Here's a further update as to where we are and what going on.

Following gaining possession of our house back we carried out several refurbishment jobs, the main one's being re-decorating rooms including the kitchen, Study & Nathaniel’s old bedroom. We have also tided the garden and re-painted some of the render on the outside of the house.

We placed the house back on the rental market. Only to find that whilst rentals in London are going like hot cakes, out in leafy Hertfordshire the market was slow if not dead. Over about 4 weeks we had just one viewing!

Following Jackie finishing her job, We had to give up the flat which left us with no other option than to move back into the house. Not wanting to get all the stuff out of storage (typical all the big stuff, Beds, Tables, Chairs were placed in first so are at the back and under tons of boxes) we moved in and have been 'Camping at home' since. We cleaned and moved in the plastic garden furniture into the house so had something to sit and eat off. Also borrowing a mattress from a friend to lay on the floor in the bedroom. In doing so, we have only been living in about three rooms in the house whilst the rest has been left empty. Reminiscent of old student digs.

Things got worse when Pete decided to stand on the plastic table to paint a ceiling and successfully managed to smash up the table, Cut his foot & bash his head in a fall. So now we have no table to sit at either!

We thought we had it all sorted when one Saturday a family came viewed the house and were very enthusiastic about renting it. The girls were even arguing as to who would have which bedroom. Sunday we allowed ourselves the luxury of thinking we were going back to the boat. Even starting to look up what flights were available. Monday saw us crash back down to earth when the agent informed us the family had withdrawn the offer and were going to rent in the nearby town instead. This hit us rather hard and we were quite down for several days, thinking we would never get back on-board Argonauta. This feeling was compounded by e-mails from friends we made over the winter at the marina in Spain saying they were leaving and starting their adventures again.

Reluctantly we dropped the asking price but even this initially did not seem to drive any more people through the door. With May-Day coming up (The biggest event in the villages yearly calender), we decided we had to use the opportunity to promote the house. We had T-Shirts printed and then spent the afternoon distributing 200 leaflets to people.

We now have a potential tenant who is interested in renting the house and are currently getting credit referencing done (we have to ensure we don’t go through the same thing again with another bad tenant). So far all looks good. However we are not counting our chickens just yet, in case it all falls through. But if we get the paperwork all sorted this week we could be booking flights next week 'fingers crossed' .

Watch this space! Hopefully the next Blog will come from Spain......................