iseecerulean

Now I’m comfortable.....will grout this weekend.

I have been patiently and thoughtfully bricking the left wall over the last week and a half...I finished yesterday.

I also built most of the door...I have to stain it, fashion windows, and add a rubber coated bottom.  I have no idea if a “soft” bottom is realistic, but it makes sense to me, as boats will be gliding over it.

The bricked in windows and darker bricks around the door are meant to give the wall history, as if the boathouse door were added some time after the building was completed.  I will play with the color of the grout, as well, to make the darker bricked sections look newer.

You may have noticed the coloration of the bricks darkens at the bottom of the wall.  That is deliberate, as it marks the high tide line, where the bottom of the wall will be wet, and the even darker shadow under the dock.  Something you may not have noticed, since it doesn’t photograph well, are the lintels and sills of the bricked up windows...I will need to paint in some shadows to accentuate their depth.

This is what I mean....

I wish I had done the windows differently.  Now is the time to decide if I want to remove bricks to re-do it....before grout.  I will ponder the situation, but your opinion is welcome.

I faired the planks on the outside of the hull, it required hours of careful sanding.  Once that was done I cut the stems from the strong back and removed the boat from the form.

The inside is very scary, because I botched the planking.  Hopefully I can manage to make something of it without causing irreparable damage.

Holding it up to a light accentuates thin spots.

I plan to sand down the high spots and fill the low spots to finish with a smooth surface.  Wish me luck.

I had a productive day yesterday.  In the morning, while I was waiting for the sun to come out, I covered my computer equipment with a doubled over bedsheet, then cut the base board to prep for a pool.  I added supports, then glued on a bottom.

While that was drying I went to the beach to search for weathered sticks to use as pilings, before the city workers remove the debris.

I came home with several possibilities, zebra mussel shells to crush for substrate, and other bits.

These are not rocks, they are, as far as I can tell, chunks of spray-foam.  I picked up as many as I could find, to discard them properly, though I may end up using some in the build.

The afternoon was spent raking leaves off my flower beds.  It was warm, sunny, quiet, and absolutely lovely outside.  I have more outside chores to do today.

In the evening I penciled in the structural components and put the build into dry fit.  I think I have it all worked out, but need to run through the process in my head a few times to make sure I’m not overlooking something before I resume construction.

I am going to work on the build in three sections: left wall, right wall, and base.  I need to document in my notebook the procedural order for each section, as I think through it.  I also need to clear space for two sections to rest as I work on the third, as only one at a time will fit on the cart I’m using as a temporary work surface.