Tools. Pretty much a staple for an person with a Y chromosome, and a must have for any kind of renovation job on a barge. What did I buy in preparation for the strip?

1) Bandsaw (not taken with me on the first stint) Record Power BS300
2) Plasma Cut 50 (not taken)
3) 14.5 cfm petrol air compressor and 7.5 cfm electric compressor (not taken)
4) Planer/thicknesser Electra Beckum 9"
5) Stanley Fatmax 18v cordless drill
6) Crowbar (medium)

I had a selection of other standard tools but these were purchased especially. Stuff I bought when I was here:

1) Black and Decker 300W oscillating saw

All those tools taken with me have been used almost continuously (apart from the planer thicknesser which is used only after Wombling for usable wood). The cordless drill (and 2 batteries - an absolute must - means no pause in deconstruction) was a stellar buy but I think the real star was the crowbar. It now looks like a veteran of Seal Team 6's practice runs through OSB's house. Seriously, it's 8 days old and looks like its taken a pounding worse than the city of Homs. Give me a claw hammer and a crowbar and I can get in anywhere (within reason).

I did buy an screw extractor set for those screws which had just been drilled out but to be honest, what a waste. There comes a point where after spending ages trying to recover every piece of timber in the place you take an almost Darwinian approach to it - "If it can't cope with a crowbar and claw hammer it's weak and doesn't deserve saving". Which I have to say is a pretty good way of doing it... I have spent far too long on trying to salvage what I thought was a good piece of timber only to find it was split anyway. The gains in timber costs I think are outweighed by the ball ache.

I used the planer/thicknesser today for the first time. Apart from it being able to give a Health and Safety officer a heart attack at 50 yards I love this piece of kit. A freely rotating 1.1kW blade with no guard means that you must give this bad boy a healthy dose of respect or it will eat your hand. Literally. The ability to run rough wood through it to give it a face, then edge it, then thickness it to a set level and convert would have been firewood into useable, and sometimes very nice, timber is not to be underestimated. Even if you don't use it, you can sell it. Given the amount of wood on the barge I am sure it will pay for itself and as long as I look after it, it should sell for very close to what I bought it for.

Everything has worked as described and been pretty damned reliable. My tip for getting it right? Use the internet... Look up all the nerdy forums. Search for the exact model number of the tool you are interested in followed by "review". There are lots of people out here who take routers, bandsaws and cordless drills very seriously. And before you mock them, these people know their stuff and are a vital, and I say it again, VITAL, link between you and a waste of money. Search for Bandsaw Blades and Tuff Saws will come out again and again as THE best blades. And I have 2 of them only because people have recommended them.

I will no doubt discuss more about the compressors and bandsaw once I have had the opportunity to use them but the electric one is for the plasma and the petrol is for spray painting and for any serious air tools I need to use.