Toy Storage

This past week, we found out from our landlord that he will be selling the house and we need to move out by July 1, just one month away. We are very excited that The Lord has made a way clear for us to achieve our dream of living on our sailboat and even getting us out of a three year, unbreakable lease in a house we have spent a miserable year and a half in.

We now have a move out/in date, we plan on leaving June 20th, that's just a few weeks away and there is still so much to do.

I've been busy selling our stuff and making multiple truck load trips to the thrift store for stuff we don't need anymore and things are finally starting to empty out around here.

Now on to the task of downsizing the kids toys and our clothes and books, etc...

I took two rooms of toys and whittled them down to these few bags, I was ruthless.

During our purge we went through all the old storage totes we had in the furnace room, sifting through old, musty smelling baby clothes and old school report cards from when we were kids and we came across all my old Nintendo consoles. Awesome. Now that the kids are of the right age for these we will definitely be making room for these on SweetHaven, original Mario brothers, super Mario brothers, donkey kong on N64 and Mario kart on the game cube, doesn't get any better.

I was originally planning on using one of the kids fabric bins in their storage units for toys, but they have six bins in their units and I figure we are going to need all of them for clothes so I came up with these bag ideas for toy storage. I made them out of some spare fat quarters of cotton I had from a quilt project, they aren't as sturdy as I'd like and probably won't hold up too long but they will suffice for now until I get some canvas or something to make new ones out of. The draw string goes round the top of the bag and seals it shut when pulled taught and then they hang over some hooks I screwed into the trim. It keeps the toys organized and off to the size of the cabin out of the way, genius if I do say so myself, of course the trick will be getting the kids to actually put the toys in the bags, not every plan can be flawless I guess.

Aislinn is so excited about our impending move, she loves her cabin. She is so thrilled to have her own space again and even though there is only a curtain separating her from the rest of the boat, this doesn't stop her from successfully kicking us all out. I think she just loves being able to say to her brothers, "get out of my room." 

The boys had more toys than Ash which I tried to explain to her when she asked why that was, I told her there is two of them in one cabin so makes sense they would have twice the toys as her. Oddly enough the boys old toy box that I was trying to sell, thinking no way it would fit on the boat, actually fits like a glove in the corner between the bulkhead and the storage unit and is the right size for holding all their longer toys such as light sabres and huge hulk hands and stuff.

The boys played together nicely all afternoon in their cabin.

On top of trying to downsize and change addresses, arrange final bills, cleaners and packers and movers, and try to get school done for the year, we still have to paint the exterior of the boat, install trampolines and lifelines, set up the grey water tank, pump out and overboard discharge system, as well as pick up the stove and install it in the galley alongside with the propane system and get a table. And unfortunately those are just the big things on the list, not counting the millions of smaller tasks that need competing. It's going to be a busy few weeks.

Three steps forward...

Memorial Day weekend, it's not a holiday we have in Canada but being in the States we will remember the fallen and gladly take the four day weekend. We've been busy as beavers and down at the boat everyday this week.

Playing around with Barney, he is in training to be my pirate bird. We are ignoring each other here.

He's my breakfast buddy. Barney want a ... Oatmeal?

This has become Ashy's favourite hang out in her cabin. With her hello kitty pillow, she plays her Nintendo and reads her books, by the light of her new butterfly nightlight. Doesn't every boat have a fake branch protruding from the bulkhead?

I've been plugging away at getting the mattresses done. We have frankensteined the kids beds out of the left over foam we had from the salon cushions, a lot of cutting and glueing together and then making a cover for them. Aislinn complained that hers was too small so I just shoved some extra loose piece of foam around the sides for now. Little miss isn't happy with this solution so I will be moving on to plan B, which is taking her current bed mattress at home and cutting it to fit.

Mark setting up the TV and digital antenna (we haven't paid for cable... Ever) 

The boys watching Duck Tales on their bed. They like their mattress (thankfully.)

They boys new nightlight. Totally awesome! I want one for my cabin.

Me hanging screens over the hatches.

Curtains in huge boys cabin.

New air purifier, the paint smell is lingering, hoping this will help.

A cross stitched pillow I made for Mark on his last deployment.

It was a cold and rainy day here in Whidbey, perfect day for a fire, time to flash up the skippy.

