Mortgage Free - so good they'll do it twice! Wynnvegas aiming for the big house

Froggy-G

wynnvegas wrote: »

Afternoon all,

And a proper MSE one it has been thur far. Re-found all the good Vegas discount sites. Thus far, I've managed to nab buy 1 get 1 free (as many as I fancy) deals for Haagen Dazs (dangerous in my hands), Bella Panini (not too bad for a mid-afternoon stop once a holiday) and Nathan's Hot Dogs (probably not), free tickets for a magic show (Nathan Burton) that we probably won't go to, half price tickets for Love and Viva Elvis, more or less buy 1 get 1 free tickets for Criss Angel and The Australian Bee Gees, limitless $5 off coupons for the Spice Market Buffet (which honestly has to be seen to be believed), free coupon books at the Fashion Show Mall, The Forum Shops, The Shoppes @ Venetian, Miracle Mile and both premium Outlet locations and I've managed to apply another code to our deal at the Monte Carlo which gives us buy 1 get 1 free buffets all through the holiday. Still tempted with the deal we managed to get at the Tropicana though.

Cheers,

Billy

Now the questions are:
- How many stones will you put on during your trip in Vegas?
- How much poorer will you be?

Froggy :cool:

ps: can I fly over in your suitcase?

wynnvegas

Guten Tag Froggy,

The answer to both is loads! We normally lose weight on holiday as there's a good bit of walking in 115 degree weather so that sweats off a buffet or two. So long as we don't go mental with it, it's actually not a bad place for putting on weight - despite Chocolate World, Haagen Dazs, Ben & Jerrys, Stone Cold Creamery and the Cheesecake Factory all coming into play on a regular basis. The shopping is likely to be a bit ott this year but god alone knows what Moyra will be aiming for next year when there's a good bit of money to play with!

Cheers,

Billy

wynnvegas

Morning All,

Day 4 of the bathroom et al project and a hope that we'll see some significant progress today. Over the last couple of days, there's been a lot of behind the scenes activity with connecting pipes and the like. With the tiler due in tomorrow to do the bathroom floor and walls so I'm fully expecting the entire bathroom (excepting the shower, towel rail and such which need to go on after the tiles) to be in place today.

At the end of day 1, we were at the stage of having had a wall knocked down, bathroom suite ripped out and a new wall put up. The guys also managed to get the new bath plumbed in. Now that photobucket is back up and running (in a fashion), Monday night looked like:

http://i826.photobucket.com/albums/zz190/wynnvegas/ae8b5831.jpg
http://i826.photobucket.com/albums/zz190/wynnvegas/64a23c96.jpg
http://i826.photobucket.com/albums/zz190/wynnvegas/0a73e099.jpg
http://i826.photobucket.com/albums/zz190/wynnvegas/8a8e6847.jpg
http://i826.photobucket.com/albums/zz190/wynnvegas/3ecf7311.jpg
http://i826.photobucket.com/albums/zz190/wynnvegas/bcfc7901.jpg
http://i826.photobucket.com/albums/zz190/wynnvegas/be059a05.jpg

As of last night, we've now got the new boiler in (and it works to such an extent that, not wanting to touch it in case we did something stupid, we had to have half the windows open last night), the wall between the bathroom and the spare room is insulated and finished, everything that needs to be connected has been (although we're now left with a big square cut out of the kitchen floor - much to Moyra's delight as we'll now need to plan getting the kitchen done asap), the housing for the sink and toilet has started to go in, the new ceiling and lights are finished in the bathroom and the pile of rubbish outside the house continues to grow...

http://i826.photobucket.com/albums/zz190/wynnvegas/01afdb56.jpg
http://i826.photobucket.com/albums/zz190/wynnvegas/a6d7013b.jpg
http://i826.photobucket.com/albums/zz190/wynnvegas/5b42f070.jpg
http://i826.photobucket.com/albums/zz190/wynnvegas/1237466d.jpg
http://i826.photobucket.com/albums/zz190/wynnvegas/5a9f0732.jpg
http://i826.photobucket.com/albums/zz190/wynnvegas/3ecf7311.jpg
http://i826.photobucket.com/albums/zz190/wynnvegas/06ecfaf9.jpg
http://i826.photobucket.com/albums/zz190/wynnvegas/1dd506cd.jpg
http://i826.photobucket.com/albums/zz190/wynnvegas/354bd121.jpg

Hope spring eternal for today...

