More Wood Creations on Nirvana!

A while back Ken was busy creating a new bulkhead on Nirvana, but there was more "creating" to be done. At that time, Ken also made a new piece of wood in our v-berth to replace the rotten piece. I never did get around to posting a pic ... I think he did a great job matching it to the original teak door!

Since the bulkhead and v-berth wood project, we've been busy with all sorts of boat projects .. including more wood stuff.  We need all the storage we can get on our 30 footer, so we added shelves to our hanging locker. We figured shelves would be a lot more efficient than a rod for hanging.  After all, we'll mostly be in shorts and swimsuits.  *Notice our new plumbing hoses .. no more green!

Ken made two new shelves, and after these photos were taken he also added trim on the edges to keep things in place .. and a couple coats of polyurethane.  The bottom of the locker will probably be used to store our shoes after we secure the hose out of the way .. I gotta get rid of some stuff!

Here's a photo of the new bulkhead & renewed locker with the original dark plexi-glass back in place overhead ...

Another wood creation of Ken's was this door and trim for the new storage area that Ken cut out in our head.

I think he did a great job matching this too! The door on the left is the new one, and I dressed up the original door with a sun decal that I love.  Did I mention that I met Ken in a high school wood-working class?!

I was so excited to see this ugly little head area come to life!  With the new sink, faucet, cabinet, and sun decal .. it was finally time to pull out the plexi-mirrors that we bought a few years ago.  What we didn't realize .. the protective film on the mirrors shouldn't be left to sit for years in a closet! The film came off easily at first .. until I got to the edges of the two plexi-mirrors. The stuff wouldn't come off! After a quick look on the internet (saved us again), I applied a thin layer of paint thinner on the film and then scraped it off with my fingernail and a hair dryer. This trick actually worked!

Here's a pic of Nirvana's renovated head, with a lil wooden knob added to our new cabinet door. The lighting wasn't the best in this photo. We plan on replacing our old light fixtures with new LED fixtures real soon, including the one shown in the corner of this photo. We've been working on creating switches for custom LED light strips .. let's just say it's been an ordeal. That's another story for another day!

Ken also made some wood strips to set the locker shelves on, as well as some wooden circles to act as backing plates/interior trim for two of our winches that come through the salon ceiling. If only we'd thought to do all of these wood projects and staining at once. I think we're done staining, but ya know what happens when you think!

I don't get to write posts near as often as I'd like to lately, but there's a lot of good stuff going on. We cleaned & greased all of our winches and re-bedded them with butyl tape ...

and we're almost finished re-bedding all of our other deck hardware. Soon we'll be inspecting our rigging and getting our sails back on. Will the sails go on first, or will we bring our interior cushions out of storage, clean & recover them?  So much to do ..

We took a couple of breaks .. spent a day sailing on the lake with a friend. It was so nice to be back on the water again. Thanks Ted! We also participated in a friend's annual "Crawfish Cook-Off" .. Ken boils them the best! Our son-in-law couldn't make it this year, but our daughter learned a few secrets!

Ken & our daughter, Erica, checking out our boiled bugs ...

Oh, and one lil thing I almost forgot to mention .. we gave our notice to our landlord!!!  By mid-May, we're outta this condo! Yeah, we've been a little busy .. we haven't quit our jobs yet! We have some exciting changes in store, but that's another post soon ..

Hasta luego .. until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!