Time for reflection

Every now and again I try and look back at what has been achieved and what is left to do.  This is not always an easy job as there is always more to do than already done.

What has been achieved?

All original portholes were removed and restored and refitted.
This was an expensive (to say the least) exercise but one that will be worth it for years to come.  It was a now or never job.  Now seemed better than never.

All main ship strip out finished
Well not quite.  95% is done.  There are still old cables that need removing from the old radio room that went up through the ceiling into the tower.  This is a warm weather job and will not hold back other work.

Cabins habitable
This was the main achievement for two reasons.  The first was that I had somewhere to stay on board and live.  Not a palace, but comfortable if you ignore things like temperature.  The second benefit is the biggest though.  If you are going to convert a ship to live on, you need to live on it.  Otherwise your designs and ideas will be guesses and it is invaluable to get a feel for what is needed to ground your ideas and designs.

Mess woodwork done
The walls and ceiling of the old mess room were done.  This was a learning room and taught me a lot about what works and what does not work.  It was useful to get the nail gun and a few other tools to speed up the process.

Electrical and plumbing
Lots of planning and thinking here but none done because the rooms were not ready.  But the wiring in the cabins is sound and working fine and my ring mains worked well.  It did help highlight the challenges of earthing the kit so again some useful lessons learnt.  None of the water tanks were progressed sadly.  So the water pump and filter systems remain in their boxes.

So not as much progress as I would have liked lately but progress none the less.

I think the immediate focus will be to get the front locker cleared so that Dave can remove the metal lockers down there.  If I can source some portholes (I have some) then that will be the last major engineering job.  Apart from the other cabin portholes which I need 8 of and still have not managed to source.  But that is another £2k-£3k just for those to buy so they can wait until later next year.
One key lesson is that it is not worth progressing rooms too far before engineering work is done or the mess can be too damaging to the work done.

Finally, I have to get the woodwork done over winter if I am to have a chance of doing the insulation next year when the temperature is right.  Thats lots of work to do in a short time.  Gulp.