Work Day 11 - August 6, 2011

OH MY GOODNESS! Semper Fi looks AWESOME!! She is absolutely loud and proud today with her new striping and her USMC emblems! And check out the back railing and Lance's ribbon bar! Stylin' and profilin'!! We also picked up the engine cover. Lance did a fantastic job of building a new cover and Junior at Classic Upholstery did a superb job of matching the dress blue slacks for the cover design. Joel with Texas Sign Guys created the detail stripes, the USMC seals and the "Semper Fi" logos next to the doors. On hiccup was the the vessel name logo that Joel created was in the wrong font. He is fixing and we should have that installed in the next two weeks. Can you believe how different she looks? I am just amazed. Also, check out the rear engine cover with the embroidered USMC Emblem. She just looks sharp. We also installed the rear vents, two cup holders on the engine cover and the deck gas fill nozzle cap which technically isn't on the deck but on the side of the boat. Take a peek at the video.....you won't believe how great she looks! Thank you Joel for an AWESOME job!!!

Work Day 10 - July 31, 2011

Nuts, nuts and more NUTS! And bolts, too :) Today was the day that we worked for several hours drilling holes and bolting on the railings so that next weekend we con install the stipe details to Semper Fi. She was all tight and ship shape when we finished about 3:oo pm, just in time to head inside to cool down and have some dinner and frosty beverages. Can't wait for next weekend when we finally get to add some artwork to her clean palate!

July 20, 2011 Update

There have been several people who have asked for updates on the boat construction. There has not been a lot of manual labor going on right now. We had a friend of my nephew, Joel, come by and give us a quote for the vinyl for the boat. We should be starting that project in another week. The engine cover should be completed by next week and we will install that when received. We have not started the console yet but I have a feeling that will begin tonight :) After we have completed the console, we will have Veada ship the bimini top and we will install. Seats should be in around August 18th. So far, so good :) All we have to do is pick out those two fishing chairs up front for the men. We are definately at a slower pace right now but as soon as the engine cover and console are finished and installed, I imagine Lance will be taking Semper Fi out for her first test drive. WOO HOO!!!!

Work Day 9 - July 10, 2011

It's ALIVE!! HAAAhhhhHAAAHhhhAAAAhhhahha! Oh my GOODNESS! Semper Fi is looking GOOD! :) She has beautiful new blue carpet, the rails and panels are all painted and installed and all three doors open! LOL! What a day. Hotter than heck and pulling tape off all the rails (thank you Nora!!) and drilling holes and lining up all of the holes on the railings and the deck trim caps. It took all of this morning to align and drill holes, about two hours to lay the carpet, we used Contact Cement, and then we took about an hour break. Nora made an awesome chicken dish and then back out to pull off tape and paper from the rails and panels and line up with our drilled holes. We used new spacers that were much larger than the ones we pulled off the boat during demolition. I really like it higher, and nice new stainless steel screws. She looks like a boat:) Can't wait to get our engine cover back from Junior at Classic Upholstery and get our seats from Veada. Next week will be building the console. It is coming together very nicely! We have a quote coming in from Texas Sign Guys, a friend of our nephew, for the vinyl. Hopefully we will have a good quote and be able to get that all together, too! Although we have vacation this week, we worked soooooooo hard. I am tuckered out and look forward to getting back to the office! :)

Deja Vu! July 9, 2011

Well, not much to talk about for today except more of what we did on July 8th. Second and final coat on the panels. Looking good :) We received our vinyl from Veada and took the engine cover (all three pieces) to Junior at Classic Upholstery. Loaded up the railings and panels so we could take out to the pontoon tomorrow. Rested up after a week of very hard labor and scorching temps! More tomorrow!!!

Work Day 8 - July 7, 2011

It was a long, long, llllllloooonnnngggggggg day. Bright and early this morning we got up and started taping off railings for the big paint job. 2 rolls of tape later and only 3 rails done, I stepped out to go to lunch with all of the girls from the office. Lance broke for lunch and ran an errand....sneaky guy....I was hoping that I wouldn't have to come back and tape. Silly me! Back I came and picked up where we left off...tape...paper....tape....paper. I went to doc visit and Lance went to pick up more tape. No, really, more tape. So now we are 4 rolls into taping....big rolls....but we are getting close. Hey, it's only about 8:30 pm so we broke for dinner, cooled off and relaxed for about an hour. Now it was time to do quality control check on all of our work - the more time you spend on taping, the less you care about how well you covered :) We fixed a few "oversights" and got out the cans. Dupli-Color Olympic White. Ahhhhh, it just sounds bright and clean :) It took about an hour and a half (maybe more) and 9 cans to cover just one coat on all of the panels. WHEW! It was about 11pm when we finally got the garage aired out enough to close it down for the night. We have to find more cans of paint since we used all we had so that sounds like a morning project to me!! I outta here!! P.S. - There is an ugly rumor going around that tomorrow might be carpet installation day. Not sure since we didn't actually finish painting today but for sure on Saturday. Then we can install rails and I might be able to give you an idea of what this boat is really going to look like!!!

Work Day 7 - July 6, 2011

We started at daybreak today hoping to get a lot more done during the cooler hours. We had a fun filled morning of scraping, sanding and power washing the rails and panels. Yep folks....that was our day. And my arms feel it! :) Every square inch of the rails and panels have been scraped, any adhesive removed, acid washed, sanded and pressure washed!! WOO HOO!! We took a mid-day break and ran to Willis to order the binnacle shifter and ran back to West Marine to pick up the vents for the engine cover. Albert with West Marine was a great help and even let us know that the speakers we were drooling over go on sale the 14th! Thanks Albert! Afterwards, it was back to sanding and pressure washing. Everything is ready for masking and painting tomorrow. We got through right before the sky fell open with some major wind and rain for about a whole 5 minutes! Just enough to make it really good and muggy :) I'll take the rain, though. We need it! Lance will be working solo for part of the day tomorrow as I have a lunch date with the girls at the office and a doctors appointment later in the afternoon. By the way, we are looking for 2 missing gallons of marine carpet glue that was sent out about two weeks ago so, if anyone sees them..........