We catch up with Trish and Richard to hear about their story and what inspired the lifestyle change to live life on the water.
What inspired the lifestyle change?
‘We've had our narrowboat, Patience, since 2007. We originally used it for holidays, but once the last of our children left school we started spending six months a year on the boat. Much of our work can be done from our laptops and we love travelling and working from wherever we are. Richard is a writer and we run creative writing courses, workshops and retreats. Most of them are online other than our annual Venice retreat and Cotswolds workshop. As soon as the children left home we realised we could do without a large family home and all the responsibility and work that that entails (particularly since we were spending less and less time there) so we decided to move onto Patience full time. Our thinking was we'd take a year to decide where we wanted to live. We had no doubt that we wanted to stay on the water but a 50ft narrowboat was just a bit too small for the two of us to live and work on all year round. We spent hours debating our options from getting a bigger boat, maybe the Dutch barge we'd often dreamed of, but we kept coming back to the fact we didn't want to sell Patience. At around the time our house sale was going through the Priory Marina floating homes project was announced. Richard and I both instantly knew it was perfect for us as it would give us a life on the water with more space, and we could keep Patience.’
Life on the water
‘Not a day goes by without Priory Lake reflecting a different mood, a different energy. And so living on it, with the buffeting of the wind, the insinuation of the breeze, the honks of the Canada geese, the plaintive creak of the coots, the frequent tap-tap-tap at our window signalling the arrival of a hungry pair of swans, gives us a quite unique sense of living not just with nature on our doorstep – with actually living in the full embrace of nature. And even though we could not anticipate it all, this is why we chose to live on water.’
What advice would you give to others looking into this lifestyle?
‘Just do it! Every day we marvel at our glorious surroundings and know we'll never go back to a life on land.’
Why we chose Prestige
The journey with Prestige from the first meeting at the Rushden factory to the day we received the keys to our floating home was really exciting. We've been struck by Prestige's friendliness, professionalism, responsiveness and approachability. Every contact we've had with Prestige has been marked by professional competence and an unfailingly pleasant response.
Trish and Richard are on Instagram and love to share their images and stories about life on the water, you can follow them here https://www.instagram.com/trishurquhart/
Your Life on water is waiting to be discovered. What are the next steps….
Your Journey to life on the water…
Step one – Finding your location. Let us know if there is a specific location you are looking for, we can help you on your search.
Step two – Visit our showground and take a factory tour, so you can get a real feel of our lodges and the quality of build. You can view our virtual tours on-line at your leisure, www.prestigehomeseeker.com, or we can make a virtual appointment, our friendly sales team are here to answer all the questions you may have.
Step three – Make it yours. In our purpose-built design studio, our experienced sales team will guide you through the process so you can enjoy choosing kitchen cabinets, worktops to soft furnishings and colour schemes, all to create an entirely unique home built just for you.
Read our article 'Living on the Water' to discover more>>
Want to find out more? Contact our friendly sales team, we are here to help, contact us >>
If you are a Park Operator or Marina wanting to explore offering Floating Lodges to consumers please email [email protected]