Homeless...With Too Much Stuff

I woke up this morning and find myself, for the first time in about 23 years, homeless.  At least that is how the government sees me.  We closed on the house yesterday evening without even being there, having Fed-Ex'd the signed paperwork to the title company a couple days ago.  So today I have no fixed address.

And yet for having no house, we still seem to have a lot of stuff.  So today we spent more time trying to find places for stuff.  Ever since I moved aboard, I've been using the rear berth as a storage area. The cabinet in the berth was where the previous owner had put some spares and supplies already, so it just became the defacto garage.  Whenever I had larger items or things that I just didn't know where to stow, they ended up piled in that berth.  So yesterday I decided I wanted to reclaim that berth...or at least most of it.

We now have two nice dry storage areas in the peaks of the two hulls, and those seemed like the perfect places.  You don't really want to store heavy items in the ends of the hulls, but the space would be perfect for big and bulky items. Rolls of fabric for the dinghy chaps project and window coverings went in the hold.  Other longer term project items found their way to the spaces further from the holds hatch.

It had a LOT more stuff in it when we started.

A couple of the items that have been living on the berth bed were my bags of hand tools.  The main reason I was storing them there is that is where I also had the dehumidifier hooked up, and I figured keeping the tools in the least humid part of the boat was a good idea.  But they can't take up permanent residence on the bed, so I had to come up with another solution.

Since the port forward hold is at the opposite corner of the boat from the generator, I figured placing the tools there would help to balance out the boat (the starboard rear always sat just a little lower in the water due to the generator).  But what to do about moisture and rust.  I did some research and found that some people recommended linseed oil as a protectant and others suggested storing tools in boxes with DampRid or a similar product to help dehumidify the tools.

Anyone know where I can get a pie shaped container?

Looking into DampRid, I found the chemical they use is Calcium Chloride, which can be purchased cheaper in pool supply stores or as ice melt.  The other problem is that it dissolves into solution as part of the water attracting process, which I thought might get messy and makes reuse difficult.  Continuing my research I found a better option...I think.  You know those little packets of stuff you find in electronics packaging and medicines?  It is called silica gel (and the packets usually say "silica gel, do not eat") and it is a desiccant that doesn't dissolve.  In fact, you can reuse it by drying it out in an oven at 250 degrees for a while.  This sounded like a better option to me.

But how do you get a lot of silica gel without buying thousands of dollars worth of electronics or thousands of bottles of aspirin?  If I had only known I could have saved all those little packets, but they are long gone.  You can, however, buy it in bulk at your local craft store (Michael's or similar).  But don't go in there and ask them for silica gel or a desiccant or a chemical to keep tools from rusting or you will get some strange looks.  However, if you go and ask them for the stuff used to dry flowers, they will point you to a 5 pound box of the stuff.  Then all I needed was a way to use it without making a mess and picking grit out of my tools.

The solution I came up with is similar to small versions of the DampRid buckets.  I found some small plastic containers with screw-on lids from the dollar store, and a pair of pantyhose from the same place. I cut holes in the middle of the lids, smoothed the holes with a lighter, and cut bands of the pantyhose (also using a lighter so they wouldn't unravel) to make screens for the holes.  Fill the container about half-full of silica gel, place the pantyhose over the opening, screw on the lid, and presto - one large, spill resistant desiccant pack.  I found a couple storage boxes with gaskets and placed my tools in those boxes along with a couple of my desiccant jars.  Hopefully that along with the oil treatment will help keep the rust at bay.

Homemade desiccant jars

So, I've reclaimed some of the space in the berth now...at least enough I can now access the engine underneath without having to move a bunch of stuff.

Hold filling up.

One other interesting thing happened yesterday.  A nice guy I met back in Colorado at ZeroToCruising's party dropped by for a visit.  He is originally from the north Florida area and was visiting family.  He stopped by, and I gave him a tour of our boat (even though it was a total mess right in the middle of our reorganization attempt), a tour of the marina, and then we went to lunch.  Since he was a local and likes to fish, I took the opportunity to ask him a few questions because I still know almost nothing about deep sea fishing.  We had a nice visit before he had to head back to his family.  Thanks for stopping by David, it was good to see you again, and thanks for lunch too!

Well, I had better get back to work so we can get this boat moving north.

Did Someone Mention Crazy?

The other day I mentioned that things have been a bit crazy here as we prepare to make our way out of the hurricane box my insurance company has defined in our policy. Well, karma or life or whatever it is, decided to show me that, where there is a little crazy, there can always be more.

On Monday we started installing lifeline netting on our boat.  Lifeline netting can usually be found on cruising boats that have either kids or pets. We have the latter and would like to keep them on board, especially after Madison's little adventure off the dock the other day.  While the videos and instructions all make it sound easy, it took us most of a day to do about 2/3 of one side of the boat.  Getting the spacing right and working around curves and hardware can be a pain.  I don't even want to know how many times we threaded something, didn't like it, unthreaded, and retried.

All we managed to install the first day

So, on day two of what was supposed to be a half-day project, we were making better progress and completed installing the same amount of netting that took us all day Monday in about 3 hours.  It was at this point that I needed to go find some clips to allow me to unhook the netting where there are gates in the lifelines (being able to use the gates seems like a good thing). I went to every hardware store in town (two towns, four stores actually) but couldn't find a plastic clip I could use to tie to the netting.  Finally, I found a set of cheap bungee cords at a local Dollar Tree and decided to scavenge the plastic clips from those cords.

