Category: Story

On the home stretch until the tenants moving in today, a water leakage into our cellar was detected last week!! The water came from outside and miraculously found its way under the threshold into the cellar 😨

The floorer, Stefan, who’s plan was to do some minor repairs in this area (plus a new carpet upstairs in the house), discovered it last Thursday (March 09) and called me immediately. 

Patrik and I had the day off the next day anyway, in order to clean the garage and the balcony. So we met Stefan and examined the disaster! WHY, WHY, WHY, FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE?? I really started to freak out!

Luckily, a friend of Stefan works as a carpenter, so he called him and with even more luck, he agreed to meet me on Tuesday morning (March 14)!

The cleaning of the house had started on Monday morning too. So there was quite some activity going on in the house, together with the carpenter who started his work on Tuesday morning.

He promised he could fix it until the evening, so it would give Stefan enough time to finish the floor before Saturday! Thank God!! 😅

I had a couple of worrying days, since I didn’t hear from the carpenter nor Stefan and I desperately wanted to know how everything worked out. But I assumed both were busy and I know Stefan since many years and knew I can trust him a 100%!

Thursdays afternoon came and Stefan finally called me! He had just finished the cellar and told me that everything looked fine – the water damage was fixed and the floor looked as new! *yeah*

Since the cleaning company had also completed their work on the same day, Patrik and I decided to drive to our house after work, to check out everything. 

We were more than satisfied! Going through the whole property, we were super happy to see that the painter, who did the walls did a marvellous job and of course the carpenter and Stefan did their magic! Thank you guys, you did a fantastic job!

In the end we both agreed that the tenants had no reason at all to complain about anything. They would take over a very fresh, clean and beautiful house. 

And we are absolutely sure that in no time they will feel completely at home 🤗

We’ve done it! Our house is empty! 🥳

A lot has been sold – most at a ridiculously low price – some things we gave away to friends and family and the rest went to charity!

Some furniture or deco things weren’t easy to say good-bye to…. But we were prepared for that. Can’t have it all, can you?

The storage box is in the cellar – luckily, our tenants agreed that we can have a small space behind the door – together with our bed frame, which we keep. In the box are our photo albums, some memories and of course the urns of our late cats, Gulliver, Thor and Odin 😿

I’ve made a collage with their pictures, which we’ll take on board…

From now on we’ll life with my parents until our definite move in the beginning/middle of April.

We’ll also do a quick trip to Luxembourg, mainly to say good-bye to our friend Pascale and bring her two glass cabinets, which she bought from us.

Then we’ll need separate trip to Loano, getting our stuff on the boat. We might loan my brother’s bus, which would be the easiest! We’ll see, though.

Ah, and by the end of March I’ll be retired….. 😲

Patrik will continue to work approx. 50% (100 days a year) for his company, so he’ll also provide for my pension. It actually is a sweet deal for him – and his employer!

He’s in the luxurious position that only he and another guy can do this job, so they simply couldn’t let him go (yet). This circumstance is the main reason we are able to fulfil our dream a few years earlier than planned. Him working is also temporary, maybe another two years or so.

Naturally, he’ll still have to do some business trips while I’m onboard Luna Azzurra. Which means I’ll have to learn all about it in record time. But that’s a small price to pay…. could be worse 😉

Well, our adventure continues, and it definitely doesn’t get boring! 😁 CHEERS 🥂

Patrik and I wanted to make sure about our state of health before we start our adventure.

We’re absolutely not keen on surprises in form of hidden illnesses!

So, I booked us a doctor’s appointment for a head-to-toe check-up. Last week we underwent the procedure, including taking blood samples *ouch*

This week we went there again to get the results! And, boy, are we fit! 🥳

ECG, vitamins, lungs, heart, kidney, liver, …. you name it, all as good as gold!

Especially me 😇! The doctor had nothing than compliments to give!

Patrik needs to watch his weight a bit and he should cut down sweets and fats. But so far so good!