Step 1. Insert smoke pipe on deck.

Step 2. Load with paper and wood. (Preferably not wood you just spent half hour trying to cut to size in the cockpit with a dull jigsaw.) 

Step 3. Light.

Step 4. Bask in the heat and the joy of a task well done.

Mac making up ways to amuse himself. He using the remnant piece of foam as a spidey- mobile, the drain tube is his handle bar.

We now have running water in the galley. We had to remove the old water filter from the system, it was leaking, but it is running smoothly now. So we have managed to get the water coming onto the boat, now we just need to figure out a way to get it back off. We have no grey water tanks in place or pump outs or ... Drains even, so right now we are using the old, bucket under the sink system, works great.

An all day project, but TV is installed.

We have plans for the whole grey water system but will need some more professional help to implement it all, so for now we are making due with what we have. The last major things on order are the table for the salon and the stove in the galley, hoping to have those in place soon. 

Finishing touches.

We are finally nearing the finish line for moving onto our boat. It's so exciting. Every day I go down there and hang more curtains and putdown more rugs, it just feel so exciting to see it come together. We have managed to sell a lot of our stuff, and on small, cheap, Whidbey Island that is no easy feat, but it's nice to see things head out the door and get new deliveries for boat needs show up. 

We have ordered from every single marine supply store we have found, defender, go2marine. iboat, hodges marine, as well as a ton of shopping from amazon, ebay, Walmart and target. Noticeably we do not shop at West Marine, which is the biggest marine supplier here in the PNW, we even have a store on the island in Anacortes but there is a reason we don't shop there... in a word, expensive.

When we first brought home SweetHaven the previous owner had a ton of West Marine coupons that we could use about $500 worth so we went on a shopping spree and came out with some paint and a few cleats and things, it was extremely depressing. When you buy a boat you hear all the old adages, "a boat is a hole in the water you pour money in" but really once you get away from what the "experts" say you need, it really isn't that bad. 

By browsing around and shopping for the best deals we have found all our equipment from netting to radars, from pulleys to fridges, for at least half the price of West Marine. We still check out West Marine when we are in the market for another piece of gear but the lowest price gets it and it is never them.

The Nav table curtain, we assume this cubby will be used to store coats and shoes. For all the curtains I have recycled some of our curtains we had around the house, this blue used to be the downstairs bathroom, waste not, want not, right?

Ashys cabin coming right along, it is so pretty and cheerful in there, I just love it and so does she. She is so excited to have her own space again.

The boys cabin, that pirate rug was a bit of an extravagance at $50 but when it comes to the kids we tend to splurge.

The settee cushions, these are temporary but will do until we can afford professionally sewn ones. I can sew and am artsy, crafty is a lot of things, but I know my limitations.

The other bench.

When I was putting a second coat of bar epoxy on the galley countertop to use up the rest of the bottles I happened to look around and notice the Nav table and thought, "huh, I should use this on that too." Of course by then I had used up the last of my epoxy on the galley and now will need to buy another $25 kit, but oh well, it was too cool of an idea to pass up. 

Eight years ago Mark joined the Canadian Navy and went through three years of MARS officer training which included extensive navigation using real charts. For all these years I've been lugging around from house to house these massive charts he used for his homework and now finally had a use for one. Since his training took place in Victoria, BC all the charts are of the Gulf Islands, seems fitting.

Painted ladder and new non skid treads, hands down, easiest boat project.

Galley countertop with two coats of epoxy over it, nice and shiny and I still need to varnish it.

Hatch covers. Of course someday we will want actual sunbrella type fabric for these but right now, left over fabric from Aislinns old bedroom curtains will do fine.

Adding a curtain to close off their cabins just make it more fun.

My big, little girl in her own space.

There will always be more to do and projects to 100% complete but we are nearing the point where we could live in this space. My new stove is on order and Mark's Memorial Day weekend project is to finished the drains from the sinks and we will be good to go. I for one cannot wait.

We've Made Contact (Paper)

Now that the boat is painted on the inside, it's time to start moving things in. The galley countertops really needed a make over but with funds lacking we needed a quick, easy and cheap fix, even if it is only temporary. While searching for ideas online I came across a post from Impatiently crafty about how she redid the laminate counter tops in their boat for only $28 by using granite looking contact paper, bar top epoxy and polyurethane. From her pictures it turned out great and was easy and cheap. So we gave it a shot.

