Approximately 7 months 14 days by the looks of it.

That's right after going through counselling, fighting her demons, Karen could take it no longer and she has succumbed to her weaknesses and my worst fears - renovating!!!!!!

Over the past 2 weeks Karen has been visiting cocina tiendas (kitchen shops), Ikea and Leroy Merlin (France's answer to Bunnings) devising ways to "better utilise the limited cupboard space in our new home". Me I look at it and go "quality fittings, a bit of wasted space but it's got everything I need - food fridge, beer fridge, freezer and ice maker, oh and a sink and stove apparently."

But this is not good enough - noooooo - we need to renovate....... we NEEEEEED to renovate. Well in the end I refused to go to anymore shops with her as Caju was very specific about Australians all want to renovate there boats - but whatever you do don't! This was probably my first mistake - you should never leave an addict alone - they may say they are just going up the shop for some smokes - but the next thing you know they're back with a suspicious smile and marks on their arm from the plastic shopping bag handles. 

Yep she had been to Leroy Merlin and I had a job to do to safely bring her down from her high - it involved a tape measure, a drill, a fairbit of silicon and a new jigsaw (I gave mine away in Melbourne because I thought I would never need it again - foolish boy).

So yesterday morning I got up and started nervously to plan the job - are we really going to cut into our new boat? - what if we don't like it? - what if it doesn't suit the boat? What if it just doesn't work?


I have found out no cupboard on a boat is square (on purpose - not like ones I built previously) and it is not easy to take reference marks so various measurements had to be taken after you are comitted to the job.

In the end it worked out fine - Karen now has an in bench waste bin utilising space in the back corner of the cupboard what was very difficult to get to


And a lazy susan to get to the back of the cupboard and extra shelf space for her gear.


And of course the challenge to find something else to do to this perfectly good boat.

So what do I get out of it? Well I'm happy as a pig in .... - not the one I'm eating here this morning in my first breakfast of bacon and eggs I've had since we left Australia in October.