We put the new laminate surface on all the counter tops. We chose a laminate rather than granite due
to the weight and the desire to ensure we kept the practicality of having
fiddle rails on the counters. If we went
with a granite or stone, we were not sure how we would have effectively mounted
fiddle rails on the edges.
After the laminate was down, we installed a shelf under the galley sink
that has an access panel from above for dry storage.
We then veneered all of the lower cabinets in African mahogany. This included the side of the cabinets (one
facing the nav station in the walkthrough the other facing the salon, and all
front drawer and cabinet panels. The
veneer was put in place using not only the Pressure Sensitive Adhesive that it
came with but also the standard contact cement on both surfaces method (like a
laminate). All of the new veneer
received a sanding with 240 grit sandpaper.
This will smooth out the surface, blend in the joints and have a smooth
surface to put a finish on.
The rear wall of the galley was laminated in Teak rather than
Mahogany. We are trying to keep the
bulkhead walls in teak and really like the way it looks For this we removed the Electric Propane
control switch, cleaned the mating surfaces of all dust using a towel dampened
with denatured alchohal. This allows for
a fast drying time and allowed us to then coat both mating surfaces with
contact cement. The new wall was cut out
of a single large piece to fit the unique shape of the rear galley wall.
The
teak panel is 1/8th inch thick and made installing a little bit of a
challenge as you had to cut it with a saw to shape rather than a knife like the
thin veneer. (Tip: When applying contact cement to an area this
large, it was helpful to have 2 people, Deb applied it to the wall and I
applied it to the back of the teak panel, this allowed us to install it when it
just started to get tacky rather than dry.
A new GFCI outlet was installed at the first plug in the wire chain and
mounted back into the face of the pantry.
New wire was run to the ceiling where insulation (3/4” closed cell foam)
panels were installed between the fiberglass and the new pine slat ceiling. The installation of the ceiling always
presents a unique situation in that the roof arches to some extent,
additionally the sides are not square so it starts with a single pine slat run
fore to aft on the center line of the boat.
It then works outward from that so that the angled cuts to align with
the outer curve of the boat can be made.
We have
decided to install all LED lighting
in the boat and wanted to have that light being emitted from the ceiling for
general lighting, and then add reading lights at locations that make
sense. To that end, we mapped out how we
wanted to control the lights for the common central are of the boat (the
Galley, Nav Station, Walkthrough and Salon).
We liked the idea of having control of those lights from a central
location near the companion way. We decided on mounting 6 switches (3 on each
side of the companionway) that each control specifc lighting. For example the 2 most forward switches will
control the led lighting on the salon ceiling lighting on the port and
starboard respectively. The center
switch on each side turns on the general lighting across the galley and
companionway. The next switches back
control either the lights down the walkthrough, and on the port side control
lights to light up the galley including one that shines into the top loading
fridge/freezer unit.
We are pleased with the LED lighting we chose. They have a brushed aluminum finish, are
bright but still a bit warm (not that sterile white from some LED’s) and can
swivel slightly to point in specific directions. They do not each have their own switch on
the base which is why we mounted the bank of switches.
When we were looking for LED lights we considered just getting the
marine fixtures with LED’s in the, however we wanted a little bit more
versatility and selection for our lighting choices. After speaking to some marine LED vendors at
boat shows, I learned that LED’s for marine use are not something special but
are typically the same as the ones that you can buy on line that are not
“marine” specific. Armed with that
information, we decided to look at all LED lighting options. We settled on some LED lights from Ikea that
came with an adapter that went from 110V AC to 12V dc. Because the output of the device included
with the lights was in the 2-4 amp range, we worried a bit about the potential
higher voltage that would be going to the lights. I have ben assured that the lights will only
draw what they draw, regardless of how many amps the supply “can” provide. That said, I suspect that I won’t see the
same life expectancy out of these as someone might on a regulated 2amp output. So in the end, if I lose 25% of the life
expectancy of these, it will still provide some 7500 hours of use. For the money saved and the selection, I am
hoping that I made a good choice. So far
so good but it has only been a couple of months at this point. We will keep some spares on board in the
event we needed to replace these.
Because of that reason we made mounting and replacing them fairly easy
if we need to.
After the veneering, sanding, ceiling, lighting, electrical, etc, the
sanded molding was all wiped down with denatured alcohol and the dry
fitted. Because the new ceiling is a bit
thicker than the old headliner, and because the rear galley bulkhead veneer is
thicker than the original, we knew we would have to slightly modify (trim) some
of the molding. We made those minor
adjustments and reinstalled all of the trim in the galley and along the new
ceiling.
At this point we still have to build a new fridge/freezer lid with the
new counter laminate to match, need to have the compressor serviced (still
can’t believe I dripped water on the control panel when taking the sink out),
fasten the sink and install the new faucet in the galley. The next step from there will be bungs in
all screw holes and varnish as a last step.
