12/16/09 Preparing for Christmas

Walk down any street and you are sure to hear the sounds of the Christmas season. On Hillside Avenue, it is no different...

Ok, maybe just a little different. Around here, the sound of a box-fan thrums the baseline of the Little Drummer Boy as it draws the dust out the second floor window. The heat-gun tone, easily mistaken for the sound of a choir plaintively urges paint from a bathroom door jamb.

Wait! Was that the sound of the traditional nut-cracker, or the sound of discarded wood trim being broken and compacted into the trash barrel? Perhaps that isn't the whirring of a high speed drill mixing the thin-set mortar... only a mixer making spice cookies?

I know which one I would bet on....

Around here, the preparation for Christmas means bringing active home-improvement projects to a state where house guests are no longer in danger of plunging through the floor at any moment. Or frequently providing basic services such as: running water in kitchens and bathrooms, the ability to cook food, heat....

This Christmas is no different. One of the basic, but important, services that we offer our friends and family here at Casa Grande su Mer, is the ability to sleep in a bed in a room, and this year we are in a race-condition....

I have been renovating the en-suite bathroom of the Guest-room in order to make the house just that much more attractive. (funny how I thought that the wall-safe was a selling-point, and the lack of a combination for it only provided endless hours of entertainment for a person of moderate curiosity)

So at this moment the bedroom isn't, and the bathroom won't. Yesterday, the tile was completed, and I have the last coat on the sheetrock... Today, Paint and Trim. It's only Wednesday, and mom won't be here until 2:00 Saturday...

Plenty of time.... Right?

Well, I guess that is about all the time I have right now. I had better start the choir...

12/13/09 Decision Made?

Sue and I are looking for a boat. We used to say that we were looking for "the" boat.

Recently, things have changed. Until October 2008, we were both employed by Pfizer pharmaceuticals. Pfizer had been doing a lot of restructuring in the prior 3-5 years, and both of our management jobs were becoming less satisfying. So we opted to take a separation package from the company and use that money, plus the proceeds from the sale of our lovely home to fund the retirement. By retirement, I should say the lengthy sabbatical were had been planning aboard the sailboat that we were going to purchase.

Unfortunately, a funny thing happened to the plan... and the economy.

One year later, and Sue and I have not sold the house, and now we find that we may not be able to sell for a while.

The initial thinking was that we would purchase a boat similar to ones owned by friends that were doing long-distance and live-aboard cruising. Sue and I had helped do deliveries onboats from Bermuda to CT aboard a Hylas 49, and from New Jersey to St. Maartin aboard a Caliber 47. Both very modern, reliable, sea-kindly and voluminous long-distance cruisers. And both with price tags in the mid $300 thousands.... for a good used boat.

Realizing that we may never get this chance again, we have decided to look at older but tried-an-true designs, that are a bit smaller, and therefor a quite a bit less expensive. Over the last 2 months, we have looked at boats in Rhode Island:
Bristol 45.5
Hans Christian 38 ...

and in Florida:
Kelley Peterson 46 ,
Bristol 45.5 ,
Moody: 47,
Gulfstar 46,
Brewer 44,
Hylas 49

There were a couple gems in here, the Brewer (too expensive for us...), the Hans Christian (too small, and Sue thinks it looks like a Pirate ship!), and the Kelley Peterson... Just a little dated on the interior, but in excellent mechanical shape. Unfortunately, the others, had some issues that I won't go into...

I'd pretty much go on whatever, because I will end up having to do work on any one of them anyway... That is what cruising is... "Fixing your boat in exotic locations". However, Sue has been the driving force in picking out the boat. And now she thinks that she has picked it... I'll give you a hint for now, but I don't want to spill the beans in the event that one of you are looking for "the" boat as well. She is a classic 40 footer, built in Taiwan...

So Sue has found it, but we won't be able to execute on it until March, so I still have time to do work on the house for a bit... I'll post more on the house renovation, and on the boat selection in the coming days, weeks, and then hopefully I can post on the trip. I hope you are as excited about it as I am. :)