Living afloat

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

March 2006

18th March 2006

After a long holiday in Senegal, I came back to work again on the Watergeus. The wooden roof was finished, but roofing felt needed to be added to protect it. Since the weather was good, it was a perfect day for adding it.

The freshly built wooden roof

The inside of the cargo hold, a dry feeling after more then three years...

We worked continuously to add the roofing felt. We took two short breaks and till the evening, only two more roles had to be added. we decided to continue. After a hard day of work, we were invited by the neighbours at the street side. They live in a typical small dutch house.

Putting the roofing felt on

Andy told me he planned to sell the boat and asked if I would be able to create an add next weekend. We would clean the boat and take some pictures for the Internet. At that time, I was looking to buy the spits Cawcher-V, an old oil tanker.

25th March 2006

In the morning we cleaned the accommodation and I took about a hundred pictures. We would make a selection later at my place.

Interior picture of the back accommodation

26th March 2006

Since, we didn't have a picture of the bow yet, I asked Andy to paint the bow, which he did.

Painting the bow in black

That evening, at my place we created the advert. Click here to see the original add. It took us three hours to chose the right pictures and put it on several websites. While making the add, I started liking what I saw...

27th March 2006

Only one day after the add was placed, I called Andy and told him I was buying the ship. I would meet him on Friday and make the deal. Why? Read the story of finding me a ship. I had the chance of buying a pits for 5000 euros more then a real Luxe Motor who's condition I knew and I helped a friend. These two reasons were enough for me to make this important decision.