Have you missed me?

Rain, rain and more rain, that's just about all we've seen through the windows of Still Rockin' over the last few weeks.  We've not strayed far from Hambleden Marina except when we really had to but that doesn't mean we've been doing nothing ...

I really don't like cooking smells lingering in the boat so we decided that a decent cooker hood was needed.  Easy to say! 

We measured the space between the entrance wall to the single wall cupboard and found that it was two centimetres too narrow, so that was problem one.  To move the cupboard we had to remove and replace tiles and so had to buy more.  Due to the shape of the ceiling the cupboard also had to be dropped down a little too.  The only easy bit was to decide which hood to buy!

We had already got a small extractor so that, and all its 12 volt wiring had to be removed from the cupboard, the ceiling and behind the walls. The tiles on the right were removed and new ones fitted and grouted and the cupboard rehung. 

Next was the measuring for the fixing of the cooker hood to the wall to ensure that it was at the correct height and where the mains cables would come from.  After several holes drilled both in the wall above and below the bottom kitchen units, trying to avoid the metal bulkhead supports, a solution was found. Problem two solved!

Problem three ... the chimney came in two sections and both need to be used.  The main section was too long to fit between the cooker hood and the ceiling so that needed to be reduced and the top section which has the vents in it needed to be cut to the shape of the ceiling and so problem four developed ... how to do it.  With a lot of research George managed to purchase appropriate angle grinder blades and after a few practice cuts and more than a few swear words he was finally happy to fit it all together and on the wall ... 

although it was not as easy as I make it out to be, George made a really good job of it don't you think?  We are really pleased with the result.

This was the view from the kitchen window just before 7 this morning (Saturday 14th December) with the moon bright in the dark sky reflecting off the boat covers opposite.  

The forecast today is sunny spells, light rain showers and wind, hopefully it will dry my bath towels whilst we catch a bus and have a birthday lunch at Toad Hall, a garden centre near Henley currently with a seasonal winter wonderland as a lead up to Christmas ...