Last Island Trip and Renaming our Boat

Posted by Meredith Andersen in baja anchorage, Cruising, Emotions, La Paz, Learning How to Sail, On the Water, traveling, Uncategorized and tagged with Baja islands, Baja Mexico, Baja travel, boat stuff, boom, cal 35 sailboat, challenges, engine repairs, home on the sea, Isla San Francisco, islands, jib, Learning, main sail, Mexico, motorsailing, sailing, sailing downwind, sailing upwind, San Evaristo, sunsets, travel, traveling November 18, 2013

Sailing out to the islands on a cloudy day was nice.

After squashing what we thought were all of our obstacles to getting out to the islands near La Paz for a more relaxing “vacation” part of our trip, we set sail on a cloudy day. It was a nice sail slightly upwind, so we planned to sail out on one tack and motor back into anchor, as we were feeling lazy and didn’t want to sail upwind the whole way.

Sails up and heading out to Isla Espiritu Santo.

After motoring for maybe 30 minutes, our engine began overheating and spewing coolant. We immediately killed the engine and began sailing toward the nearest anchorage, unsure what the issue was. We sailed upwind in light winds all the way to anchor in Bahia San Gabriel. The engine had finally cooled enough for Tim to get in and take a look. It turned out to be an easy fix of installing a new alternator belt, allowing us to motor up to a safer anchorage with more wind protection just before one of the more beautiful sunsets.

Our alternator belt broke and our engine overheated on our way to the islands. Tim had to dive into the cockpit locker to fix it.

We arrived to anchor just before sunset at Isla Espiritu Santo.

It was a stunning sunset as we anchored for the night.

The next day offered winds from the west/southwest, allowing for us to have a wonderful sail up to one of my favorite islands — Isla San Francisco. This is one of the more picturesque places we have visited in the Sea of Cortez. The same night, our friends on s/v Calypso, Rick and Jasna, arrived just before sunset. We had planned to meet them there, but weren’t sure if the would make it. We enjoyed swimming, kayaking, spear fishing (Tim, Rick and Jasna) and hiking at the island for six days. Rick and Jasna had to deliver some school supplies to the small fishing village just to the north, San Evaristo, and we were looking to get away from the tons of mosquitos at Isla San Francisco, so we followed them upwind.

Our nice sail up to Isla San Francisco.

We were keeping the sun off our backs as we sailed north.

The water was crazy clear and the perfect temp for swimming.

Swimming, fishing, kayaking and hiking at Isla San Francisco.

Tim shot three trigger fish for dinner with Calypso.

Beautiful Isla San Francisco from the hike along the ridge line.

Me and Tim hiking with Jasna along the Isla San Francisco ridge line.

Jasna gazing off into the Sea of Cortez on our hike at Isla San Francisco.

The view from the top – Isla San Francisco.

Jasna and Rick on Calypso are expert sailors, I would say. Jasna used to teach sailing in Italy, and Rick took a Yatchmaster course in Austrailia. Knowing we could learn a thing or two from these pros, we set out to follow them on our next sail upwind to San Evaristo. This proved a bit unsuccessful as we tried to tack our way to the little fishing village, we got frustrated and decided to turn the motor on (cheaters, I know). Much to our dismay, the alternator belt was slipping and our engine was struggling with overheating again. Tim rigged up a temporary solution by tying a line to the alternator and putting upward pressure on it so we could motor sail our way in. We stayed for a couple nights in San Evaristo, restocking our chocolate stash and a few other fresh foods that were running low.

With north winds predicted for the next several days, we all decided it was a good time to head back to La Paz. We were a bit nervous, considering our motor troubles, but left early for what we thought would be a nice downwind sail. Unfortunately, just as we pulled out of the anchorage, our engine was overheating again and the belt had broken once more. Frustrated, we opened our jib only and headed downwind, thinking we could repair it along the 6 hour trip. The sea was pretty rough and choppy, and without our main sail up, we were rocking and rolling the entire trip. This didn’t give Tim a chance to crawl around the engine compartment and sort out our issue.