Trying to figure out proper spacing during the install.

While we were out shopping, I got a call from our realtor who told me the appraisal on the house we are selling had finally been done (we previously had to alter the contract due to the inability to get an appraiser out in a more reasonable time frame...I guess they are busy in Denver these days).  The good news was that the appraisal came back at the sale price, so we had cleared the last big hurdle before closing.  The bad news is that, as late as it had been, the likelihood of an early closing was close to nil.

Of course, about 15 minutes later I got another call from the agent telling me they now think they can close on Friday.  This Friday. Oh no!  We were suddenly in a panic to see how we could get the paperwork sent to us, signed, and returned to Colorado in time for a Friday closing (for some reason, Colorado doesn't allow for electronic signatures and only blue ink on paper is acceptable).  Oh, and did I mention that some of the documents need to be notarized?  We come up with a plan to have the title company email us the documents so we could print them here, sign, and then next-day mail them.

So, netting project on hold, we start searching for options to print the paperwork and find a notary. We even bought a printer in case we couldn't find another option. Fortunately the resort we are staying at has a business center (a computer with printer) and even has a notary on staff, so we thought we were in good shape.  Well...until the package from the title company arrived (conveniently at 7pm local time...or 5pm Colorado time).  Included in the instructions was a note that it had to be printed on legal-sized paper.

Naturally, the business center doesn't have legal paper.  We run around looking for legal paper and the only office store in town (along with the other big box stores that might have some) were out. About this time I felt like I was banging my head on a brick wall. Then we found out that while the local Staples didn't have any legal paper in stock, the copy center could print them for us. (I guess the copy center doesn't get their legal paper from the same source as the rest of the store). We get the documents printed out and make our way back home for the night.

The next morning we look over the documents and find a number of mistakes.  Did I mention that we had an appointment with the notary at 9 am...which is 7 am Colorado time...and before the title company would be open?  How is it that a title company, whose only job is to get legal paperwork details right, does this one task so poorly?  Adding to the pressure is the fact that, if there is any hope of closing on Friday, the paperwork needs to be Fed-Ex'd that day.  We postpone the appointment with the notary and make a bunch of phone calls to the title company and the realtor.  We finally get a hold of Equity Title Associates, and they tell us they will get the missing papers to us in 15 minutes. After not seeing them for one and a half hours, we call back and suddenly the missing paperwork doesn't exist because they are waiting for information from the lender.  Then the story became that they are working on it and will have it to us shortly. Finally, we are able to procure the missing paperwork, get everything signed and notarized, and make the trip over to the Fed-Ex facility we found to drop it all off.  We can only hope we found all the title companies mistakes and the closing goes off as planned.

Now, where were we?  Oh yeah, back to the netting that has been hanging half-installed on the boat.  We finally managed to get all of it installed, and it only took 3 calendar days. We are also working on plans for the trip north.  It doesn't seem like we'll have much time to do any sightseeing as we head north. With all the misfires trying to get the hard-top bimini project going, I'm trying to find someone north of Cape Hatteras where we can spend a few weeks and get the top made.  If anyone knows of a good welder or fiberglass person on the coast anywhere north of the Carolinas, let me know.

Hopefully that will help keep the dogs and gear on board.

As a tropical depression passes us by (earlier than normal and threatening to be the first named storm of the season), we continue making plans to head north starting in just a couple more days.  Yeah...just a bit crazy.

Definitely Not Home Anymore

My wife and I, with my parent's help, have been putting in long hours the last several days trying to meet a deadline with our house.  The realtor was scheduled to come on Wednesday to take pictures for the MLS listing for our house so we could put it on the market today.

Proof it is for sale...the realty sign

If you have ever seen our house you know that, while we aren't dirty people, we don't keep the house spotless. There are just too many things to do in life to spend hours every day cleaning a home.  And since we owned a home that...in true American fashion...was way bigger than we needed, over 18 years we accumulated a lot of stuff to fill that space.  Not necessarily useful stuff and, if I had it all to do over again, I doubt I would have bought much of it...but we were busy being good American consumers. It has been quite an undertaking to move completely out, clean it all up, and get it ready to sell.  And we almost made it by the time the realtor arrived with his camera (the images here are mine, not the realtor).

Living room and hall

Family room

There are still a couple small piles of stuff in the garage...mostly extra packing boxes and cleaners...but we should be done with it all today.  Then we need to re-pack and re-evaluate what has been earmarked for transport to the boat while we spend a day or so at my mother-in-law's place.  I think we may have just a bit more than will fit in the Prius, at least if we intend to fit ourselves in it as well.

Master bath

Master Bedroom

If you happen to know of someone who wants to move to the Denver metro area, we know of a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath house they can buy and move in immediately.  It has a number of upgrades to make it more energy efficient, including being one of the few in our neighborhood to be built to the Ideal Energy Home standards of the day.  I know our utility bills are about half of some of our neighbors. If we had stayed, we probably would have added solar and tried to see how close to net zero we could get.  Unlike many of the houses of the period, the lower level of this house is all brick for lower maintenance. The neighborhood is desirable and is supposed to have good schools (our dogs didn't use them).  Since it is early spring, you can't tell from the pictures but the back yard is actually a nice retreat to hang out in during the summer.

Update:  It appeared in the MLS mid-morning yesterday.  You can see it here as long as the listing lasts.

The backyard retreat

So, wish us luck as we make the move to the boat...if the wheels don't fall off the Prius trying to get us and the stuff across the country.