The focus is changing

By the first of May, I had wanted to be able to call a wrap on the salon wood work, and for the most part, it is complete enough. Doors have to be built, as do shelves for some cabinets and the bookcase, but those items are not going to slow down my progress.

All the water supply and waste line plumbing is complete for the day head and the galley sink.  I'm ready for the galley counter tops, which will happen as funds improve this Spring. For all practical purposes, I'm ready for finish flooring and appliances in the salon and wheel house. The flooring will be installed  closer to launch as I don't want to have to protect it.

I got a little more precise on sizing the air conditioner for the wheel house and salon, and feel comfortable that one unit will do the job. This marine air conditioner will reside in the lazzarette, and one six inch, insulated duct, will feed both rooms. The duct runs under the Settee, behind the notched range cabinet, through another cabinet, then under the wheel house Settee. Believing that return air was important to making the system work better, I  managed to squeeze in a six inch return air duct ( non insulated silver pipe). In a perfect world, I would have preferred to have the return air inlet as high as possible and further away from the air register. The best place I could make work for the return air inlet was the back rest in the settee bench seat.

The salon settee was more or less assembling parts I had fabricated when the wheel house was in the barn. The dimensions changed a bit on the salon between my mock up and the real world. Because of this the salon table does not fit down within the bench seats any more as I lost one and a half inch. My original plan was to have the table collapse flush with the bench seats to  make the mattress more comfortable. This set up still makes for a queen size bed for guests, and as of right now, I'm leaving it as is. A few strategic cushions along with a queen size air mattress will work fine and our guests will not know the difference.

Little things make a big difference regarding tables and seats, and in the case of the salon settee table, the misplaced 1.5" makes the table more comfortable to sit at. My curves by design in the table had made the table feel a fuzz to far away from the bench, but with the change in dimensions, it now feels good.

The propane range is installed, and I did fire it up as all the gas connections are made. I am making one change to the gas line by doing away with the manual valve I have in the cabin and installing a solenoid valve. To close the cabin valve, one must now lift off the top of the range to access the valve.

A solenoid valve with a switch above the range will make life easier. The valve is normally closed, and it need 12 volts to open it.

Another small detail that's complete and makes a big difference is having the valance installed at the wall/ceiling wire chase. Having all the visible aspects of construction hidden behind finish material is puts a smile on my face.

The half bath sink vanity is built along with the cabinet above the sink and another cabinet above the toilet. Doors still have to be built, but again those will not slow me down or take up space with waiting to be used lumber. All the doors left to be built will be built at the barn where I have a joiner, shaper and a high quality table saw ( the barn saw has zero run out along with a super flat, heavy cast iron bed).

 For sure, I would have like to be at this stage last February, but when I step back and look at what I've gotten finished since landing the super structure last November, I'm feeling pretty good.

Cheers