The wind was getting pretty strong as we and Calypso — both with only headsails out — headed down to Isla Partida. As we finally approached our intended anchorage, we attempted turning into the wind with hopes of getting close enough to safely to drop anchor. This was a big mistake. The wind had picked up over 20 knots and we didn’t have any power without our main sail up. So we raised the main with the boat pointing downwind — a little dangerous maneuver because the chances for a accidental jibe are high. That is exactly what happened. We accidentally jibed hard, popping the boom right off the mast.

I had already reached my maximum stress load and freaked out about 10 minutes before we lost the boom. So, I stayed strangely calm, sailing the boat into the mouth of a different, calmer anchorage where Tim was able to replace the alternator belt before we got too close to land. This allowed us to motor (hobble) the rest of the way to anchor. After a day like that, there was no way we could come on the VHF radio and hail with the name “Luckiest.” We decided at that moment we must rename our boat. We called Calypso, who had already anchored in our intended spot. They came down right away to help us lick our wounds. We were happy to have their help, and we all stayed a couple of days to relax.

The second night we had our renaming ceremony (sailor’s tradition) for our boat, asking Neptune to take care of her under the new name — Lucí.

It was a calm, wind-free day as we motored back to La Paz after reattaching the boom and repairing the engine a final time.

Sailboats Belong in the Sea

Posted by Meredith Andersen in On the Water, Uncategorized and tagged with American Dream, Anchor chain, Baja Mexico, Baja travel, batteries, battery switch, boat electrical systems, boat stuff, boat yard, cal 35 sailboat, home on the sea, Learning, lesson learned, living your dreams, Mexico, preparing, rewiring sailboat, sailing, sailing gear, sea cocks, starter battery, sunsets, traveling, Working October 28, 2013

As it turns out, we had to take care of a few more pressing items before getting in the water. Sailboats are funny like that, as soon as you think you have repaired everything, something else breaks.

After hooking up the new batteries, we noticed our started battery was overcharging. We quickly disconnected it and decided to have someone else look at our wiring and electrical system. Tim and I don’t trust ourselves with electrical problems and boat electrical systems.

Victor is a highly recommended Mexican marine electrician and was able to work on our boat the next day. He spent all day analyzing our system. It was too late for our starter battery, so he installed a new one and our battery switch, which will keep the starter battery separate from our house batteries. It’s often we learn important lessons about our boat when something breaks and we have to figure it out, or in this case hire someone to help us figure it out. We paid close attention to Victor’s work, so we would have a better understanding of how our boat should be wired.

Victor, the boat electrician, re-wiring our system.

Another issue we had to fix before launching was a broken sea cock — part of the plumbing that goes through the boat to the water. This is key to function properly. We replaced it, did a test start on the engine and declared ourselves ready to splash!

Tim working on replacing the head sea cock (plumbing).

We were very anxious to get into the water where the boat belongs. It was really a quick process, Tim took the helm and drove about one hour to the La Paz anchorage, while I took the car down into town where we could access it after moving the boat.

It went pretty smoothly until we needed to anchor. Our friend Jasna picked me up in her dinghy and dropped me on our boat to help Tim anchor. We hit a little snag here, as our chain did not want to come out of our Windless anchor wench. With a little more help from Rick and Jasna, we were finally able to drop anchor in La Paz.

We finished a new layer of anti-fouling paint on the boat bottom.

Capitan Tim manning the boat as she gets back in the water.

Luckiest back in the water. the Splash went smoothly and Tim motored down the La Paz Channel to anchor.

Life on the water is sooo superior to the boat yard. It’s cooler, less bugs, more beautiful sunsets.

Life on the water is so much better. The Baja sunsets are some of the best we have ever seen.

Sunrise this morning through our v-berth porthole aka “bedroom window.”

We still have a bit of work ahead of us before we head out for a couple of weeks at the islands. Tim discovered a leaky sea water impeller, so we are trying to repair this today. That, plus attaching the sails will be key before heading out. We have never reattached sails, and it has been 1.5 years since we removed them, so it could be interesting. We think we can do most other items out at the islands.

Life in a Boat Yard

Posted by Meredith Andersen in Blogging, Gearing up, La Paz, traveling, Uncategorized and tagged with American Dream, Baja Mexico, Baja travel, boat maintenance, boat stuff, bottom paint, cal 35 sailboat, challenges, diy, Driving in Mexico, Learning, Mexico, newport beach area, preparing, sailboat cleaning, sunsets, traveling October 23, 2013

One week into round two of our Baja adventure, and we are happy it hasn’t been all work.

