Inside/Outside

I posted already about pulling the boat out of the water in September while we were house-sitting.  We fixed some thru-hulls, and the bottom got a nice coat of paint (or two).  That was at the end of the month.  At the beginning of the month, we managed to get the inside painted.  That was a job that had been on the list since we bought the boat, but we didn't have time to do it before we moved on, and there are several reasons why we couldn't do much painting while we were living on the boat.  Especially with the cat.  With an entire month at our disposal and the cat off of the boat, we were free to paint every possible surface.

We used oil based paints for the interior.  They were a little whiffy going on, but we are hoping that they will be more water resistant.  We chose a dark-ish purple-ish color for the trim, and a very light gray-ish color for larger areas.  In the main cabin of the boat that covered up flaking white and light blue paint, undoubtedly full of lead.  In the v-berth that covered up paint that was piss yellow.  I don't know why every bedroom we have had since Astoria has been painted the color of pee, but it has.  This includes the room that we stay in while we house-sit.  There will be no yellow walls in any of my future houses, ever.

Here are a couple of pictures showing paint color when we bought the boat.  I am reminded of how much work we (mostly Ernie) have done since then.

The aft wall of the v-berth

In the main cabin.  There is a bookshelf covering most of the white wall now.  That is our fridge built into the seat.  We normally keep its door closed.

New paint!

In the third picture you can see the colors of the new paint.  It is so shiny and clean looking, and so non-offensive.  The part that bothered me the most was the floor, and we painted it with the lighter color.  It is mostly covered by rugs, but there was always a little bit of the floor showing, and it looked dirty and gross.  It is so much better now.

I should clarify, Ernie did all of the painting.  I am too clutzy to be allowed to paint.  I did a lot of the taping and prep work.  This is true of the outside of the boat as well.  Someday I will have a space of my own that I can paint.

The last thing that we are trying to do to spruce up the inside of the boat is to cover up some of the silver insulation that covers the walls.  You can see what it looks like in the top picture.  It doesn't bother me too much, and our curtains kind of match the walls, but it would look a lot nicer of the bigger areas were covered up.  We just aren't sure of the best way to do that.  So far, the (possibly) best idea we have had is adhesive vinyl wallpaper.  No one sells it in town, so I ordered a sample to see if it would work.  Here is the sample pattern that I chose.  

I probably wouldn't actually use it to cover too much wall space, maybe just the ceiling in the v-berth, but I thought the extra could be used for other crafty things.  I haven't tried putting it up yet, but if it works out, it could transform the interior of our boat, and we would look a little less like we live in a space ship.

Things are getting better all the time.