Just thought I would introduce myself to the group as I am sure there are a bunch of new people in the club. I am Joe Ayers. I go by JoeAyers on the forums (very creative I know). I have been in saltwater for a lot of years and freshwater for many many years before that. About a year and half ago I sold my 200 as we decided to move to a smaller house back in my old home town to be closer to the grand parents. My current tank is am Oceanic 30.
Build thread is here
http://www.ohioreef.com/index.php?topic=8454.0 Some pic links are broken and clearly there aren't any new ones. I will try to update it at some point and fix the links.
So... Where have I been? All the normal stuff, we moved, new baby, blah blah blah, but really it was because I spent all of the free time (and income) building a houseboat (floating house) instead of working on the tank for the last year. So the story goes like this. My parents have had a floating house on Norris lake for about 10 years. We used it occasionally, but between them and my sister and family, etc there wasn't a lot of time for us, and now that we have 2 kids things were crowded. I've always said that someday I want to live and work remotely from a houseboat so like all of us with dreams of bigger aquariums, cars, motorcycles etc I am always searching craigslist for deals. Long story way shorter I eventually found a deal on a very old boat that has grandfathered registration numbers. There are pretty strict rules about what you can do when it comes to rehabbing/building so I had to buy something existing and rehab/rebuild vs building new from scratch.
So this is what I bought. Sight unseen Thanksgiving 2010.
Even before I bought the house I had started buying materials to build a houseboat. I searched auctions and craigslist like I was building a new tank. Everything in it was used or deeply discounted new stuff from auctions. Very very little came from retail stores.
Since the houseboat was in Tennessee and I live in Cincinnati I had to do a lot of planning and prep work up here and haul it down. I built all of the walls and trusses up here and loaded them on two 20' trailers and hauled them down to start the tear down and rebuild during the three day presidents day weekend February 2011.
Once there we raced across the lake to the marina where the houseboat was moored and started tearing it down.
Day 1 - Tear Down
Day 2 - Bring is back across the lake to our house. It was a 20 mile trip @ less than 5mph. We finished the tear down and cleaned the dock as much as we could during the trip back.
Day 2 - Once back we put some extra floatation under and started rocking it out. For the build I had My dad, father in law, two uncles and a buddy. Most of us have done one form or another of building for our entire lives so it went like clock work.
Day 2 & 3 - We were tied to the shore for the initial framing but only had the weekend to stay there as we had to pull the boat out to our mooring spot next to my dad's house before we left to come home.
By the end of the weekend, which started Friday around noon and ended Monday around noon We were dry. The house was completely wrapped in house wrap by the time we left and tied into position on the mooring line.
At the end of March was spring break for my Dad and several of the other guys so we headed down for a week. I actually got down there about 4 days early and took as much material as I had. siding, roofing, interior walls that were already built, insulation etc etc etc etc etc etc you get the picture. Here is a shot of me using a makeshift barge to push over some of the lumber and metal roofing.
Once I had some help we started in on the build pretty hardcore again. Starting with getting the roof up and windows in.
Then we sided.
Then we moved to the inside.
There are a lot more pics in my photobucket
http://s22.photobucket.com/albums/b343/jpayers/Houseboat/?start=allAll in all we had 20 total days of work (over 6 months) from the time we tore it down until the time we said complete enough to use it for the summer. So that is what I've been doing. Hopefully I can get some better pics in the coming weeks now that it is finished. If anyone has any questions let me know.
Joe
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