No longer liveaboards...

Since Al will soon be working as a consultant for the EPA, we have taken an apartment in Vancouver WA. We signed on the line last Tuesday, the day after Labor Day. It was another two days before we actually spent a night there, but we just had our second morning at the apartment, complete with coffee! (Can you tell I am writing from the boat--calling the apartment 'there')

It seems we have spent the past two and a half months just schlepping stuff! SO MUCH STUFF! Again, it is my goal to work through the many boxes we have brought with us. Hopefully, after spending 6 weeks living on the boat, I will have a better perspective about what is NEEDED there, and space that is AVAILABLE, and will be able to get rid of quite an amount.

Although my parents would argue, I consider myself to be pretty neat and organized. Let's just say that as an adult I am pretty neat and organized. And after 6 weeks living on the boat, I find myself even more intolerant of mess and disorder. The goal still is a place for everything, and everything in it's place. And now that is carrying over to the apartment. I think the sailor life is a good place for my OCD/Virgoness to shine!

So, what is the apartment like? It is a two-bedroom, one bath place with a patio complete with tomato, squash and green beans growing on the edges. We have noted that there is more room for TWO butts in the kitchen than there even was at the house.

It is kind of like living in a motel, or Al says, like being in a college dorm, or starting over again. We don't have much stuff-- borrowed furniture, just two pans for cooking, even had to buy new sheets and dishes,and no art on the walls. I think we need to get a dresser of some sort. Still living out of bags.

I am trying out the washer/dryer we have for the boat. It is an all-in-one unit that washes, THEN dries. It takes only a small load, and things come out of it VERY wrinkled. This is going to be quite an adjustment for me! I have always said that laundry was my favorite chore, but this contraption may alter that view.

Speaking of dishes---I TRIED to shop at Goodwill, I really did. But when they wanted $2.99 each for plates, and I had to search to find four that matched, plus bowls and silverware---it would have cost $50-70 for a jumble of items. I went to the K-Mart down the street from there and got a box with a set of dinner plates, salad plates, bowls, mugs, glasses, and silverware for $22. AND it all matches/coordinates!

I spend the afternoon yesterday cleaning. The apartment has an odor that we don't particularly enjoy. The borrowed couch is contributing it's own unique aroma. I washed out cupboards with bleach, lit candles, and sprayed Febreeze. By evening, it seemed to smell better. The real test comes with that first whiff when you have been away, and then come back.

You have probably noticed that it has been awhile since Al has posted. He's been busy. At this moment he is hanging the mahogany panel for the storage unit in the aft cabin where the laundry will be. He has this week also removed the back sections of the rails, sanded down the back of the boat where he re-caulked last fall, and is reapplying Cetol.

Though we do now have an apartment, we still plan on spending the major part of the day at the boat. There is that list of over 34 projects still to do before actually becoming cruisers. We need to keep plugging away.

Kristi