The Makita Lifestyle

Hours invested to date: 12

As I look around my home, I realize that I am having a difficult time resisting the temptation of working on the boat. My mind races with all of the possible future adventures that await us. Emily has written the blog thus far and keeps saying, “Kayleen, you need to write something.” In my sarcastic style, I respond, “Something” – more frequently in the form of a question. 

Yesterday, Emily enjoyed a day of boating with the family who loves her, in spite of her addiction to this vessel commonly referred to as “The Boat in the Woods." With her out of town, I only spent three hours sanding on the boat yesterday afternoon. The side rails, from aft of the bracket for the side windows to the stern were heavily varnished and appeared to be in fairly good shape. I sanded them with my new Makita random orbital sander (a gift from my husband, Jeff), rounding the edges as I sanded.  They are bright and beautiful. I also started sanding the trim piece around the bow. It is not in as good of shape and may need replacing. 

An “ah ha” moment occurred when we realized that the board that runs the width of the boat forward of the transom was actually the backrest to an original bench seat. I was able to finish sanding the forward facing side and the top edge.

The small pieces of wood on the bow forming the chevron pattern do not sit level with the longboards. When I look at the beautiful bow, I am instantly drawn to the difference. We will need to look to make sure that if I sand that area down, we won’t lose structural strength.

The windshield trim base brackets were also sanded on the outer side. We had waited to sand these as they seemed a little weak and we thought we may need to replace them.  The boat had dried out enough so I gave them some attention.  There were some very rough areas where sanding or sawing had been done before leaving some relatively deep scarring of the wood. I was able to get the majority of those scars sanded out.  

I don’t always feel like the accomplishments are great, but when I step back and look at the before and after pictures, I am amazed with how much we have been able to do since Wednesday night – while still maintaining our daytime jobs and life. For the record, Emily could not keep her eyes off of this boat from the moment we saw it.  I would have never attempted a project like this without the expertise of the girl who grew up hanging out in marinas.