We’ve been blogging about all things Narrowboats for over two years now! Admittedly with a few hiatuses, but that equals a lot of posts, and a lot of knowledge about Narrowboats, or at least what we have learnt in two years. But two years of blogs is a lot! Especially for anyone who’s new to the blog, in fact that means over 100,000 of my drivelling words, that’s a lot to search through if you’re just interested in reading about the purchasing process and not my weekend away or killer hangover!
This post looks to change that! I’ve tried to bundle together all the essentials, a go to if you will, on the must knows, and an easy point of reference to navigate from without the need to delve through two years of ramblings.
I’ve tried to group blogs on certain topics together. So whether you’re trying to understand the purchasing process, pondering layouts or just want some organisation and space saving ideas, you should be able to get a selection of our blogs on the topics straight from the index below!
I hope it helps, because I do notice that people spend a lot of time navigating our home page, perhaps for 2019 I’ll look to update our blog layout! Which is terrifying, but it might help with navigation a bit! Let me know what you think.
We’ve included eight topics in this post, with easy click throughs to our other blogs!
- Are narrowboats the answer to living mortgage free?
- The pros and cons of living on a narrowboat.
- How to choose and find your perfect narrowboat
- How much do narrowboats cost?
- Narrowboat layout and designs.
- Living in a small space, how to stay organised and clutter free.
- What is a life aboard really like?
- Are narrowboats cold?
Are narrowboats the answer to living mortgage free?
You see a lot of Sunday evening TV series dedicated purely to the notion of living mortgage free, tapping into Monday morning dread perfectly! Narrowboats are increasingly being presented as a mortgage free option in both these shows, and the media more broadly. There are shows that do this really badly (Read about them here) and shows which represent it quite well (Read about them here and here). We recently reached a milestone on the road to mortgage freedom (Read about it here), but we are not sure that life aboard is being that well represented, and are less convinced that it is the answer to mortgage free living (Read why here).
You can follow the links in the paragraph above, or for a quick overview of the blogs we have written which cover mortgage free living you can follow the title links below!
How to live mortgage free thanks to the delusional Mrs Beeny
Can you live on a narrowboat mortgage free George Clarkes Amazing Spaces
A mortgage free milestone can you live on a narrowboat mortgage free?
How to live mortgage free, are narrowboats the answer?
The pros and cons of living on a narrowboat
I’ve always been conscious about trying to balance our blogs to show a true representation of life aboard, the good the bad and the awful. Not long into our time aboard we wrote our first views on the pros and cons of narrowboat life (You can read them here). As time went on and we got more settled into boat life we were better able to establish the cons (You can read them here). Towards the end of 2018 I decided to release a few insight blogs, which gave you a weekly insight into one pro and one con for each week, you can follow the links below to them.
You can follow the links in the paragraph above, or for a quick overview of the blogs we have written which cover the pros and cons of living on a narrowboat you can follow the title links below!
The pros and cons of living on a narrowboat
What are the real cons of living on a narrowboat?
The pros and cons of life aboard a narrowboat week 1, week 2, week 3, week 4
How to choose and find your perfect narrowboat
So, once you’ve decided a life aboard could be for you how the heck do you go about finding your perfect narrowboat? Well there is a lot to consider, firstly did you know a narrowboat isn’t just a narrowboat (You can read about them here). Just because you’ve decided boat life is for you doesn’t mean you don’t need to consider what you want from your boat (You can read about building your check list here). A lot of people will tell you you’ll know your boat when you get on her, it’s something we didn’t believe until it happened (You can read about it here). But where do you even look for a boat? (Read our recommendations here). Looking back recently we compiled our five top tips when buying your first narrowboat (Read it here).
You can follow the links in the paragraph above, or for a quick overview of the blogs we have written which cover choosing and finding your perfect narrowboat you can follow the title links below!
Turns out a narrowboat isn’t just a narrowboat
You’ll know your narrowboat when you get on her
Buying a narrowboat, where we looked when starting our boat hunt
Five top tips when buying your first narrowboat
How much do narrowboats cost?
How much does a narrowboat cost has to be one of the hardest questions to answer, spending and opinions on spending is such a personal thing, when we first started looking costs were something we invested a lot of time looking into (You can read about our investigations here). Of course you never really know until you’re living it, so we were sure to update on our view of costs (You can read the update here). Once you’ve found your boat purchasing isn’t always easy, we went down the route of marine finance (You can read about that here) and quickly discovered it’s somewhat of a minefield (You can worry yourself with that here). You’ll still always be asked how much a ‘good narrowboat costs, and that’s one of the most impossible questions to answer (Read why here).
