Week 6 Thinking about the Boat

Week 6

A "surprise" birthday dinner at our local restaurant. Just with Janny's brothers and sisters - and Janny's Mum.

The waiter did his best to spoil it when we first walked in - by blurting out that "ah, yes, you have a table for 13" - Renny said that the look on my face was dreadful - as I was wondering how to thump the guy...but it all worked out OK as the brothers and sisters came in together - singing happy birthday in a conga line.

2024 Boating Season begins...(almost)

The gas installation has to be inspected and certified every 3 years - and I need the certification for my insurance - and I need proof of insurance to have the boat moored in our haven - so it is all linked.

The last chap who did the certification had wondered about the "regulations" because, strictly speaking, the gas bottles have to be "outside" in the new regs.

But he ended up acknowledging that our installation is far better than many he had seen - he checked with his Instructor - who simply said that "if you reckon it's OK just go ahead and certify it".

Now that Sander has moved on to other things, I began to wonder if I would be able to find a like-minded person to renew the certification. Janny asked around on her Facebook Group "Met de boot door Friesland" (With the boat through Friesland) and found a young chap who came and did it. He too said that it was very good compared to some - the problem seems to be with older boats that people make alterations and sometimes things go amiss. Hence the need for a 3 yearly inspection. And the rubber hose needs to be replaced every 3 years in any case. The regulator itself is every 10 years - hope I'm still around for that!!

In a nice turn of events, the new chap, Alex, is also a bit of an all-rounder that I will be able to call on if need be.

I had to open the boat for him to get on board - I squeezed through the forward hatch and unscrewed the winter door panels. Now, I was surprised and pleased that I could actually fit through - that is normally a job for my helper, Tjeerd :))

The winter is not kind to boats...she's looking very bleak and grubby.

Work on the house continues...slowly

The black bricks arrived

They had been the wrong colour - so the apprentice had the job of taking the wrong ones out...They also extended the house roof line - so that the extension looks like an extension from the outside - but not on the inside. The rest of the brickwork is also going to be black.

Last week we began enlarging the office by knocking out a wall between two (previously) bedrooms.

More Insulation

This week, we'll be back to finishing the insulation of the apartment we are using.

It all seems fairly easy now that we know what to do - again the difficult part will be replacing two central heating radiators.

Part of the wall is damp - with condensation - so I have primed the lats (2 coats) beforehand...

Ventilation is probably just as important as insulation - so I'll have to tackle that when the insulation is finished - probably new glass in the windows with a ventilation roster at the top.

All of our current building works began with the idea of energy savings - we had our own Energy Crisis at De Twa Buken - let alone the rest of Europe.

A lot of the extra works - bathroom, kitchen, bedroom - just seemed to grow out of that - do it now because everything has to be replaced anyway.

So, with Energy being a Big Deal for us, we really put in some extra effort at working on our bad habits. The apartments have to pay for their own energy, so we have been advising them as much as possible - and doing work in our own temporary accommodation - which will be of benefit for the next occupier as well.

A number of good things have come as a result...

We received a "gift" from our own Wijnjewoude Energie Neutraal Corporation - of €3000,00.

Janny has secured a governmental Interest Free loan to purchase the Heat Pumps (still has to be paid back but interest free is not to be sneezed at).

And, very much feeling like a "reward" for our changed behaviour - we had a return from our energy supplier - of over €8000,00 for 2023. (We pay a fixed monthly amount based on the previous year actual use).