Busy Day

Another visit to Beacon today, lots more progress, galley has washer, fridge, oven and cupboard bases, along with the hob and sink.  The cellar boxes are in, and the oak floor around them looks really good.  The bed has the base lids for the storage done.  The dinette is done with the freezer under one side and the extension to the dinette to make the 5'6" into a 6' bed a great piece of engineering and carpentry by Neil, it is so neat and innovative, we are really impressed.  

We met Sheila from SAB Signs to discuss our sign writing, not sure if we confused her as we are not 100% as to what we require, neither of us is artistic but we have an idea of what we want, Sheila has gone away and will let us have a design.  http://www.sabsigns.com/ 

On leaving Beacon we went onto Whalin Upholstery http://www.whalinupholstery.co.uk/ to choose the upholstery for the dinette and the port hole bungs.  We chose the leather quiet quickly (not that hard black!) but the material for the bungs was a different story, we went right through all the sample books trying to find something that would go with the coloured walls and the maple in the saloon, we decided on a pattern eventually that hopefully will complement both.

We have had a really good day, the dream is getting much closer and feeling very real now, only downer on the day was getting stuck on the M1 on the way home for over an hour due to an accident, thankfully not a serious one.

Apologies for the quality of the photos, I have left our good camera in Northampton after a family visit at the weekend, so I'll update with better ones once I have the good camera back! 

 Bed Storage

Saloon

 Cellar Boxes

 Washer in (think it was a bit heavy!)

 Hob with drawer unit below

 Dinette

and the secret pull out extension

Where we be now!

Well hello.

So how did we get to today?  We started looking at Narrowboats several years ago after extensive hiring and decided that we would have one built to our own specifications! This was a dream, and dreamers are often not very specific!
Having visited numerous shows and boat builders, you get a feel what will suit you I suppose. We met Ali and Bug's (Neil) at Crick an age ago it feels. They were and are, genuine honest people and we asked ourselves, who would you like and trust to build. No contest. So Beacon it was. During the planning(!) we went through through whole gammit, from all electric to hybrid and nothing phased them....
Gradually a sort of sense prevailed, (although Ali & Bug's may offer a differant slant).

So a 58 ft Semi trad it was to be. Powered by a Beta 43 fully cocooned engine.

We are I suppose mid build at this time and the obvious question is " has this been stressful" ?

Erm, NO.

Beacon have listened, advised and gently guided us through the process. I know that we have not been the easiest of customers, but at no time have they made us feel the complete idiots I know we are.

We sort of gave them a vague spec, And they got on with it....magic?

Just love them.

John.

Unexpected Progress

We visited Beacon Boats yesterday, didn't really expect to see much progress as its only 10 days since our last visit.  We were really suprised, the cratch is built, the wardrobes and bed frame are nearly completed and one of the back cupboards and the rear doors are done.  The lockgate has arrived and is just awaiting fitting.  The lamp and horn that arrived is also up.  We are really pleased with the progress.  A few pictures from our trip.