Painting and upholstery

This weekend I'll be at the bonded warehouse in Stourbridge learning at the feet of master boat painter Phil Speight. Its a two day course starting from preparing the surface right through to decorative finishes. I'm hoping that it'll give me enough confidence to have a go at Herbie's cabin sides this winter. I may even attempt signwriting.

A full report in a week or so's time.

I can't think of a single thing that would do more for Herbie than completing the paintwork, although we have quite a list of other planned improvements inside too.

We're quite close now to a final decision on the revamp of the sofa bed after visiting an upholstery place in Bristol last week. It's always worth discussing plans with these people because we came away with our ideas improved and with one or two more measurements to check. That's the thing with narrowboats. Space is so precious and so fixed that you have to be really careful in planning stuff. You have to think carefully about cushion thickness because as some of the cushions form the back rest, they take up sitting space. Too thick and you end up perched on a ledge. Too thin and you don't have a comfy bed. Then there's all the business of grades of foam etc etc. Anyway we're getting a handle on it now.