The House That Rex Built

Recently, being really busy with work, we've only been able to work on stuff (like the bedroom and corridor) at the weekends, so progress has been slow. In order to get the bedroom finished to a standard where my parents could stay in it for Christmas a final big push was needed. So the following is the result of working solidly on Saturday, Sunday and Monday...

We started by getting a big-ass delivery of wood from the always amazing guys at Whitten Timber, (which took 2 hours of going back and forth on the mooring to get all the 8x4ft sheets back to the boat)

and sorting out all the bits of wood (and cats) that we already had lying around

Then our friend Rex came over on Saturday and helped us get started on the room itself

with her help we started cutting the boards to size

and screwing them onto the battens to form the wall.

It was at this point that we reallised that there is not a single 90 degree corner in the room and that none of the walls are square with each other either horizontally or vertically, and decided that a plumb line or spirit level, on a moving boat, would be a waste of time. So we ignored the concept of 90 degree corners and just cut each piece to the size and shape that was needed, usually a complex, slopey one. Having thus freed our minds from the tyranny of the set square, we started to build up the walls, and added a plug socket as we went.


Rex did a fantastic job helping us out and it was great to have an extra pair of hands to help move the big sheets into place. What a star! Here she's demonstrating how the skirting board will look when it's fitted later.

We also took the wiring for the light, which had been there before but which we had disconnected when we took the walls off, and reconnected it all with new wiring, a new light switch ( from Woolworths) and a new light fitting,


And There Was Light, which was great as it meant that we could now work into the night.

And so the cladding of the walls continued, working our way round the walls, discovering new and complex shapes that needed to be worked out then cut out

but making staedy progress and enjoying the room finally taking shape as a room, rather than just a load of rockwool, celotex and battens.


Finally, on Sunday, it was finished. All that remained to be done was to fit the doorframe so that the last bit of wall could be built around it, then fit the door itself. Little did i know that this would take the WHOLE of monday, but that's for the next post, stay tuned...