Big changes coming our way

So far, the changes are merely thoughts, but I'm sure it's close to being a big change to the way we liveaboard. Anyone who has been following us for even a day, knows that our current boat is not our forever boat! After selling our first boat we had hoped to buy the boat we would stay on forever and go cruising on, but we just didn't find what we were looking for.  And after being homeless for two months and coming along this boat at a great price, we dove head first into our second Catalina. Don't get me wrong, we love our boat, but we knew when we bought her she was merely going to tide us over until we found the one we really wanted. 

What is it that we really want, you ask? Well, the answer is a bit tricky, but I will tell you what qualities we are looking for in our forever boat!

We want a true ocean-going boat. A boat that you could sail around the world in {if we ever decided to do that...way, way down the road or ocean lane} and we want that boat to be paid for by the time we leave, so basically, we need to find a needle in a haystack or a fixer upper. 

The only way to get a well-built boat at a cheap price is to find one that needs a lot of work. Think of it like this:

(*We read somewhere about the above diagram where the three options were: build quality, cheap price & speed of boat. But for my illustration, I'm using move-in ready in place of boat speed.)

Pick any two items that are/would be most important to you. Whatever item you didn't choose is the one you will (most likely) sacrifice, in order to gain the two you don't want to budge on. Lets say you want a move-in ready boat that is well built, chances are, it's not going to be cheap! So in our case, we want a well-built boat at a super cheap price, which means we most certainly are not going to find a boat that doesn't require work to be done. The only good thing about that equation is the fact that we will be doing most, if not all the work ourselves. Yeah, I know what you're  thinking, how is that good? I've thought the same thing! The repairs won't cost us as much, because we won't be paying for someone else's labor. Plus, hubs can do anything and he's good at it, no shortcuts! The downside however, comes when I tell you we will be living on it while we are doing the work. My hopes are that we can find something by fall so that the renovations can begin right around the time winter rolls in, when we are already stuck inside hibernating from the cold air. We are so not cold-weather sailors! 

We've taken on this challenge before, but somehow, I think it is going to be way more different than when we lived in our house while we gutted and reno'd the dining room, living room & kitchen. The good thing is, we both like to have projects to work on...and oh, what a project this will be!! 

At least I won't fall into a lull of blog posts! ;)