All signed up

Hi all, trust we are all well?,

We're not blogging much these days as to be frank there is not a great deal to tell you.  The one piece of good news is we signed the contracts for our house move and now have a provisional moving date of 11th November.  So, provided the other parties agree, we move on 11/11/11, should be easy to remember.  All that puts a doubt on that is one outstanding local search due in this week all being well

That leaves just a little over 10 days to pack so the race is on.  We are gearing up to notify all the service companies and have sorted out a removal firm as well.

If you are thinking of moving and still have the kids at home who are over 17, treat them well.  As young adults in the UK they are entitled to tenancy rights, something that we had not heard of.  This means, like us, you will need to get them to sign a form stating they will vacate the property when you move.  We gave Joanne and Amy the choice, "sign or your out"    Win, win situation for us really :-) 

Its a sad fact of life that these days 23 and 26 year olds like our Amy and Jo have no chance of getting on the property ladder.  On the wages the girls earn they would struggle even to rent a flat.  The only hope our girls have is an inheretence left by grandparents or us.  As we have no plans to pop our clogs we have no choice but to let them stay at home.

This gave us a bit of an idea last night.  When AmyJo is built, Chris and I will live aboard during the summer months and charge the girls a small rent each.  So that way the bungalow remains occupied and we can rest assured the place is looked after.  It also means the bank of dad can remain sovent too!

Still moving on slowly

Hi all, it's been a bit quiet on the moving front this last week, the solicitors are doing their bit and the mortgage is sorted and survey on the bungalow all done.  The solicitors are doing a great job (surprisingly) and are ready with the contracts but the mortgage company are being a real pain in the arse.  Not only did they loose our application and documents only to find them two weeks on but they have approved the mortgage but only sent us 11 pages of the 40 page offer and not the bit we needed to sign to say we agreed with it.  All this is slowing things down much to our annoyance.

So for now we are slowly packing up bits and pieces, selling furniture we cannot fit into the bungalow.  No completion date yet but that should be sorted soon.  I dare say others will follow this path so I may add pages covering these sort of stages before a boat build for now.  Might be of use to someone else following the same path as us.

At work I attended a Fire Marshall's course this week  and was given some food for thought.  I wonder how many of you out there ashore and afloat have checked their fire extinguishers lately?  What sort do you have, are they easily accessable, and does everyone know where they are?  I bet some will have dry power extinguishers?  Did you know that most D.P. (Dry Power) extinguishers compact the powder when vibrated and then go solid so are useless after a prolonged period?  Or that the power is actually corrosive?  Check to see if they are rated for Class A fires, if so get rid of them.  Only DP extinguishers rated for class B and C fires should be used on a boat otherwise you could find corrosion a problem after you use one, besides in an emergency the powder cloud in an enclosed space actually blocks your vision and the route to safe exit so consider a water of CO2 unit instead.  If your extinguishers are more than two years old think about replacing them with new ones.  Regularly check the pressure is in the Green and if not replace them.   Do remember use CO2 or DP on electrical fires NOT water types.

A fire in a canal boat can become lethal in just 20 seconds so have you discussed what you would do in the event a fire does break out?  Do you have a fully charged mobile phone at all times in case you need the emergency services?  I do not mean your every day use one that you may have on you while you are ashore and your partner onboard with no means of contacting them but one always to hand no matter who is onboard.  Interesting points that maybe, like me, you had not concidered perhaps?

Well that's all for now.  Take care in the winds and stay safe.

In the box or the Skip?

Now we know we are definitely moving we have continued our packing and de-cluttering.  I am beginning to think Maffi (Click) may well have a good point when he posted about storage recently.  Seems the more you have the more you definitely squirrel away.  That's certainly true in our case!

We currently live in a reasonable sized 4 bed detached house and it is amazing just how much we have accumulated in the 11 years we have lived here.  Our clear out has not gone unnoticed neither, as our next door neighbour knocked on the door yesterday to say she had hired a skip and could not fill it up and would we like to throw our stuff in it.  Obviously we thanked her and in minutes the skip was full, however, I'm not sure whether her " you can throw your stuff in it" comment meant our unwanted rubbish or........

The double garage is taking on the appearance of one of those lockups those Americans bid on hoping to turn a profit.  There is not much room left and Chris got lost in there the other day as the way we stacked everything has created a little maze.  For a while she got disorientated and could not find her way out amongst the boxes.  The girls and I  were not too concerned really, we would have found her eventually as we loaded up the removal lorry :-)  Don't think she was too impressed when we told her that though when she eventually emerged.

We had a mystery visitor

Came home from work today and found this

Our mystery visitor must have done this while we were at work today. Our Estate agent is obviously on the case.  I have to say this is the first physical evidence (apart from all the form filling) we have that the move is progressing and something will actually happen.  I feel happier now for some reason, even though a lot can go wrong before we sign the contracts and complete.

Some Light humour (not intended to offend)

The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent terrorist
threats. Now they have raised their security level from "Miffed" to
"Peeved."  Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross." The English have not been "A Bit Cross" since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies nearly ran out.
Terrorists have been re-categorized from "Tiresome" to "A Bloody
Nuisance." The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was in 1588, when threatened by the Spanish Armada.

The Scots have raised their threat level from "Pissed Off" to "Let's get the Bastards." They don't have any other levels. This is the reason they have been used on the front line of the British army for the last 300 years.

The French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from "Run" to "Hide." The only ! two higher levels in France are "Collaborate" and "Surrender." The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France's white flag factory, effectively paralyzing the country's military capability.

Italy has increased the alert level from "Shout Loudly and Excitedly" to "Elaborate Military Posturing." Two more levels remain: "Ineffective Combat Operations" and "Change Sides."