One more obstacle completed!

What will follow is a visit at the dentist for a last check-up before we leave Switzerland.

Plus, we we’ll meet the leading surgeon from the hospital in our area. That’s a funny story actually!

I wanted to inform myself if the appendix can be removed preventative. I mean what do you do when you suffer appendicitis and you’re somewhere in the middle of nowhere? You wouldn’t operate on yourself, would you? Or give the task to your partner to do surgery on you….

Imagine, you lying on the salon table with a piece of wood between your teeth…. Hmm, I think I saw too many movies…. 🤣

Anyway, I started to ask around, health insurance, hospital and suddenly I was contacted by this surgeon. He explained that he’s also a sailor (amongst others, twice around the world) and he had the same misgivings. He even wrote an article once for a newspaper!

Well, to cut a long story short, he suggested to meet him before we leave and he’ll help us to assemble a first aid case, including antibiotics in case the unthinkable happens and one of us suffers an acute appendicitis!

Isn’t that fantastic? I mean what are the odds! 😅

So, let’s hope the luck will continue to be on our side 🍀

Well, at the moment it feels more like a marathon, not a casual walk, towards our adventure!

I’m not complaining of course! Our decision to finally move house on board our sailing yacht Luna Azzurra, keeps us going and we’re motivated 🤗

I just wish we would have a bit plenty more time….

Within only a couple of months we’ve found suitable tenants for our house. Which is fantastic!

It was agreed that they could move in already on March 18^th instead of April 01^st, which seemed fine to us then…. Meanwhile, the contracts are signed and so far, everything is ready.

My brother will act as a caretaker and we’re more than happy about this arrangement!

Patrik and I will also have our address at his place since we decided to stay registered in Switzerland. That way we can keep our health insurance, continue to pay pension etc.

What Patrik and underestimated was how much time we’ll need to empty our 5.5 room home…. Since we can’t keep our furniture, pictures, deco things, (you name it), we try to sell as much as possible. First we thought about storing our stuff, but considering the monthly costs we dropped that idea quickly. And anyway, it’s unlikely that we’ll move back into our house again…… Or even Switzerland, once we’re tired of sailing around.

All we keep is our bed (you always need a bed, doesn’t matter where you live), a storage box with photo albums and other dear memories and that’s about it!

However, our house must be empty until end of February since from March 06^th we booked in craftsmen, doing some repair work. And in week 11 the house will be cleaned!

Luckily, some of the furniture are sold already to family and friends. We can keep them as long as we life in the house. So naturally it looks more furnished that it actually is. But still…… 😵

Needless to say, that we also need to say good bye to a lot of our clothes and shoes!

Perhaps in the end a lot of our things will go to charity – sadly 😥 But, you can’t have your cake and eat it.

Since Patrik and I still have to attend our jobs until end of March, we’ll live with my parents until we leave Switzerland, which will be in the beginning of April. We are grateful they also have a 5.5 room house with 2 bathrooms. Let’s hope we’ll all still be alive after these weeks…….. 🙏 *hahaha*

Well, right now I wouldn’t mind it was March, our house empty, the furniture gone and our remaining belongings ready to be transported on board Luna Azzurra!

We’ll get there somehow, wish us luck!

True to this motto:

Patrik and I dare to take the step into our adventure of a lifetime *yeah* ⛵

For many years we have planned to become “liveaboards”. Always thinking one day, one day…..

Well, one day suddenly became day one!

Right now we’re preparing and planning and it seems like a irresolvable task! Luckily, we already gathered a lot of information earlier, about health-, and other insurances, pension etc.

So, stressful but exciting weeks are ahead of us! Stay tuned 😊

It was Patrik’s birthday yesterday – so Happy Birthday, darling 🥳🍀🥂💞

We decided to celebrate (a little) at our local restaurant “Frohsinn”, just the two of us! As usual, we were in good hands and enjoyed a very tasty dinner!

I love you, my love 💖