You can follow the links in the paragraph above, or for a quick overview of the blogs we have written which cover the costs involved with a narrowboat you can follow the title links below!
How much does a narrowboat cost?
So how much does a narrowboat cost, spending update
Narrowboat finance, financing a dream
Marine finance the minefield that is
How much does a good narrowboat cost?
Narrowboat layout and designs
When we found our wonderful Fantine we had some pretty grand plans for revising the layout (Read about them here). We then spent about six days carrying out light cosmetic changes to our boat before moving aboard (Follow the links below to view our weekly progress). As our time aboard progressed we made more changes to Fantine and now have some quite big renovations planned for later in the year, you can follow the links below by title to view all of our plans and progress to date.
You can follow the links in the paragraph above, or for a quick overview of the blogs we have written which cover narrowboat layout and designs you can follow the title links below!
Narrowboat renovation day one, two, three, four, five
Narrowboat extension cratch time
Cratch covers, narrowboat extension
Home improvements, that’s what bank holidays are all about
Stormy waters narrowboat kitchens
Deck the halls narrowboat renovations
I’m dreaming of a white kitchen, how to make the kitchen work on a narrowboat
Narrowboat renovations, hello new floor
Narrowboat interiors, a look through the porthole
Living in a small space, how to stay organised and clutter free
Some of you may of not realised you’ve landed on a blog all about narrowboats! A lot of the content in our blogs applies to more than just narrowboats. I talk a lot about space, stuff and organisation, which applies to a lot of homes and lifestyles! You can follow the title links below for lots of handy tips on organisation, small space living and how to survive with less stuff!
The constraints of narrowboat living, what are you going to do with all of your things?
Where do all of your clothes go on a narrowboat
The big declutter how to live on a narrowboat
I see clutter, living in a small space
18 Months of a clutter free life, space constraints on a narrowboat
Simple storage ideas and solutions, make the most of your storage a three step guide
How to make living in a small space more bearable
What is a life aboard really like?
So you’ve done it, you’ve jumped through all the hoops and have found your perfect floating home! What’s life actually like aboard? We settled into life aboard quite quickly (You can read about it here), but despite this a lot changes, and often things that you don’t expect to change (You can read about them here). There are times when you simply can’t contain how wonderful life aboard is (You can read about it here) and other times when you’re snowed under with boat chores (You can read about them here). But ultimately it’s home, and once you settle into life aboard it really does start to feel like that (You can read about it here).
You can follow the links in the paragraph above, or for a quick overview of the blogs we have written which cover the truth of life aboard you can follow the title links below!
Narrow living, making a life aboard
10 things that change when you own a narrowboat
The beauty of narrow living, warning contains graphic boasting
What’s it like to live on a narrowboat, the chores
Does it feel like home? Narrowboat living
Are narrowboats cold?
I mean I couldn’t really write an everything you need to know blog without mentioning the killer question, the one you will be asked more than anything you’ve ever known, are narrowboats cold? You will get sick to the back teeth of this question, but people will ask it anyway, and people will never quite believe you if you say no. We’ve had serious battles with our stove, although we seem to of settled on a happy middle ground currently.
Follow the title links below to discover that in fact there are times when boats are cold, there are times when they are quite the opposite, and boat life affects your relationship with the weather more than you could imagine.
The stoves have ears! Are narrowboats cold?
The average person spends 5 months of their life talking about the weather, storms and narrowboats
Are narrowboats cold? The night the fire didn’t work
Are narrowboats cold? Yes we really are going to talk about this again
Another year another winter, getting ready for winter aboard a narrowboat
So there you have it! A definitive guide of the blogs we have created on some of the key questions that bring people to our site! Hopefully this will make navigating to what you’re looking for a little easier, whilst I toy with the idea of a new layout.
James & Kirsty
I would love to live on a narrowboat. That statement is based on many years holiday hire. Even though we have done Hatton Flight in every weather imaginable, I feel that I do look at that kind of life through the wrongful kind of spectacles. So, for the moment I am living the life through your blog and several YouTube channels plus Twitter. Thanks for sharing your life through your blog 😊
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