Wood Stuff

While saving up money for the big jobs I did a little renovating to make life on the water a little more comfortable.  My outside galley needed some more space to cook on, set plates, stuff from the fridge , and cut and dice. I bought some poplar form Lowes and had them cut it to length. I have only small power tools and some hand tools so any major cutting is done with the kindness of strangers.

I also ordered some folding table hinges so under way I can lower and secure the table.

Here’s the finished shelf with a non slid railing. I coated it with three coats of Cetol.

I wanted to gain a little back splash with some left over FRP so I secured it an added some teak trim.

My next project was to make the head better for storing material under way. Go back I in the archives under “ Living in 120 square feet” and see the real before picture. I never used the sink in the heads because you just turn around and there is galley sink. The sink was wasted space and storing things under way was pain

I took out the plumbing

I bought some pine butcher block and having made a template in the head I got a friend to cut the wood. below you can see the wood with the stain applied.

As you can see I added some guard rails about 2 inches around the edges and screwed the counter in place. The whole piece is coated with three coats of Spar varnish. I believe in oil based varnish not polyurethane . Better finish.

Finished product

Neat and ready for open water

Next I tackled a table I made about a year and a half ago when I was in Columbus Mississippi.

A good sanding, stain and four coats of varnish later  you get this

And finally this

Can’t leave without some shout-out to the Bay Area Food Bank . Below we see the AmeriCorps folk working to make the pretty mundane job of sorting food  a little more fun. They spend the mornings working in the garden and the afternoons sorting food.

These young people live on $4.75 for food per individual a day. There are nine of them from all over the country and they all live in a single house. It’s like the old college housing  days. I try to live on $ 4.00 a day and for me that includes paper towels and dish soap and such.  I guarantee they are eating as much red beans and rice as I am. They even find other places to volunteer on weekends. They work 6 days a week .  I have a little more hope about the future.

Check out the AmeriCorps web site and see all the services. They have volunteer opportunities for all ages and locations. You will hear more about these wonderful folks.

I think one of their mottos is “ Keep calm and get things done.”

Well there you go.

Dr Brad standing by on 16