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Regrets - back to land


RichM

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Just before lockdown, I sold my boat, bought a house and moved back to land and have been forced to work from home ever since. - Something which wouldn't have been ideal long term on my boat albeit not impossible. You could say it was good timing or at least it was in that respect.

 

Living in a house again is much easier, more practical and obviously much more spacious in comparison. No longer am I forced to conserve resources, though my time aboard has taught me to do so. But it's nice to know that I'm not going to run dry. The only thing is; this house life has no real appeal to me what so ever. The scenery sucks and I can't change it, or at least not without leaving my home. Plus and perhaps more notably, there is no sense of community at all. - Everyone keeps themselves to themselves where I now reside.

 

I still find myself spending hours looking at boats online, but conversely houses have little appeal to me. It's fair to say I really miss boat life. (except the maintenance :)) I frequently go for walks with the dog along the local towpaths and wonder if I made the wrong decision. Unfortunately having a boat + house would not be possible at this time, so I had to choose between a house or boat. I still ponder about perhaps selling the house (already) and buying another boat, but not only would that be costly, it's also (arguably) not the best time to do that given the current "climate".


Has anyone else had a similar experience?  Equally I'd be interested to hear of any stories/suggestions/words of wisdom. :)

Edited by RichM
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Sorry to hear this, and your view of house living is why I sold up, I have not regretted it, and would only return to land if I had enough cash [about £1.5m] to enjoy a dream lifestyle. I miss my horses, nothing else.

We are on this planet for a short time.

I have made good [financial] decisions by serendipity, and missed many far better opportunities, due to overthinking and taking 'safe' steps.

Re maintenance, buy a boat that has been adapted to genuine liveaboard by a boat fitter [eg my electrician number7] who has always an extra boat to work on for re-sale.

After a year on board I know exactly what I need to cc with a few winter months on shorepower. I estimated it would take £4K to upgrade my boat to 'comfy', and so it has proved. I have not rushed the work, at the moment one cabin side needs its last coat of paint, no rush.

My boat was epoxied from new, I suspect it has never been overcoated [15 y.o.], I will have it out and redone in 2022, there is no rust, it was on the hard when I bought it....

All I need now is an 80amp inverter charger for winter if not cc.

My boat is not a perfect size or perfect layout, but I'll keep it for a few more years, the next boat will depend on my health.

I won't go back to a marina ghetto, but there are other options, including salty waters and rivers .... keep thinking positive :)

PS Houses need maintenance too, if you don't do anything they end up being unattractive to potential purchasers.

Edited by LadyG
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7 hours ago, RichM said:

Just before lockdown, I sold my boat, bought a house and moved back to land and have been forced to work from home ever since. - Something which wouldn't have been ideal long term on my boat albeit not impossible. You could say it was good timing or at least it was in that respect.

 

Living in a house again is much easier, more practical and obviously much more spacious in comparison. No longer am I forced to conserve resources, though my time aboard has taught me to do so. But it's nice to know that I'm not going to run dry. The only thing is; this house life has no real appeal to me what so ever. The scenery sucks and I can't change it, or at least not without leaving my home. Plus and perhaps more notably, there is no sense of community at all. - Everyone keeps themselves to themselves where I now reside.

 

I still find myself spending hours looking at boats online, but conversely houses have little appeal to me. It's fair to say I really miss boat life. (except the maintenance :)) I frequently go for walks with the dog along the local towpaths and wonder if I made the wrong decision. Unfortunately having a boat + house would not be possible at this time, so I had to choose between a house or boat. I still ponder about perhaps selling the house (already) and buying another boat, but not only would that be costly, it's also (arguably) not the best time to do that given the current "climate".


Has anyone else had a similar experience?  Equally I'd be interested to hear of any stories/suggestions/words of wisdom. :)

Not quite the same scenario as yours but for years before buying our current house we had looked for a boat to liveaboard and had pretty much narrowed it down to an Alphacraft 35 Highliner, a Broads boat design and layout which we love. Then 18 months ago on our way home from the marina we called in to have a nosey at a new build development in an area that we already knew as we had friends living there and ended up buying a new build house instead. We instantly knew it was the house for us from the second we walked through the front door. We have not regretted a single thing about moving to this house but we have been in the fortunate position where we can keep our current boat and our house, although the plan in the not too distant future is to sell the boat and buy a motorhome instead.

 

I'm sure we would have been very happy living aboard, but as you say life is so much easier in a house with an (almost) unlimited supply of services as and when you want them. Like you I am also working from home at the minute which would have been much more difficult if living aboard but really isn't a problem from home.

 

We are lucky in the sense that our street and estate has a really strong sense of community with everyone helping each other out. If any thing lock down and Covid brought us all closer together. We really feel at home here which is not something we could ever say about our old house. This will be a long term home.