We left our Denver home and dog with my aunt and drove out Tuesday, Oct. 15, as planned. We got an early start – about 5:30 a.m. – so we could make it to Newport Beach by the end of the day. We crossed through the Eisenhower tunnel as the first snow rolled into the Denver area, making our mountain driving a bit icy, but beautiful as daylight broke.

Driving through the Rocky Mountains on our way to La Paz, Mexico.

I felt like we were driving through winter into fall as we drove down the Rockies’ western slope. It was really a beautiful scene, and a pretty drive all the way from I-70 to I-15. We drove through mountain and canyons the whole way, periodically stopping to enjoy the view in Utah and Arizona.

We drove from winter into fall. You can see the snow at the higher altitude fade away.

We so enjoyed the drive through so many types of mountains from Colorado to California.

This beautiful Canyon in Utah made us stop to admire it.

We had to drive through the Las Vegas strip, even though it was the middle of the day because I had never seen it. This put us at our day one destination about 8 p.m. to visit with our (pretty-much professional) sailing friends, David and Katie, who we met at Thanksgiving in La Paz almost 2 years ago.

They are always so welcoming when we crash coming or going from Baja. We delayed our morning start just a bit so we could meet their one-year-old daughter, Emily, putting us on our way about 7:30 a.m.

We crossed the border in Tijuana with no issues and booked it for our typical mid-way stopping point in Guerro Negro.

The mountains in Baja were more beautiful than we remembered because they were so green. the Baja had been getting a lot a rain and very wet season, actually washing out a lot of roads on the only highway that runs the length of the peninsula.

Luckily, in Mexico, they will happily divert traffic off-road.

We arrived in Guerro Negro just at sunset.

This is the hotel we like to stay at in Guerro Negro. It is on the edge of town, always clean and the people are nice.

The roads washed out just 2 days before we drove through here. Baja has had a very rainy season.

We really enjoyed how green the mountains were because of all the rain on the lower Baja.

We arrived in La Paz around 6 p.m. Our boat broker, La Paz Yachts was our first stop because we needed to get the key to our boat being stored at a local boat yard – Bercovich. Our second stop was Bercovich to check on the condition on the boat, and our third was dinner with our dear friend, Jasna, from the boat Calypso.

The boat was not in bad shape. She was a little dusty and in need of batteries and bottom paint, but mostly just how we left her. We got to work pretty much right away.

Day 1) Wash down outside and clean inside thoroughly. Remove old batteries, buy new batteries – about $450usd

Day 2) Install new batteries, unpack bags and ready v-berth for sleeping

Day 3) Power wash the boat bottom (we were able to borrow one from our boat neighbor, Pete, who came down from San Francisco to work on his boat too.)

Day 4) Had the boat bottom inspected by a local boat surveyor, Cecil – who did our boat inspection before we bought 2 years ago. He was a boat builder most of his life and will be 89 soon. We bought one gallon of ablative anti-fouling paint nearby for about $180 usd and supplies for painting. We got advice to just do a light sanding on the existing paint, power wash again and paint. So we did.

Day 5) Find cayenne pepper and put inside paint – old sailor trick to keep barnacles away. Had paint shaken again to mix all biocide and cayenne pepper inside. Now, we paint the bottom.

We are hoping to get into the water in a couple of days, in which case we would head straight to the islands to finish up the work on the boat. The boat yard has not been as bad as I thought it would be. I just had to accept that I would be dirty, sweaty and eaten by mosquitos every day. But there is unlimited fresh water and electricity, and we have the best spot in the yard with an ocean sunset view.

We enjoyed the sunset walking the ocean boardwalk in La Paz.

Our boat “on the hard” in the boat yard.

Our boat bottom before any cleaning.

Tim power washing our boat bottom.

TIm painting the boat bottom. We went with a darker blue, and I really like it.

Renovation Wrap Up

Posted by Meredith Andersen in Renovation, Uncategorized and tagged with before and after photos, challenges, diy, home renovation, home renovations, house sitting, islands, kitchen island, kitchen renovation, preparing, renovation photos October 11, 2013

Our before and after kitchen renovation photos and my aunt is awesome:

With our trip hovering just around the corner (we plan to leave Oct. 15), we have been trying to wrap up projects around the house and with our clients. Tim is finishing up some contracts in Greeley, and I am completing some website content and blog posts for clients.

