putting up walls: a memoir.

Man...walls. GOTTA LOVE 'EM.

So we decided to build some. For funsies.

Deciding on what type of insulation to use behind the walls was tough though. It needed to be water and mold resistant and thin enough to fit in the ceiling and behind the walls without sacrificing much needed space on the boat. Even moving the walls out a few inches to fit in thick insulation makes the inside seem a lot smaller.

When we tore down the ceiling in the bedroom there was fiberglass insulation in between the beams, but it was very compressed. When fiberglass gets compressed, it loses some of its "R" value. ("R" value, if you didn't know, is basically the measure of thermal resistance a specific material has. So the higher the "R" value a material has, the better it is at insulating.) Clearly, I am a scientist of the highest order.

I posted an "R" value chart below that I got from this guys boat blog. I found a few other websites that said basically the same thing about putting in insulation, but I like that this gentleman has some pictures. 

Material                                            “R” Value

Wood                                                     0.91

Reflectrix                                                 2.38

Cork                                                       3.57

Polystyrene Bead Board                          3.57

Fiberglass (the insulation, not the hull)       3.90

Polystyrene – extruded                             5.00

Polyisocyanurate                                      5.56 

Sprayed Polyurethane Foam                     6.88

Vacuum Panels                                         24.06

    “R” values based on a one-inch thickness

We decided to use Reflectrix. It looks like bubble wrap that's been wrapped in a space blanket. The Polystyrene - extruded foam board (the pink and blue sheet boards that you often see at hardware stores) was also a good choice, but it was a little harder to work with and to fit into tight spaces. With the Reflectrix you can add multiple layers because its so thin, and that ups the R value. Also you can just cut it to any shape you want with scissors, its easy to work with. 

Below is a picture of a roll of Reflectrix. 

The large window in the bedroom is VERY drafty. When we tore out all of the 70's looking wood panelling we noticed a big rotted out hole under the window. The hole opened up into the engine compartment, which itself is not insulated and basically open to the outside air, so that explained the draft.

Using our advanced human brains, we (Ryan) came up with an idea to seal it. FOREVER. He used spray foam insulation, this stuff is totally sweet. We used it around the windows and to plug some small gaps in the walls and next summer we will probably use it to spray all over the inside of the hull to keep the boat REALLY draft free. WE HATE DRAFTS AHOMFG$@% 

AND THEN, Ryan used fiber glass (yeah, the kind you use to fix your car!) and sealed that puppy up. It doesn't look pretty, but it should hold us over right on through the apocalypse.  

Below are some pictures of spray foam sealing up some rotted out parts around the windows. 

 

Below are some pictures of Ryan repairing the giant hole. I think in retrospect he would have liked to figure out a different way of using the spray foam, because it kept sliding down and getting all over the dang place.  But, once it dried and was sealed over with fiberglass it was all good

 

 

 

Then we covered the whole thing with Reflectrix.

(The dark patch on the wall to the left in the picture below is the sealed up hole)

Then we covered the insulation with the new walls we picked out. We used a material called luan.

Why luan you ask? Great question.  Well for starters its fairly cheap, cause you know we aint rich over here. mmhmm.  Plus if it gets wet it wont be hard to just replace. Also, It has a pretty nice, smooth finish, although we painted over it. The underlying walls in the boat are plywood, and framing out over them to put in heavier duty walls would have taken away precious space. You can just nail the luan to the plywood. Lastly, luan is light and thin compared to some other materials.

So that’s why we picked luan. Get off my back about it.

 

 

There you have it folks. A long over due post about walls. Your welcome.

We actually have a lot more done on the boat than these pictures show, Im really behind. I will try to be more diligent!  

So, lastly, on a Star Wars note (SPOILER!)....

I was re watching the newest movies since I bought the complete saga, collectors edition on blue ray (go me). I figured I should remember why I disliked them so much, and I had a few thoughts.

A. The first movie still totes blows. Its a kids-sci fi-space-disney movie. Full of slap stick comedy and ridiculous one liners.

B. Second movie is not as bad as I remembered. meh. I wont elaborate.

C. ANAKIN IS DARTH VADER!#$%.   heh.

I want to start another blog so I can ramble about important things such as these. Maybe someday.

LOVE YOU!$%^@

Kristina

the fun stuff (sort of)

Ryan and I really wanted to redo the entire interior of the boat from scratch. So this post is basically rando pictures of the demolition. We didn't leave much behind.  Paneling got ripped off the walls, carpet got ripped out (that sucked real bad), cabinets were torn off, walls were knocked down, you get the picture.

Amazingly, Ryan and his friend ripped out everything in like, 2 days. I showed up and was all, "alrighty guys, i'm here to help, thank me later" Except it was mostly done. So. That was pretty shweet.

This is a picture of the helm. The boxes hanging from wires are the radio and some other instruments like the depth finder. They were unscrewed from the ceiling to make ripping off the paneling and painting easier. Also, they are pretty grimy. I'm pretty sure that 100 packs of cigarettes were smoked a day inside this boat prior to us buying it. There's a nice orangey, brown film on everything.