 

As to where that leaves us with boats. The current plan is to come out of boating when Covid restrictions of foreign travel are significantly eased. No point us getting a motorhome right now as we can't do the trips that we want to do with it. If Covid looks like it is going to be hanging around for the long term without hopes of a vaccine then we will look to swap the boat. I'm currently hankering after a Corvette 32.

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8 minutes ago, Naughty Cal said:

I'm currently hankering after a Corvette 32.

We looked at those, but be very careful, they had several manufacturers and only one of them built a 'quality' boat, the others all had problems (I cannot remember which was the worst one - I think it was the builder in Nottingham)

 

We very nearly bought one from Jersey, it had 'drying legs' which is quite useful to have, but whilst I thought the price was OK and around 'market price' I then found out that (being Jersey) was not VAT paid so would need to pay the VAT to bring it back to the UK.

 

They are very cramped (but probably compared to a 23 footer, will appear quite spacious), but there are plenty of 'Trawler Yachts' about so don't limit yourself to Corvettes - as with all boats a few feet make a huge difference the 35's, 38, and 40's are HUGLEY different to the 32's. (Beam also makes a big difference)

 

https://corvettemotorboat.wordpress.com/history-of-the-corvette-motorboat/

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9 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

We looked at those, but be very careful, they had several manufacturers and only one of them built a 'quality' boat, the others all had problems (I cannot remember which was the worst one - I think it was the builder in Nottingham)

 

We very nearly bought one from Jersey, it had 'drying legs' which is quite useful to have, but whilst I thought the price was OK and around 'market price' I then found out that (being Jersey) was not VAT paid so would need to pay the VAT to bring it back to the UK.

 

They are very cramped (but probably compared to a 23 footer, will appear quite spacious), but there are plenty of 'Trawler Yachts' about so don't limit yourself to Corvettes - as with all boats a few feet make a huge difference the 35's, 38, and 40's are HUGLEY different to the 32's. (Beam also makes a big difference)

 

https://corvettemotorboat.wordpress.com/history-of-the-corvette-motorboat/

We saw the Jersey boat for sale a few years back looked a nice boat. We don't want to go too large with the boat, there are only two of us and the dog for the majority of the time and at 32ft x 13ft it will certainly feel a lot larger than NC. There is a boat we are interested in viewing on the Thames at the minute. It is a Nottingham built boat and has the small engine choice with a pair of VP AD31 130's but it has had the fuel tanks replaced which were a weak spot on the Nott's built boats and the air vents and window seals sorted out, amongst many other upgrades over the years. It won't be a quick boat at around 12 knots max. Ideally we want to wait until we have remortgaged the house next year before we commit to buying anything but this boat has really got us both tempted.

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8 hours ago, RichM said:


Has anyone else had a similar experience?  Equally I'd be interested to hear of any stories/suggestions/words of wisdom. :)

 

We have moved off the boat in stages over the last few years. First house was ok but had its problems never really felt it was home, more like a staging post and we spent more time on the boat than in the house.

Moved a year ago into a new area and spent 12 months refurbing the house finishing in March. Neighbours are great and look out for each other and allthough its on a 1980's estate its much better than the last one which was in a village.

My thoughts are that your house is not the right one or is not in the right place, much the same as you can have a boat that isn't right.

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1 hour ago, Naughty Cal said:

our street and estate has a really strong sense of community with everyone helping each other out. If any thing lock down and Covid brought us all closer together.

Er, I'm not sure that's quite the idea.:D

Edited by Athy
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We’re in the lucky position of being able to let out our house whilst we live on our boat. A few years ago we changed boats and had to move back into the house for a few weeks before moving onto the new boat. I can honestly say I hated every day we spent in there. There’s nothing about living in bricks and mortar that appeals to me.  

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18 minutes ago, MoominPapa said:

On contemplating the move back to a house, the aspect which terrifies me is that if you don't like your housey neighbours, you can't just go somewhere else, like you can on a boat.

 

MP.

 

You don't have to speak to your neighbours if you don't want too!!

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25 minutes ago, Foggy66 said:

We’re in the lucky position of being able to let out our house whilst we live on our boat. A few years ago we changed boats and had to move back into the house for a few weeks before moving onto the new boat. I can honestly say I hated every day we spent in there. There’s nothing about living in bricks and mortar that appeals to me.  

That depends where the bricks and mortar are. 

We bought a canalside cottage on our "home" stretch of canal that we'd had our eye on for years.

If moving from a boat to a house my advice would be;  If there was a canal/river here and I was passing through,  how long would I honestly want to moor for? 

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We moved off 5 years ago due to grandchildren and a poorly relative.

But we had scratched our boating itch after 12 years and when we started cruising places for a second time it was time to move on anyway.

Mind you, when we came off we lived in a 25-year-old (knackered) camper van for four months while house-hunting - after that experience we were desperate to get into a house.

 

You haven't got boating out of your system, it really sounds like you need to find a way to make it work.

