Crafty Craft and Crazy Living at Newbury!

Moored Newbury, Kennet & Avon Canal

This weekend we remained in Newbury.. well daughter Wendie and the family came a-visiting.. Vic and I made a huge push to try and get the table serviceable which meant putting in the flooring on the raised dinette which Dan and I didn’t bother doing when he was down a couple of weeks ago helping with the other flooring.. we did it, and made a hole in the floor to take the table leg.. and screwed it all together.  The children simply loved being able to play on the huge table while looking out of the window.  The raised dinette is 10 inches higher than the floor and we did wonder if it was going to be too high (the windows are high on No Problem you see).. but it is ideal and nobody had any bother with it at all…

The children simply adored their new sleeping arrangements.. the bunkroom!  Although we didn’t have time to make a ladder for Kiera to climb up and down from the top bunk, we used the reclining chair boxes which have not been unpacked of their contents.. (well no time to lounge around you know! ) and she quite ably managed to scramble up and down using those.. success!!

So Sunday was pure chaos.. I think it was organised chaos though, and everyone helped to lay the galley flooring, while the children played..

Wendie brought back the foam which she had cut just to check that it fitted OK, and here it is in place, it has yet to be covered.. and a half inch or so off here and there and it will be just perfect.  You can see the galley flooring is down in this pic and Vic making a cuppa The fridge is in the passageway while the area under where it really lives is being done, blocking off the children who are now playing between the galley and the bunkroom! Crazy living!!

But later a nice pic opportunity with Niamh and Lucy.. Those two simply love each other…

But everyone enjoyed the weekend, and we socialised on No Problem for the first time and toasted our new home with a few bevies!.. Wendie and Dan then stayed aboard sleeping, while we went next door and slept on our own bed.. much better than sleeping on the floor as is usually the case when they all come up!

Wendie had to work today, so they left yesterday, just an hours ride in the car.. Niamh and Kiera slept all the way.. mind they had been on the go for most of the day.

Today was the Crafty Craft race from Hungerford to Newbury Victoria Park, and here are some pics as they put their rafts back into the water after transporting them around West Mills Swing Bridge..

Here above the Indians, closely followed by the cowboys hard on their heels…..

And some more bizarre craft…

Oooooops wet again! …

And of course the Vikings chasing everyone down!..

Most of the ‘crews’ looked pretty tired by this stage, I am not surprised it is quite a long way from Hungerford on these makeshift craft, but they seemed happy, and we were pleased to be able to watch this again.. the last time was 3 years ago we happened to be at Kintbury as they came by..

Meanwhile…

One plumbed in washing machine into the utility room.. shelf to go over that to take Vics large toolbox.  This is a cold fill only washing machine, but you can see that we have designed it so that we can use the cold fill with a mixture of hot and cold so saving a lot power heating cold water.. I can use the two red taps to mix.  I have this arrangement at the moment and it works very well indeed… so now we have a mess in the galley again because all the stuff that was in the utility room had to come out and go ‘somewhere’ while the washing machine was put in.. here is the mess in the galley for all those of you that have said I should also show the mess as we are fitting out!!..

OK, OK, so I will find somewhere to stash away the mess tomorrow!