Forward Progress

February 11. 2016  Hours spent building to date:  2,123

Another snowstorm blew in and halted the Tardis Project temporarily over the weekend, but progress resumed on the fore cabin,  and all the basic carpentry is done.  I was also able to move out into the deckhouse and get a couple projects underway.

— After giving up on fancy roller-bearing stainless  slides, building out wooden slides and supports for the drawers in the desk area was somewhat time-consuming, but straightforward.  They work just fine, sliding in and out as drawers are supposed to do.  The bottle of rum in the picture is empty, partially assuaging my angst over the time this all took.  I am grateful to the reader re-building drawers in a 105-year-old house for commenting on his problems with the same slides.  One of my favorite songs is Dinah Washington’s “What a Difference a Day Made.”  What a difference a lousy 3/16 of an inch made.

— I put a back and a shelf on the bench seat across from the desk.  Very comfy.

— I varnished the drawers with a couple coats of sealer so I can start using them for storage of parts that will always be on the boat.

— I varnished up the desk top so Molly could see what the trim will look like, and we made a trip to Home Depot to start picking out hardware.

— The sink surround and backsplash are up to four coats of epoxy and three of varnish, which is enough to protect them for now, so that’s done.

— I roughed in the co-pilot/tourist seat across from the helm.  It’s a high seat with great visibility and a lot of storage will go underneath.

— The concept of the “learning curve” was pretty new when I attended business school 40 years ago.  Now I live it every day:  the two desk drawers took two days to complete.  I knocked out four drawers for under the dinette this afternoon in four hours, and they look great.  The sad thing about amateur endeavors of this sort is that I have two more drawers to go probably in my lifetime, and that will be it, now that I actually know what I am doing.

Every day I read the terrific website of boat restorer Tim Lackey (www.lackeysailing.com).  I marvel at his speed, precision and competence compared to my halting, amateur efforts.  The only thing that keeps me from despair is that if we both had to knock out 200 words of ad copy, I would probably beat him to the editor’s desk.

They work!!

Bench seat across from desk.

Shiny enough for now.

Copilot/tourist seat. It’s high, with great views out all around. Storage under.

Dinette drawers.