NO MORE TRICKS IT’S TIME FOR A TREAT…………!

We are now entering week eight and it was at this point that we were hoping to be moving up to our daughters in Pontrhydyfen, but like most plans nothing ever goes as smoothly as you would like them to.

The new buyer’s contracts have still to come through and we are keeping our fingers crossed that this will be the week that they arrive, especially as we are now sitting in an ever emptying property. The young couple purchasing from us are no doubt as restless as ourselves for some movement, as they have purchased their new furniture and will want some where to put it before too long.

The gentleman who was going to purchase our caravan has emailed me since my last post and has withdrawn from the sale. Fortunately that’s not going to be too much of an inconvenience as he will be missing out on a bargain, especially as Bailey have just announced a price hike of over £400 on the Pegasus range and with the new Vat increase coming in the New Year plus the new tax on flights I can’t see our caravan being up for sale long.

Thankfully Trevor the owner of the motor home informed me today that he will hang on to the RV for us for a while longer, though he must be getting fed up of my constant email requests for information about different technical aspects of the RV.

As I’m a newcomer to RV’s I keep finding things out that I need to be on the ball about, so no doubt I will be picking poor Trevor’s brains for a while longer yet (be patient with me Trev).

We completed another Car Boot today (Kay’s getting a bit fed up with them now) but I reminded her that each one fills the coffers and empties the house a bit more so it’s less to go into storage. With the countdown for Christmas coming I’m glad the house is emptying as fast as it is, so that we will only need two weeks maximum to be up and out.

My eldest daughter now has my old PC and I’ve now transferred all that we need onto the lap top. I’ve yet to choose the dongle for the mobile broadband and I have loads of sites and people that I needed to notify of our change of forthcoming postal and email addresses.

Well the front doorbell hasn’t stopped ringing tonight as there are far too many ghouls and ghosts paying a visit, anybody would think it was Halloween?

More Anon

Waiting and Waiting and Wai…….

OK we’ve had enough now where is the bleeding contract? Time is dragging its feet a bit too slowly and we know it’s no fault of the buyers of the old house as they have completed their part but solicitors and bankers work at speeds that would make a snail cry.

We completed yet another car boot last Sunday, not as profitable as some of the previous ones but it still helped to fill up the coffers a bit more.

The annoying part of this waiting is that it’s affecting others, the gentleman waiting to purchase our Caravan and the seller of the Motor home. To be fair both have said they will hold on until we are ready but I now want to get moving. Christmas is getting closer and our deadline of leaving the old homestead will be here in six days.

Our youngest has already told us not to panic as the room we will be moving into is ready but you know what it’s like you build your hopes up and then end up lingering on for some faceless minion to pull his or her finger out.

Some more pictures of the Motor home

Right hand side

Inside front

Bed

Bedroom Cupboards

Shower tub

Through to Bedroom

I bet Kay can't wait to put her touches to the rooms, I have plans for updating both TV's with flat screen LCD ones and the installation of a large solar panel on the roof. thats why time is dragging on for us both we want to get to work preparing our new home.

We'll just have to be patient for a bit longer......hang on was that the post man?......... Whooosh

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Our Potential New Home

On Thursday Kay and I took a long long journey down the M4, round the M25 and up the A12 past Chelmsford where we took a much needed overnight stop at the Rivenhall Hotel just north of Witham.

I can defiantly recommend this as a place to stop for the night. The rooms were clean and warm, the service efficient and friendly. The appearance of the place is more akin to a motel, but don't let that put you off stopping here, as there is also a health spa with swimming pool, it's free for guests to use and the full English breakfast was excellent.
The price for a nights stopover with breakfast was very reasonable and I noticed a good few truckers use this hotel (thats always a good sign).

I must admit I found the bed too soft for my taste and hotel pillows never seem right for me as I'm too used to my own (I must remember to pack it next time) Kay moaned as I tend to fidget if I'm not comfortable. I felt like the Princess and the Pea tossing and turning until tiredness sent me off to the land of nod.
The following day we headed north again passing Colchester, Flatford Mill (Constable country) Caple St Mary where I did some oil painting a few years ago (Sorry Sue didn't have time to drop in) and then Ipswich. We refueled at the Tesco's at Martlesham Heath and eventually stopped at a lay-bye and toilets near Wrentham. Here I telephoned Trevor (the gentleman who owned the RV) to let him know that we were not too far away.
He informed me he knew the place where we had stopped and not to linger, as this was known locally as the Gay Bar, a known haunt of The Gay community, needless to say we were away very quickly.

