I’ve been so focused on writing all the posts for the A-Z challenge I almost forgot to post the update on the aft cabin.

We’ve made considerable headway! Take a look at what we’ve done so far: 

We are pretty stoked about how it’s turning out. This has given us considerably more room in terms of the berth, and has not cut down on walking area at all. The sole actually curves up, if you can tell that, under the extension on the right, meaning that we couldn’t stand there anyhow. And there is obviously a shelf under the middle part. We aren’t going to miss that area at all because even though it had a cushion for seating, neither of us ever sat there. It was actually wasted space. Now it’s a good place to store shoes, which is kind of what we used it for anyway.

To save the access to that middle space, Mike wanted to avoid putting in a mid-span support piece. But the edge needed more support to be really structurally sound. So he added an aluminum angle iron to the edge and it worked out great! The whole thing is very sturdy. Here are a couple of details of the underneath part. 

We still need to put the trim back on and make a decision about the mattress. That process has been stalled because I got completely overwhelmed with the number of options and had to take a step back. I got a bid for a custom mattress. The bid was $3700, and that’s with the cheapest options. Um. Hmmmm.  I want a new Strong Track for the mast, and we probably need to have the mainsail looked at, and, well, I just couldn’t pull the trigger on it. I think I can get comfort for less than that.

So I looked at the mattresses at Ikea and, of course, fell in love with their natural latex mattress. Because of the odd shapes involved, we would need a king size mattress, plus a double mattress. So that’s a lot of mattress. All told, that would be around $2000, plus I have to do the cutting and sewing. Okay, I might be able to do that and save about $2000.

There are also cheap memory foam mattresses at Amazon and even at Walmart. But frankly, I’ve learned that if a price is too good to be true, there is probably a reason for that and I don’t really want to buy something without trying it for the purpose we have here.

Then there’s the natural latex mattress topper Ikea has. It is very luxurious and what if we got our local foam and upholstery place to make us a good foam mattress, and then put this on top, then covered the whole thing? Would that bring the cost down even further? Would that be comfortable enough?

So because this is a big investment and critical to my happiness living aboard, we decided to ‘press pause’ on the aft cabin and do the V berth cabin first so we could try that idea in a less critical place. That foam needed replacing, too.  This photo shows how we set that cabin up during our cruise this summer. We could lounge in there and watch DVD’s when it was raining outside.

So I took the old foam down to Tacoma Foam and Fabric, and we will pick up the new foam on Saturday. I found upholstery fabric on sale for $2.99/yard. Yes, you read that correctly. I know how to find a good deal and I’m open to color and pattern. That’s how I found the Galapagos fabric. All I cared about was that it look good with that pattern we already have.

We’ll pick up the new foam mattress on Saturday and try it out in the v berth. I’ll buy a latex topper and we’ll give it a spin. Then if that works, we’ll do the same thing in the aft cabin. I think we may be on a roll here.

Here’s your link to the next episode of the Aft Cabin Remodel.

Update on the Sugru repair: holding strong!