A new start for Mooloo

minimoneysaver

Mooloo any news on your son? Will you still be able to have the house if he isn't in full time education and living with you anymore?

floss2

The fact that new CH will be put in means it will costs less to heat than the cottage, and be safer for both you & DGD - make sure they cavity-wall & loft-insulate it too so it is a snug as a bug.

Also, LA rents are generally lower than private, so any HB / HA should cover it without any need to top up.

Eager_Elephant

Hi

I have thought of another pro:

Even if DS leaves and you only need 2 bedrooms you will continue to get full rent paid by Housing Benefit. This is true of all council and local authority accommodation. There would then not be the worry of needing to find extra money as and when he goes or comes back etc.

EE

Savvy_sewing

Hi, sorry I didnt get back onto the laptop until now.
I got hold of DS on Sunday afternoon, managed to get him to come home, but he wasnt here for long, and he didnt do any of the things that I needed doing except mow part of the lawn!. He said that he had work on the Wednesday last week, at the racecourse, but was ill the otherdays so didnt go to college. I explained to him that if he was well enough to go to the job mid week, he was well enough to get to the college! He has gone to college today. He said that he does want to stay at college.
He seems to be for moving, dispite the dismall appearance of the house and gardens at the moment. (presuming this is the house, and I think it is now, after talking to the housing options team.

Thanks everyone for the points. All well noted.
I have done a pros and cons list of the council house, and they are sort of equal numbers.
However I have also decided that as I have been on the list for 5 plus years and I am now at the top, I am a lucky person.
The downsizing will be difficult, not becuase of my things etc, but because of my physical abilities and the lack of help from my motly crew.

As has been pointed out. Central heating after log fires and storage heaters with DGD is a HUGE positive.
A garden that is 120ft long, (once landscaped I suppose) will be brilliant for DGD and her scooters/trampolines/bikes, toys etc etc
Being opposite a good doctors will be good, (thinking of my bad days I will be able to get across the road easier).

The council will have brought it up to a basic standard, so the kitchen will be new, so will the bathroom. I would probably expect that it will be replastered, and the wiring etc will be safe. (my wiring here seems abit iffy, lights blow a lot, and the dimmer switch in dining room is dodgy.

So I suppose its got to be a go go.
My reluctance is the fact that I have to move again. This will be the 40th house move in my life. This will, I hope, be the last one I do move to. I am sick of moving. I want to be able to put down roots and this would be an opportunity, and I want it to be the right move.

I will need to find funds for carpets through out, curtains and poles, and a cooker. A shed. and that little thing called Removal men. I do not have a donkey workhorse of a car anymore. I cannot lift the furniture myself, and so I am going to start to get some quotes. (That will push me to get the decluttering started too).
I will be back, just got to turn computer off, and re start it, got a programme interfering.

peppa-pig

Have you thought of applying for a community care grant? They can help with the cost of moveing, furniture etc and you don't have to pay it back. It is a limited fund and you have to give details as to why you need it etc. We just applied for one and were awarded half of what we applied for. Just a thought.... Good luck!

Savvy_sewing

peppa-pig wrote: »

Have you thought of applying for a community care grant? They can help with the cost of moveing, furniture etc and you don't have to pay it back. It is a limited fund and you have to give details as to why you need it etc. We just applied for one and were awarded half of what we applied for. Just a thought.... Good luck!

I tried to get one when DGD first came, for furniture and equipment for her, but I was told I was on the wrong kind of ESA and was therefore not eligable, and was told to try for a budgeting loan. Obviously I would have to pay that back. So what I am going to do, is while DS is still at college, and we are just getting more Tax credits, that I will try and save 2/3 of it.
I think I need to start to give myself some challenges. Even if this house doesnt become mine and I have to pass or the Housing Association do not go with my nomination, then I will at least be ready to move somewhere else.
I am lost in the mire of what ifs at the moment. Hows whys and wherefores.

Firstly I must remember that I am moving for the sake of DGD and DS as well as for me. That Social are recommending I move, so that perhaps they will be able to help me somehow. Not sure at the moment.
I know of a charity where in Daventry that may be able to help me with the different furniture, and I will just have to use my ISA money towards any costs.
I was luck enough not to spend as much as I had expected on the holiday, and so the bankbalance is reasonably healthy. Dispite the loss of my housing benefit by about £100 a month!
Battles to be fought still.
But I will play around in my diary. Think about whats to be done. Make my lists and get as much help as I can muster to sort myself out.
I may ask twin2's BF for some physical help with decluttering. He did have a job for a week or two with an agency but thats run out. So he is available again.