We met Trevor the RV's owner at his works unit and he showed us all over and under the RV (a huge pit enabled me to give it a good look at the chassis.) It ticked a lot of box's on what we were looking for and the condition was first class. For a 2005 American RV it looked brand new it was obvious that he'd  spent a lot of time keeping it good condition. The RV had only done 7600 miles and had been garaged since new.

If you click on the pictures below you will get a larger image.

The R Vision Trail Light 281

Front

Rear

Interior and slide out

In its storage unit

We met his good lady Maureen and we enjoyed a refreshing lunch with them before sadly it was time to head back home. This time we headed east over to Norwich on A416 then down the A11 past Thetford, Cambridge and then on to the A14 which lead us to the M6 / M1 Junction north of Rugby.
By now the sun was setting and traffic was horrendous, we had met with traffic hold ups due to an earlier accident and the rush hour.
We managed to get a meal break at the Corley services on the M6 then it was off again down the M42 around to the M5 and eventually to a rest halt at the Strensham services. Then the last leg home down the M50. A40 /A449 and the M4 back home.
We arrived home at eleven o'clock at night with eyes that felt they were on stalks and after a round trip of 626 miles we were only too glad to hit the sack.

P.S. Its taken us two days to recover...........

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Patience, Patience

It’s getting harder to be patient as we both want to get a move on, there’s still no sign of the contracts yet, but we know how banks and solicitors like to drag their feet. Even the young couple who are buying our house have said how frustrating it is as I think they would like to be in their new home before Christmas.

I have a gentleman waiting patiently to purchase our Caravan so no doubt he’s wondering what’s going on. On the positive side our youngest has been great as she and her husband have prepared the spare rooms for us and last Sundays Car Boot was a great success so needless to say the old coffers are looking healthy again after the car bill.

We have seen a nice RV for sale that’s some distance away and we are planning to go and view it as it ticks nearly all the box’s of what were looking for, It doesn’t tick every box but then we knew that in something’s there would have to be a compromise.

We have more stuff to go into storage and even more stuff for next Sundays Car Boot so we’re not letting time go by idly.

We both attended a funeral yesterday of a close relative and at the wake lots of the family were talking about our plans. Most thought we were very brave and would love to do the same; others no doubt think were mad but hay ho what’s a dream if you don’t try to make it come true.

Nightmares? Well we’ll let you know about those as we go on our way.

Kay’s resurrected a bendy Animal doll that I used to have hanging on my drum kit years ago and plans to take a photo of him at each location we visit and post them on here so that should be amusing.

Anyway back to sorting and packing

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The dreaded VAT increase

It’s strange how the government works out taxation or is it?

You buy something you pay Vat on it, you sell it later to a dealer who then sells it on again and charges the next owner Vat again. That owner then sells the same item on again to another dealer who then sells it on yet again and the next purchaser pays Vat. So the government gets Tax from every purchaser as long as it is sold via a dealer but NOT if it’s a private sale or via commission.

The dealer can charge two ways he can charge you full Vat on the whole price or only on the profit they make from that sale. It depends on how they keep their records. There is no obligation for the dealer to tell the customer at the outset which method of Vat they are using. So it’s best to ask the dealer which method of Vat he is using prior to the purchase it may save you some cash.

No doubt there will be a big rush for people to buy before the Vat increase in the New Year. So would it be better to buy a second hand motor home or caravan privately and avoid the Vat in the first place.

Will dealers absorb the Vat rise?   Hmmm…. Don’t think so.

Will the government stop robbing us blind?   Hmmm….Don’t think so.

Will there ever be an honest politician?   Hmmm…..Pig's might Fly.

On a positive note the new buyers came and measured up yesterday so it looks as if everything is going through OK at their end, so we are still waiting for the call to go and exchange contracts.

Guess what we’re doing this Sunday?

