greent's mfw journey

tootallulah

The kitchen sounds absolutely wonderful. You have been v busy GreenT-how inspiring!

I still hate being a landlord but I learnt a lot from you and toughened up a bit. These days I have a property manager and it is blissfull in comparison with when I did it myself.

Goldiegirl

The kitchen sounds great - it's all very exciting

greent

I don't blame you in having a property manager, Toots, especially as you're not local to the properties (our rental is less than a mile from our house) We've gone for a managed let this time. Saves me dealing with any possible hassles - such as the last tenant putting in for full repayment of the deposit to him!! - claiming the tenancy ended over a month ago, no damage, was clean etc - grrrrr! I've counter claimed (obv) so we'll see how it goes. Am so cross - he's the son of someone I've known since primary school (so more than 40 years!) - talk about taking the mick!

I would post pics of the kitchen when done - if someone tells me how - or can I put up (and then later remove) a link to pics on faceb00k?

Aside from that - hmm.... oooh - I know - I won £25 on Premium Bonds this month! - which is automatically reinvested. I have 2 local people (both friends of friends) who may be interested in our old granite kitchen worktops - otherwise I shall be advertising it maybe later this week on faceb00k (if unsold I will hang on for an offer before listing on fleabay to save on fees! )

OH is working from home tomorrow, so I am leaving him in charge of the smallest 2 (and the kitchen fitter) and taking DS1 into town in search of new jeans...... :eek: I've got a couple of other little bits to do whilst I'm there (I rarely go into town nowadays) and also A1di and Sainz shopping (but will return DS1 to home before those, as I don't think he'll appreciate 2 supermarket trips!) Am hoping we can achieve all town-related things within 2 hours (ideally less) - we'll see......

Karmacat

Good luck with the shopping tomorrow!

Re the worktops - don't know what Gumtree is like in your area, but here, I put a good wooden bookcase onto it, and it sold for £80 within a few days. It was only a third of what I'd paid for it but compared to ebay etc, it was great.

michelle09

We did quite well on Gumtree in the end, but it was full of timewasters. It certainly requires commitment round here.

Kitchen sounds wonderful!

greent

Gumtree's not *huge* here, but probably well worth giving a go for the granite - will do that when we actually have room in the garage to move it and take some pics!

Kitchen is *essentially* finished - in that the units are all in, the flooring is down, the new radiators are up and the granite worktops/ window sills/ splashback are all fixed. There are some snags (some granite needs sorting, 3 floor tiles were damaged and need sorting, there's a cupboard which needs squaring up slightly) but it's all in hand. Kitchen co have been fab and we also asked them to template it/ cut/ fit some solid maple skirting (to match units) - and they're doing it f.o.c :T:j - ok, the maple is most likely left over from our kitchen anyway (most people have handpainted kitchens nowadays, apparently, as opposed to solid wood) but they still have to cut it and fit it. Templating last time alone cost us £120, let alone the wood cost + then fitting costs! Brilliant service :T The correct range is being delivered 7th March (made to order - even though I ordered it early Dec the supplier made an error in the order at their end, so the wrong one was originally delivered) and hopefully all snags sorted before then/ same day. We think we have a painter (works for the kitchen co) so just need to decide on main colour (may have a feature wall, but can't decide that until range is in, as it's a purpley-pink colour) So hopefully we'll basically then be done (we're then changing the internal kitchen door, but we're changing all the downstairs internal doors so will do them all together later in the year) Whoop! A major job almost ticked off

In other news - tenant has moved in, so money will eventually start heading back to us. No update on deposit from old tenant yet - not expecting any action on that for a month.

Half term last week - a quiet one, due to a combination of weather (cold/ windy/ wet) and various tradespeople in every day. We played games, built lego and did some sorting of small people's 'stuff' (a never ending task! ) Friday night we played bowling and yesterday 2 of the 3 boys went to the cinema with OH to watch Black Panther. Still managed with just those things to bust the half term budget - but it was fun and we got deals where poss (cashback/ Friday Frenzy bowling prices and money off food there/ cheap cinema tickets and took own snacks) - and life is for enjoying along the way - and not all enjoyment is free, sadly!

Am enjoying the longer days - whilst I'm still getting up in the dark, the difference on an early evening is really quite noticeable Roll on SPring
x

Karmacat

greent wrote: »

Am enjoying the longer days - whilst I'm still getting up in the dark, the difference on an early evening is really quite noticeable Roll on SPring
x

I find the evening difference noticeable too - I like gardening later on, for some reason, and its a lot easier when the light lasts till the early evening.

greent

And Feb has almost gone already! That flew by in a whirlwind of kitchen fitters, plumber, plasterers etc (and the tail end of flu, and half term)

DD is here this week - it's reading week and she has 2 essays to write and she'd rather be somewhere properly warm, I think! Lovely to have her home

Bit of relief re the 'old' tenants - they've finally agreed to what I said I was owed from their deposit without any further fuss, so that should be coming back to me by early next week. We are still £££ down, but less so New tenant has already raised 3 issues with the property - all very minor (eg: non working solar outside light left by previous tenant and should have been removed. She'd like mains outside lighting, but that's not going to happen - will replace solar light if necessary (would cost < £20))

We've had a few flakes of snow here today, but that was it. Am not expecting much - we may be too far West

Snagging for kitchen being done next week. All the rubbish has now gone in a skip (saves us lots of journeys to tip/ recycling centre and the skip co recycle anyway) Once snags are done I shall pay remaining bill - which then leaves us with c £200 in the kitchen fund - which we'll put towards the cost of getting someone in to paint it! - not very mse, but it's far too fiddly to do it ourselves, and this way it will look good

We're being social butterflies at the mo - the Saturday just gone we went out to use a Xmas present - a voucher for a 10 course tasting menu with wine - very lovely it was, too! (except the ox tongue dish - didn't like that - but the restaurant was fantastic and gave us an extra dish of smoked duck instead! :T) The previous Saturday we were out with friends to use their Xmas present of an escape rooms voucher (we didn't escape - we were about 30 seconds too late! ) and then went for a meal. Next Saturday we're out somewhere (No idea where - it's a surprise - but it's food related) and then the following Saturday out for an event (as opposed to food) - again, a surprise This is most unlike us! :rotfl:

tootallulah

I love the sound of the new kitchen especially a pinky/purply range! I still hate being a land lady so managed letting is imperative, although both sets of tenants do have my email which slightly defeats the purpose. I know what you mean about deposits, who do they think paints everywhere, cleans and steams etc? Of course when I was renting I was incensed about never getting my deposit back!

brizzledfw

Ooh yes, that range is inspiring some real envy