My aunt has graciously decided to help us while we are traveling by staying at our house and taking care of our dog Daphne while we are gone. This means the looming projects like the kitchen island needed to finally be completed, so she didn’t have to work around them like we have been. Plus, it’s nice to come home to a mostly finished home renovation.

A quick run through on the kitchen island: We had a very in-the-way pantry column in the center of the kitchen. We cut it in half with plans to make an island early on in the renovation, but lost steam before we completed it. We have been living with a cut-in-half-pantry for 6+ months, until recently when we fully completed the entire island.

Way before: In-the-way pantry when bought the property.

Way Before: The center column pantry right in the middle of the kitchen.

Island before: with the drawer insert and Daphne dog

The walls we used to make the island

The completed kitchen island

Here are a few full kitchen before and after shots.

Kitchen before renovation

Kitchen after renovation

Kitchen before renovation

Kitchen after renovations

Our Kitchen with complete renovation. Notice we added some window trim and shelving.

Big News — Back to Mexico

Posted by Meredith Andersen in Gearing up, La Paz, traveling, Uncategorized and tagged with Baja islands, Baja Mexico, Baja travel, boat sale, boat stuff, cal 35 sailboat, challenges, la paz, la paz yatchs, Learning, Leaving, lifestyle change, maintenance, Mexico, preparing, sailing, traveling October 9, 2013

Big news – we are heading back down to La Paz, Mexico!

We knew we needed to get back down and take care of our boat, but we were not sure about when we might be able to actually break away from the life we have been building in the Denver area. Money was also a big factor; as in, will we make enough in a short time to get our boat back in the water?

It turns out, Tim was able to work a hail storm in Greeley, CO, selling new roofs to replace damaged ones. For those of you who didn’t know, Tim grew up in the roofing industry repairing and selling roofs for his parent’s roofing company in DFW. This work has afforded us the possibility of getting back to our boat for some TLC.

Our lovely Cal 35 sailboat has been stored on-the-hard in a boat yard in La Paz for more than a year. We did the typical seasonal shut down checklist, per advice from our sailing friends. This included removing all sails, draining fluids from the engine, tying down everything and protecting what we could from the damaging sun and bugs. This took us about four days to really secure her to be stored. We are anticipated about two weeks to put her back together.

One reason we decided to go back now was to get our beautiful boat looking beautiful again. As I said in a previous post, we have decided to sell our boat. She has been on the market for a few months with a few showings under her belt. But when we left her, we hadn’t intended to put her up for sale, so we know she is not looking up to her potential. Hence, our trip down is two-fold: to have a last hoorah at the islands and to put a bit more work into The Luckiest to get her sale-ready.

We plan to probably pay someone to sand down the previous layers of paint and barnacles and applying a fresh coat of barnacle-resisant paint to her underside – the anti fouling process. This also increases sailing speed, which is important when every knot counts. We will clean her up and get her sails back on, etc. Her house batteries are also ready to be replaced, so we are adding that in, too. All this, we do in hopes of selling her as this years sailing season approaches.

It saddens me to think about selling her, because she is a perfect cruising boat. But the truth is, we have to find a better balance of a traditional American lifestyle and one of travelers. It is a very hard balance to strike, and we thought we could do it by living on our boat for six months and in our small townhome for six months (sailors call it “six on, six off”). This plan isn’t really working for us because we have to work more throughout the year than say a retired person to keep ourselves afloat. We have tried to keep a minimalist lifestyle in the states with a small monthly budget to keep ourselves free of as many strings as possible.

Because travel is a high priority for us, we still plan to set ourselves up for lots of it. More realistically than six months out of the year, we will have two to three months for travel yearly. This will take time and financial legwork, but we will get there. We love the sailing lifestyle and community – having made some dear friends in the Sea of Cortez. It’s likely that we will come back for more, just not on our own boat. Crewing on other’s boats is a big part of the sailing community, and we certainly would like to see more of the world via sailboat.

