Tag: DIY

Leaf me alone!

I truly enjoy the trees in our yard.  But, there are many of them, and they collectively drop billions and gazillions of leaves every year. Over the last day or two, we raked and scooped up 5 or more trailer-loads of those bad boys – a good workout. Our new pile-o-leaves (and future garden soil):

I can’t complain though. It has been lovely outside. Today the temps were close to 70 degrees F. Thankfully, cedar pollen levels are below the threshold that triggers my allergies. As I sit here, sore and tired, I’m sipping a glass of wine listening to the news guys report on the cold and snowy weather up north. Yeah, I’ll take yard work in the winter in Austin over that any day.

On the move.

This weekend brought Julie back to Texas! 🙂 But, it was only to pack up the contents of a couple of storage units into a U-Haul and head right back to Washington. 😦 She has a great new job up there.

Though I’m sad to see her go, I think Texas has a way of calling one back, after a while, so I’ll keep hoping. Bon voyage! I pray that Mother Nature takes it easy on them over the next few days as they make their way through the mountains.

Demolition.

When we bought our house we spent 3 months updating it before we moved in. Then 10 years ago we lived through a 6 month remodel. It’s time to make dust again! This time we are updating one of our bathrooms. Tile gone. 1980’s era massive 4’x9′ mirror gone. Hideous 12-ton countertop about to be gone. Monte is making new cabinet doors, and sanding and painting the cabinets and doors. One tall cabinet done, and looks great. One long cabinet is next.

Lofty goals.

We brought home the jib from Nirvana. It has several tears and wear that needs some TLC. I’m setting out to mend this 42′ x 17′ triangular mass of Dacron. Who will win? Stay tuned.

Pretty boat.

Over the weekend, we took out Nirvana and Cupholder at the same time.  Monte wanted to get some photos of the catboat underway.  Kurt came along to steer while I stood on the bow and took photos.  The light was lovely, with a slight northerly breeze.

Taking 4 years to build, starting in 2000;  launched in Lake Travis in 2004; heavily sailed and thoroughly enjoyed for years; hauled out in 2012; driven to the coast for its saltwater christening and to sail the weeklong Texas 200 in 2013; lovingly restored over the course of a few more years; relaunched on Lake Travis in 2019.  Monte has taken great pains over the years to keep her looking and sailing like new.  A pretty boat, indeed.  Also, still the best dancefloor on Lake Travis.  🙂

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Companions’ cover.

I think I’m on a roll with this boat canvas thing. I made a companionway cover for Marty & Sue’s boat. I love the color. It’s insulated, with a layer of Reflectix between two layers of marine Sunbrella. Stitching it was a bit like wrestling a bear at times, but my new machine handled it well. 🙂

Simple favors.

I had a nice visit with Laura today.  When she came over, she brought a pair of exercise bands that she wanted made smaller by a couple of inches.  Frankly, I don’t think I could get one of these over both my arms up to my elbows, but Laura can actually put both her legs in these!

I was pleased to see that my awesome new industrial sewing machine could not only sew through layers of this really thick rubber elastic band material like butter, but the machine’s walking foot just stepped right over the 1/4″ thick rubber label along the way.  I’m thrilled at the big and small projects I’m able now able to do.

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Whatever works.

One of the salon cushions on our Catalina 320 tore along a center seam. I tried mending it once and it just tore again, as the fabric had significantly weakened along the seam. I think the material is Ultrafabric Brisa Original (from around 2005).  I haven’t been able to find a color match yet. It’s just as well, though, as the fabric runs around $65/yard. I’m not ready to reupholster the entire set of salon cushions yet. Soooo, what can I use for a temporary fix?

I decided to repurpose a length of Tear-Aid Type-A tape that I originally got to patch a few holes in our Sunbrella bimini skin. It should adhere well to Brisa’s polyester and rayon backing. It’s not supposed to be sewn-through, but I don’t need a waterproof seal. I simply want to use it to patch along the back-side of the rip and to strengthen and reinforce the area around the tear so I can stitch a new seam through it, about 1/4″ in from the tear.

So I gave it a shot… and I’m happy with the repair.   Now I just need to wait and see how long it holds up.  Fingers crossed!

