The Lady Jane has just been flagged as ‘under offer’, so it looks like that’s off the table. We probably won’t look again until we’ve exchanged contracts & can actually buy one, seeing a likely candidate and watching it disappear adds to the stress which I can quite do without at the moment.

I’m aware that parts of this story keep dropping into the mix so please bear with me. We originally put the house on the market last summer with some naive idea that we’d sell it straight away and have a year afloat before No. 1 daughter moved up to secondary school. There was some thought of renting a house for furniture storage somewhere near the primary school both daughters attend and a general feeling that we’d ‘sort something out’ when the time came. We’ve now moved on eight months and we’re still trying to get things moving, so the amendment is to rent near the intended secondary school in Heanor (Derbyshire) and moor the boat in Nottingham. That will let us (hopefully) spend the weekdays in Nottingham near the primary school & weekends in the house making sure that we still have furniture. Come September we can ‘flip’ and spend weekdays near the new school (which thankfully caters for all age ranges so No. 2 daughter can move at the same time) and weekend on the boat. We should by then have an idea of how this is working out and take it from there. If we hate life aboard we can sell the boat and move on, otherwise we can think about permanent moorings in Derbyshire.

So we’ve spent today traipsing around Heanor looking for a rental property – 2 or three bedrooms & a garage near the new school for £5-600 (something that we haven’t done since student days) and we have been all but ignored. All the letting agents took our details & promised to get back to us, but I’m not holding my breath. By driving and ringing around we did find an apparently ideal place which had just become available within a mile of the school and applied for it without seeing the inside since no-one had a key & the current tenant didn’t turn up to the viewing. Then the torture started. It seems when you rent property rather than buy you are not permitted the dignity of filling in forms at a desk but have to manage in a corridor with your knees. There are also a lot of bills to start paying; £115 for ‘referencing’, £117 for ‘preparation of a tenancy agreement’ and £120 ‘itinerary’. That’s £352 before we’ve paid any rent or a deposit – how do people cope if their house has just been repossessed & their finances and credit history are trashed?

I feel like we travelled back twenty years & became non-people. Hardly Cathy Come Home,  but it did annoy me.

Mr & Mrs Buyer came to the house to ‘measure up’ and brought their two eight feet tall teenage boys with them. There was much debate over who would sleep where and where the drum kit would live so it all still looks positive. I’d be happier if we’d exchanged contracts but the house buying & selling industry seems to move at its own pace and resist any attempt at urgency. That puts us in slight limbo since we can’t commit to anything without that certainty, we can only look & ‘pencil in’ and keep hoping that things don’t change and when the time comes drop into place.

I nipped out to see the current most possible this lunchtime but it hasn’t made it from the main marina to the sales area yet. Not a problem, I was lent the key and left to get on with it. Built in 2003 with a safety certificate lasting until 2011 it’s a 54′ castle class cruiser stern narrowboat. Lived in but not scruffy it ticks a lot of the boxes . It’s the right size & pretty much the right layout except that the bathroom is to one side rather than a full walk through. It also has an inverter which is something that I haven’t considered before, which means that the 240V supply is available when it’s not berthed & plugged in. If the boat we buy doesn’t have one then it will be very near the top of the subsequent shopping list. There’s also no bow thruster but I’m starting to see that as a bit of a luxury – an awful lot seem to manage without them and at seven grand to have one put in after the initial build I can’t see us having one added.

The buy process seems pretty straightforward and the aim is to move from offer to completion in 30 days. There may be room for negotiation on that if the seller agrees, but we can’t really move forward until we’ve exchanged contracts & have that level of security. A survey will be necessary entailing the boat being lifted out of the water, which will be exciting. That comes in as a £150 cost to the prospective buyer so if we get to that stage we’ll be assuming that it’s a deal as long as the surveyor gives the nod, & we’ll get the bottom blacked while it’s out to save the bother later on. That will make it £450, but money well spent & a good photo opportunity.

Let’s not get too excited, but fingers crossed … 

After the obligatory Saturday  morning swimming lessons and my aging Saab passing its MOT first time -which was a surprise -we set off for our preferred marina to see what’s on offer. While we know what we’re looking for we can only buy it if they’ve got one so I confess to some nerves. I also didn’t want to tempt fate by getting too attached to anything since a bit of research had hinted at a couple of definite possibles. The first and what I expected to be my favourite ‘Moonshadow‘ was out of the water which I thought bode well. It was immediately discounted however when we entered via the stern and saw that the back bedroom was to port (see how easily these words trip off the tongue now?) forming a corridor into the middle section. ‘Lady Jane‘ was next choice, but it transpired that the current owner was still on board and in the process of packing. Rather than disturb him by tripping over all the boxes we checked out ‘Lucy‘ which is apparently the same design (‘Castle Class’) to get a feel for the layout. Definitely in the right area but with a bit of a passageway between fore & aft (!). I think with a bit of imagination & a hammer it would be possible to widen the bathroom area & create doorways from the front living area and the back bedroom. On the plus side there’s a workable kitchen, open plan living area & a convertible dinette. What would be the girls’ bedroom currently has a double bed which they’ll love in the short term but will need addressing; I’d prefer bunks (& so would they, I think) but I’m not sure how that would work. We’ll need to see. The boat will be moved to the sales area sometime this week so I’ll nip down one lunchtime & see if it holds any promise. We looked at a couple of outsiders for comparison, first ‘Banbury‘ which is 62′ long but well within budget at 44k and with two fixed double bedrooms. but …His ‘n’ Ayres is an ex-Canal Time cruiser so has obviously been worked well, and the lack of a front door is a clue – that means an extra bed can be placed right in the front to effectively make it a six-berth. Ideal for the odd week on the Broads with friends, but limiting for a live-aboard. There’s a potential safety ‘feature’ in that the kids can’t go anywhere without passing you, but overall not what we’re looking for. So, Lady Jane is the current favourite but we also need to be getting on with house hunting. The buyers have their mortgage lined up & are coming to measure things next weekend so they’re keen. Houses just aren’t as much fun … 

And now it’s gales - is the universe trying to tell us something?