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

nellis10

OOOoooo I'm so jealous...I've always harboured dreams of building our own house...but until DS is at Uni/Work/The Moon and DH is retired we are stuck where we are....

So I shall live vicariously through you for a while as you plan your new Dream Home!! :j

wynnvegas

Thanks everyone,

TYO - that would appear to be the reaction from most women who the plan has been explained to. I've been told I'll get a bit of a walk-in wardrobe but nothing like the half that is currently pencilled in. Moyra took a look at that plan and just ruefully shook her head - rookie mistake me thinking that I would actually have any say in this process!

Michelle - very interesting and possibly a point that tips the pool from right on the cusp of being just a bit too flash to over the point at which it becomes maintainable and a worthwhile exercise. You would think the single thing we wouldn't have a problem with is an expanse of water up this way but apparently it's not quite as easy as I had hoped to get permissions for a pool, far less deal with the building, the maintenance and repair of the thing. It will likely be dropped from v.2.0.

Onto the developments of the week, I have been laid up with a properly serious bout of man flu (that's sore throat, sneezing and sore head - the true axis of evil!) so there hasn't been a great deal of activity. I did get round to thinking that being ill in bed is an excellent money saving technique. However, having recovered to a large extent, I did get the initial plan off to our architect friend yesterday for them to begin scoping out the type of space we'll be looking for. We've estimated 1 acre but that's yet another complete guess. I am going to look at my first piece of land on Saturday with the friend who may yet end up joining us in this scheme as the girls are off to Glasgow for a long-awaited assault on the shops.

I'll need to phone the council today to see how we go about getting permission (if any is needed) to move one of the walls in the squalor to accommodate my fancy big bath. Hopefully, they'll be kind enough to just give it the nod without asking too many questions but if I know my local bureaucrats as well as I think I do, we'll have some trouble ahead on that front. We're going to get our friendly neighbourhood joiner round to re-evaluate the plan for the kitchen as it's now going to be a less fulsome rip and replace with only the bunkers, sink and cooker getting the heave with a potential for the doors to be replaced on the cupboards to freshen things up a wee bit. When we looked at a few different designs, we realised that a) we quite like the kitchen as it is and b) there isn't actually anything seriously wrong with it. That decision may yet save us a few thousand pounds and get us ever closer to the new house!

IFA3 has been on the phone to say we should look at our critical illness cover. I'm less inclined to go for this type of thing as it is pretty expensive (£100p/m for us both as opposed to the £28.64 we pay for life cover alone) and, if anything along those lines were to crop up, we're both covered by work for a minimum of six months and all that it would really end up affecting is our upscaling plans. I should think that a serious diagnosis of any kind would leave us with bigger fish to fry than worrying about not getting the big house. Still no decent investment advice from any of them yet so I might kick off some share dealing next month to get that bal rolling.

Cheers,

Billy

Froggy-G

wynnvegas wrote: »

Thanks everyone,

TYO - that would appear to be the reaction from most women who the plan has been explained to. I've been told I'll get a bit of a walk-in wardrobe but nothing like the half that is currently pencilled in. Moyra took a look at that plan and just ruefully shook her head - rookie mistake me thinking that I would actually have any say in this process!

Michelle - very interesting and possibly a point that tips the pool from right on the cusp of being just a bit too flash to over the point at which it becomes maintainable and a worthwhile exercise. You would think the single thing we wouldn't have a problem with is an expanse of water up this way but apparently it's not quite as easy as I had hoped to get permissions for a pool, far less deal with the building, the maintenance and repair of the thing. It will likely be dropped from v.2.0.

Onto the developments of the week, I have been laid up with a properly serious bout of man flu (that's sore throat, sneezing and sore head - the true axis of evil!) so there hasn't been a great deal of activity. I did get round to thinking that being ill in bed is an excellent money saving technique. However, having recovered to a large extent, I did get the initial plan off to our architect friend yesterday for them to begin scoping out the type of space we'll be looking for. We've estimated 1 acre but that's yet another complete guess. I am going to look at my first piece of land on Saturday with the friend who may yet end up joining us in this scheme as the girls are off to Glasgow for a long-awaited assault on the shops.

I'll need to phone the council today to see how we go about getting permission (if any is needed) to move one of the walls in the squalor to accommodate my fancy big bath. Hopefully, they'll be kind enough to just give it the nod without asking too many questions but if I know my local bureaucrats as well as I think I do, we'll have some trouble ahead on that front. We're going to get our friendly neighbourhood joiner round to re-evaluate the plan for the kitchen as it's now going to be a less fulsome rip and replace with only the bunkers, sink and cooker getting the heave with a potential for the doors to be replaced on the cupboards to freshen things up a wee bit. When we looked at a few different designs, we realised that a) we quite like the kitchen as it is and b) there isn't actually anything seriously wrong with it. That decision may yet save us a few thousand pounds and get us ever closer to the new house!

