Living afloat

The story of the Luxe Motor MS Watergeus and how to convert a Dutch barge into a houseboat

February 2006

At the end of February, Andy started putting a wooden roof on the cargo hold. During this period I was on holiday, so no reports are available of that period.

3th-4th February 2006

The first thing you do when buying an abandoned bad looking boat is showing the environment new people have arrived. Andy decided to paint the boat, so I helped him. We had in mind using the colors of a nice Luxe Motor moored in London. Dark colors to look her smaller.

Painting the wheelhouse

The boat had been well maintained over her 75 years of commercial life span. There wasn't much rust. Where the old paint was still good, we sanded it and started painting over it. Where there was rust, we removed it and first put some anti-rust on it. The final coat would finish the patched look.

Putting anti-rust on the worst places

In less then a week, the wheelhouse, after-cabin, deck and front cabin were painted.

With a bit of paint, she started looking nice again