Progress for this last week of May 2019 was all about finishing the cabinetry for the King bed unit in our Master Cabin.  The focus was on completing the construction of all twelve drawers that make up the large high base, hence this week’s title, as well as finishing the dropped overhead ceiling of the headboard.  My brother Bruce and wife Lyla flew out early Friday morning and my cousin Donna and husband Jamie flew in a few hours later from Doha in Qatar so there are still no vacant rooms at the Hodgins Bed & Breakfast and we are enjoying getting all this extended time with friends and family as we share this fascinating part of the world and all the wonderful people, culture and food.

Right now though, let’s go to bed OK?

For those who might be new to these weekly progress updates on the building of our new home/boat motor vessel mv Möbius, Welcome, and here are some of the early renderings of what the whole bed unit and Master Cabin will look like when completed.  We’ve made a few changes as you’ll see in the real life construction pictures here but the overall layout remains the same.

This is what the King bed and drawer unit will look like when you are standing near the front of the Master Cabin looking aft.  The two wardrobe doors on your left will end up being wood and upholstery rather than glass and all six slots at the end of the bed will be drawers but most else stays the same. 

You’ll note some steps to get up to the raised floor on the right/Port side of the bed to make it easy for Christine and Barney to get up and down from there and making the bed easier. 

Stepping a bit further back and looking down the centerline of the boat you can see part of the Washer & Dryer cupboard doors on the left and the etched glass cornered walls of the shower on the right.
Moving over to those steps and looking across the end of the bed towards the Starboard hull shows the large bureau of drawers with the 3D Möbius strip sculpture floating in the space above and the other full height wardrobe by the entrance door in the far right corner.
Standing just inside that entrance door on the other side of the bed looking forward gives you a good look at that glass cornered shower with the adjoining toilet forward and the Vanity sink outside at the very front.
Jumping back into reality and forward to the end of the week here is what the real Rosewood bed unit looked like.  I will rewind the clock to Monday morning now (May 27) and we can watch the progress of getting to this point.
I am holding one side of the very slick drawer slide hardware we will be using for all the drawers throughout the boat.  These are the latest version soft close bottom mount drawer slides from Blum hardware, which makes the highest quality drawer slides I know of.  Once the drawers are in place it all becomes invisible and they glide open and close like silk.
The drawers sit on top of the left rail you can see with the little finger clip you can barely make out at the far end (click to enlarge any photo) and that light grey cylinder on the right is part of the incredibly smart open/close mechanism.  When you go to open the drawers there is a spring loaded resistance for the first 50mm/2’ or so before the magnetic latch releases and the drawer slides smoothly open as far as you like in a two stage extension.  Then a light push and they slide forward till the magnet catches it and slowly closes the rest of the way and holds it tightly closed.  Perfect setup to keep all the doors closed as the boat tilts and rolls at anchor.  We then have additional latches to mechanically lock the drawers closed whenever we are on passage and the boat’s movement an become more pronounced.  They’re expensive but they are SO worth it for the smile they put on our face every time we open or close them.
Moving on to the construction of the drawers themselves, this is a stack of some of the drawer carcass sides fresh out of the veneer press after their solid Rosewood edging had been glued in place.
Selim uses this random orbital sander to smooth and flatten the drawer sides while they are easy to get at before being glued together into a complete drawer carcass or box.
Upper solid edges of the four drawer sides are rounded over and then …..
…. each matched set of drawer sides are set in their respective drawer slots under the bed ready to be fitted and glued up.
With dados/grooves and biscuits cut for the corner joints and for the drawer bottoms to slide into, Omur checks that the diagonals are equal as the best way to ensure the drawers are being glued up exactly square while Selim stands ready to clean up any glue squeeze out before it dries.
Looking at the rounded top edges of the drawer shows how the back side is set a bit lower to allow air to easily move in and out as the drawer is opened and closed.
With the drawer sides all glued up and drying, attention turns to the individual drawer fronts, seen here with their solid Rosewood edging mitre glued in place.
Before taking them over to the veneer press Omur carefully fits each drawer front so they all have the same 3mm space around them using 3mm thick shims, two of which you can see sitting atop the bottom drawer here.

