Well, that’s another viewing over with. Nice couple with a three year old girl & a couple of teenage boys. Liked the house, liked the area & liked the local primary school, they just need to decide whether they want to live here or nearer Leicester. Go figure. They also made noises about receiving a low offer for their house & wondering whether to hold out for something nearer the asking price or taking it and getting on with their lives.  I suspect that if they want to buy our house (and I think they do ) they’ll be pitching low.  Seems like a possible though, at least we’re getting some interest & the house is tidy for the rest of the weekend.

I’ve just got back from Asda and it’s reminded me why we’re doing the whole boat thing. As a kid I hated Sundays, there was nothing on the box & all the shops were shut. All I could do was sit around avoiding homework, watching black & white films while waiting for bathtime & the dodgy 7.30 sitcom on ITV (Please Sir!, anyone? Let’s just pretend that Love Thy Neighbour never happened). After that it was off to bed. I didn’t know that doing nothing would seem such a luxury now our society has asserted its ‘right to shop’ on a Sunday and we’ve lost that downtime. I suppose in theory I could do nothing but there doesn’t seem time, I’ve got cars to wash, dinners to cook, washing to put away & kids to scrub. Not sure if any of that will change when we’re afloat but I can hope, can’t I?

And I really hate Asda on a Sunday. Sorry, colleagues.

So, this is where we are at the beginning of 2008. The house is on the market and when it’s sold we’re looking at spending something like £55k on a 55′ boat, as long as it’s all but ideal. If we can find one that’s less than perfect for less than that we’ll have the balance to throw at it to make it right . We know which marina we want to be based at and although finding a residential mooring is apparently the biggest barrier to living afloat we’ve got one pencilled in, all being well. Realistically we won’t be able to fit the contents of a five bedroomed house in something that measures 55′ by 6′ 10″ so we’ll need storage somewhere. That will come in at around £300 per month so we’ll probably rent a house initially which will also give us somewhere to crash when we just can’t take it any more. Does that make us sound non committal? I hope not, it’s important that we actually live on the boat rather than play on it at weekends.

Following the great Vista to XP downgrade disaster of December 2007 all existing posts were lost. Not being the sort to keep backups I present a brief precis of what has gone before.

Following the debate summarised in ‘Why?’ we have:

Put the house on the market; Had the usual collection if viewers (house-on-the-market, tourists, too small, too big …); been training & both earned ‘Inland Waters Helmsman’ certificates; bought a Tilley hat; celebrated Christmas & the New Year; gone back to work.

The kids start school in a couple of days, at which point we can hopefully start real life again and get on with things. The latest feedback from the estate agent is that the family viewing the house last Friday (following five hours of cleaning, I might add) haven’t ruled out buying completely but ‘it’s bigger than they expected’. This after a second visit so I’m starting to feel cynical again – the house is no bigger than it was last time. Wonder what one couple with a teenage daughter want a five bedroomed house for anyway if they’re concerned about size?