Somewhere for a visitor to sleep

Our first preference for dining on our narrowboat would be a raised pullman dinette (preferably with a nice big window or side hatch).  It would allow space on the half of the table against the wall to leave my laptop - I'll have to make sure I can easily access it to write my blog entries!   We also like dinettes so there would be somewhere for a visitor to sleep.

We've seen quite a few boats that we really like that have either a small table and chairs or a breakfast bar.  Our last pick of the week had a half dinette with seating on just one side of the table.  We don't mind this but it would likely mean the dinette couldn't be converted into guest bedding.

I've been thinking about alternatives and found this : http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230652658562+&clk_rvr_id=252340313305
Small enough to put in a corner and use as a coffee table, foot stool or extra seating.

What solutions have other boaters come up with?  Air mattresses?

Pick of the week - Lady Nada

From ABNB, this one's called nb Lady Nada.  We quite like it!  The green isn't a colour we would choose to paint a boat but we could live with it.

Anybody know anything about Keith Wood Narrowboats???

Positives : nice light interior, ticks all the boxes

Negatives : that green, not too keen on butler's sinks

Price: £59,000
Length: 57ft 4in  
Builder: Keith Wood Narrowboats  
Fitter-out: Keith Wood Narrowboats  
Year registered: 2006  
Style: Trad  
Safety Certificate: BSS to 2013
Engine: Barrus Shire 50 diesel  
Bowthruster: BCS 12V 8hp  
Plating: 10/6/6/4  
Last blacked: 2008
Fit-out materials: Ash panels with ash trim  
Insulation: Spray foam
Headroom: 6ft 4in  
Berths: 2  
Berth sizes: 6ft 5in x 4ft 6in permanent double
Mains Power: Landline; Victron Multiplus 2500W inverter/charger; Travelpower 3.5kVA engine driven alternator
Cabin heating: Becton s/fuel stove  
Water Heating: C/heating + engine > calorifier  
Water tank: 130 gallons built-in tank
Cooker: Vanette built-in hob & oven - gas  
Fridge: LEC based 4cu ft 12V  
Washer/dryer: Zanussi Jetstream Turbodry 1600 washer/dryer  
WC: SaniMarin macerator electric flush wc to remote tank  
Shower: in large tiled cubicle with door
Other: Glazed cratch with acrylic cover.
Location: Oxford Canal, Warwickshire

Recipe - Chicken Pie filling

With not much left in the fridge tonight (2 leftover bbq chicken drumsticks, a handful of mushrooms, 3 leftover baby leeks and a single rasher of bacon), we used what we had and discovered a delicious pie filling.... well, that's what we'll do with it next time!  Tonight we had this on toast.

This is what we did :

Remove the meat from drumsticks, chop the leeks, bacon and mushrooms and then cook them all and remove from pan.  I actually cooked the leeks and mushrooms together, then the bacon and chicken.  I was making it up as I went along and only decided to add the bacon while the vegies were cooking!  Melt a good tablespoon of butter in the same pan and then stir in 2 tablespoons of flour.  Stir to cook the flour a little.  Add about a cup and half of liquid.  I used half white wine and half milk.  Stir until thickened, add back the other ingredients and a good grind of pepper and salt.  If you use wine, cook it all for a while to cook off the alcohol.  You can taste the difference - the strong winey taste will be gone.

It sure beat the alternative - fish and chips!

House inspections

The sale of our house is going slow.  We had two weeks with no inspections but today and last Saturday we've had people looking.

Last Saturday was actually a bit of a muddle and I wasn't impressed.  I've got work to do at home now and had planned on doing that Saturday while Mick was up the road working on the other house.  Friday the agent rang and said there were people wanting to inspect 10am Saturday.  We got up bright and early to do housework and tidy everything up.  We like to have the house spotless when people are coming to look - a bit of a rod for our own backs.  We spend two hours making sure nothing is out of place before every inspection.

Just 25 minutes before they were due to come, the agent rang to say the people had called saying they hadn't even left Melbourne yet!  I thought that was a bit selfish.  It's at the very least 1 1/2hrs away so they'd known for more than an hour that they weren't going to be able to get here for 10am.  So now they'd come at 11.30.  I'd packed away all traces of my work - paperwork, printer, laptop.  It wasn't worth getting it all out for an hours work to then have to pack it all away again.  I wasn't impressed. 

At 11am I took Coco and we went up the street to scrape wallpaper at the other house and have coffee with Mick.  He needed something from the shops so I drove down just before 12 and there was the agent still waiting outside the house.  It was after 1pm before he called to say they'd finished their inspection.  A good half day gone over one house inspection and as it turned out they weren't even serious buyers.

Two weeks before we had another couple make an appointment and after waiting half an hour for them the agent had to leave.  I headed home to see them wandering around our yard!

Today we did it all again, the big housework thing.  The people turned up on time but weren't here for very long.  A bit of a disappointment - the serious ones have been here for an hour or more.  We're thinking today's visit wasn't a serious buyer either, or they just didn't like the place.

Eventually we'll get the right buyer.  We just have to be patient.  At this stage we're not overly worried about selling just now.  There's so much to be done up the road so if it takes another month we'll be happy with that. 

