Quick {next boat} Update....

I did it! I broke the cardinal rule of looking at boats, I got attached and now it's a no go. Back to the drawing board. Ugh!

I'll admit it, we were enticed by that 40 footer with a great price, but even with its great price it was still pushing our budget beyond its max. We decided to use that blasted hindsight everyone's always talking about....so, we retracted our offer and walked away. 

On the flip side, we found a 36' that was about to be put on the market....saw it, liked it, swooped in and put in a more budget friendly offer on it! If this one goes through, then you'll get all the deets, but until then, I think it's best to keep things under wraps. Otherwise, the pity party might get a little extreme! Haha ;) 

Making progress....

Well, we wanted a bigger boat and we may have found one! Eek!! We've put in an offer on a forty footer....40', that's ten foot bigger than Irie was!!! :]

Last weekend our broker called and asked us to come and take a second look at a boat he had showed us before, because the price had recently been lowered and he thought it might work for us. I remembered that I had loved the galley in that boat and even though hubs wasn't overly thrilled with the brand, we went and gave it another look see....and, we decided it wasn't for us. Luckily, our broker was prepared for that {he knows us quite well} and was ready to show us another boat with a recent price drop as well! It was older and not bad, but also not for us. 

We then took another look at yet a third boat and loved it....only problem was, its price was still the same, no price drop and way over our budget...so, we walked away. Not exactly what we wanted to do, but we know what our budget is and we are confident that we do not want to be boat poor. It's absolutely wonderful living on a boat, but when you're too poor to do anything else, that's not so great. 

We hung out at the marina a little bit, saw some friends, went and had lunch at a new place and ran some errands. That night, we were back at the box when our broker messaged us and asked, "what if he could get the price down a little, would we be interested then?" Again, it was incredibly hard, but we said no. We knew it wouldn't be lowered enough to be in our budget, so as much as we want to get out of the box, we told the broker it wasn't going to work for us. 

Another hour went by and our phones dinged with a new message from the broker. He said the seller had agreed to accept an offer at 40K below the asking price and all we needed to do was come in and sign & submit the offer. The next morning we went up there and officially put in the offer, contingent of course on financing, but, if all goes well we will close at the end of the month and be back to living aboard!!! Yay! 

I'm sure by now you've noticed that I managed to write this whole blog post without mentioning any defining details about the boat, other than how long it is. I know, I know, you want to know everything now, but, I've got to keep something a secret until hopefully I can do a big reveal post! So, keep checking back and please keep your fingers crossed for us, as we are so ready to be back on a boat....our boat!! 

Until next time....

Boat shopping continues....

Just when I think we decide on a certain boat brand, we {and by we, I mean Joe....(okay, I do too a little bit) but it's mainly him} change our minds and go with something else! We both are desperately trying not to jump into a quick decision just because we are indeed desperate, but the clock is ticking before we wind up homeless, again!

A few of the boats we've looked at lately. 

At first we thought for sure we would buy another Catalina. Then we threw that out and decided on a Morgan Classic <---my favorite!! 😊 After finding none locally, we thought it might be better to find a boat near us so not to have to pay any extra charges (I.e. shipping/trucking the boat, hiring a captain or taking time to go get it & sail it back ourselves) all of which are added expenses to the purchase price of whatever boat we buy. 

Originally I wanted five things in my next boat:

1. Walk through transom 

2. Two separate cabins 

3. Usable counterspace in the galley

4. Double stainless steel sink in the galley

5. More overall storage

One & three were somewhat negotiable, but the others were basically must-have's. 

Then Joe went back to his love of true ocean going boats. Which are great for well, ocean going, but living aboard, not so much. Don't get me wrong, they really are great boats {most of them} they are just much much more narrower than I would prefer. And none of them meet my full criteria, basically I get the double sink and more storage. No walk through transoms on the older boats, usable counter space is sketchy and don't even get me started on the lack of cabins. 

When I think of an aft cabin, I'm thinking more along the lines of what a 2nd bedroom would be in a house....maybe more like a tiny house 2nd bedroom. But mainly, it would have an actual bed that sleeps two people, somewhat comfortably! However, the problem comes with most of these ocean-going boats only having a quarter berth and if you're real lucky, maybe a 3/8 of a berth..... Not exactly what I had pictured in my mind. .

 In all actuality though, I could probably do without most of my criteria. I mean I lived on a 30' boat for 14 months and quite frankly that was never what I had thought would happen, so maybe I just need a new picture in my head. Needless to say we are both going to have to come to some sort of compromise or even a few compromises, before we can decide on what boat to purchase. But really, it would also help if we fell into a nice loan too! Because if the boat is more than thirty years old, banks will not finance it and well, most of these ocean-going boats that is within our budget tend to lean on the older end of the spectrum. 

So that's where we are at right now. A lot of "I don't knows" and "we'll see's"!! Hopefully by my next post I'll have something more to tell you! 

Until then....

My cup runneth over....& boat shopping!!!

This week I went and spent time with 2 of my nieces!!! It was three days chocked full of fun times with two, super, sweet girlies!!! We went to the play place, played in the puddles, had a wagon ride to the lake, played in the sand {hence the picture above} saw family & friends and took a train ride through the park!!! So much fun.....I am going to miss these lil' misses when I leave!!! Love them so so much!!!! 

When the wife is away, the hubs buys a boat....well, not yet, but he's thinking about it! Today, I was talking to Joe on the phone and he asked, "remember when I bought our Catalina and you didn't know anything about it?" I said yes & asked if it was going to happen again and then there was a long pause......I then asked, if it has already happened? So far, he hasn't made any purchases!!! But, he's been looking and has us scheduled to see some boats as soon as I get back in town!!! It appears we have next boat fever and I bet it won't be long before we trade up to bigger & better!!!

I head back tomorrow and pick up 2 of my nephews on the way!!! They will be staying with us for the next few days!!! We are so blessed to have so many kiddos in our life....I like to think of us as a cool aunt & uncle, of course, I'm sure, it helps that we live on a boat!!! 

Now, if only the rest of our nieces & nephews can come stay with us...hint, hint!!! ; )