IFA3 has been on the phone to say we should look at our critical illness cover. I'm less inclined to go for this type of thing as it is pretty expensive (£100p/m for us both as opposed to the £28.64 we pay for life cover alone) and, if anything along those lines were to crop up, we're both covered by work for a minimum of six months and all that it would really end up affecting is our upscaling plans. I should think that a serious diagnosis of any kind would leave us with bigger fish to fry than worrying about not getting the big house. Still no decent investment advice from any of them yet so I might kick off some share dealing next month to get that bal rolling.

Cheers,

Billy

Good progress so far Billy!:D Well done!!

Is that man flu I hear?!?!? My OH is quite jealous of Moyra's walk in wardrobe too!!

What about matched betting??

Cheers
Froggy

wynnvegas

Hi Froggy,

Not had a proper go at that as yet but I'll be into it shortly - may need to get over to the beginner's guide for a refresher course. I've never had anything not track from Quidco as yet but I'm pretty sure that if anything won't, it will be gambling sites.

Just off the phone to the council - they've got a cheeky system whereby they'll charge something along the lines of £115 to issue a building warrant but there's a need to submit all the plans of the day to them. If exempt from needing a building warrant (as I've been told this project is) then they charge £115 for a "letter of comfort" to confirm that this is the case. I'll be damned six ways to hell and back before I pay the council any extra money for anything if I can help it so the options are:

a) do it anyway, don't tell anyone about it and hope nothing comes of it down the line; or
b) opt for the 1700x700 jacuzzi bath instead of the 1800x800

Anyone who thinks life gets easier when you pay off the mortgage should think again!!

Cheers,

Billy

RosieTiger

wynnvegas wrote: »

b) opt for the 1700x700 jacuzzi bath instead of the 1800x800

Anyone who thinks life gets easier when you pay off the mortgage should think again!!

Cheers,

Billy

Billy, I think you are losing touch with reality ever so slightly !!!:rotfl:

gerbiljo

Good luck Billy!

wynnvegas

Morning All,

RosieTiger - back in the land of the living and somewhat sensible again so apologies for the nutty drug-haxed posts of last week!! When it boils down to it, paying £115 for a bit of paper isn't going to wreck our lives. I'll get the joiner onto it this week. Thanks Gerbiljo!

Last week proved to be very long and tiring. Work was hectic and, between finishing the Christmas shopping (almost completely - just a set of daft cups and saucers to buy now) and helping Moyra's family with an MSE guide to insurance shopping and an introduction to quidco, there wasn't much time to spare in the evenings - particularly as I became unbearably pathetic and stumbled up to bed voicing my concerns about dying in the night about 9pm every night! It's as well Moyra's a teacher as she's a rubbish nurse - no manflu sympathy at all!

The weekend however, in my newly recovered state, was a blur of positive activity. Moyra finally managed her shopping trip to Glasgow and didn't blitz the credit card too hard. I had dropped in a notional limit of around the £500 mark as I thought that plenty (and affordable this month) to go shopping with. In truth, if she had wanted to have a really good go at the shopping, I wasn't all that fussed as long as the November salaries were able to cover whatever she spent. That she came in more or less on budget should have been fine except I had let it slip that if she had really wanted the dress she had hummed and hawed over, she should have bought it. This didn't go down at all well as she had still managed to feel constrained by what she had perceived to be a budget on her shopping trip. My punishment for making a suggestion? A December rerun of the shopping trip! I did remind her that the phone call to tell me she was coming home on Saturday was based on the fact that she physically couldn't carry any more bags which got me out of the doghouse for a wee bit - all until she remembered that one more dress wouldn't have weighed her down that much more! I have cheekily noted that every shopping trip takes her further and further away from our big house so we'll see where her decision wrestling leads her to...

I wanted no part of the shopping trip. Instead, I went to the pub for a few frames of snooker, a couple of pints and a bit of football on Saturday. I was offered a ticket at the last minute to pop through to watch the football in Glasgow but decided that a) with it being absolutely freezing and b) with Scottish football being absolutely rank rotten that I would give it a miss. My decision that it probably wouldn't be worth braving the cold for was turned on it's head as Celtic managed to eke out a 9-0 record win! Typical! The new cue came under some proper pressure as I was playing the same guy who normally thumps me at darts. Managed to retain some dignity (and unbeaten record) by coming from 3-0 down to draw 3-3. Still not gotten to the local gym as yet to enquire about memberships but that is becoming a greater necessity by the week now!

Picked the girls up from their shopping expedition and fired off for an indian buffet which was amazing but, not suprisingly, it did the diet no good whatsoever. I'm swearing off fancy foods until the 20th when we're up in St. Andrews at the Nahm Jim thai place that featured on Ramsay's best restaurants - by that time I might have lost the weight I've managed to put on in the last month!