Ryan taking down the light fixtures and capping the exposed wires. The original lights were like super hot spotlights that always managed to shine directly into your eyes no matter where you were standing. We are going to hopefully put in recessed lighting, and some other types of indirect lighting to warm up the inside

Blurry shots of tearing down the kitchen.




The down stairs gettin worked over.



Paneling coming down.
...

Below are some totally AWESOME action shots of me ripping up carpet tacks.

Pulling out carpet tacks and tack strips is living hell. Especially since the person who put in the tacks on our boat, apparently used some sort of tack-machine-gun, where by they stepped onto the boat and rambo style, shot tacks haphazardly into EVERY SURFACE of the interior (while screaming, most likely). If I never see another tack, It will be to soon.

Also, it may look like I have a gut in these pictures, but its actually my rippling abs distorting the shirt.

Chris took on the removal of the wall tacks while I handled the floor tacks. Both were equally terrible.

Even though the process has been new and mostly awesome, I can't wait to kick back on our finished boat and enjoy the scenery.






And the baby ducks.

Video of the baby ducks. If you listen closely, you can hear them peeping/quacking. Also, Its unfortunate that the video ended right before Ryan shouted at me "Are you filming ducks?! Do you think maybe you could come in and help?"

(After you watch the video, you might have to refresh the page to view the gif below correctly. It sometimes freezes after the video is played)

And to get our Star Wars fix ...

PEACE,
Kristina

a new boat/hope

The title of this post is a Star Wars pun.  DO NOT WORRY.  There will be plenty more Star Wars puns in the future, and I will most likely point them all out to you. Your welcome.

(Also, i'm sorry if some of the tenses I use in this post are off. We have actually already started renovations on the boat, but I'm just now getting the pictures up. I want to keep it chronological and so mistakes happen.)

Here are some pictures of the inside of our boat, pre-renovation. Alot of these pictures were taken when we first went to look at the boat, before we decided to buy it, so all of the previous owners things are still in it. Obviously, you'll need to use your imaginations to envision a more modern, hip, sexy, space. ha.






The upper and lower cabinets were so deep. What do you need to put in a kitchen cabinet that is like 4 foot deep? They were not a good use of space. In fact, a lot of the features of the boat that were made in the factory did not seem like an effective use of the space. I'm curious why they built the boat like they did. Maybe it was the style in the 80's. Not sure.



Unfortunately, we didn't get to keep the margarita maker.



To the left in the hallway is the GIANT closet. I'm assuming it was supposed to double as a sleeping area. It could have fit a small single mattress. We are going to tear down the closet and move the kitchen from the upper floor into its place, to maximize the seating and hangout area up top.

It took sort of a lot of convincing to get me to agree that this was a good idea, because I LOVE to cook, and wasn't sure about sacrificing counter space.

 Also, I have an ungodly amount of clothes.

So after drawing up some plans, and thinking up some clever storage ideas (which I will share in a later post), I now think it will work out nicely. In researching online, I have seen a few other people do a similar thing on their boats, and It looked cool. (Also In a future post, I will compile a list of the most helpful boating websites I've found.)



Some bathroom shots below. IT IS tiny. I hadn't really factored the whole bathroom thing into my head before I got on the boat. When I sat on the toilet my knees pushed the door open. Yeah. The whole thing is getting ripped out and made bigger. I'm not budging on that.





Here is a picture of the engine compartment. Our boat has twin Volvo marine engines. Ryan is the handy/mechanical one (although I'm no dummy), so in the future he will hopefully write some posts and talk more in depth about some of the mechanical and construction issues that we've had to deal with.

Also, this hatch door weighs like 3 thousand pounds because It is super old and water logged, so we are going to replace it with an aluminum hatch that will hopefully be lighter and more durable. I'll let you know how that goes.




That is all the photos I have to share now.



Except this one.

Its Ryan entering the atmosphere on our boat. Obviously.


PEACE OUT,

-Kristina

a long long time ago ...

... like maybe a year or so, Ryan and I decided to become pirates on the Mississippi River. As our careers. Sort of like this picture. Only more pirate-y.

It hasn't really happened for us yet,  BUT we still want to live on a boat. So, sort of on a whim, we saw a boat on craigs list and bought it. A 1981 Gibson Lazy Cruz my friends.

Yes, It is named the Miss Behavin. Yes. 

This, my first blog ever, is here to document all of the trials and tribulations that come with COMPLETELY gutting and renovating a houseboat, possibly having cats on it, and maybe even being inebriated on one. 

We've been having a lot of  trouble finding good resources online to help us with marine material ideas, renovation tips, decorating ideas, insurance questions, and the list goes on. I'm especially having trouble finding sites that have lots of pictures. So hopefully all of the stupid mistakes that we make, along with all of the pictures we're gonna take, will give yinz (where am I from?) some helpful tools to buy and fix up your own boat. Sweet. 

I would post more pictures of the boat now, but it took me 8 hours to get the striking distance photo just right, and its verrryyy late. More photos and jokes and good times soon. 

-Kristina

ps. from now until forever, please don't judge my grammar 2 harshly.