We next approached the bank who were very good. We gave all our details filled in all the relevant paperwork and were told it would take about 2-3 weeks, 3 weeks was taking it right up to christmas 2008. We didn't have a mortgage on our house so we were confident.
We then rang Harral brokerage and haggled a bit, we ended up with a price we were happy with and then it was just a matter of time.
2 weeks passed, the surveyor came and went and the bank were trying to get some news. We ended up on the last day before everyone went home for xmas being told we would get our decision that day...we didn't, christmas was awful and after christmas was worse.
Festivities over we rang the bank. We had been refused...what...how...why...it just wasn't logical..
The explanation....outgoings too much for income...still didn't make sense..
Turns out they were taking the overheads from our second business into consideration when they wouldn't take the income into consideration as it had only been running for 8 months. I had to get confirmation that these overheads were not in anyway connected to or being paid by our main business...the bank faxed everything straight through for us and we waited again.
Hooray!!! money sorted
A couple of days later 16th Jan 2009 we picked up 'peregrine' name soon to be changed.
Monday, 4 January 2010
The Next Step
With the holiday over and the intention having been to sell the house buy a boat and move onto the water we were at a loss....we decided to go boat hunting again and viewed many but none fell into our needs so the next thing was to have one built to our own spec.. We visited a few boat builders but chose Garry at Orchard Marine at the same time we kept looking at ones for sale for ideas..
it was during a visit to Harral Brokerage that they showed us a boat called peregrine, again out of our price range but had 2 seperate fixed doubles. It was a dream, so light and airy. One downfall was of course the length, 65ft, which meant missing out on a couple of canals but to not have to sacrifice the dinette for a bedroom seemed more important.
She was 2 yrs old but never been used as the owners had meoved abroad whilst she was being built only never to return due to ill health.
We went home to think about it and as you can guess we were very excited.
it was during a visit to Harral Brokerage that they showed us a boat called peregrine, again out of our price range but had 2 seperate fixed doubles. It was a dream, so light and airy. One downfall was of course the length, 65ft, which meant missing out on a couple of canals but to not have to sacrifice the dinette for a bedroom seemed more important.
She was 2 yrs old but never been used as the owners had meoved abroad whilst she was being built only never to return due to ill health.
We went home to think about it and as you can guess we were very excited.
Ruby Tuesday..the big test.
Well October came and we were all ready, Kal was going on an adventure week with PGL so we dropped him off and the next day went to Claymore to pick up Ruby Tuesday. The only downfall was that we had to come back to base on the thursday and go to work from the boat thurs and Fri but we were still ever so excited.
With all the checks done we headed off with one of the lads through preston Brook tunnel. I steered and managed to get through without crashing!!!
At the other end he left us and we were away.......
Throughout the week we travelled to Middlewhich and back for thursday and work..
it rained all day every day and was freezing through the night...the ropes were frozen every morning...the batteries wouldn't start the heating and we were drenched all day, so much so that we bought better waterproofs when we reached northwhich.
We had to boil the kettle to pour on the ropes each morning and i went flying on ice as i jumped off the boat one evening..flat on my back.. We found that we were shattered, bed called us at 9PM! but i must say we were up earlier than normal.
Saying all that we had the best holiday we have ever had and we never stopped smiling.it didn't matter what was thrown at us it was great.
We met some lovely people saw some lovley places and had a drink in a couple of pubs.
The only sad bit was handing Ruby back, she felt like our boat so we left with our hearts aching..
With all the checks done we headed off with one of the lads through preston Brook tunnel. I steered and managed to get through without crashing!!!
At the other end he left us and we were away.......
Throughout the week we travelled to Middlewhich and back for thursday and work..
it rained all day every day and was freezing through the night...the ropes were frozen every morning...the batteries wouldn't start the heating and we were drenched all day, so much so that we bought better waterproofs when we reached northwhich.
We had to boil the kettle to pour on the ropes each morning and i went flying on ice as i jumped off the boat one evening..flat on my back.. We found that we were shattered, bed called us at 9PM! but i must say we were up earlier than normal.
Saying all that we had the best holiday we have ever had and we never stopped smiling.it didn't matter what was thrown at us it was great.
We met some lovely people saw some lovley places and had a drink in a couple of pubs.
The only sad bit was handing Ruby back, she felt like our boat so we left with our hearts aching..
test the water
Well we first stepped onto a narrowboat at Venetian Marina Nr Nantwich. Sue was wonderful, we hadn't a clue what we needed as a liveaboard. The first thing we knew we did want was one with 2 bedrooms in that we meant 2 doubles as kal was going to grow and as an every day occurance we didn't feel that a single would be good enough, and though there isn't a lot of it, he need his own space.
The first boat we saw was quite scary, it was old dark and every space was seperated by a bulkhead. we sat in the lounge area and it just felt wrong, there we were with the wall facing us onlt 4 ft away, obviousley we knew beforehand the internal width but in reality it was a shock. We looked at a few more but then Sue took us to someones on the marina. I think she got the gist of what we were looking for and this one was awesome, well out of our price range at over 90,000 but it was more open plan and so had a totally different feel. Granite worktops, light oak wood etc.