For those of you who are interested, or might know of someone in the market for a Cal 35 with added sugar scoop, please share this listing info and blog post.

Current Price: US$ 35,000

Yacht World Number: 2614835
Located in La Paz, BCS, Mexico
Year: 1974
Hull Material: Fiberglass
As stated in the brochure, the ingenious and unique touches that Bill Lapworth has designed into the Cal 35 set her apart from other world cruisers, coming close to a perfect cruising yacht. Whether you’re anchored off La Paz in the Sea of Cortez or running downhill across the Pacific to Tahiti, you’ll live in style and comfort aboard the Cal 35. The interior finish is as practical as it is luxurious, beautifully designed with rich Burmese teak. With a full 6 foot 6 inch head room and a 7 foot long double berth, this is a great boat for tall people! The raised dinette allows you to view the scenery while dining below. The long water line, sleek hull lines and large 546 square feet of sail area give her great speed. And she’s easy to handle. The big modern spade rudder offers greater maneuverability and easier wheel steering control. The comfortable cockpit has benches long enough for sleeping outside as well. All mechanical and electrical equipment is easy to get at. Making repair and engine maintenance a cinch on the Perkins diesel and its fuel supply give you an 800-mile cruising range on power alone at 7 1/2 knots. This is an excellent cruising yacht!

Sailing from Isla Danzante to Puerto Ballendra at Isla Carmen. We sailed all the way there with fairly steady wind and good speed.

Our main living space with Galley to the right and dining area to the left.

A peek into the v berth and head.

The amazing sunset from the south beach at Agua Verde. We saw some of the greatest sunsets ever.

A view of our boat at the beginning of our long hike across Isla Carmen.

Grand Tetons

Posted by Meredith Andersen in traveling, Uncategorized and tagged with family vacation, grand tenons, national park, Road Trip, sunsets, travel, traveling, yellowstone August 24, 2013

Variety is the spice of life, but sometimes you travel the same place twice.

My family loves Grand Teton National Park and Jackson Lake Lodge. We visited there in 2007 and had our first encounters with elk, moose and bison, as well as drank in the lodge view daily with awe. It is still just as majestic a view, even if we are much more familiar with wildlife now. We had to visit one more time and really soak it all in.

Our trip was full of watching mountain sunsets, searching for wildlife, river rafting and hiking.

The view from dinner at the lodge.

Dusk with the view of the Grand Teton Mountains from our lodge.

Julie and Lydia rafting on the Snake River.

There were tons of Bald Eagles we saw rafting along the Snake River.

Rafting down the Snake River in Grand Teton National Park.

Part of our group, Julie, Caleb, Lydia and Greg, rafting down the Snake River.

Rafting on the Snake River.

After white water rafting, we climbed up to this view.

My sister and me after rafting. We were on the front of the raft, so we got soaked.

A beautiful steaming pool at Yellowstone National Park.

Sunset view of the Grand Tetons from our lodge.

Another view of the same sunset.

Hiking near Jackson Lake with an amazing mountain view.

Me and Lydia on a hike near Jackson Lake.

My niece and nephew, Lydia and Caleb, enjoying the lily pad lake view.

Mountain Majesty

We stopped for a picnic, Caleb sat next to me.

Picnic view of Swan Lake

My mom and niece enjoying the hike.

Beautiful hiking path.

The mountains changed on the drive home in Wyoming.

Well, now what?

Posted by Meredith Andersen in Emotions, Gearing up, Uncategorized and tagged with blogging, challenges, Learning, lifestyle change, money, new direction, non-profit, sailing, selling, Working August 6, 2013

Now that we have wrapped up most of the projects around the house, we are a little stir crazy while deciding what to do next. I have been working with local non-profits and networking organizations through my business: Blank Slate Graphics and Marketing.

I have discovered a huge passion for helping others and really put working with the Global Education Fund as a top priority for myself. I met several of the board members at a networking group a few weeks ago. The speaker at the event has several schools and organizations she has started in Bangalore, India, and receives funding from the Global Education Fund. She is one of the most accomplished individuals I have ever met. She is a core shaker. I felt completely moved by her story, and felt compelled to change my direction. I created a new blog to reflect these thoughts and changes as I move forward into the non-profit realm.

