Our Houseboat as Purchased 1st of ???
Since we’ve received and attempted to answer so many requests about various aspects of this project on our contact us page. I’ve decided I’m going to attempt to sort of walk you through our entire and sometimes frustrating project of basically rebuilding this entire boat and include the information we’ve been asked for in requests along the way. We’ll be including a lot of pictures and relevant information about them along the way so this will be a series Blog post but as of now I have no idea how many different posts will be in the total series, so please be patient and bear with us on this.
This is how she appeared as purchased by us; it started life as a factory built 1972 Crest Pontoon Houseboat Model 3502. The pontoons are 35 ft. in length and are 24 in. in diameter. It was a powered by a 25 hp. Johnson motor with the old fashioned hand lift transom on the rear. It was used on a restricted horsepower lake in central Ohio where it had probably spent its entire life before we purchased it.
All I can say to anyone contemplating on buying a boat of this type is be very cautious of what you are looking at. When we looked at boat we knew it would need a new floor though it appeared it was sound enough to last a few more years. The interior paneling covered everything from floor to ceiling so could not see any of the structure framing to check for soundness.
The paneling was getting bad near floor and when we started the repairs, we found a lot of other issues. We found even sorry paneling can and will hide a lot of rot. It's really amazing I didn't leave the cabin of this boat on I 70 towing it to the club. To think I was pulling it along at 65 to 70 mph scared the u- know- what out of me. I wish I had the foresight to have taken some pictures before anything was started, but unfortunately I didn’t so we’ll have to start from here.
Anyway we thought all the real problems were near floor and the arrows point to where we attempted to do some repairs on it just after purchase. Over winter we decided it would be a lot easier and efficient to work in it at home so in early spring I towed her home to work on some additional repairs. That’s when we found all the other rot around windows etc. that led to the initiative to totally rebuild of entire boat. It’s something we were going to do anyway but we really thought we would be able to use and enjoy it a few years before a total restoration would be necessary.
This is a photo from the front deck of the right side interior before too much demolition had taken place.
This photo is from the front deck of the left side interior before demolition really commenced. On the left rear were bunk beds with storage built into the bottom bunk. There was also a sleeper sofa just behind the folded chairs and it also had a dinette sleeper that was on the right side. So in its original configuration it was set up where it would comfortably sleep up to four people.
This photo shows the original framing structure of the boat after interior demolition. The arrows point at our previous attempts to shore up the sill plate and wall framing which had totally rotted away. Unknown to us at purchase the entire sill plate and the bottom of the studs had essentially rotted away to nothing over the years, which we first attempted to patch still hoping to be able to utilize the boat for awhile.
This photo is the right rear of the cabin and ultimately leads to the entire restoration of the entire boat. This area was originally a small storage cabinet in the very back and a small walk in bathroom where the arrow with window is located. In our previous attempts to shore up the sill plate and studs we knowingly left some issues undone in the closet for latter. You see the galvanized box in the corner was where the propane tank was originally installed and there had been a lot of water penetration issues over the years generating and causing problems.
When I removed the paneling in an attempt to fix the water penetration and try to replace all the rotted materials is when the real realization of how extensive and badly rotted our boat really was. The photo doesn’t do justice to how bad the structural corner actually was but you can see some of it missing at the very top. Also take note of the rotted off and missing wood around the window itself. It was at this point we realized that wasting time and materials on ineffective bubblegum repairs was a tea total waste, and it was time for a complete total restoration.
This is just one entry of a series we’ve put together of our own personal experiences in the now completed rebuild and restoration of our pontoon houseboat from the pontoons frame on up. Hopefully you’ll find our shared experience both helpful and informative if you’re considering building or remodeling one for your very own. You can view the whole series here and its entries progress from bottom of index on up.
Please also review our other blogs and our home site: Pontoon Houseboat Odyssey for other potentially useful and helpful information about boating.
Posted by blog.houseboatodyssey1.com at 2/16/2010 4:44 PM 
Categories: Pontoon Houseboat (s), Our Houseboat Rebuild
Tags: pictures houseboat restoration pontoon building rebuild
Categories: Pontoon Houseboat (s), Our Houseboat Rebuild
Tags: pictures houseboat restoration pontoon building rebuild
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