Current "status" - March 2009

It's been several months now since we started on our journey closer to the boat. We arrived in Denmark late January. We knew before we got into Ulf's place we would have some work to finish before we could put it on the market and fund our boat...

Here's the current status of life:
1. We have several larger projects to finish before we feel comfortable placing Ulf's place on the market. As expected, the real-estate market has really slowed here. In Ulf's building (10 units) there are 2 other units current on the market, and have been for some months. We are hoping/banking on a few things. First, that if the place is in good shape there are several features that will help it sell itself (Ulf has done some work on the living room with sweet brick walls that make it quite unique), and that if we have it priced right and fix the right things it will sell quickly. Second, we are hoping for a slight upsurge in peoples' feelings about the state of the economy; perhaps this is wishful thinking! We hope to post during a slight market upturn (cross your fingers for us!!!) (Pseduo-complete project list: sprucing up kitchen deatils - ideally we would rehaul a lot of stuff - but for the cost/payback ratio just making the kitchen clearly funcational will work; finishing living room walls - make brick look nice; fix up living room floor - general maintance; fix awsome crown molding in livingroom; get some good & cheap lighting for a few rooms; bathroom improvements.)

2. Not so secretly, I'm getting hooked on living here, in this apartment! Life really is not so bad here. I think both of us have our own reasons for enjoying being here: Ulf for his friends; me for the language classes (I'm really enjoying them!), making new friends, and getting to live in such an "exotic" place. I have always dreamed about coming to live in Ulf's place here... and when we were in the US discussing how to finance the boat of course his place was really only a distanct place (and therefore ok to sell). But, now that I've lived here I feel like I could stay several years, no problem! Yet, there is the pesky problem that if we stay we need to sooner rather than later find some money to finance ourselves and balance that with the sailing dream.

3. Looking at boats. We haven't physically seen any boats since our visit to Key West back in Oct. But, Ulf (and me to a small extent) has been doing research online. The market for boat buyers right now it looking good! Boat are getting cheap! I think the price has dropped about 50%, maybe more in the past year or so. The best boats (price to quality ratio) do sell quickly, but they are there at a reasonable. And, since it's important to us to keep Danish residency status, it's important that the boat be approved for sailing in Europe... and ideally that it has paid the taxes already in Europe. And... given the state of the economies in Spain and Britian, that is getting easier to find comperable prices in the EU as in the US. This is SO sweet for us! Now if only we had the $ to finance a boat with! ;)

I've been planning/meaning to post about a few books I've read about sailing. They have influenced some of our early thinking about how to emotionally and physically prepare for living on the boat (without much attention to the more technical details). Hopefully I'll find the right words for one of those posts soon!

Meanwhile... should anyone need a European Vacation - it looks like we'll be around for a few more months. We could sure use a hand with finishing off projects in this place ;)

PS... any suggestions on what makes you decide to or not to buy a place are also welcome.

Arrival in Denmark

Just under a week ago Ulf and I arrived in Denmark. It feels good, but unsettled so far, without any rhythm to our days. We spent the first few days in Copenhagen getting practical things accomplished. Then spent the weekend in Aarhus with Ulf's family. And now are back in Copenhagen for a few days before heading to Amsterdam for a long weekend.

We have quite a bit of work to do on Ulf's apartment to get it ready to sell, and aren't living there quite yet. But, hopefully will be in there within a day or so.

I plan to enroll in a Danish course soon as well. I am not sure what will happen with working. I will have to decide about that soon as well!

The boat seems a very long way off! Almost surreal, we have so much what feel like random work to do before the boat becomes reality.

ps... please excuse spelling errors, here is what blogger thinks is spelled wrong: