The start of our new home

We have been searching the country, trailing the web, reading the magazines since March in order to find the home of our dreams.
It started with a silly little comment, just after we had dropped the daughter of to Uni. "Well, now all the kids have grown up and left home - might as well sell up and live on a boat!!!". Within a couple of weeks, we had started to research properly. We had secured a mooring and starting to go into things in a little more depth, especially with regard the cost.
By May the house was up for sale and we started to prepare ourselves for a move. By August we had started to empty the loft, either give away to charity, sell or even just give away years worth of possessions. Then things started to get hectic, the sale of the house was agreed and we needed to find a boat.
After many months of searching, we found the boat of our dreams. We had been on board so many, some were great but beyond our pocket, others were just dogs and not worth the water they sat on. As soon as we got on the Emperor, we just knew! She felt solid, no smell on damp, just a little neglected. We both knew she was the one for us. We had planned for us to look at another couple of boats the next day and I had said, if she is still there tomorrow - she is meant to be ours. When we drove away and stopped for a drink and a meal, she was on our mind all the time, so we decided to put our offer in. The first offer wasn't accepted but the second was, so we went back the next day and put our deposit down.
The next few months were just hard work. Selling a house is stressful enough, but downsizing a huge 3 bedroomed place, full of years of kids growing-up is another matter. I have never been through such a stressful experience, worrying about the kids, worrying about all out stuff, worrying about the boat and out new life.
During this time we had to cope with my husband losing his mother to cancer, our eldest graduating, a weekend away due to a company function, all within weeks of actually getting the boat.
The Emporer failed her survey and had to have some hull work and a few minor things done, but at the time it feels like a huge weight on your shoulders, and actually getting the completion of the house timed to the completion of the boat purchase and given us both grey hairs - but we here now and would like to tell you more!!