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Well hello friends! Long time no see! I'm technically still in my blogging hiatus period but I wanted to provide a brief life update explaining where I've gone and why I haven't written for the past few weeks.
If you follow us on Instagram, you will have noticed some rumblings regarding our purchasing a liveaboard yacht here in Washington, D.C. Well I am here to confirm these rumors! Mark and I are in the process of closing on a 1988 Carver yacht at Gangplank Marina, one of the largest liveaboard boat communities on the East Coast.
Why, you ask? Two main reasons: 1) renting or purchasing property in DC is astronomically expensive and 2) we own a pitbull, which dramatically reduced the properties we could even consider. Thankfully, the marina could care less what kind of dog we own! We spent several months weighing the pros and cons of liveaboard life and decided that we really wanted to give it a try while we're young and still childless. After all, you only live once right?
However, as it turns out, buying a liveaboard boat is one of the most complicated things you will ever do. It makes buying a house look like a walk in the park. After the recession, many lending and housing rules changed, thus preventing marine lenders from being able to loan to liveaboards. I could count on one hand the number of banks that will lend to a liveaboard. To compound the issue, many of those banks have dreadful customer service. Including the one we're using. Let me just say that our original closing date was May 9th.... We're now almost into June and just now getting the final paperwork.
At this point, you're probably asking "Wait, didn't your house sell on April 29th?" Why yes! Yes it did! We have been bouncing all over the state, staying with family and friends in the interim. Thank goodness for our loved ones! At present, since closing seems to actually be happening soon, the boat owner has allowed us to pay a deposit and semi move on board. While I'm still nervous until everything goes through completely, we at least have a place to stay and are getting used to the movements and sounds of the boat. Meanwhile, Solo is in love with boat life-- I'm pretty sure he thinks he is captain.
See what I mean?
We're certainly not "out of the woods" yet-- but I hope that in a few weeks, all of this hassle will just be a memory! Once the documents are all signed, I imagine I will deflate with relief. And hopefully see the end of the stomach ulcers this stressful situation has caused!
Keep us in your thoughts over the next few days!
I will write again once everything is finalized!
So... we might sell our house and go live on a boat.
Wait, what? No you read that right, friend.
Last week, Mark and I seriously discussed what we wanted to do with our lives. Did we want to keep living in Frederick, where housing is somewhat cheaper, but Mark's DC commute is a beast. Or, did we want to pay a little more for housing and have more time together everyday? There are so many pros and cons to this decision. We own our home here in Frederick, and as you know, we've put a ton of money and effort into renovating it over the past three years. So the decision to just "up and move" would not be easy. Not to mention, cost of living in our nation's capitol is much higher. And to make matters even more complicated, finding housing with a pitbull presents its own unique challenge. Yet money isn't everything. And a home is more than a house.
After a long heart-felt discussion, we decided to take the plunge and move on to our next adventure.
So, this weekend we met with a realtor to discuss the worth of our home. We've decided to place this little old beauty on the market and hopefully this summer will move to DC.
Now that brings me to the boat part. Remember this post from a few weeks ago? Well, we've since done extensive research on liveaboards-- sailboats, power yachts, houseboats. While we know that decision has its pros and cons, we've decided to give it a try. We found a boat we really like at Gangplank Marina and are in the process of negotiating a contract contingent upon inspection and the sale of our home. Funnily enough, the boat interior has more room than the average DC studio or one bedroom apartment. A bonus perk: the marina has no breed restrictions. Score!
What's next? This week, we'll meet again with the realtor and a photographer to collect the photographs for our home's listing. Then, it's just a waiting game. Ideally, we would love to move to DC by summertime, but of course we don't know what the future brings.
Right now, we plan to take each day as it comes, remembering that what's meant to be, will be.