The Germans have increased their alert state from "Disdainful Arrogance" to "Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs." They also have two higher levels: "Invade a Neighbor" and "Lose."

Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual; the only
threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels.

The Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy.  These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the new Spanish navy can get a really good look at the old Spanish navy. 

Australia , meanwhile, has raised its security level from "No worries" to "She'll be alright, Mate." Two more escalation levels remain: "Crikey! I think we'll need to cancel the barbie this weekend!" and "The barbie is canceled." So far no situation has ever warranted use of the final escalation level.

-- John Cleese - British writer, actor and tall person

Beauorcrats and paperwork

Hi all,
Things are starting to happen and we've been dealing with a mound of paperwork to fill in and sign.  For the sale we have to contend with our mortgage company who, for reasons unknown to me, insist we fill out a mortgage application despite the fact we are transferring our existing mortgage to the new property. 


We filled out a ton of forms the size of war and peace and sent them back on Tuesday.  Worryingly as I type they have yet to receive them.   I would not mind but they contain our passport as such so I hope they do get them.


Oddly though the solicitors have been on the ball and as we have returned their forms both our vendor's and our solicitors have everything ready and are just waiting for the valuation and survey by the mortgage company on the new house.  Will keep you posted how it goes next week.


In the mean time we continue to pack up and have now got on first name terms with the guys down our local refuse tip we've been there so many times!  We're also getting quotes from removal firms as this is looking a daunting task.  One look at the growing pile of boxes in the garage plus stuff we have not yet packed makes me wonder if it is all going to fit in the bungalow.


Hope we are all enjoying the weather?  We are not as hot in as the south herein Chester but we have been getting temperatures of 27 degrees with today reaching 28.  I can though, now confirm the official reason for the heatwave.... I sold my MX5 sports car so now I don't have a convertible the weather will be fine. ... trust me on this :-)

Lofty beginnings

Hi All,
All is progressing well and we now have written confirmation of offers accepted.  With moving fever in the air and the study empty we decided to tackle the loft and Oh my god..... it's time like this you realise just how much we hoard over the years.


After one whole day of shifting stuff, sorting it and boxing it up we could barely shut the study door ( a room 9ft by 10ft).  We are now slowly moving it all into the garage to make room for more packing.


I think we could have done the job in half the time but the sounds of "aaaahhhh" and "oooooh" and "I'd forgotten about this" meant far too much reminiscing was going on by mum and the girls.  Still at least it's one more job done for the move I suppose.

Offer accepted!!!

Hi all,
As I type this my hands are shaking. I mean....actually shaking.  It's actually happened at last!   

It's still early doors yet but we just had an offer for the house this morning that we have accepted and the Bungalow we put an offer on has also accepted our offer too!  So we're on the move (we hope)

It's funny how life ticks over and then.... BAM..... events happen in a flash that alter everything.  Having not had a viewing now for 6 weeks we resigned ourselves we would have to sit it out over the Winter.  I had decided to redecorate the study putting it back to a bedroom and then do the hall to make the pace look tidier still.  We would then re-list with another agent to get things moving again

Well the study is nearly finished (hence my lack of posts) and we got a knock on the door last night from a gentleman who had viewed with his daughter a few months back.  He  wanted have another look round and then made a cash offer on the spot but well below our price.  After he continued trying to get the lowest price from me I managed to hold firm and got him up to something near what we thought was our minimum price and we parted company.

This morning he phoned the agent with the same higher offer he had left me with and after a few phone calls he met me half way and we said yes.  I instantly ran the Bungalow's agent and had my offer accepted within the hour.

I'm actually quit emotional at the moment as, provided all goes well, nbAmyJo just took a gaint step closer to becoming a reality.  You cannot imagine how relieved I am that now we can let our builders Fernwood know we can proceed in the spring as planned.   It's still too early to be sure so I'm trying to contain my excitement.

For now though I'm off to get a stiff Scotch and read Peter Underwood's Six part series about life afloat that Jo (coalwoman) posted on her blog a few days ago (thanks for that JO).

http://www.norburywharfltd.co.uk/new_page_3.htm

 

Me Behave!!!

Me, Behave????

Me, behave?

Seriously?
As a child I saw Tarzan's Jane almost naked,
Cinderella arrived home after midnight,
Pinocchio told lies,
Aladdin was a thief,
Batman drove over 200 miles an hour,
Snow White lived in a house with 7 men,
Popeye smoked a pipe and had tattoos, Pac Man ran around to digital music while eating pills that enhanced his performance, and Shaggy and Scooby were mystery solving hippies that always had the munchies.
The fault is not mine!
If you had this childhood and loved it, repost to your blog.

Thanks Jo (coalwoman) for this one.  So...... how many of you grinned then?..... own up :-)

Trip to Grantham

My how the time is flying by.  We've been so busy this week I've not had time to post until now.

We took ourselves off to Fernwoods on Monday and spent a pleasant and productive day chatting with Ken and Julia about our design thoughts.  We're glad to say most of them were OK with them and after looking around their latest creation the design is now taking firmer shape.

Chris and I like the idea of windows either side of the saloon doors at the front.  These french doors give plenty of light and open up the area into the cratch nicely.

These small cratch boxes make for a roomy area but we would like them slightly wider so we can sit on them, perhaps barn door style doors would help with that.  We like the white paint as it gives an airy feel but would be a pain to keep clean in the winter months I should think.

The saloon area is also becoming clearer and an L shape seating fits our bill.  We rather like this, though some cusions would be better

We also like this idea for the steps into the cratch with the Lockgate fire too

We want the day room to double as a second bedroom so again an L shape seat is prefered that will make up into a double bed.  We also want this room to have side doors.   These ones also have glass so light can still keep the room light when shut.