I am going to be going out in a few minutes. Cannot find the receipt for some fabric I ordered over a month ago, but I am going to go to the shop and chase up the woman.
May try and get some storage boxes for my craft work. thats coming with me, where ever I go, even if I have to build a shed in the garden to do it in!
Then its work out that dreaded online auction site, and start to sell off the clothes I dont wear, which is probably 90% of my wardrobe these days ! mmmmm ooops.

xx

~Chameleon~

Hi Mooloo, I'm so pleased to hear you had a lovely relaxing holiday. Your BF really has come up trumps for you and DGD over the last few weeks. Good on him! :T

I know the house is much smaller than you've previously lived in but one thing to bear in mind is DS doesn't appear to want to live with you full-time and it's quite likely he will move out permanently in the not too distant future. His room could become your sewing/crafts room. This would make up for the lack of a dining room.

I also wonder whether there might be enough room for a table in there now so you could use it when he's not there but perhaps have some compact storage to stow it away for the times he is there. Just a thought. Like others I also think this move will do you the world of good for many reasons

Another option I've just thought of, although it would involve some considerable expense, would be to try get hold of large shed/summerhouse for the garden which could be used as a craft room. Or even a lean-to sunhouse/conservatory if there's room at the back.

Errata

I agree with Chameleon about using the third bedroom as your sewing room. Since you moved to the cottage your DS has been away from it more than he's been there, so it probably wouldn't be that much of an inconvenience for him to share a room with your sewing.
I'm sure a lot of your stuff that's small enough could be stored in a shed in the garden, and although asking everyone to club together to buy and install a shed for you for your Christmas present may not be very exciting, at least it could be something that you both need and want.
I have no storage space in my place so I have two sheds !
Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that people are more important than things. Stuff is just stuff - it will never make you a cup of tea.

If the dreaded online auction site is Ebay - setting up as a seller is as easy as pie, and there's lots of help and advice available on the Ebay board.

Savvy_sewing

Errata wrote: »

I agree with Chameleon about using the third bedroom as your sewing room. Since you moved to the cottage your DS has been away from it more than he's been there, so it probably wouldn't be that much of an inconvenience for him to share a room with your sewing.
I'm sure a lot of your stuff that's small enough could be stored in a shed in the garden, and although asking everyone to club together to buy and install a shed for you for your Christmas present may not be very exciting, at least it could be something that you both need and want.
I have no storage space in my place so I have two sheds !
Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that people are more important than things. Stuff is just stuff - it will never make you a cup of tea.

If the dreaded online auction site is Ebay - setting up as a seller is as easy as pie, and there's lots of help and advice available on the Ebay board.

Thanks Errata and Chameleon.
I am sure you are both right. I agree that Ds will not live at home for very long. (More reason to take this house before I am not eligeable for it). If DS is not on the list with me we would not be nominated for a 3 bedroomed house.

I have been out and had another reconisance mission around the proposed house. I am feeling better about it.
I re looked in the empty windows of downstairs, stood in the back and the front garden, and breathed in the atmosphere etc. I talked to the neighbour, as I was leaving the garden he was going in his gate, so I thought i better say why this strange woman was wandering around the empty house next to him.
He seemed OK. Both houses either side have been purchased off of the council and both have had extensions/front or back put on the houses. One neighbour has managed to put Garages at the back,but the front of theirs has a wider entrance then the property i was looking at.
The neighbour I talked to said that the previous tenant was an old lady that had died. (more reason to believe we have the right house).
The garden is a wilderness. But when cleared it would be so brilliant for DGD.
DS could get buses from the end of the road, so if he does come home, he will have the bus service and I would not have to drive so much.

Reading your thoughts about sharing the room with DS for my sewing. It has made me start thinking that perhaps I could "sell" the idea to DS that we could make his room into a Bedsettee /lounge for him, and that way he could bring his mates home etc to some degree.
The understairs cupboard goes into the sittingroom. I could possibly line that out for the craft work storage. My dining table that I have at the moment is a drop leaf one, so it could go up against the wall and be brought out when I need it. Just not as good as having it set up permanantly.
A shed would be needed to store the bigger things, I would need one for the lawn mower etc and all the gardening things that we have. Baring in mind that the garden there is 120ft long!
I could also save for a shed for DGD as a playhouse etc. Or eventually get a "workroom" one out there. But at around £1,000 thats a dream wish list.

I think my real adjustment, apart form moving from a village with nothing to a busy road, and the noise levels sleeping. (I noticed the front room is the biggest bedroom). Is just that I have got to move again. That my dream of 18 months ago is long gone, and I am about to start yet another chapter in the Mooloo world of disruptions!

I will just need to ask for help. Harness the help and see if I can rise to the challenge again.
they say that moving is one of the most stressful things! Agh, well I will have to prove it wrong. Move no 40 is about to hit the Mooloo world!!

peppa-pig

They say that life begins at 40 Mooloo!! xx