On the boat the budget for changing and upgrading non essentials is limited... doesn't mean a thing.
We have very good, quality, solid brass door handles, but they are plain. Sandy decided crystal (glass?) ones would look so much better. We found some cheapies at the local hardware store and bought one pair to try. They were loose in their cheap brass bases within hours. Next plan. Onto Ebay where she found genuine old ex home ones, probably from demolishers, and succeded in winning a few. They do look much better quality and the bases are at least real brass, and they weren't expensive. But they aren't up yet. I think one door is. But the door into the forward head now has the square through rod working as the opener. One on each side so nobody gets themselves locked in.
The curtains in the pilothouse got pulled down, bagged and dumped. They were a little faded in a few spots, but still worked if you wrestled with the tracks.
She hated the plain blue, good quality but showing a bit of age, cushion covers. After looking a fabrics for weeks we could find nothing that inspired, that we could afford.
The solution was to find new curtaining material, because she can have a go at making curtains. She's made curtains before, but never for a boat with all it's funny lines and angles.
It took a while but at last we did find some great fabric at a remnants warehouse place. Now we have rolls of fabric and lining adding to the general clutter while I catch her deep in thought, working out what will be the best look for the valance. We don't have a sewing machine but have been offered a loan one, with a foor treddle. This is going to be interesting!
The cushions are covered with good quality, slightly worn material, sort of plain blue, darkish. The change solution? Dye them navy.
After days online researching every kind of dye known to man, and working out weights and quantities, the little box of dye arrived.
We ripped all the cushion covers off... not easy, and I hate to think of the putting back effort.
Sandy spent the entire day, sitting on the floating dock we're tied to, dyeing the covers. She used our biggest plastic laundry tub, and I spent half the day carrying pots and kettles of hot water from the galley, through the saloon, up the companionway stairs, through the cockpit, over the side and down to the dock. Fortunately, no spills, no burns.
Sandy spent hour after hour mixing dye, sitting in the sun stirring, stirring, like a wicked witch at her cauldron. Rinsing, and goodness knows what incantantations were going with it, but I think sailors at the local pub would have recognised most of it...
Eventually, as the sun was going down there was a pile of wet, black looking covers sitting on the dock. We stuffed them in bags and borrowed a car to take them to the laundromat for a wash and tumble dry.
Was it a success?
We'll know when we've wrestled them back on to the cushions, after working out which one goes where. There are eleven of them! They aren't as dark as we'd expected, and the dye has ended up having a very slightly mottled effect, that I rather like. I've no doubt they are a big improvement.
So a lot is on the go, but we scored 2 big successes in the last week or so.
The saloon has an L shaped 'settee'. Because there was no coffee table and bare timber floor, we didn't sit there much. It always felt like a waiting room.
It now has a perfect little coffee table we found in a second hand place in Baltimore, after hunting through half a dozen, and a rug on the floor that has transformed the whole area. It feels rich and homely, all for under $100! We love it and now use it a lot.
When the covers are on (today), and the new curtains are up (who knows when?), and the crystal door knobs are in (waiting for some bits), and the new basins and tiles are in the bathrooms (waiting for tiles), you won't recognise this place.
We also found a quilt set for the V-berth that looks great.
And I'm slowly getting used to the new blue handed Sandy, with one leg looking like it has a poorly designed blue stocking.
Until next time...