The ultimate incentive proposed! Buying a house, a wedding, and staying debt free.

Dinah93

Tete_en_l'Air wrote: »

I can't, I just get these big ideas!! Making a draught excluder would basically involve cutting a leg off the trousers and sewing up the ends..?

Sounds like sewing to me

To be fair while the house is in a lovely area of Guisborough, its too far from where I want to live to be an actual consideration. However continuing my house theme today, these are my actual top 5 currently on the market.

House 1. Lovely house. In town though which is a bit urban for my liking, with so-so schools. Loads of space, great studio/guest room above the garage, garden would need to be attacked with powertools so we could actually have grass and less concrete but still quite small. Decent character. Little bit over budget.

House 2. Second favourite location. Recently voted in the top 5 villages in the country. Great schools. No parking, fab garden. Small inside, especially kitchen. Only 3 bed so only a little growing room. Prices have stayed solid in this location despite the downturn, and grow rapidly in times of growth. Open fire and lots of character.

House 3. Favourite location. Know the house well as I used to babysit for their daughter. Near to an amazing school, great village atmosphere. House has stacks of character, and is pretty small but with a big kitchen and open fire. Good sized garden. Has a vehicle access between the house and the garden, which we hate as garden could not be enclosed and children could not play unsupervised. Only 3 bed so no growing room because of the access to the rear. Is VERY over our budget but has been up for a while so might have a drop. House prices in this village have continued to rise while other areas fall, and rose a lot faster than almost anywhere else in the region in the growth times.

House 4. Needs lots of work doing, so could really personalise it but would cost a lot. Not sure if the money would be reflected in the value. Little over budget. Fantastic garden. Some character. Okay location in town, well set back from very busy road. So-so schools. Lots of space and could expand as well.

House 5. Just further down the road from the one above. So-so schools, set well back from very busy road. Great size for now, with space to expand down the side and to the rear. Partly updated with great kitchen and nice light lounge. Could put an extension on asap to get a dining area on the back of the kitchen. Nice master bedroom. Fantastic garden. On budget. Large area of open space next to the house, possibly to be developed or is site of a mast?

What do you think?

clearmydebts

Morning all!

House 3 - without a doubt, is the one I would go for. Just purely because of all the other things you mentioned, such as good school and good village atmosphere!

wendz86

House two sounds the best on paper apart from the no parking and being a little small. Sounds like a great area though.

I like the look of house five as well.

Dinah93

I wish house 5 were in location 3. Actually I wish any of them were in location 3. It's just that access across the back garden (and being 50k over budget!) that makes that house so iffy. There is a modern, bigger house in the same village for 5k more, quieter part of the village, smaller but enclosed garden etc, but we really are kind of set on an older house.

There is a perfect house in the village currently up for rent (have linked it before, the one with the ducks in the bathroom!), its a state and would need doing up, but because of the state it would be well under its potential value, and would be a house for life. Sadly even in its state it would still come on the market about £350k I think.

clearmydebts

You never know though, another suitable house might come up in that village. When are you hoping to buy? It all depends on what you are prepared to compromise on. Maybe a spreadsheet with your priorities (in order) would help you choose your perfect house.

My OH got a job so we are relocating to Reading, from Sussex. Will be sad to leave where we are but the debts will go down very quickly as the last 2 years we survived on my wages while he was doing a music course. Can't wait to get rid of them! The next step then is to overpay the mortgage on our Scottish flat, which luckily isn't anywhere near being in negative equity!

Tete_en_l'Air

House 1 - love the bath! - or house 4, also love house 5's garden!

Dinah93

Aye there is positives to all of them. I do think this is the one time a spreadsheet wouldn't help, I think its going to be a gut thing with houses. We know the locations we prefer, and we're going to hold out for the next six months or so see if THE house comes up on one of them. After that we'll have to start making compromises.

Hopefully if we find THE house we could borrow the deposit off NIMs dad and pay him back over a year or something?!

Cinny91

It's always good to know you have family money backing if you need it! I think you might be pushing yourself to pay back 40k over a year though? That against a mortgage would be tough work! (guessing that's the deposit on a 200k house?) But then to be honest, it is you. And you seem to manage anything!

Almost the weekend!!! What's everyones plans? I've got OH for a full weekend for the first time in months so I'm all giddy. Pizza Gut for dinner and I'm staarving! Only had a plum, banana and coffee today.

Just worked out the savings thing, and I'm upping my target from £600 by the end of September to £700. I forgot my sister is giving me £90 and OH £50 at the end of the month so it should be easily done!

Dinah93

Has your OH already given money for his part of the holiday or is this just your half you are saving for?

NIM is MS tomorrow, and we have a scary depressingly long to do list that I can't even remember. And church on Sunday. Too rainy and skint for anything else. Hopefully we can make a decision on the engagement party and print out a little invite for those we can't email. Also need to alter and update the spreadsheets, and learn to use that software off Poolie. Oh and NIM needs to apply to teach the OU law course AND to study the maths degree.

We're aiming for a 30k deposit. We have about £7k in total saved up towards the house/wedding/honeymoon, I think I will feel a lot less stressed once I know if NIMs dad will be amazingly awesomesauce and help with anything. One of my colleagues has been discussing weddings with me for an hour and I'm shaking uncontrollably.

Bufger

Cinny - i read through the blog you posted. It was amazing!! Lucky girl