I’m pleased to report there’s been more than a bit of progress on the interior fit-out of Odin over the last 2 months.
We now have a new kitchen with actual storage (hooray!), a bathroom with room to spread one’s arms out (incredible! – for a boat) and a new bedroom with an actual bed and storage (whoo hoo!). Oh yeah, and we’re expecting a baby in approximately a week and a bit (eeeeep!).
In February we realised that in order finish the major boat works, continue working full time and have ANY chance whatsoever of completing it in time for baby’s appearance, we’d need some help from the professionals.
A neighbour recently used a really impressive company called UK Floating Homes to complete her new boat fit-out. With a quick recommendation and a dash of scheduling serendipity, we had a team on the boat making the magic happen less than two weeks after making the enquiry. Bam.
We’re still finishing off those all important details, but I’d love to take you on a little picture-tour of progress. We couldn’t be happier with the new layout.
The Kitchen
In a last minute change of design, we moved the kitchen next to the main entrance stairs.Kitchen storage! Finally! These shelves pull all the way out for easy access at the back.Every little inch of space is utilised for storage. We placed drawers under each unit plinth (normally enclosed with kick-boards) and this special deep one for pots and pans.We’re cooking-up a design for this space to the right of the fridge… Something that will transform into a desk or additional seating and baby chill-out area.Looking down towards the bathroom, we still have some filling and painting to finish. The Sofa is clearly oversized for the space now, so will eventually be replaced with a custom storage sofa-bed.
The Bathroom
These cavity sliding doors separate the living area, walk-though bathroom and bedroom. I’m cooking up a plan to wallpaper them with something fun.To the right (starboard) side of the bathroom, we have a tiiiiny little bath, perfect for a little person and ample for a shower. A door under the bath gives us some more storage.To the left of the bathroom, we keep the cassette toilet, a storage mirror and a basin. We’re still considering a fully composting loo, but this is doing the job right now.
The Bedroom
The biggest, comfiest, most important improvement is our bed and bedroom. Although this cot-bed is pretty big, we preferred buying one thing that will last baby for years to come. I breathed a sigh of relief the day I snapped this picture and realised we were finally ready for our baby’s appearance. Neat and abundant storage is a wonderful thing and gas lift beds are such a help in a small space! We have a space under the bed on either side for clothes, plus a top-accessed compartment on each side that stores our chargers, letters and other nik-naks. Having done the hard work to scale back our possessions a few years ago, this amount of storage feels luxurious. Once you start simplifying, you notice how much more you can do. I think we can do a lot better actually.I use this little Ikea storage unit and seat as a step to help me onto the bed, and we also keep extra bedding and towels folded away in the drawer.
The baby
Pictured here next to my bump is the baby’s ‘tall boy’ storage. This is another Ikea unit that has 2 deep drawers and a larger shelved area on top. I recently filled it with nappies, onesies and other baby essentials. I’m on a mission to be a minimal mama, wish me luck!
Just like last year, a pair of Canada Geese have nested right next to our boat. It takes about 25-30 days for their little goslings to hatch so by my calculations, we should be meeting our little ones at about the same time. Uncanny really!
The never-ending list
Jobs still on the list: fitting-out the seating area on our rear deck (my wonderfully handy Dad is due to help with this when he visits in June); more filling and painting; wallpapering the new cavity sliding doors; adding curtains in the bedroom (my wonderfully handy Mum sewed and sent these over from Australia)… and a billion other details.
Also on the list: working out whether boat life suits newborn babies. Please cross everything for us!
Exactly Barry! It’s good to put some constraints on what you own… Putting some thought into what you need initially, then adopting a ‘1 in, 1 out’ system helps. But like I said, I think we can do WAY better. We still have a few things in storage we need to ditch too.
Boatmaison 
The detail is amazing.
Well done to you both. Odin looks great. X
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Looks amazing! 💥 I love how brutal you have to be with every single possession – everything must have to work so hard not to be binned..
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Exactly Barry! It’s good to put some constraints on what you own… Putting some thought into what you need initially, then adopting a ‘1 in, 1 out’ system helps. But like I said, I think we can do WAY better. We still have a few things in storage we need to ditch too.
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Wow. Looks amazing. And I love all the creative storage ideas. That bed is fabulous! Bubs will love it, too ❤
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Thanks Charisse, I hope bubs will be happy here! Storage is sooooo important on boats, as is not filling it with too many things x
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