You got it CAR BOOT,

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Twiddling our thumbs

Its now got to that point were time seems to be standing still. We've completed yet another fruitful Car Boot sale last Sunday and we're waiting patiently for the letter or phone call to go exchange contracts.
The deadline that was given to us by the estate agents of last Tuesday the 5th isn't really adhered to by the banks and solicitors, a phone call today informed us that the buyers are waiting for the final go ahead from their bank, so it's down to a waiting game at the moment.




Still it gives us more time to root through the cupboards, to dig out more Car Booty and to check on the Internet for some possible motor homes that may be coming available.

On Saturday we moved a few boxes of memorabilia down to the storage complex  which means the bedrooms are now looking quite empty, but this now gives us the space to organize ourselves into what will go to our youngest daughters with us and what will go into box's for the Motor home.

The downside is that the end of the month is approaching and our self imposed date of departing by the first of November is looking less and less likely. It could mean that it will be the middle or end of November before we depart the house.
My eldest will inherit my PC, scanner and printer which will leave us with the laptop and we hope to purchase an all in one Wi-Fi printer scanner for the RV to save space, as I said previously everything will need to do more that one job space is at a premium in an RV.

This waiting gives us visions of being left stranded like two waifs and strays in the middle of winter with no where to stay. Ohh well after all this car boot business, I suppose we could start selling matches.

only 5p mate

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Viewing some potential Motor homes.

What a day! We left at nine o'clock and it took one and a half hours to drive up to Freedom motor homes just north of Gloucester, there to view some big American RV's.
At least the car had a good test to check out any problems after its repair and thankfully it went great guns so thumbs up to A&S Auto repairs, your mechanics may not be the cleanest on the block but they know their stuff.

Andy the proprietor showed us around some of the units in his stock.
Below are the units we viewed that seemed to fit what we are looking for these were.........

2006 Thor Hurricane- 30F

2007 Holiday Rambler Arista

2008 Fourwinds Windsport 31D

2006 Coachmen Mirada

Only the 2008 Windsport ticked most of the box's that we were after, like double glazed windows, fully winterized with loads of storage and a Petrol / LPG conversion with long range LPG tanks.
The layout was fairly close to what we were looking for but the main downside was that the toilet and shower area was not isolated and Kay felt very unhappy with this as it lacked a great deal of privacy.


We're going to visit other dealers this month as well to view their stocks first and if nothing fits what we're looking for we could always make an offer that if the price was lower on the Windsport then we could afford to have this section redesigned.


We stopped off for a really tasty meal just a few yards down the road at the Oakwood restaurant in Twigworth. The food and great and it was very good value as they offer a two meals for ten pounds and the service provided was first class.
The weather was nice and sunny as we traveled through the forest of Dean full of autumn colour so we decided to stop off for a coffee break at the picturesque town of Ross on Wye. We spent a couple of hours walking around the old town and strolling by the river, just wish I'd remembered to pack the camera. 

Ross on Wye

So now we're back home safe and sound and planning our next trip.

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Easy Come Easy Go, how to get rid of a load of Dosh.

On Monday lunchtime we collected the car and parted with a shed load of money (OUCH again), how come mechanics have no idea of how to tidy up after themselves,  I spent the rest of the day cleaning it so that it now looks spic and span and ready for our coming trips to view our potential new home, fingers crossed.
Alas it wasn't ready for last Sunday's Car Boot which thankfully, due to the terrible weather, was undercover and Gav the son-in-law was ace again by letting us use his car (Thanks Gav).







Nice car shame about the bill (turns out the water pump had seized which lead to the timing belt snapping, luckily I was virtually at a halt and that saved it from being a much bigger problem.)

We spotted a new creature that seems to hover around Car Boot sales called the Lesser Spotted eBay gatherer. This was in the form of a certain young woman who scooted from stall to stall with ever increasingly larger plastic bags of shoes and clothes.
We were reliably informed that these items later went on eBay at much inflated prices, what some people will do to make money, like doing Car Boot sales LOL.
The cash raised certainly helped after the big bill so now it's all go for organizing the storage of what we intend to keep for later life.

Some of the larger items have departed like the spare double bed so the house is starting to look quite bare. Kay's bitting her fingernails to the bone as things are not moving fast enough for her, I do try to remind her that we have lots more clutter to get rid of so its more Car boot sales yet.

Today we are supposed to be exchanging contracts but it looks as if there is a slight hold up on the buyers side (solicitors take their time) so we hope to hear more in the week.

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