In desperate need of a holiday

A month has gone already? Yep indeed it has. What have we achieved? Some
things but definitely not all we had wished, but we are working on that.
The plan was to get all our belongings out of storage, this we did. Despite
a few broken and damaged items, insurance company paying out on those, we
have all our worldly goods with us again, just got to get rid on most of
them now!
We had some friends stay with us for a week, Kevin and Libby that we met in
Sicily, and they were a great help with doing some decorating and also
helping us at a local car boot sale. Well more of a motorhome garage sale
really. We loaded up their motorhome garage with quite a few boxes, and
piled the rest inside. It was a good day and we made £140 after costs. We
shifted about half of the stuff and we will do another when we get another
nice dry Sunday, this time it will have to fit in Noddy but it should do, we
hope.
Most of the house has now been patched up and redecorated apart from the
lounge that is floor to ceiling with furniture. The outside jobs have mostly
been done and the rest will be finished shortly. It helps that the weather
has not been too bad here recently despite all the bad floods elsewhere in
the country. We had a couple of unexpected jobs to tackle, a problem with
central heating and a leaking shower, but we have sorted those out now. It
does help having time on our hands so that we can do all the jobs ourselves.
The main problem we face at the moment, well one of them, is selling the
furniture that we can't hold on to. Some furniture and other goods are being
distributed around the family but we still have some large pieces to try and
sell. The trouble is that expensive solid dark oak furniture is just not
what people want at the moment. We have tried private, and also spoken to
auction houses but the word is that we might be only able to sell it for a
very low price. The plan was to not have anything left to go back into
storage but at the moment we might end up with a few things that we would
rather keep than just 'give away'. Anyway we shall have to see what we can
do.
The other main headache is what to do with the property. We have owned it
for 3 years and it has been rented out for the last two. We are quite happy
to rent it out again, but with rising mortgage costs it may prove
financially unworkable so we may be forced to sell it. We have had a couple
of valuations this week for selling it and we will be punching numbers over
the next few days to reach a decision hopefully by the weekend. Who says you
don't get stressed if you don't work!
Apart from all of the above we are of course trying to work out our next
move in the 'travelling' game. We have a few options but the most likely are
either to take Noddy to Portugal for the winter or venture further and jet
down to South Africa to catch up with everyone there. So despite the humdrum
goings on of sorting out our lives here we still have exciting short term
plans to look forward to.
Anyway, back to the grind!
Ciao
M&S

Its good to be back!?!

Well, we have been back in the UK for just under two weeks now, and I think
it has rained for 80% of the time. Not that we are complaining, we have been
very lucky compared with so many other people around the country where there
has been bad flooding. I think living in Noddy is definitely a good thing at
times like this as we can pick and chose where we want to be, and near a
river / reservoir is not top of the list!
It has been a busy time for us and is set to get even busier. A nice
relaxing weekend at my brothers to start of with, well relaxing as far as
one can with a young niece and nephew running circles around you, not that
we are complaining, just wish we were a bit fitter! Then it has been house
clearance time at my Mum's. With a move of house not too far in future we
have had to clear 30 years or so of 'antiques' from the loft, bedrooms, and
garage. Thankfully it is all done now, well all apart from a few 'small'
bits and bobs.
It is all good practice for the mayhem that will be our brief return back to
our house in Bournemouth. We move back in this coming Saturday, and then get
all our stuff from storage delivered on the Monday, and then the real fun
begins! We are just hoping there is enough space left in the house for us to
move around in! Our aim is to sell and give away everything in about 6 weeks
so that we can rent the property out again at the start of September, eek.
If we meet all of our objectives then we really will be travellers / trailer
trash, or whatever you wish to call us as all our worldly possessions will
be with us in Noddy! Well except for the odd thing that we will be giving /
lending to family whilst we are still in the travelling game, and which we
will try and reclaim at some point in the future, if we can!
After Bournemouth who knows, we don't at the moment. We have several ideas,
but nothing firm yet. We will try and get a plan together in the next month
or two. So, keep an eye out, we may just pop up on your doorstep, wherever
you are!

Ciao

M&S