We agreed the sale on our house back in August, but it’s taken three failed attempts and eight months to finally exchange and complete on the house sale. To say it has been stressful is an understatement! I don’t think either of us ever thought it would be such a painful process. In fact, I can’t quite believe it’s happened, even though I was the one to take the phone call.
On Saturday, we moored the boat in Market Drayton and it took Ian over two hours by bus and train to get to Congleton. He needed to do the final checks and meter readings before handing in the house keys on Monday. He was still on his way home to the boat by the time the sale completed at nearly 5pm- apparently delayed due to BT internet downtime.
So today is the first day since 1989 that we haven’t actually owned a house and it feels very liberating. We’ve had lots of advice from people about reinvesting in a small property to keep our toes in the housing market, but at present I think we’ll just be enjoying our new found freedom.
Talking of which, the paint has dried and, if you don’t look too closely, the boat is looking very pretty. I’m really hoping that Ian won’t be able to spot where the wind blew my black paint pot all over the new red roof!
Today we continue around what is known as the Four Counties Ring, and our destination will be Norbury Junction. That’s 16 lock-miles from here, 11 miles of the Shropshire Union Canal and 5 locks to navigate. To work out how long that takes, you divide it by our staggeringly fast, average cruising speed of 3 lmph (lock-miles per hour). So that’s 5+ hours of cruising for us today, let’s hope the sun shines for Tyrely Locks!