I have no idea what is next for me and Tim. Right now we are both working in the Denver area trying to make more than a few bucks to get back down to Mexico. We are thinking we will have a couple of months on the Luckiest and put her on the market to sell to someone else looking for an escape. It is a very tough decision, as we both are in love with our boat, but we feel a bit tied down to traveling to Mexico even if we want to go elsewhere. More to come on this as we prepare our lives to have comfortable established home and aboard lifestyles.

Major Progress

Posted by Meredith Andersen in Renovations, Uncategorized, Visitors and tagged with American Dream, bead board, cabinet refinishing, challenges, floor install, floor leveling, granite countertops, gray and white kitchen, home renovations, kitchen renovation, laminate flooring, Learning, lesson learned, Moving, paint store, painting, parents visit, primer, sanding, white kitchen February 12, 2013

We have come pretty far now. Tim and I are living in our home finally. We moved in the week his parents arrived for a visit at the end of January. Talk about cutting it close, but they were super helpful while they were here. We got everything livable and even had time to play a little.

I’m going to back up a bit, and walk you through some of the bigger projects we tackled in January. Tim had a guy’s snowboarding trip planned to Steamboat, so I took the opportunity of alone time at the house to start the cabinetry overhaul. I knew this would be a big job, but also would have a big impact on the way the space looked. Tim would be gone for a week, so my goal was to have all the cabinets (and some doors if I was lucky) sanded and primed before he got back. I will try to be specific for those of you who might be wanting to re-do cabinets one day.

Thanks to my local Benjamin Moore dealer Lucas Paint, I had a good idea of where to begin. The plan was to end up with a white, shaker-style cabinet, even though I started with faux wood laminate.

What the kitchen looked like the day we bought it.

Kitchen with pantry cut in half to make an island, the wall paper gone, and the popcorn ceiling scraped.

Mr. Lucas, from the paint store, told me to clean all the surfaces with dry dishwashing detergent powder before sanding. This is a strong degreaser, and I noticed it seemed to kind of change the laminate surface too… made it more penetrable to sanding, if that is possible. This was really hard on my hands, so I was sure to wear gloves, goggles and a mask. The process went like this: wipe down with water, scrub with detergent, wipe off detergent (if any was left during sanding, it would ruin the sandpaper), let dry, sand. I used an old palm sander and 120 grit paper, which I was very grateful for. Doing this by hand would have killed me.

The wall-mounted cabinets during the sanding process. You can see we have already textured and painted the walls.

Me sanding the doors. I had an assembly line where I would scrub them down, wash them off, sand them and clean them again. All before priming.

After all the sanding was cleaning. I had to repeatedly wipe down the surfaces for the cabinets to make sure all the fine laminate dust was gone. This seemed to take forever and I even took the Shop Vac to the doors after sanding. I also ended up using a lightly dampened cloth with a water and vinegar spray. It seemed to do the trick and dry quickly. Then I could move on to primer. I used BIN primer. It is alcohol based, so it has a really strong smell, but it dries quickly and sticks to anything.

Bottom cabinets primed and drying.

All cabinets are primed, but the doors took a while because I had to lay them flat to dry on each side.

I had reached my goal when Tim and his friend Drew got back from their trip. Drew had offered to stay a few extra days and help! He replaced every outlet and light switch in the entire house making it look instantly more updated.

Drew and Tim cutting wood to reface the cabinet in a shaker style.

We had to make the wood strips 3.75″ wide to hide all of the outdated design that was on the cabinet face.

I used wood glue to adhere the strips to the door faces.

I used Benjamin Moore Advance in semi-gloss finish and White Heron color. It’s a slightly off white that really lends itself to gray, looking nice with the wall color. The Advance paint was again recommended by Lucas Paint in Denver. It is a Latex paint that behaves a lot like an oil-based, leaving no paint strokes and wears well over time. I realized along the way that using a small foam roller left some bubbles in the paint, so I would roll the paint on and run over it with a high quality 2″ angle brush. This technique worked well and left a smooth finish.

Tim and Drew are hanging a kitchen fixture. You can see the first coat of paint on the cabinets.

I’m rolling the paint onto the new cabinet faces.

Tim installing the refinished cabinet doors.

Kitchen after two coats of paint. We decided to add the trim to the face of the drawers as well.

