Michael Askin wrote ... > Lets face it, a narrowboat is little more than a bedsit/one bed flat > without running water or sewerage, and for people who "CC" has no car > parking of it's own. Older boats tend to be difficult to heat, and > many people seem to be quite happy with wood stoves to reduce costs > further. Yet if you ask people who live on boats if they would > buy/rent a property like that they would run a mile (down the > towpath?) even at the same price they are paying for their boat.
You are kidding aren't you? Most of the narrowboats on the cut today are a damn site more luxurious than my flippin' house let alone a bedsit! OK, space is at a premium I grant you but hot and cold running water isn't exactly unusual! As for sewerage, most modern boats are fitted with holding tanks and somebody else has the pleasure of pumping 'em out (albeit for a charge) so that's hardly bad news. As for heating, old or new, narrowboats are *easy* to heat! Whether with a 'modern' gas or diesel fuelled central heating system or a solid fuel / wood burning stove is a matter for personal choice and budget but it's hardly difficult to keep a narrowboat warm with a traditional stove = although for a live-aboard working away from the boat all day I'll concede that the stove option is not without its problems as it takes a good stove installation and the right stuff to go in it to keep the fire in all day. In that situation, I'd probably go for a diesel fired blown air system (eg; Eberspacher) for fast warming up of the boat and duel fuel stove for primary heating. And by the way, I'd buy a property like that in a heartbeat - 'specially if it came with a few acres of land :-) Bru