Cheers,

Billy

wynnvegas

Morning All,

Day 5 of the bathroom etc project is underway. We now have a plumbed in toilet, sink and bath. The ceiling is complete as is the new flooring. Today is all about tiling and Stevie the tiler is on the go at this very moment. He's decided that the tile pattern we had decided on was a bit too overpowering on the decorative tiles (or maybe a bit too much work on the cutting!) so we're going with a more randomly spread smattering of decorative tiles in addition to the border which will go round the whole thing.

The new boiler is causing nothing but problems - the house is absolutely roasting and, having had a wee bit of a play with the jacuzzi jets yesterday, I'm pretty sure the power of the jets will break my ribs so we'll need to investigate turning the pressure down. When the guys said the jets would blow me out the bath, I thought it was a massive exaggeration but, having seen them in action, I'm now worried. There's been an additional mag-clean system put in which has cleaned and will continue to clean all the pipes in the house (and which ups the pressure and heat even more!) so we've added about 4 pieces to what was already quite a big job from the start of the week. That will put the finish back to Sunday.

http://i826.photobucket.com/albums/zz190/wynnvegas/f7665f90.jpg
http://i826.photobucket.com/albums/zz190/wynnvegas/b7400a20.jpg
http://i826.photobucket.com/albums/zz190/wynnvegas/b407f94e.jpg
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http://i826.photobucket.com/albums/zz190/wynnvegas/f76b885c.jpg

Cheers,

Billy

black_taxi_2

have you decided to stay where you live longer--because of the up-grades?

prob with land prices---looks a mine-field

never thought of buying house property out-right-instead of building from scratch -some stunning properties outthere----doesnt mean you cant upgrade or change it once you buy it

wynnvegas

Hi BT,

No. We'd be halfway to giving up the ghost if we took that line of thought. The improvements we're making are those that we've deemed more of less essential. We'd be going a whole lot more flash if this was to be our house for a massively long period but our middle of the road approach is aimed at being a really nice wee squalour to live in whilst having one eye on what a family moving in would like.

Land prices are a problem. Land use and planning permission is the real minefield. The temptation is there to go the speculative route and buy an appropriate piece of land speculatively from a farmer and spend a couple of years spending the money fighting to get planning permission. Buying somewhere with detailed planning permission is all well and good as there's an explicit ok from the council to building a house but the premium we'd pay for that isn't all that worth it as we've got a relatively firm idea of what we want to build and it's unlikely anyone will draw up our dream house and then sell it to us. With the lending restrictions as they are, that really does seem the best way to go. The difference between buying land on a site we really like and then kicking off the permissions hunt (around £10-25k) and buying land with the permissions already in and then looking to get new permissions (anywhere between £80-200k) is massive. With the size of plot we're fancying, the first route, whilst more risky, is certainly more doable.

To be honest, we've all but given up on buying another house. Now that we've made the cardinal error of putting a design dream down on paper then it's going to be a hard steer away from that. We've looked at buying houses / derelict buildings to knock them down and use the land but the notion of buying a bigger house has pretty much gone. We'll go large with the big house or settle for the 3-bed semi (and a nice wee holiday home in Nevada, California or Arizona). If, with the assistance of some miracle, we manage both dreams in our lifetime, I'll die a happy man.

Cheers,

Billy

wynnvegas

Afternoon all,

Just popped home for a quick lunchtime sit rep. The tiling actually llooks quite the thing. Really pleased with the look of the bathroom now. Final pictures will be up on Monday of the bathroom and spare room but, all in all, it's looking like £7,500-8,000 well spent.

Popped into the skirt shop on the way back to the office to pick up a reserve belt. My Celtic Thistle belt is taking a wee bit longer than expected to be made but there's no massive concern now that I've got a spare to tide me over. I'll get a photo or two to show off the outfit on Monday now that it's complete.

Cheers,

Billy

black_taxi_2

main thing--staying where u are and doing it up---means you have plenty disposable income for vegas--year on year.

and you can stay best hotels---always good

wynnvegas

Hi BT,

Absolutely - although this year is the exception to that rule. Moyra has decided that every Vegas trip from 2012 onward must include at least a portion of the stay in a fountain facing room at the Bellagio whilst still working our way through all the (acceptable) hotels on the strip. We're paying for 4 this year so we've settled for the Tropicana now that it's fully re-fitted. We had a weekend in the Trop last year and it's a really nice place for the money. I'm not all that fussed for the accommodation as every dollar spent on the room is a dollar less for the slot machines but, as is the way in all things, Moyra gets what she wants!

Cheers,

Billy

spandles

hi Billy,

I'm a lurker on your thread but I had to laugh at your photos. It's definitely a man thing to photograph a boiler:rotfl:

Looking good though!