Before:

 

And after…

If you’re interested, here’s a few pics as I tried the fix.

I removed the cover from the inner cushion pieces, and ripped out the old seam on all 3 pieces of fabric involved in the seam.  The alcohol is to clean the Brisa fabric backing, where I want to apply the Tear-Aid.  The hair dryer is to help me flatten out the old folded seam allowance, and also to help dry the backing after I cleaned it.

Both pieces of Brisa are torn along the old seam.  I’ll need to patch both pieces in a similar fashion before trying to sew a new seam.

Tear-Aid says to clean the application area with alcohol and let dry.  As I cleaned the fabric with alcohol, I saw that the backing material was rotted away in places.   So I removed all the non-adhered backing along the tear.  Not sure how it got in this condition.  Maybe something caustic spilled here and weakened the fabric.  Or maybe 15 years is all you can get out of Brisa.

After cleaning and drying the pieces of Brisa, I used scotch tape on the right side (outside) of the tear to hold the edges of the tear together, temporarily.  I’ll remove it after I apply the Tear-Aid to the wrong side (inside) of the torn fabric.

I cut a length of Tear-Aid Type A tape and applied it on the backing-side of the Brisa fabric along the tears.   Tear-Aid recommends leaving an inch of patch around any torn area, but I didn’t have that much of material along the old seam allowance, so I used a smaller piece than they’d probably recommend.

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I removed the scotch tape from the right-side of the pieces of Brisa, and clipped the right-sides of Brisa together to prepare for stitching the new seam.  This time I’ll sew THROUGH the newly applied Tear-Aid, approx 1/4″ in from the tear along the old seam.

Stitching the seam was a bit challenging, as the adhesive from the patch gummed up the needle every 6 inches or so.  But, as long as I cleaned the needle each time with alcohol, it stitched pretty well.  I used a ballpoint (recommended for Brisa) needle, size 16, and V-69 poly thread, and I also found I had to lower my top thread tension.

There you have it.

Cover-up.

My latest canvas-work project… a cover for the grill off the back of the boat.  Voila!

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Making my own pattern was definitely the hardest part.

If Monte stands around too long in one place, I’ll make a cover for him, too!

In the belly of the beast.

I spent today and another day last weekend sitting in the bottom of our port-side lazerette at the stern of the boat. We lost the electronic control unit of our auto helm in a lightening strike at the marina earlier this year. We got off easy; a neighboring boat’s electronics repairs from the same strike is over $80K and counting. Marty gave us a unit that he used to have on their boat. We installed it over the course of the last two weeks. Lots of pulling of cables through tiny stainless steel tubing, making new electric connections, and squeezing into small spaces.

Nirvana’s rudder post. Oh, the places you’ll go…
New black conduit with the 5 cables inside run from the helm back to the new auto helm control unit

Marty and Sue accompanied us on the calibration run. Everything worked! It’s nice to have Otto back.

In the closet.

Two projects on the long to-do list that I made when I retired were:

1) purge 30 years of paperwork and de-crap the rest of the mess in the closet in my office, and

2) create a workspace in my office closet for my projects like sewing, painting, knitting, beading, photo scanning & editing, etc.

I’m ecstatic to report that I’m crossing them both off today!

I didn’t get a truly before pic. But this is a during pic (all this crap previously filled the closet).

And, (drumroll) this is the after pic:

Many thanks to Monte for building and installing my new desk!

Now I just need to shred the boxes of purged papers and documents…

So, sew.

I’m slowly working down my boat sewing project list. I made 5 winch covers for our jib sheet winches, house top winches, and windlass. I used Sailrite’s pattern and instructions as a guide. My takeaway: it is not easy to sew a circle onto a rectangle.

I also replaced our frayed and yucky bimini straps, having to sew a loop and attach the fastener-buckle thingie before installing.

Bring on the next project!

In hot water.

We have been talking about it for quite some time. Today we sprang into action! We replaced an old water heater before it failed and flooded the house.

After two trips to Home Depot (you can never, ever take one trip), draining the old tank, some heavy lifting, and a few choice phrases, we are back in business.

Thanks Sweetie!