Our house appeals to Melbourne buyers but we need someone ready to retire and move up here.  So far they've all been people wanting a weekend place.  It's an awful lot of garden and maintenance for just weekending..... we know because we've done it!

Car hire for narrowboaters

For a lot of people who choose to live on a narrowboat, they make the choice to not have a car.  For those of us who don't live in the UK and wish to spend time living on a narrowboat, it's highly likely we won't have access to a car.  A lot of the time this wouldn't be a problem. Mooring up in a town that has a train station or at least a bus service will give us access to wherever we want to go.  It involve some walking and it might make a long trip of a short distance but let's face it... we won't exactly be in a hurry to go anywhere.

Despite best intentions and planning I'm sure there will be occasions that we simply have to have a car.  Perhaps to attend a medical appointment, to pick up heavy or bulky purchases, to visit someone a fair distance away, or maybe collect a visitor from home.  I've now heard mention several time of a car hire company called Enterprise.  Their rates sound to be very reasonable and best of all, they'll collect you from your boat to go to their office to complete the paperwork and when you return the car and hand back the keys they'll drive you back to your boat.  You can't ask for better service than that!

How's this for an offer! Three day car hire over a weekend for £35.97!  At today's rates that is something like $55 AU.  A great deal.  Thanks Diane for reminding me about Enterprise.
http://www.enterprise.co.uk/car_rental/home.dohttp://www.enterprise.co.uk/car_rental/deeplinkmap.do?bid=002&cust=WESECOM

A feel good story

There has been a bit of a negative feel about narrowboat blogs lately.  The woes of nb Waiouru have been a bit of a reality check.  Sometimes it can go wrong.

So, to be a bit more cheerful I thought I'd tell you about an article we read last weekend in the UK Country Living magazine.  We regularly buy this or Period Living to drool over the gorgeous stone houses and the lush countryside of England.  This week came with an added bonus - an article titled The Floating Farmhouse about a couple living on a narrowboat!  The couple have a 32 acre small holding on the Oxford Canal and live on their moored boat.  It sounds a rather idyllic life with growing a vegetable garden and fruit trees, breeding chickens, and having the best of both worlds by being able to cruise in their floating home.  I want that life!!

They are along the Oxford Way walking path and over the years have begun serving tea and cakes/cones to passing walkers.  Now on a sunny Sunday they have up to 100 people stop at their little "alfresco vintage tearoom".  A Rayburn stove, floral vintage china, an extremely pretty location beside the canal... lovely.

I did a Google search and see Andrew Denny visited back in 2006 and called it a floating farm shop.  Perhaps things have changed a little since then.
http://www.grannybuttons.com/granny_buttons/2006/05/the_floating_fa.html

And Andrew provided a link to a map showing where it is.
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x=448875&y=219545&z=3&sv=448875,219545&st=4&ar=Y&mapp=newmap.srf&searchp=newsearch.srf

And again in early 2010 he mentions Jane Fanner winning Smallholder of the year.

http://www.grannybuttons.com/granny_buttons/2010/01/jane-fanners-floating-farm-shop-wins-smallholder-of-the-year-2009.html

The article about Jane's entry to Smallholder of the year.
http://www.countrysmallholding.com/home-search-smallholder-of-the-year-entrant-jane-fanner--221961

Big changes

Our life over the last few years had settled into a comfortable routine.  We went to work, saved for holidays, enjoyed growing our own vegies, browsing antique shops... life was relaxed and predictable.  Then we came up with the idea of buying a narrowboat and cruising the canals of England.  To eventually achieve this we had to make some changes in our lives.

The last year has been huge for us!  First we bought a half share in an enormous shed.  We had in mind that this would be the place for us to store our household while we're away.  Another mortgage.  Then we had a trip to England so we could look at boats and confirm in our minds that this was what we wanted to do.  Getting to meet Ray on nb Gypsy Rover and Barry and Sandra on nb Northern Pride showed us we really could do it.

Then before Christmas we discovered a house up the road from us was going to be sold.  As we like our little corner of the world and we thought the price might be in a range that would enable us to achieve our dream, we made an offer on New Years Eve and it was accepted.

Not part of the narrowboat plan (not yet anyway!) was me leaving my job but that's what happened in April.  This was a huge change!  It was a change to our financial situation as well as our lifestyle.

Then we were packing and selling off our belongings.  The house started to look a bit different to how it had been the last 8 or so years.  We packed and cleaned and dealt with maintenance and before we knew it we had the agent taking photos and putting the house on the internet for sale.  Wow.... we thought we'd be living here into our old age. 

I agreed in June to do some work from home for one of the partners at the job I'd left.  This would get our finances back in order.  My work life is so different now to what it was a few months ago.  More variety. At the end of June we took possession of the house up the road. Now there was more work to do and yet another mortgage!

So it's been huge, this last year, and all because of a narrowboat dream.

Today Diane (nb Gypsy Rover AU) drove up for the day from Melbourne.  Mick came home for lunch and enjoyed looking at Diane's photos of their time so far on their narrowboat.  When he sat down with me this evening he said "I went back to work after looking at Diane's photos and something occurred to me.  We really are going to do this!"  Well.... yes.... I'm kind of thinking we are too.  I certainly hope so after having turned our lives upside down!!

Here we are.. Diane and I