Dropping the groceries

Well, I knew it had to happen sometime.  I was wrangling the dogs and leashes trying to get them on the boat while carrying my giant Ikea bag full of paperwork and groceries while trying not to drop my really beautiful Starbuck's glass water bottle.  ZhouZhou was trying to jump onto the boat while the leashes were tangled and she was on the verge of pulling one or both of the other dogs off the dock.  Suddenly I heard a few (yes, more than one) plops into the water.  I managed to get the dogs on board, the bag, my water bottle with no further incidents.  Then I retrieved my little play fishnet and laid on the dock to get the groceries.  It seemed like everything floated!  When I thought I was done, I spotted a floating bag that was too big for the net.  I found the grappling hook and snagged it and all was saved!  I hope that doesn't happen too often.  Better the groceries than the dogs I suppose and lots better than my paperwork or a wallet!  The hazards of living on the water.

I have new stairs!

So, here's the floor patch and the removed wall and banquette, exposing the storage cupboard that I painted white.  The wood was nasty, dirty, and dark and I thought it would be easier to keep clean and find stuff if it was white and clean.  Leila recommended a paint called Zinsser and it's great!  It needed three coats and each one has ZhouZhou footprints in it.  She's an explorer and feels the need to touch everything she can find.  The painting took place Monday night and Tuesday.  Leila and Dan stayed home to build the staircase and get the supplies they needed.

On Wednesday, they added the new stairs, added the little cupboard, and roughed in the new wall.

Dan sitting on the stairs with Teeny, Leila showing how they lift up to expose the cupboard.

After they left, it was my job to finish the stairs.  I stained and varathaned the treads.  They're hinged to expose the storage cupboard and I have them propped here, mainly to prevent ZhouZhou from "exploring".  The hinged stairs were my idea and perfectly executed by Dan.

Look, organized cupboard!!!

The stairs are finished, cupboard organized, ZhouZhou resting.  There's room to put baskets under the stairs for additional storage.  They're coming back in a couple of months to finish the subflooring throughout the lower level.  In the meantime, I think I'll put new flooring on the upper/living room level.

More to come!

Getting the floor repaired

Looks like there was a problem with the photos, so I'm trying this again.

Okay, these are the before pictures. You can see one of the hatches to the bilge and the light-colored thing is an old cabinet door covering the soft spot in the floor at the bottom of the stairs. There's a curtain covering the storage area under the pilot house/living area. The stairs go off to the right, then there's a left turn to the pilot house. And the stairs are different heights and covered with really nasty carpet.

Leila and Dan started work yesterday morning and I came home in the afternoon to this! The wall is gone, the stairs are temporary because they're building the new stairs today at their workshop. The patch in the floor will eventually be covered, but not this week. The dark green is horrible, slippery-when-wet linoleum. The white wall is the storage area that I painted last night so that I can find things that I store there. It used to be a black, musty, moldy hole. ZhouZhou was so excited with all the room, that she just ran and jumped all over. Then, when I painted, I found footprints in the first coat, then the second coat, had to scrub the dark green linoleum. Now, I have to paint one more coat. We'll see if there will be more footprints. Oh well, it's a storage area. We have to plan to allow access to my little water heater--you know how they are. So Leila is making cabinet doors and the new stairs will be hinged to move out of the way (that was my idea). Teeny followed ZhouZhou in exploring every new little spot they had access to. PJ was just put out because his little bed was upstairs and there was no way he was going up them. He doesn't adjust to change well at all.

Dogs on a Houseboat

ZhouZhou loves being on a boat.  She loves to look over the side at the water or out the window.  If she notices the ducks or geese, she really likes it, but she's usually too busy looking at the water.  I try not to be nervous and just let her walk around outside sometimes, but if she went into the water, it would be awful getting her out.  Her love of water has rubbed off on Teeny and she follows mom right around the boat.  I prefer they go on the front deck, away from the dock, but today they walked the length of the boat down the narrow walkaround to the back deck.  ZhouZhou likes to watch the neighbors coming and going.  Occasionally though, there's a neighbor that barks when he sees dogs and she'll bark back.  Then Teeny starts.  PJ just stays inside since his disastrous dunking last winter.  He's not taking any chances.  Ever.

The end of summer and the work goes on

Well, I found someone to repair my floor and she's going to change the stairs and wall to the living room/pilot house at the same time.  So, next week, we'll be in a mess for a few days, but I think it will be much nicer when it's done.  It will open up the space a lot and it should be lighter too.  Now, the stairs go to the right, then you go to the left and the stairs are not the same height and are covered with nasty old carpet.  The wall to the upstairs will come down and the stairs will go straight up with no turns.  The stairs will be hinged to allow access to the bilge and water heater.  So exciting!

I'm still exploring options for the flotation.  The one that I'm most excited about is heavy-duty styrofoam coated with cement.  We'll see what happens.

Changes

Yesterday, the boat next door moved out to a different marina.  The move was noisy, exciting, and brief.  It's a nice boat and the new owner and new occupant are really nice.  They will be missed.  But my kitchen gets more light now!  The other boat sat very high in the water and blocked all the light.  We'll see what happens next.

In the past three weeks, the level of Lake Union has changed significantly again.  When I moved on, someone told me that it would, but I never dreamed that it would be from 18-24"!!!  During spring and summer, it's been high, then suddenly has dropped about a foot.  I just put my little step back for getting on and off the boat.

I'm still looking for someone to repair my floor's soft spot.  Needs to have rotten wood pulled out, some new stringers and a new subfloor.  This kind of work seems to be all word-of-mouth.  And, I've found some new products that I want to use and folks in construction seem to be set in their ways...  Anyone know a woman contractor?  Send her my way!