Sue invited us to come back anytime and said its a long journey andwe need to look around.
Once home we were even more convinced and had more of an idea of what we needed with regards to inverter size heating options etc. We had already made our decision to go for it and talked about the house going up for sale.
After sleeping on it, or trying to, in the light of day we decided that if we were going to do this we needed a trial run of more than just a day boat so we booked a boat from Claymore navigation at Preston Brook. We chose their 'luxury' boat RUBY TUESDAY and booked it for the October Half term. we couldnt wait..
The first boat we saw was quite scary, it was old dark and every space was seperated by a bulkhead. we sat in the lounge area and it just felt wrong, there we were with the wall facing us onlt 4 ft away, obviousley we knew beforehand the internal width but in reality it was a shock. We looked at a few more but then Sue took us to someones on the marina. I think she got the gist of what we were looking for and this one was awesome, well out of our price range at over 90,000 but it was more open plan and so had a totally different feel. Granite worktops, light oak wood etc.
Sue invited us to come back anytime and said its a long journey andwe need to look around.
Once home we were even more convinced and had more of an idea of what we needed with regards to inverter size heating options etc. We had already made our decision to go for it and talked about the house going up for sale.
After sleeping on it, or trying to, in the light of day we decided that if we were going to do this we needed a trial run of more than just a day boat so we booked a boat from Claymore navigation at Preston Brook. We chose their 'luxury' boat RUBY TUESDAY and booked it for the October Half term. we couldnt wait..
The beginning.......
Well, even to this day we can't remember what made us do it but for some reason we hired a day boat from Barbridge in the summer of 2008. I can remember in my distant past seeing narrowboats and thinking it would be good to have that freedom but was put off by the thought that people on narrowboats were few and far between and a bit 'different' to be kind.... i was about 19 at the time!!
Anyway we had a great day, hadn't a clue what we were doing, got grounded, probably went too fast and thought the gaps under the bridges were tiny..lol
The day went so fast and when we handed the boat back we left for home chunnering on about how great it was. The only problem being that we wanted to do it again the following day. obviousley monay wouldn't allow that all the time so we spent a few weeks on the towpaths in different areas watching everyone else and chatting to some lovely people which is when we realised that there were so many people living on their boat. We had always intended to sell up at some point and move to a static caravan, had the site picked out and everything, but this got us thinking.
A few weeks passed and we gave in and hired anothe day boat this time from Bunbury. 5 minutes in to the day i was fed up and also worried because i didn't want to be fed up however another 10 minutes down the cut and all was fine. I told Tim How i had felt and he said he was the same but we had gone on to have another fantastic day and realised our dissapointment had been in the hire boat, being a fussy pair it wasn't as nice and neat, clean, quiet and as easy to handle as the previous one but and that had put a downer on the day but we got over that.
We were now wanting to do locks but it wasn't going to happen, so be it..
Once home every day was about narrowboats, on the tv, in the library, on the cut, on the internet , it just wouldn't go away. We spent time hunting down marinas, looking at boats for sale and somewhere along the line decided we wanted to pack in work, retiring early, sell the house, home school Kal and live on a narrowboat.
Having never been on one, what i hear you say, we started to go to brokers and see what they were like and agreed that if one of us didn't feel right then that would be the end of it..
Anyway we had a great day, hadn't a clue what we were doing, got grounded, probably went too fast and thought the gaps under the bridges were tiny..lol
The day went so fast and when we handed the boat back we left for home chunnering on about how great it was. The only problem being that we wanted to do it again the following day. obviousley monay wouldn't allow that all the time so we spent a few weeks on the towpaths in different areas watching everyone else and chatting to some lovely people which is when we realised that there were so many people living on their boat. We had always intended to sell up at some point and move to a static caravan, had the site picked out and everything, but this got us thinking.
A few weeks passed and we gave in and hired anothe day boat this time from Bunbury. 5 minutes in to the day i was fed up and also worried because i didn't want to be fed up however another 10 minutes down the cut and all was fine. I told Tim How i had felt and he said he was the same but we had gone on to have another fantastic day and realised our dissapointment had been in the hire boat, being a fussy pair it wasn't as nice and neat, clean, quiet and as easy to handle as the previous one but and that had put a downer on the day but we got over that.
We were now wanting to do locks but it wasn't going to happen, so be it..
Once home every day was about narrowboats, on the tv, in the library, on the cut, on the internet , it just wouldn't go away. We spent time hunting down marinas, looking at boats for sale and somewhere along the line decided we wanted to pack in work, retiring early, sell the house, home school Kal and live on a narrowboat.
Having never been on one, what i hear you say, we started to go to brokers and see what they were like and agreed that if one of us didn't feel right then that would be the end of it..
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