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10 hours ago, RichM said:

Just before lockdown, I sold my boat, bought a house and moved back to land and have been forced to work from home ever since. - Something which wouldn't have been ideal long term on my boat albeit not impossible. You could say it was good timing or at least it was in that respect.

 

Living in a house again is much easier, more practical and obviously much more spacious in comparison. No longer am I forced to conserve resources, though my time aboard has taught me to do so. But it's nice to know that I'm not going to run dry. The only thing is; this house life has no real appeal to me what so ever. The scenery sucks and I can't change it, or at least not without leaving my home. Plus and perhaps more notably, there is no sense of community at all. - Everyone keeps themselves to themselves where I now reside.

 

I still find myself spending hours looking at boats online, but conversely houses have little appeal to me. It's fair to say I really miss boat life. (except the maintenance :)) I frequently go for walks with the dog along the local towpaths and wonder if I made the wrong decision. Unfortunately having a boat + house would not be possible at this time, so I had to choose between a house or boat. I still ponder about perhaps selling the house (already) and buying another boat, but not only would that be costly, it's also (arguably) not the best time to do that given the current "climate".


Has anyone else had a similar experience?  Equally I'd be interested to hear of any stories/suggestions/words of wisdom. :)

Have both. Buy a cheapie grp cruiser,and toddle off for weekends.

For less than 5K you could pick up a boat that is "ready to go"

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1 hour ago, noddyboater said:

 

If moving from a boat to a house my advice would be;  If there was a canal/river here and I was passing through,  how long would I honestly want to moor for? 

We've moored in the same waterside house for 14 years and we aren't tired of the view yet.

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1 hour ago, Athy said:

We've moored in the same waterside house for 14 years and we aren't tired of the view yet.

We aren't either, and doubt we ever would be. It does vary on what boats are moored outside though. 

My point was you often think when passing through an idyllic village somewhere how great it is and you could quite easily settle down here. Give it a few days though and you're ready to move on as you didn't notice the noisy school behind the hedge,  the constant stream of dog walkers with no poo bags, the quaint village pub that turns into a meeting place every night for dickheads in white Audis with dark windows and loud exhausts.. 

A friend of mine went off cruising until he found a village with friendly locals and at least 2 good pubs, hung around for a few weeks to get the feel of the place and then started looking for property (which he found by word of mouth in the pub). Very sensible. 

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19 minutes ago, noddyboater said:

We aren't either, and doubt we ever would be. It does vary on what boats are moored outside though.  

 

Well Athy had mine outside for a couple of weeks (and you too, but only for a day) so Cygnet can't be too obtrusive.

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4 hours ago, Naughty Cal said:

:lol:

Did Athy crack a joke?

2 hours ago, Mad Harold said:

Have both. Buy a cheapie grp cruiser,and toddle off for weekends.

For less than 5K you could pick up a boat that is "ready to go"

Buy a wooden boat kit.

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3 hours ago, noddyboater said:

That depends where the bricks and mortar are. 

We bought a canalside cottage on our "home" stretch of canal that we'd had our eye on for years.

If moving from a boat to a house my advice would be;  If there was a canal/river here and I was passing through,  how long would I honestly want to moor for? 

Not sure I agree, we’ve passed many lovely canalside properties and no matter how idyllic they are the thought of actually living in them just doesn’t appeal. I think it’s the sense of being tied down that puts me off. 

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Last year after around 50 years of having a boat of some sort we sold our barge and are now full time ashore and due to the current situation somewhat housebound. We luckily always kept a house and for many years we weekended around the system and the children went to school and us to work in the week waiting for holidays. After retiring we decided to still retain the house and spend 5 or 6 months on the boat first on our NB in Ireland and then on the continent in an old Dutch barge. Eventually old age and dodgy knees and trying to maintain a 100 year old boat became a bit much and we sold. I miss it every day and we find ourselves going down to Braunston, Hillmorton, Napton or Boddington reservoir just to be near water. 
whilst leaning over the bridge at bottom lock Braunston the other day I recalled what an old boatman said to me who went down there every Saturday.” This is better than the tele Dave “. 
Maybe next year we will think about hiring and persuading one of the Grand kids to come with us and do the locks.

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10 minutes ago, Foggy66 said:

Not sure I agree, we’ve passed many lovely canalside properties and no matter how idyllic they are the thought of actually living in them just doesn’t appeal. I think it’s the sense of being tied down that puts me off. 

I've still got the boat for when I get cabin fever. 

It's covered many more miles than when I lived aboard,  working in one place limits the cruising I used to find.

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4 hours ago, MoominPapa said:

On contemplating the move back to a house, the aspect which terrifies me is that if you don't like your housey neighbours, you can't just go somewhere else, like you can on a boat.

 

MP.

 

most neighbours are good, or at least as good as you... only a very few bad eggs... also if you own the house, your neighbour knows you are not going anywhere, and its in their interest too, to have a decent relationship.  

narrowboaters seem more asocial or at least more individualistic but because you don't live in close proximity for long period, there is less chance of conflict.

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