DIYers Never Really Retire

Recently Bill mentioned that after 40 years of home ownership and maintenance he was so ready for this move to our boat. Major improvements to four homes, inside and out, left him a bit weary of non-stop DIY challenges. But, as you know, Bill isn’t one to take a well-deserved rest. He has consistently looked for opportunities to modify our living quarters on Pure Grace. Although most of the improvements have focused around storage, including a clever five-bottle wine rack in the entertainment console, he recently engineered a well-fitting and good-looking solution to our screen-less aft door (below).

Harbormaster, a premiere builder of river yachts, provided a standard screen door for the forward starboard side entrance. But to enjoy fresh air circulating, the odd L-shaped aft cabin door had to be left open. Over the years I’ve battled dirt, dust, pollen and, of course, stink bugs in the cabin but could put up with it for boating weekends in Pittsburgh half a year at a time. Now that we live in an area of the country which has more (and bigger) bugs, I wasn’t looking forward to waging continual war. The addition of our cat, Alfie, was a more compelling reason to find a solution. Alfie’s former owner had his front paws declawed so he would be somewhat defenseless outdoors.

After much pondering and sketching, and a trial run with off-the-shelf screens, Bill worked out a simple two-part screen that can be easily put up and taken down. Although it doesn’t allow for egress from the salon while installed, it’s easy enough to take the external stairs up and down to our aft deck. Velcro straps hold the smaller top screen and larger vertical screen tight to the frame of the open aft door.