We've now been in Trinidad for more than 2 weeks longer than we originally anticipated. The good news is that we're almost done with all our planned work items. Part of the delay concerned the replacing of our refrigerator. We had this work done by three great guys in Power Boats boatyard. They are Tony, Amos & Darian of Perfect Finishes. They had committed to work on another boat and as so often happens, that took a bit longer than originally anticipated due to unforeseen circumstances with the original boat construction.
We had decided to buy a new, upright 12V refrigerator & have it installed where the original had been. Unfortunately, this was going to take out a cabinet where we stored all our dishes, bowls & glasses. So they first built a custom cabinet to replace the one being lost.
Here's where the new cabinet is going. We had a microwave here, but only used it 2-3 times a year because of the huge power draw.
And here's a shot of the old refrigerator and cabinet being replaced.
Here, the old fridge has been partially cut out to fit the new one. The foam insulation around the edges was wet! That's why we were getting condensation on the outside walls of the fridge! They took out a couple inches of the foam & filled it with an epoxy mixture to give some regidity to the new installation.
The new refrigerator installed and ready to be enclosed and made to look good.
The new cabinet installed and ready for use. One problem they had was that nothing was really square or entirely level, so they had to custom design the cabinet to look good rather than be perfectly square. One example is the edge along the doorway (to the front cabin). If they had built it square with the cabinet, it would have not been parallel to the door edge.
The refrigerator installation completed with a cabinet enclosing it.
The top photo shows the completed installations. We now have a refrigerator that works and even has a small freezer. I need here to give a BIG thanks to my mom - Helen Lehnertz - who helped tremendously with this project through her delightful Christmas present to us.