weekly update

Going to make this a weekly update from here on, until we have any real boaty news, otherwise, it'll end up as 'sad, with no friends' blog.... Still (unsuprisingly) no news on the house sale... Only vaguely boaty news is that i've managed to get my hands on 4 folding bikes of the 'ikea' variety, brand new at a very sensible price.... only downside is that i've got to go and fetch them.... from Scotland!!!! I have a fuel card for my car, so i won't cost me anything other than a day of my time.... While i'm there, i'm fetching 2 more as well for a fellow forumite, so will be well loaded up with bikes for the return trip! We've often said how nice a folding bike would be to have on board.... so many places that you visit where a bike would open the whole area up... especailly Holland and Belgium last summer..... Thats it until next week!

ho hum...

of our two viewings on Saturday, one cancelled, and the other the estate agent can't get hold of for feedback (or is that estate agent eumphemism for "not interested in the house"?).... another viewing last night, and one arranged for this coming Saturday... so at least we are getting traffic through the door.... thats 11 viewings since we put the house on the market.... looking at the local estate agents, there really isn't a great deal on the market at the moment in our price and size range, so something has to come good soon! Have spoken to Shotley marina again, and they are invoicing me for the deposit. I am really really impressed at their willingness to take this approach. It helps me enormously by securing a berth, but not forcing me to pay for a years berthing with the possibility of no boat to put on it... Snow here today, so not having a boat isn't hurting too badly.... i'm concerned though, that we really only have, at the most, about 3 or 4 weeks left to sell the house, and we are then moving into the territory of almost certainly starting the sailing season boatless...... we are thinking that 8 to 10 weeks to complete on the move, plus then lead time on a boat if we buy new.... although quite a few dealers seem to have stock at present, I can't see that situation lasting as the weather starts to warm up.....

hurrah for Shotley!

Have spoken to Shotley this morning, and explained our situation, and they are happy to take a small deposit of £280, and reserve the berth for us for up to 12mths!!!!... although i'm hoping it won't be anywhere near that long! Fabulous, what more could I ask.... very accomodating of them, and unexpected flexibility... Top marks to Shotley!

Dilemma

Now here's a dilemma.... In the post this morning arrived a letter from Shotley marina offering us a berth for the forthcoming season... It is our first choice marina, and getting a berth offer so quickly appears to be a stroke of luck.... However, without a buyer for the house yet, and therefore no boat purchase in immediate sight, we are taking a risk if we accept the offer, as its not impossible that we could end up paying for several months or more without having a boat... Yet if we turn it down, then we could be waiting until this time next year for another chance, and may struggle to find an alternative at the appropriate time.... What a decision! Two more house viewings arranged for Saturday, so maybe our luck is changing....

dangerous boat shows

As usual, the Boat Show was a dangerous affair.... The day started with an early rise, a drive down to central London, confusion over whether congestion charges apply on Saturdays, and the worlds thickest shop assistant in Sainsburys who didn't have enough words in his vocabulary to explain whether we needed to pay the charge or not.... We parked up in an NCP in the West end, waited for T25 to arrive, and then jumped on the river taxi at Embankment.... great fun down the river to Canary Wharf, and then a short hop on the bus down to Excel.... The boat show itself was very busy, laying to rest the grumbles that the show is dying being based at Excel... and we fought our way through the crowds to take a quick whizz round..... and ended up as usual, on various boats ohhing and arring about their finer and less fine qualities... Of the 4 boats we paid a bit more attention to, the Jeanneau, Beneteau, Bavaria and Elan, I have to say, against popular trends, I thought the Bavaria was the better boat. It was the only one to have solid wood furniture below, was well thought out accomodation wise, and benefitted from intelligent design.... for example, the access to the engine was streets ahead of its competition...... I know that many like to detract from these boats, but I just don't get it.... Anyway... Its a good job that we didn't go to the Guinness stand before viewing the boats. Boat Shows are dangerous.... we started having those frightening conversations.... "its only £300 a month more than......", "the savings on the marina fees if we went down a metre in size would...." I shiver with hindsight.... it was only the need for a slightly more substantial deposit than we could immediately lay our hands on that saved our skins...... So we retired to the Guinness stand, and met a few forumites, who instantly recognised the gleam in our eyes, and smiled knowingly at us..... By 16h30, we were wilting, so took the reverse journey back..... going up the Thames at night was fabulous.... especially Tower Bridge, all lit up, and looking like the world famous attraction it is... and then met a few folks in the hotel reception, drank a few drinks, got dressed up, and went partying... We'd been invited to the forum party of the year, the TCM bash, and after we'd found his flat (although penthouse mega apartment might be a better description) at 22h00, we enjoyed the company of many old and a goodly number of new acquaintances..... but having the kids along with us, we were dragged sadly away at midnight when M was in full flight of being educated in the finer arts of ice cube handling by TCM....... So, a great weekend.... a little jaded on Sunday.... and a scary boatshow.... SWMBO was reading Yachting Monthly in bed last night, and I noticed that she was looking at the manufacturers adverts again, instead of the brokers...... gulp..... better get this house sold sharpish....

Spring is in the air

Here we are, mid Jan, and its 13 degrees outside.... the sun is out.... feels spring like. OK..... so now I am panicking!.... will I be boatless for the start of the season!!!!!!!!!! The two last potential buyers both had minor quibbles.... one thought the garden was too small for them (they'll get a shock when they look at the price of similar houses with big gardens, as ours is a decent size!), and the other didn't like the layout.... So back to the starting base...

improving odds

I knew my instincts over this new estate agent were right.... despite the Thursday viewing not resulting in an offer, they have got two more viewings arranged, for Friday and Saturday.... thats 3 viewings in a week... it took the previous estate agents 6 weeks to reach that number..... One of the things we suspect might be putting people off is that the hall and stairs carpet is knackered.... we were waiting until the kids were a bit older to replace it (OK OK..... we spent the money on boats instead....) but if neither of these viewings show any progress towards a sale we may well replace the carpet anyway..... its a pain spending the money, but it is the first part of the house that people see when they come to look round, and first impressions count and all that....

Going to LIBS?

Firstly, an habitual update on the house..... no movement (you don't sound shocked.....). The viewers liked the house, but also looked at one considerably more expensive, that they liked even more (suprise suprise!)... as he is self employed, he's now discussing with his accountant what size mortgage they can get.... if he's anything like most people, he'll work a way of affording the bigger, more expensive house I would imagine... ah well... Now... the boat show... Plan this year is to drive down to central london early saturday morning, dump the car in an NCP in the west end, and then catch the river taxi down to Excel. A day at the boat show, and then river taxi back up the Thames (which should be very nice in the dark) and then a party in central London to which we have been invited, and stopping at a Hotel in the west end with a few fellow ybw.com forum users..... should be fun... Not sure why we are going to the boat show.... don't have the money to buy a new boat... can't buy many boaty bits, as we don't know what we'll get with the next boat purchase (or won't get!), and don't need much else at the moment.... only a few things that might be on the list.... perhaps some heavier weight (read warmer) oilies for me and SWMBO, perhaps some Dubarry boots if i'm feeling flush, and we also want to buy some folding bikes.... although i'm not sure if LIBS is the place to do that... we intentionally didn't buy each other much for Christmas so we could buy the bikes instead.... only boaty thing we got was one of those funky copper kettles you see on boats with a special base to maximise efficiency.... our friends think we are a little bonkers when we explain that we bought a kettle between us for Christmas.... can't think why