Onto proper progress (and frights) instead of me wittering away like a teenage girl! The big news of the weekend was that we have been offered a good bit of land. A friend of ours is selling somewhere around 2.5 acres of land up near Stirling which is probably the uppermost that we're willing to live but it's ours, if we want it, for £25,000. It doesn't have any permissions on it as yet so may prove a bit of a risk but we're going to pop up and see the site in a couple of weeks. We can then do some investigation as to how likely it is that the site will get planning permission as we need to go into this with our eyes open. Whilst I have no experience at all in this sphere, we are potentially going to buy the land with a couple of friends and build two houses on it which will split the costs of every aspect in half and potentially let us kick the whole project off in 2012. Better still, there is a possibility that we'll be able to do it on a very small mortgage as we'll be able to pay our part of the land and planning costs in the year or so it will take to get everything approved and, with the build, the majority will be covered off with the sale of the squalor! It's very early days but exciting all the same. Best laid plans and all that...

The frightening bits came over the weekend as I did some base measuring and extrapolation. Neither Moyra or I have an idea of what our plan is actually likely to turn into so, based on the 12ft x 6ft snooker table in the pub and extrapolating out, I measured each room of the house and then measured our existing living room and kitchen / dining room to give us some idea of comparison. The results were properly scary as actually realising the scale of what we're planning makes it seem utterly ridiculous. My biggest scare was that each of the walk-in wardrobes that Moyra is planning to have living at the end of our bedroom is a tiny shade smaller than our existing living room! Each wardrobe is currently intended at 12ftx12ft which is absolutely stupid. I explained the madness to Moyra who, instead of seeing that as unmanageable, decided that she would need to go on a few more shopping trips to fill the space. I think we'll have to scale the whole thing down when we finally sit with an architect as it's already becoming more than a grand design. I knew I should never have let her sky+ cribs!! On the other hand, we're pretty sure now that the pool will be removed from v.2.0 as it does seem likely to cause more trouble than I would be willing to fight through.

Cheers,

Billy

wynnvegas

OK - here is my best guess at what the new house will entail. Total thing should have a footprint of 0.12 acres or just shy of 500 square feet as at the existing drawing but I think it needs scaled down a good bit to make it in any way feasible! All measurements in feet!

Ground Floor

Living Room (excluding turreted bay window bit) - 21 x 21.75
Dining Room - 16.5 x 21.75
Kitchen - 16.5 x 21.75
Utility Room - 8.25 x 10.5
Toilet - 7.5 x 10.5
Pub - 38.25 x 24.75
Entrance Hallway - 21 x 30.75
Pool Area - 42.75 x 16.5

First Floor

Master Bedroom - 21.75 x 16.5
Walk-in Wardrobes (x2) - 12 x 12
Master Bathroom - 15.75 x 22.5
Guest Bedrooms (x2) - 13.5 x 30
Guest Bathroom - 12 x 20.25
Study - 13.5 x 21.75
Upstairs Hallway - 24 x 31.5

As always, any suggestions (for downsizing in this instance) much appreciated. Maybe halving everything is the easiest way to go!

Cheers,

Billy

wynnvegas

Typical. We knocked the mortgage off completely, Moyra had her wee spending spree at the shops in Glasgow, we took a few friends out for a couple of nice dinners, we started planning the big house....

All going swimmingly until I decided that, instead of paying the credit cards at the end of the month as is necessary, I'd get all the ducks in a row and clear them off (with a wee bit of slack thrown in just for the hell of it) now. So both credit cards are happily sitting at £200 or so in credit but the bank balance is worryingly low. Not really an issues unless something like Moyra's car needing an urgent repair happens between 10/11/10 and 29/11/10...

Let this be a lesson to those who tempt fate! Had a call from her this morning to say her heating wasn't working. Phoned the garage to be told that it's likely a leak and could be minor or catastrophic. My mechanic brother Gary is en route to check it out (hopefully filling the engine with coolant will suffice) so we await the result of that analysis. Trouble is, with all of £200 in the bank, any major issue will leave me going cap in hand to the garage owner to ask him to accept payment at the end of the month. He's a good guy and it shouldn't be a problem but, after surviving 15 months with next to no contingency fund, it's properly annoying to have this one creep up on me and even more annoying that I decided to get ahead of myself for no good reason - lesson learnt!

In happier news, we've had a look at a few (admittedly scarily expensive) places and our measurements aren't completely off the charts. We'll certainly need to scale down the 30ft long guest bedrooms (maybe into fancy guest suites with a living room bit split by an archway) but the 12x12ft walf-in wardrobes are staying. Cribs was on again last night and Floyd Mayweather's gaff got the thumbs up from Moyra. Off to check the lottery from last night just in case...

Cheers,

Billy

taxi73

Heres hoping you've either won the lottery or the car is cheap to repair.