestic fridge-freezer, a 3 basin kitchen sink. Everything else is hand made to fit.

 

Even using reclaimed timber can be too bulky. Old timber doors are probably 1 1/4" thick - My figured plywood doors 3/4". I had to plane my Oak panelling down from 1" nominal to 3/4" or less (shame).

 

Enough.