Here is our $3 contact paper from walmart, the first strip down over our ugly, damaged old countertop. 

Our "veggie hole" as we call it, a little opening that leads down to the water under the aka, we assume it was intended for a quick dump overboard for food stuffs while underway.

While I was busy DIYing it in the galley mark was cutting holes through the compartments under the v berth to make room for our new 52 gallon flexible water tank. It's the big blue thing in the corner of the picture. All that cutting and sawdust was enough to bring a tear to my eye, all I could see was my perfect paint job being chipped and scratched up. Sigh.

Back to the countertops. The contact paper was really easy to work with, I've actually never used the peel and stick kind of stuff to line cupboards before so this was new to me, but it was easy as pie, line it up, flatten it out (I used a plastic putty knife) and then trim off the excess with an exacto knife.

The veggie hole.

Easy.

And here is the contact paper completely laid out. I am amazed at how good it looks and it only took me about an hour to do. The granite style works best because it blends so easily, you can't see where one piece ends and the other starts.

I haven't done the epoxy and urethane part yet to finish it off, the Home Depot here in Oak Harbor didn't carry bar top epoxy, or any epoxy actually, except the gorilla glue kind that comes in a tiny syringe which wouldn't have been enough to do the job and was the too expensive to buy enough. Our West System epoxy we have been using all over the boat has a yellowish finish when it dries so I didn't want to use that.

After I finished the countertop I sat down and looked around and realized the backsplash needed to be done too.

While I waited for Mark to be done cutting and banging and generally causing a mess I fixed a small problem with the aka cabin openings. Every time I crawl into one of the side cabins over that lip of plywood it hurts my knees. It doesn't seem to bother the kids but hey, I am almost 30, so I need some padding. Nothing a water noodle from the buck store can't fix. Actually doesn't look to bad and it works.

Once mark demolished the v berth, he moved in to the galley to cut out the spot for the fridge. Thankfully this should be the last major cutting and mess making project inside the cabin for a while, this should have all been done before painting but we hadn't purchased the fridge and water tank and didn't know the sizes when we started painting.

And there it is, new countertop, new fridge.

2.7 cu, it's going to be a big downsize.

The Day the Interior Got Painted.

After two weeks of almost constant painting on the boat I decided today was the day to finish it up. We were blessed with a hot and sunny day, the kids managed to get me out of bed by 6:30am, which means we were done breakfast and school by 10:00am and were free to head down to the marina.

Not everyone has Captain America drawing self portraits at their dining room table, just us lucky ones.

In between breakfast and putting away the dishes I managed to teach Aislinn a morse code lesson. We are enjoying our new homeschool curriculum. Lifepacs.

The kids have been stellar lately, I think it's partly thanks to the nice weather we have been having. We have been spending hours down at the boat and they have occupied themselves and gotten along while I got some painting done. After a few hours we took a candy break and headed down the road to Popsies, an old fashioned candy store downtown Oak Harbor.

Yum.

Had to take a break and go pick up Mark from work, arrived early and sat with the doors open and Frank Sinatra playing on the radio while the kids played around the flag poles.

After taking the kids to Tae kwon do, it was back down to the boat for dinghy rides and to finally finish the painting. The last spot of old, dirty, cream paint.

Tada!

And finally the floors.

The poor things have been pretty worked over.

Finished product, it looks so pretty.

Painted myself out the door.

And the inside painting is done! Now we can finally start moving in the cushions and table and matresses, etc... The moments we have been dreaming of.

The galley needs a countertop make over, which is my next project and will be another post.

The interior, we figure is around 300sqf and we used 1 1/3 gallon of  Topside paint. To paint every nook and cranny of it, not bad. The floors were enamel porch paint we got as a mis-tint from Home Depot so it didn't cover in one coat like the topside paint did, it required two coats but was only used in the boys cabin and on the floors and inside the benches. Unfortunately not being able to buy oil based paint now, it is hard to paint latex based paint over oil paint, even if it is enamel, the new paint doesn't adhere as great as you may want it to and I have a feeling it will ding easily, which is why we have rugs on order for most of the floors.