The Butt Ugly Boat - Progress Report

If you don't know about our Butt Ugly Boat,

affectionally known as BUB, start here.

So far our efforts (and budget) on renovating the BUB have focused on things you can't see--things like new battery banks and chargers, light switches that actually work, new hardware on the cabinets, new electrical service lines and various pumps. Oh, and we have cleaned and oiled a lot of teak. A lot of teak. A lot.

All those unglamorous but necessary items didn't do much to change how the boat looks, which of course is Butt Ugly. But now we're ready to begin the fun stuff --the cosmetics--and the obvious place to begin is getting rid of the gawd awful blue carpet.

One of the biggest factors in choosing new carpet is coordinating the carpet to the color of the existing headliner (ceiling). The headliner fabric is good quality and in perfect condition but is a slightly funky shade of khaki. We originally thought about replacing it but then we visualized what a pain in the ass it would be to recover the entire ceiling. And then we visualized the exhorbitant cost of replacing the entire ceiling. And then we decided to learn to love our ceiling instead of replacing it. Love you long time, funky khaki color.

So before we headed out carpet shopping Saturday morning, Morley found a discreet place behind a valance and cut out a piece of the headliner fabric to take with us, then we headed for Dalton, Georgia where most of the carpet in the universe comes from. We found a carpet store with one million square feet of display area (literally!) and within 30 minutes we found exactly what we had in mind. This one:

The one on top is the new carpet we'll have installed next week. It is a very durable, stain resistant carpet with just a hint of pattern so it won't show stains as easily as a solid carpet would. I put it beside a carpet sample that's similar to the current gawd awful blue carpet (minus the mysterious stains) to give you an idea of how much the lighter color will brighten up the joint.

And here's a close up of the new carpet with the fabrics we've picked out for the sofas and trim panels. The swatch with the creases in it is the headliner fabric and the two bottom swatches are the fabrics for the new upholstery. They look and feel like ultra suede but they're actually cotton microfiber so they're stain resistant, washable and very durable.

PS. Have you noticed how often the words "durable" and "stain resistant" come up in conversations related to the BUB? Go figure.

Anyway, once the new carpet gets in we'll move on to removing the wierd fuzzy fabric that lines the interior of all the closets and the insets around the portholes, and we'll replace it with a marine grade vinyl. After that we'll tackle installation of a new teak floor in the pilot house that Morley has his heart set on.

Our goal is to have all of this work done by March when the weather warms up and boating season begins again, so we have our weekends cut out for us for awhile. The funny thing is that if we had a "to do" list this long at home it would be a bummer to even think about it, but we are excited about tackling our mega "to do" list on the boat. It just goes to show that everything truly is better on water.

I'll keep you posted on our progress--or you could just come visit and see for yourself. Bring teak oil and some rags when you come.