LAUNCH DAY

Ok so we didnt have a crew there to really take any pictures. it was me and my neighbor rusty and we really werent thinking about pictures. the boat pulled well on the trailer the whole way. we had spare tires and every thing we needed to make that trip successful. we launched the houseboat and then launched my boat to pull it. after finding a place to park, the journey continued and of that part i do have pictures.

AND NOW LADIES AND GENTLEMEN feast your eyes on "THE BUNGALEAUX"

the bayou in the background is called Chen Blanc. it connects to blind river and blind river connects to lake maurepas. we pulled the bungaleaux approx. 7 miles to its final destination. that trip took us a little over an hour. could have towed it faster but there a lot of turns in the bayous that lead out to the main river. its hard to show the progress because the scenery all looks the same out there.

on the biger river here.

lake maurepas in the distance here. coming around the bend to its final destination.

here she sits in the 2nd to last resting place. this is temporary for the weekend. we'll come back in a couple weeks and pull it more on land with no lean to it. kinda like on its own dry dock in the swamp.

i'll be parking my boat behind it for now and using it as a walkway into the bungaleaux. we spent the night on it and it was really comfortable. it was 32 degrees outside and the little elec heater we brought was way more than needed. im sure when its warmer the A/C installed will cool the hell out of it...haha

overall it is what it is. its a floatable camper with a bed and a little bit of move around space. more or less a shelter to get out of the heat, rain, cold and just to get away from it all.  the location is water access only. you can not drive to it in a car. its rougly 7-10 miles from the nearest landing and that makes it some what secluded and out of the way hide out with little boat traffic on the bayou its docked on.

pulling up to the bungaleaux returning from a fishing trip that afternoon.

eventually it will have its own walkway with a spot to dock my boat . but here it is with a good view of the camp that we are going to be resurrecting from the dead.

the swamp gods must approve of the bungaleaux. just one night in the swamp and its allready has a deccent ammount of moss growing on it.

almost ready to float

a few more things finished on the outside.  window trim on the outside and lots of caulking.

power chord running out the front of the boat.

added hand rails made from old parts of the boat railing that was removed from the back of the boat. *NOTE TO SELF...stainless steel is hard to cut with a jig saw.

more stuff on the inside

ran the electric as you can see from the chords hangin...boring stuff.

all the wood that is on the bottom half of the walls has been clear coated with polycrilic gloss..just one coat to protect the wood a bit. i forgot to take pictures of that and will post that later.

added some railings, a handle and a dead bolt to keep honest people honest.



more interior work

fitting in and mocking up the counter top and cabinet.

solid pine board counter top.. clamped a bunch of 1x6 boards and glued them.

made an interior ice chest from an old camper "ICEBOX" that i found on the side of the road.

yes i will clean it before final installation.

drawers and cabinets nailed in..

i built the drawers like big boxes so I can store lots of stuff in each one...simple but effective

cabinet with all the drawers installed. looks like a bunch of bird houses. haha

i drilled holes in the drawer faces cause i didnt want to spend money on drawer pulls and hardware.

here is the back of the boat all dressed out with wood.  the steps were intended to be closer to the wall and that is why the bottom step is cut shorter than the others. that will be altered later.

here you can see the flooring that i put down. home depot special peel and stick tile.

and the progress continues

inside gets started with windows and insulation

and here are the windows....

thanks to my buddy brant "potsie" kohan for the window staggering idea..same window set up is on both sides of the boat.



and on to the interior...

the upper part of the walls were finished off with corrugated sign plastic..like the yard sign stuff.

the picture below is looking forward from the back of the boat.

this is the inside looking towards the back door

started creating the steps to get inside and parts of the counter .

and last but not least

so everyone that knows about this houseboat thing im building has never seen it float.

well feast your eyes on this boat that floats like a damn cork....

its a little heavy on the bow... plan to fix that by adding sand below the floor to replace the lower center of gravity it had with the engine which has been removed long ago...

dont she float purty? looks nice on the water.

well thats all for now...more to come soon...

the maddness continues

well a lot more has been  done since last post...

here are some pictures of some key elements to das boot.

finished trimming out the front cap of the roof. had to reinforce the front end of roof so it can be towed and the roof dont rip off... looks nice. yep that is paint you are seeing.

so i was painting while my neighbor fabbed up the door from and old door he removed from his houseboat.

and here is the frankendoor that works the best out of all the ideas we had...when it comes to metal, he can make anything work.

the door will eventually hinge open with gas lifters like on a hatchback... gotta find some that will extend long enough and hold the weight of the door...

and here is the back painted ... notice he trim on the back corners. nice and shiney galvanized drip edge... glued and screwed...

 started interior... well the mattress is in place at least. we had to put that inside before we finished the back wall....if i ever have to take it out i may have to cut it into pieces to haul it out...oh well..its a nice and comfy queen size  now...

DAY 2....construction continues

thats rusty my neighbor who's been helping me

walls are going up easy so far

yes...this is in my drive way, and yes the wife wants her parking spot back

the walls are all up....here comes the roof

rusty is on the inside doing all the hard work...."i couldnt fit through the roof joists"

say maaaaaan....you got that in thare?

yep...knew you did

was a long weekend...but a ton of progress was made...

last pic for now...maybe more after the weekend.....