Wow factor and we have a date

Hi all,
Never mind the X factor we had the wow factor today.  Chris, Amy (on her first visit to AmyJo) and myself visited Fernwoods today and I have to say the lads must have pulled the stops out over the last couple of weeks as progress was astounding.

Of course, when mum and daughter(s) get together there is always too much frivolity and they could not resist poking fun as I took a photo of them through the porthole. I decided to live up to my name of "grumpy old b*gg*r" the girls gave me, politely smiled and left them to it sorting out where everything was going to be stowed after the launch and had a look round outside.

First thing of notice is AmyJo now has her portholes installed and this had given AmyJo a different look and feel if you know what I mean. Can't put my finger on what it is just yet but its amazing what a difference they make.

 Up on the roof all the mushroom vent bases and other fittings are now in place including the plank and pole supports and the antenna for the internet connection.

Outside AmyJo is beginning to look like she is nearly finished but there is still more to be done.  The gunwales have to be painted as do the stern deck and well deck.  As there is a lot of foot traffic on these areas at the moment they will be treated nearer the end of the build.

 At AmyJo's stern I found Peter, the electrician, busy wiring up the myriad of wires to the control panel.  I do hope they will be labelled up as there seems to be so many of them!

I then joined the girls inside and everywhere I looked there has been much done.  Our radiators have now been installed

The fridge and oven are in place in the galley.  

As you can see from the photo, they look after us while we're there and we had our first cuppa on board today so a sort of christening in a small way.  If you are thinking of having a Fernwood boat I can recommend the boys for their tea making skills as well as their joinery :-)  Not a bad cuppa if I may say so!

There was also much progress in the day room with the cupboards and washing machine installed.  The long doors of these cupboards, when open, will divide off the day room from the galley to give privacy when guests use the room as a bedroom.

The empty cupboard in the photo below will house the tumble dryer eventually.  Some of you may say we should have gone for a washer dryer to save space.  Well we did consider that but we have one at home and Chris is not completely happy with it.  She does not like the fact it does not dry as well as a stand alone tumble dryer, so wanted a separate one as we have a separate one in our shed at home that we use more than the combined one indoors.

In the wet room the flooring is now down and the contrast with that and the panels work nicely to brighten up the space.  Might be a pain to keep clean as we walk through the boat but we'll have to see what we can do if that proves to be the case.

The bracket sticking out with the red tube is one of two mountings for the vanity unit that will have the sink on it.  The brackets are necessary as the unit will "float" on the wall without touching the floor.  The wall space without lining is where the loo will eventually go.

In our bedroom I could not get many photos as there is a lot of stuff in there at the moment but did manage to get this one of one of the wardrobes and what will be a chest of drawers.  The bulkhead space will eventually be all mirror to give a feel of more space.  There will be a similar arrangement on the other side of the bed.

 The back cabin is starting to take shape.  I did not want to disturb Peter too much but did manage a couple of photos.  As you can see the inverter and mains circuit boxes are going in and Peter was making connections to the control panel.  Just out of shot by his feet nestles the engine under dust covers.  Its in but not fully installed.

 Peter explained to me the various parts on the control panel that houses the main circuit breakers, LCD battery monitor, waste, drinking water and diesel tank level indicators plus the central heating control unit.

Best of all though, there was a lovely surprise waiting for us written on a board outside the office door.  I can now say AmyJo has a target launch date!  I'm afraid I'm going to keep you in suspense for that just for now as it's is only a target date and not confirmed.  Unfortunately Andy Munro was stuck on a stationary M11 after a lorry had over turned shutting it completely so was not present for us to discuss this in more detail with him. All I can for now say is it's in November :-)  I will reveal all nearer the time, I promise.