It’s been a while since we took the boat up for brokerage.
You can read our final trip entry here.
Since then, we have been up a couple of times to run the engine, and there has been some interest, so we are hopeful that our ship will come in before too long sotospeak.
It was a challenge adapting from bricks and mortar to aluminium and water three years ago but it is a chapter in our lives we will not forget or regret.
Now we find ourselves adapting back to property.
The house of course is huge compared to the boat, but we did housesit here for seven weeks in 2015 so we know more or less how things work and where things are.
Hubs is doing some little jobs around the house, so we are breaking ourselves in gently.
It took a while to get used to another set of ‘normal’ noises and the passing traffic, however, we cannot get used to the amazing heat that accumulates in the conservatory, even with all the doors and windows open.
Night times can be stuffy and I usually end up sleeping on top of the covers. If we were still on the boat though, with this heat it could be even worse.
It is nice to be able to have a shower without having to get dressed and walk ¼ of a mile each way, or bang your elbow and struggle trying to get dressed in the confined space.
We also don’t have to worry about filling up with fresh water or emptying the loo every couple of days.
Cooking-wise, I have access to a full cooker, hob and microwave (as I did on the boat actually), a toaster and freezer.
No washing line though.
There is a programme on TV called ‘Under the Hammer’ which is about properties bought at auction.
We explored this route when selling our cottage in Lincolnshire and also discounted it to buy due to additional costs as a successful bidder which would put an even bigger dent in the limited funds we’d have available.
However, some of the properties purchased are, for want of a better word, DISASTERS and although Hubby and I aren’t afraid to turn our hand at a bit of DIY, most of the projects would be beyond us for the properties we could afford.
We have always been lucky in that we can see beyond the cosmetic decor, and are pretty good at putting in kitchens and bathrooms! Some of the properties we’ve been looking at on the internet are do-ables, but we need the ready cash before we can even begin to dream.
We thought we had found the perfect place, and checked it out twice for availability in case someone had snapped it up before we could proceed.
It had a new roof, but everything else was in bad need of modernisation, but we felt we could move in and do one room at a time as we had the cottage in 2007, which took us 6 months of hard graft.
Hubby was excited to find it on with another agent having been reduced by £20K.
Then he read the smaller print and discovered why. It was part prefab and part brick, and as such would only be of interest to cash buyers as it was unlikely to be mortgageable.
Anything with evidence of asbestos in it is a definite No-No for us as we would have been knocking out walls and drilling holes releasing toxic fibres into the air, and therefore us.
We do however miss the peace and quiet of the marina, though at 3.30 this morning I had the pre-dawn chorus of gulls, sparrows and blackbirds instead of rooster duck and her chums.
I have been playing with spreadsheets again, but that’s for another post.
pensitivity101 