Wednesday, May 12, 2010

WIP - freshen up the salon

Little by little we've been painting the interior of the boat. One of the things we LOVE about modern catamarans is the very sparse use of wood (and thus very little need for the labor intensive care of wood). So a few coats of white paint and things look like new again.

We did the book nook and galley last year, and since it's one continuous hunk of fiberglass, we were left with this awkward little transition from the freshly painted to the not-yet-painted.
(actually this is not the exact transition spot, but you get the idea in our kind-of-white to WHITE paint job)
Step one, empty the salon. Sounds easy, but this is our main hanging out/ living/ eating/ playing/ crafting/ learning/ everything space. Many people have come aboard our boat and commented that is looks like a kindergarten. (have a peek here of photos from last spring of our salon). We emptied everything and joked that this is what it would look like if respectable grown ups lived here.
(feast your eyes for it shall never be this clean and empty again)

Of course the floating kindergarten and everything else has to go somewhere. So other corners of the boat were packed to the brim.
(the book nook becomes one of our temporary storage spaces during painting)

Ahhh the joys of living in a work in progress. Normally, our division of labor has Doug sanding and prepping while I paint (we ladies tend to have a steadier hand at the detail work in my opinion). But alas, paint fumes in tight spaces are not a good thing for expecting mamas, so Doug got to paint while we made ourselves scarce during the days.
(uh, honey, you missed a spot!)

Two coats of paint and 5 coats of varnish on the little bit of wood trim we do have means many, many days of living like this.
(breakfast on the floor... Zach thought it was fun, it made me a little crazy, especially with pregnancy nesting hormones a-raging)
(poor Mookie had to live with the stinky fumes. so far he seems no worse for it, who can tell with that little guinea pig brain?)

So things are looking brighter and I am taking the opportunity of a fresh slate to purge and thin out the "stuff" we had in the salon. I often wonder if getting rid of stuff obsessively can be a sickness just like people who collect it obsessively?

The bright white is already helping our lighting in here...
... and it's also making the windows look dirty and the floor look dingy (one of our future projects! New floor before baby comes, mama's orders!) We'll probably be the only ones who notice the change once it's all finished, change is small in a small space, but I'll post some photos at the end anyhow. In the mean time, does anyone know how to get paint out of guinea pig fur?

9 comments:

Joy said...

It looks lovely! I love the contrast of the red on white. I'll bet Z is enjoying his floor picnics. :) Good luck with the paint in the fur. It kind of cracks me up that you even have a pet on a boat.

Michele said...

Excited to see the new renovations in a couple of weeks. It is going to be done by the time we get there...right??? :)

Nicole Vangen said...

You rock!!!! I am so inspired by your lifestyle.
Nicole

Lily Boot said...

Hell who wants to be a respectable adult - I sure don't! When I was checking back on the kinder-salon, I was reminded again how FAB the red cushions look. And the fresh white looks so zippity-zip! What are you going to put on the floor? Come baby time and you will be so cosy and sweet for the winter.

momma rae said...

i'm an obsessive purger. i think that can be an issue, too. ;)

i love your writing and your humor. always fun to read!

Laureen said...

OK, I want to know more about the paint. Do you have smooth fiberglass? Our fiberglass is yukky brown on the inside, and it honestly never occurred to me to just paint it... that would be awesome, other than the bolts for the foresail tracks... hm... What kind of paint? Will non or low VOC actually stick to it? Without peeling in high humidity???

And yes, purging obsessively becomes a kind of illness, I think. I don't think you or I are anywhere near it, but I know a woman who is herself a hoarder, because her mother, in fits of "cleaning" threw away *everything*, and the damage lasted her whole life.

boatbaby said...

We have that bumpy fiberglass all over our interior. Ours has discolored gooed and mildewed lots over the years. We tried EVERYTHING to clean it, never really got it clean-clean. So we cleaned, sanded, and painted with Interlux Brightside one part Ployurethane paint in bright white. We might try a color for the heads...

http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=64
(you can get this paint at any marine store or hardware store)

Previously we had an enamel paint that was too soft and prone to chipping and gooing up with moisture (like us breathing and living in here and condensation). The polyurethane paint is harder than the enamel paint (can take a beating) and easier to apply than the 2-part polyurethane paints commonly used in professional marine paints. We rolled it on and tipped it smooth with brushes. The toughest part was the sanding and taping.

Diane, Evan, Maia and Charlie the cat said...

We're busy doing the painting thing too. We've found oil/enamel paints work fine for us and cover better than brightside--and they come in tourquoise and purple, and are available in Mexico;) Low VOC stuff would be awesome, but the moisture level is too high on a boat for a waterbased paint to work.

Little Lovables said...

it's looking great! nesting is so fun and crazy

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...