Happy One Year, Casa Crustante! A Year in Review.

Today marks ONE YEAR since moving into our little Casa Crustante.   It took us 80 days of renovation to make this little home habitable, along with plenty of tears, a mountain of paperwork, and gallons of alcoholic beverages.

It looked like this:

With a shed like this:

An interior like this:

Then we gutted it.  Seriously gutted it.

But soon, the transformation was complete.  Our little foreclosed house evolved.  

The shed transformed into something less hideous:

The kitchen ended up being something worth cooking in:

Once we moved in, the momentum continued.  A chicken coop was started.

 And finished.

Baby chicks were hatched.

Those chicks quickly grew up.

A corgi was added to the family.

A boat started.

Not a bad first year of home ownership.  Onwards!

Honoring Nicola Tesla.

So, if you're friends with me on Google+ or on twitter, you know I've been spamming your feed with Nicola Tesla fundraising info.  Sorry about that.   Actually, no, not sorry at all.

Did you know that there's a non-profit that is attempting to buy the land that Tesla worked on to create a museum in his honor?  True story. 

Tesla's final laboratory is located in the sleepy town of Shoreham, New York.  It's known as Wardenclyffe and it's where Tesla attempted to build a tower that would provide free wireless energy to the entire earth. Unfortunately, Tesla lost his funding before the project was completed and in 1917 the Wardenclyffe tower was demolished.  Subsequently, the land was sold to a film and paper manufacturer.

However, the land, laboratory, and foundation beneath the tower are still there and very recently went up for sale. And right now a non-profit is trying to buy the property and turn it into a Nikola Tesla Museum. The property is listed at $1.6 million, and this non-profit has received a matching grant from New York State of up to $850k.  This means that if we can raise $850k, New York State will match us for that same amount -- putting the total raised at $1.7 million.

More info here. 

As of this post, the fundraiser is OVER HALFWAY THERE! This can be a reality, and I think it's a beautiful way to honor his memory and accomplishments.

New Blog for Boat Building Related Stuff!

Remember how I said I wanted to keep everything on one blog?

I lied.

Well, not intentionally.  It's just that this boat is taking over my world in such a way that it's eclipsing everything else in my life.

And at this point, I want to post about other things occasionally, but I feel almost guilty to those of you who are trekking across the internet to read about my Scamp to do so.

So, I did some searching, and found that the domain buildingasailboat.com, was available.  It was too perfect to pass up.  I bought it, and now my boat building adventures and everything that is associated with it will have a dedicated home.

Yes, I will continue to update this page occasionally with boat stuff, but I'm hoping to start talking about other things in life too.  Like the AMAZING handbag I just bought,  and how massive my turnips in my raised bed garden are getting.  

If you don't want to update your links, I understand!   The button on the top of my page will shuttle you over to the new blog.

In other news, I SAILED ON A SCAMP YESTERDAY! And it was fantastic.  There is something remarkable about this boat, and I'm so glad that I've picked this design. 

Cross section of Scarf Joint.

Check out this cross section of the scarf joint:

That West System Scarffer is nice.  I'm sure I could have managed a rough scarf with a block plane, but I doubt the plywood layers would have lined up as nicely as this.  Good day so far!

31st Anniversary of the NW School of Wooden Boatbuilding

Today was the 31st anniversary of the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding.

Photo stolen from my husband.

Not only did we have a chance to visit their beautiful school, but we also had the chance to ogle SCAMP #1 AND meet the designer, John Welsford.

The first time I saw a photo of a SCAMP I laughed.  She wasn't, or so I thought, what I was looking for.  But then, I saw her in motion.  Such purpose.  Such intent.  And in my heart I knew, absolutely, that'd she'd be perfect for us. 

 Sigh. 

Enough waxing poetically. Progress update!

Centerboard lead has been epoxied in place (6x6" pieces, each 3/32" thick, 14lbs worth).  My centerboard now weighs a little over 30lbs, not including the final fiberglass sheath. 

Hole cut out:

14lbs of lead, in place.

1/4"  Meranti cap (I thought it'd save on epoxy and that it'd result in surface that's easier to sand).

 

And three bulkheads and the stem have been epoxied.

And I've finally gotten around to scarffing together my hull bottom  I'll be cutting it out and epoxying it first thing tomorrow!

I've done the remaining steps in my head, and I'm beginning to realize that I may have a 3D boat sooner than I think.  Everything required to start a boat-like shape should be done by next Saturday.   Excited doesn't even begin to explain it.

So, does the above bulkhead remind you of George Carlin, or of Mr. Mackey?

Epoxy Coating Initiated.

I haven't posted about the boat because there simply hasn't been much to post.  I've been plinking away, one day at a time, on a variety of uninspiring boat related things.

Right now I've got one side of three bulkheads and the stem epoxied.  I'm amazed, quite frankly, by how many insects feel inspired to die on a resin coated piece of plywood.  I can't help but feel that someday, when the majority of life on earth has been snuffed out, a technologically advanced species will be able to use my boat's insect-glued bulkheads to recreate what the Pacific Northwest was like in the 21st century.

Also, I have a hard time NOT whisking the epoxy.  By the time I realized what I was doing I had introduced so many bubbles that the first bulkhead I coated looked like a rough interpretation of Starry Night.

So, yeah, don't do that.

Oy.


Onwards!