The Floating Harveys: June 2008

Monday, June 16, 2008

INSTALLATION (part 5)

Finally we got the two pieces together. The steel plate on the base created a tweak to the lower floor, causing us difficulty lining up the bolts. (sort of like that ikea cabinet that just doesn't line up...only bigger). Through grit, crowbars, cursing and dumb luck we found a way to get the bolts in. During all this the house was blowing freely around in the ways, and I stupidly grabbed a line and tried to pull the barge back from the edge. This resulted in something very painful happening to my lower back. At the time of this writing (four days later) I am still not able to walk.
Good news is that the house sits low enough in the water (we're actually going to have to be careful in how heavy our stuff is and where it's located). Better than the opposite problem, I suppose, but I'm very happy that I couldn't find/afford any more ballast steel.
The wind blew for two days after this install, making it impossible to move into our berth. The plan as of Monday evening (7pm) is to float it into the berth tonight at 10pm with the high tide. Should be very dramatic seeing the tow boats moving in with lights everywhere and this crazy modern houseboat finding it's way, it's owner leaning on one of those rest home walkers in order to stand up.

WISH US LUCK!

INSTALLATION (part 4)

And then the wind started.
Like clockwork, just as soon as we got the second floor into the air, our famous Sausalito afternoon breezes started. This created a double jinx of a 17 ton house floating around in the breeze trying to match up with a lower floor/barge moving with the now choppy water. Very, very scary.

INSTALLATION (part 3)

The lower floor fit perfectly. The added dimension in the base of the barge due to the steel plate causes the lower floor to sit up slightly higher around the perimeter. We'll add flashing around the perimeter of the house to cover the gap between the house and the top of the barge.

INSTALLATION (part 2)

Just a few days previously, I was told that we needed massive amounts of weight (over 15 tons!) to be added to the barge to get our stability correct. I luckily was able to find 7 tons of steel plate, which was cut, welded together and lowered into the barge. It was the best we could do at such short notice (by the way, steel--even "dumb" steel--is VERY expensive!) and all we could do is hope that we would sit low enough. The lower floor was rigged up and carefully lowered onto the barge. Our designed tolerances were 1- 1/2" all the way around, so it was a bit of a nail-biter as this 10 ton thing was matched up with its counterpart.