The next big project we had to complete before Tim’s parents arrived was the flooring. We chose a laminate that looks like a dark hand-scraped hickory by Evoke. Tim was confident in his flooring installation skills, but had no experience leveling floors. We had a very unlevel particle board sub-floor on top of a layer of plywood, which made it tough. We got several different opinions on how to level the floor, but were still unsure which route would be the best. Finally, Tim decided which one he felt more comfortable with — a self-leveling concrete-based product that you prime, pour, and spread.

Tim working on leveling the floor. We had the biggest dip in the floor near the back door.

All the gray areas are low spots in the floor.

Once the floor was level and dry, we laid down a moisture barrier.

Yeah, flooring, finally! We had to maintain the correct spacing from the walls and make sure the seams were staggered. I laid out the pieces and Tim installed them.

The last few pieces of flooring going in with our neighbor Travis helping.

The morning that Tim’s parents arrived, we had new countertops installed. We got an amazing deal after hunting around the city. We picked a Kashmir White granite because of the look and the price. We still have to put on the finishing touches, but we are getting there!

We moved in some of our furniture and Debbie helped me arrange and rearrange. We had to clean the floor over and over from all the construction dust.

My white kitchen. We have to trim it out, add the cabinet pulls and work on the island, but it is a vast improvement. It’s finally functioning, most importantly.

Dreams Do Come True

Posted by Meredith Andersen in Uncategorized and tagged with break, Christmas, lights, ohio, painting, primer, skiing, textured walls, winter park December 26, 2012

We had all the texture on the walls on Friday, primed the entire house on Saturday and got two coats of paint on the bedroom walls and hallway upstairs. All just in time for a wonderful white Christmas break! We will head to Ohio tomorrow and carpet should be installed while we are gone. We should come back to an almost finished upstairs.

DIY Traveler

Posted by Meredith Andersen in traveling, Uncategorized and tagged with americans, diy, goals, Home, homeless, popcorn ceiling, renovation, renovation photos, sailing season, traveling, wallpaper December 4, 2012

I’m not sure what is more difficult… becoming a sailor or re-entering American society.

The standards of Americans challenge us when we are in the States because we want to feel at home and have all the luxuries we were used to before we decided to travel. So, we have found ourselves at a crossroads between being travelers and just feeling homeless.

How should we continue to travel, yet also have a sense of home and relief from travel. I see travel as a completely different experience than vacationing. “Travel” usually means fewer showers, more street food, language barriers, new forms of transportation and being excited/scared often. Although worth every minute, it can become exhausting. Where do we put up our feet to take a break from this and feel comfortable again?

We are straddling two worlds right now. Do we go back to living comfortably and going on vacations, or do we have a crash pad to stay between countries? We have yet to determine its purpose, but we have bought a little townhome near Denver, Colorado we can call home for now.

Mexico is beckoning, as sailing season is upon us again. We both want so badly to go back to the S/V Luckiest and see the rest of the Sea of Cortez, but we are in the middle of renovations of our new home. We bought a fixer-upper built and decorated in 1974 — the same year as our Cal 35 sailboat. We have a ton of changes to make before we even move in, but we are both excited to see of what we are capable of in the rehab world. After we complete the reno, we will likely be rushing down to La Paz to get a couple of months of sailing in before the season ends. We hope to make it across the sea to the Gold Coast near Puerto Vallarta.

The idea is that we set up American-style lives for part of the year and spend three to six months of the year traveling in different countries. It seems good in theory, so stick around and I will let you know if it works. In the mean time, here are some before shots and renovation photos of our new place.

The before shot of our entry way.

Wallpaper from 1974 covers most of the home’s surfaces including the kitchen. Orange and green flowers and stripes have got to go.

The flower powder room near the kitchen.

Old dirty staircase.

Tim is scraping the popcorn ceiling off. It was a huge mess, but we did it before we moved any furniture in.

We pulled all the carpet up first.

I am pulling the wallpaper off the pantry column in the kitchen, which will be an island.

Tim begins to cut the pantry in half to make an island and a more open concept.

We stacked all of our bigger furniture in the living room while we still renovate. All the wallpaper is off, the ceilings are scraped and the shag carpet is gone.

Pursuing Comfortable Freedom

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