Glued up drawer boxes wait patiently on the left to receive their drawer bottoms and then have the front faces attached.
Using 3mm spacers he trims each drawer front to final size.  Our eyes are very good at noticing the slightest variation in such thin slots such as between each drawer front so this requires great care and attention to get them perfectly parallel and evenly spaced.
Once each drawer front has been trimmed to final size they head off to the veneer press to have both front and back covered in matching Rosewood and once dry every corner edge is rounded over with an 8mm radius and they are ready for their final fitting.
The drawer faces are taped in place so they don’t fall out as this is all part of the dry fitting before all these parts are finish sanded and ready to head off to the finishing shop where they will be varnished and buffed to a beautiful matte finish and then assembled onboard.
If you spotted this black strip in the photo above and wondered what it was for, this is a sample of the thin coloured strip that will form the “Horizon Line” I’ve described in previous posts which will flow horizontally throughout all the cabins in the boat.  This is just a sample for fitting purposes and the final strips will be a random swirling pattern of aqua marine blues and greens to simulate the water and waves which make up the horizon line that usually surrounds us around all 360 degrees of view when we are anchored in the remote locations we most often favor.
Lest the drawers get all the attention this week, Omur and Selim also spent time finishing the dropped ceiling that sits directly overtop the head of the bed.  We have dropped it down a bit further than in the renderings above but same basic layout. 
With the 15mm / 5/8” plywood bottom of the dropped ceiling box glued in place the Rosewood edges are all radiused and prepped……
…… the ends are have their locator dowel pins installed and biscuit slots cut ready to be fitted into the headboard and vertical side posts…….
….. and temporary braces are clamped in place to do the final fitting of the dropped ceiling to headboard joints.
All this attention to detail will seem over the top to some perhaps but not to us when our eyes behold results like this! 

As your eyes naturally follow the grain patterns in each piece note how they have all been carefully chosen and aligned both vertically and horizontally to be a continuous matching flow of the original grain of the individual tree these were cut from.
We had a new four legged visitor at Naval Yachts this past week when Hakan our CAD Cabinetry detailer brought his super cute puppy “Sheila” to work with him.  This photo will also allow me to introduce one of the newest members to join Naval and Team Möbius.
Please meet Yesim who is our lead Interior Designer and master of 3DMax software which she uses to turn Christine and my visions into fully rendered masterpieces which Hakan can then use to create all the detailed joinery which in turn goes over to Omur and all the others in the Cabinetry shop for them to build things like the bed unit we’ve been featuring this week.
Speaking of Omur and Selim, no rest for them as they quickly moved from working on the bed to starting to create the panels for all the other cabinetry in the Master Cabin which you see in the renderings at the beginning of this post.

Hot off the veneer press they peel the veneering tape that holds each adjoining edge of veneer in place while it is being glued to the plywood panel.
Here are the first sets of veneered panels stacked up against the bed unit ready to be trimmed and cut to shape for things like the wardrobes and other cabinetry in the Master Cabin.

Those candle flame like parts of these panels are the matching portions of the natural grain at the transition between heartwood and sapwood of the Rosewood tree.

You will be seeing much more of this as we watch all this other cabinetry take shape.

Not likely too exciting to most of you but sure is to us as more and more materials and equipment start to arrive for the many systems that are about to be installed in Möbius. 

This pile is a small portion of the hoses that will be used to plumb the fresh and potable water systems.  The coils of blue and red hose are PEX 15mm tubing that will be used for all the hot and cold water runs to sinks, showers, toilets and bidets and also used for all the hydronic heated floor circuits that run through all the floors in each of the three cabins to keep us toasty warm and comfy in all the high latitude locations we want to explore.

Here is another pile of recent arrivals, this being some of the many diaphragm bilge pumps, domestic water pumps, ball valves, strainers, etc.
I will close out this week’s progress update with this shot of the Port side of the Master Cabin bed unit which really shows off the full spectrum of grain and colours in the beautiful Rosewood you will soon see throughout the interior of Möbius.  Go ahead, click to enlarge, you know you want to!

Eye of the beholder always applies of course and this makes my and Christine’s eyes sparkle with excited anticipation of being surrounded by this natural beauty every day we will be living aboard our newest floating home and magic carpet ride around the world.

This coming first week of June is a big national holiday following the end of this year’s Ramadan.  The month of daily fasting ends on Monday and Eid al-Fitr 2019 officially begins on Tuesday, June 4th so all of us on Team Möbius are all going to take advantage of this opportunity to get a few days of much needed R&R this week.  I may put together a post here if I have time as there are several topics I’m meaning to discuss and share and then I’ll get back to the next weekly progress update in about two weeks.

We hope you too are enjoying the start of summer here in the Northern hemisphere and that our southern hemisphere friends and family are staying warm and enjoying the change into winter down there as well.

Whatever part of this awemazing planet you find yourself, thanks so much for taking the time to join us on this latest adventure and be sure to add your questions, suggestions and ideas in the “Join the Discussion” box below.