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Salopgal

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Everything posted by Salopgal

  1. Don't rush into things... ah yep - see the sense in that, but... "Domestic" situation (need I say more?) sometimes means a person needs to have a bolt hole. With that in mind I am test driving a boat (no pressure tho') on Friday and it is doable financially and in tip-top condition, or so it seems. Financial help from family who are worried for my safety. Anyway, promise I will try to keep the balance and be as sensible as possible, in the circumstances. Am writing this after two large gins so might be being more open than I would normally be... TTFN - It's all good!
  2. He knows alright - he is doing the divorcing. He's paranoid tho' too. Makes for a quieter life while we have to share a roof if I toe the line... Amen to that! The more I hear / read, the more determined I am to do this and make it work. I can do thrifty, boy can I ever. Ray Mears eat your heart out...! I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this... Visiting brokerages tomorrow in Cheshire to do more research. Can't wait!
  3. Thank you again! Especially you Ally because you were very generous with your comments and encouragement. Mike, I can't post often as I'm having a tough time at home and my hubby doesn't like me talking to strangers online - he's very private... What was so fab about the guys I talked to at the Marina was their 'can do' attitude mixed with gritty but realistic advice. One guy was brilliant, telling me how I can do the blacking myself. (I've got a coracle and I blacked that... bit smaller tho'. Ha!) The mooring rate for 60ft boat is £3036 and one chap there got his annual insurance for just £80. Also, the money I get from the house will be what I use to supplement my meagre income. I get quite a few commissions for my art and sell out of a number of galleries. I have recently been approached to sell through a gallery in New York also. I am highly motivated too. Because of my disability, I get Disability Living Allowance and will be entitled to tax credits. I also plan to get a third job and have irons in the fire in that regard. Also, as I said, I've loads of practical helpful male neighbours who are there for me no matter what and they will all be within quarter of a mile from my mooring! I am surrounded by good people who I've known for 15 years... But all said, I do so appreciate your advice and practical direction - it is precious and makes me all the more sure that this is the life for me. My close friends who know we are splitting up, are already offering help and I have places to doss down so rent won't be a big problem whilst I'm looking for the right boat. I have a car and it is cheap to run. I've got stuff I can sell and am getting on with doing that. All in all, I'll be OK! With grateful thanks, Salopgal P.S. excuse my ignorance but what is an OP?!
  4. Thank you one and all for your input. There are a variety of reasons for this change and I might not be able to adequately convey some of them. 5 years ago I was housebound, I lived in my bedroom, I saw nobody. I got 'Catastrophic Hyperacusis' and severe depression, my sound sensitivity was so extreme my own whisper or turning the pages of a book, was painful to me. I have come through and am much better. I will always have Hyperacusis but it isn't as limiting as it was. I am back in work, albeit part time. Ok - that's some history. 1. As a result of the above, I have lost most of my friends who were not able to cope with the shell of a person they saw and one by one they have fallen away. I want to be part of a community - I have some experience of the boating community having visited on and off narrowboats for the 14 years I've lived here and so I know some of them already. I would not get this in rented accommodation. 2. It is in my best interests to stay in the village so close to the house we will sell. I know all the neighbours, I can store my stuff in a friend's warehouse in the village for free, I can help him with his garden and he stood by me when I was ill when no one else did. I want to be near him and not further away. 3. I have been poor before, I can be poor again. I like having to make do and mend - it's part of my wierd psyche I guess. I've lived in mud huts in Kenya, volunteered in rural hospitals in the Transkei, lived in the poorest part of Paris in Belleville, had my own croft on the Isle of Coll, Argyll. I used a hole in the ground as a toilet for 12 months and drunk only rain and river water that year - no electricity either. I have seen the seemier underbelly of some of the poorest parts of this world of ours and I am still cheerful about mankind. I am a fighter, a coper and I am very creative and able to make friends easily and get people 'on side'. 4.It's an exciting challenge; it's a challenge I want. I am a part-time artist and have already been making narrowboat related art and crafts and want to continue with this sideline as part of the actual community, not as an outsider still. 5. The management at the marina spent quite a few hours showing me round yesterday and I quizzed them on all of the costs and hidden costs. I came away feeling even more positive than when I went. I had a look round a boat with it's owner, who also was unsure whether I had thought it all through and the manager interjected and said: "That's what she's doing now"!! Bless him! 6. I may indeed rent for 6 months, or live with my local friend, until I find the right boat, or not - whatever the case may be. I'm not locked into this, I'm still exploring it but I can make this work for me very well. I do see that this is not a cheap option and I intend to travel round the many marinas and brokers in Shropshire and Cheshire to look round boats. I was supposed to go today but am painting instead to make some more money. This marina can only take narrowboats, no wide beams as all craft have to be sailed in and the lifting bridges locally are too narrow for 10ft wide boats. Never mind, narrows the search a bit!! My parents are concerned about me not having a landline type phone on board a boat but apart from that, they are supporting me 100%. However, I read on Google that you can have a landline, and WIFI. N ot sure what else to add, but I am really grateful for your words of warning and will do as you suggest and do lots more research into this. I would be planning on mooring at the marina and not travelling on the boat at all. But I have a work colleague who loves boats and knows his way around them very well, so I've got help on hand whenever I need it. Grateful thanks - Salopgal.
  5. Hi I'm going through a divorce and when the house is sold I'll be on my own with no more than 100K to spend and live on. I only earn £500 a month and want to retrain at Chester University (I'm 46!) so am really keen to live aboard a boat based either near to Chester, or here in Shropshire (Whixall) where my heart lies. What advice would you give me as I am starting out on this adventure - I know nothing about narrowboats! I've seen wide beam barges that look better sized for living on, but I need to keep a substantial amount of the house money to fund my 2 year University course, otherwise I'd love a custom build! But to be realistic, I think a second hand boat is best but I don't know where to look, whether you can transport one from another county, or what pitfalls to be aware of. Can you help?
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