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

wynnvegas

Morning Kerry,

Having kids wouldn't be a bad thing at all. There are times when it's great being just the two of us and times when having a family really appeals. I suppose when the latter outweighs the former, it's then worth serious consideration. Until then, we'll borrow neices, nephew and cousins to play with...

Cheers,

Billy

wynnvegas

Thanks Jellie,

I'm really enjoying your diary. You're a whirlwind of activity! If I had half your energy, I think we'd be at the building stage by now!

Cheers,

Billy

wynnvegas

Mornign Folks,

Waiting on the drawings back from the design consultant. He may have a look at what we're planning and decide that we're absolutely mental as he asked for the type of exterior and overall design concept. We'd been well advised to steer clear of any such notion by people who have significant experience in the self-build game as all dreams tend to go up in smoke when the planners get involved with their attempt to ensure any new house is in keeping with the existing area - I just know we'l end up with a council jobsworth who will block us every step of the way. What we did was pop over some of the grand country mansions as, with my requirement of symmetry and Moyra's desire to have turrets all over the shop, a scaled down country manor is the best initial bet. I stayed in one of those estates a few weeks ago (Eynsham Hall in Oxfordshire) and the scale of these places is a bit overbearing. We're going for all the glamour with a three-bedroom house layout and a couple of extra bits to save going to the pub or a gym. We popped him across v.1.0 (with the main alteration being that the central staircase has now ideally to be two curved staircases that meet in the middle - guess who!?) and hopefully he'll come back with a few ideas on how to shave off the £200,000 that we're over budget before we've even began!

We're off to St. Andrews tomorrow for a wekend away which will be nice but the jaunt next weekend to Stirling may yet be even better as we're going to look at land in a couple of nearby locations. I can see Moyra demanding that we get shovels out there and then to kick things off so it'll again be my job to calm her down! Even if the land is ideal and, after a bit of investigation, we do buy it in the next couple of months, the house probably won't be started until 2013 at the earliest.

Just an ipod to buy now for Moyra's mum's Christmas. Everything else is either in the spare room or en route. I have worryingly noticed myself slipping back into my old habits of buying all the rubbish of the day on Hot UK Deals so, with everything bought for Christmas and all January birthdays, I'm setting myself a limit of £50 a month on buying the kind of stuff (yesterday was 2 skateboards, 5 christmas books, 5 colouring in / sticker books and three PS3 games - none of these have intended homes yet but all were brilliant deals) as my good intentions very rarely work out as anything other than things that get lobbed in the bin after hanging about the house for a few months.

On the financials, we've plumped for the Tesco credit cards which will give hopefully give us a decent amount of love with the holidays, bathroom, boiler etc which need to be bought in the next 6 or so weeks. Having had my final fall out with HSBC, we're also moving the bank to Santander who were nice enough to give us £100 for doing so - we'll see if that works out! I might yet look at one of the cashback credit cards which gives us the best bang for the big purchases but I haven't gotten round to that as yet. Still trying to fix Moyra's mum and dad's insurances which aren't proving quite as easy as I had hoped.

Cheers,

Billy

cha97michelle

Sounds like the plans are getting more serious. Hope it wasn't just my opinion that put you off the pool.

I have had a little chuckle this morning at the garage bill scenario. Its the sort of thing i would do. My DHs car is in today for a service, so hoping it won't cost us too much. The garage know our car model and reg when we say our name. We must have helped them make record profits in the past few years.

SmlSave

Enjoy your weekend away

wynnvegas

Thanks Smlsave.

Hi Michelle,

Your parents experience was probably the straw that broke that particular camel's back but we were never all that convinced we'd get away with having a pool. Cost issues aside, I was never that much of a fan of the idea (probably due, when it comes to swimming, to my inability to do anything other than the flailing "survival stroke" which is reminiscent of a scene from jaws without the shark) so it was Moyra's add-on to rival my pub. She's that taken with the walk-in wardrobes at the moment that she's happy enough to pull the plug on the pool. It may be something that we draw in to keep the option open down the line.

The garage debacle has dampened my mood considerably and will do until we get paid! This being is debt lark is no good to me. Hope the service is relatively easy and painless.

Cheers,

Billy

wynnvegas

Afternoon All,

Had a great weekend in St. Andrews with all the Americans and "Lah" students. I never thought it was possible to look quite as plummy as some of these folk do - must be the silver spoon that contorts the mouth into a permanent sneer. Had the misfortune of sitting next to a student whose mummy and daddy (yes, that's what he called them) were up at dinner and listening to the three of them prattle on loudly about the ails of the government and country in general - some people just can't leave anything alone. In fairness, I had the bigger misfortune to witness a high degree of distress in the mother's house last night when visiting as some lad didn't get voted off from the Simon Cowell show - two sides of a class divide that I can't be bothered with.

Other than £700,000 not buying you all that much in St. Andrews (very nice flat as it was, I'd want a wee bit more for my money), the heating kept playing up which wasn't that big a deal (other than half-filling a bath with hot water and then finding out there was no more left), we had a lovely time and Moyra managed to indulge in some souvenir shopping - mainly from The Christmas Shop. She did very well though and, in true MSE fashion, told the woman in New Look that if the 20% voucher in the magazine wasn't available to use just now, she'd wait a week until it was. Bit cheeky of them to have 20% vouchers sitting next to the till when you can't use them.

As for the restaurant, Nahm Jim was pretty decent. It was packed on Saturday night but we weren't kept waiting very long and the food was very good (nothing to rival Champanay mind!) £55 for us both for a couple of courses and a couple of drinks each which wasn't as much as I had anticipated it being. Moyra has chicken satay and sizzling chicken whilst I went for the much vaunted haggis and thai omelette starter and garlic and pepper chicken. I'd recommend it if in St. Andrews but I wouldn't make the trip specially again just for that restaurant. My bleating about how the Champanay is so good got me in trouble as Moyra has decided I need to take her there next although we've identified the only free time (weekends, anyway) we have between now and the end of the year is Hogmanay. Champanay in 2011 it is!

Finally get paid in the next week (Moyra on Friday and me on Monday) which will release us from our crippling £200 debt and allow us to either buy the Vegas flights or buy the bathroom suite. Whichever one isn't November will be December and then the savings will be split between the rooms and spending money up until July and the bathroom / boiler etc being installed in April. By this time next year, we might have some money!!

I've noticed that I've come out in a variety of bruises after the football last Thursday so I'll hit the shops on Wednesday this week to more suitably attire myself against the cold and any further injury!

Cheers,

Billy

SmlSave

Glad to hear you had a good weekend

Had the misfortune of sitting next to a student whose mummy and daddy (yes, that's what he called them)

Noooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!

black_taxi_2

i will back mummy an daddy up(thought she was joking--but was repeated)

ive heard it in back of taxi

believe me when i say --the british are all in it together--some more than others

wynnvegas

Hi SmlSave / Black Taxi,

In fairness, they were a constant source of amusement. We tried to second guess what the lad was called (Rupert, Tarquin and Farquahar were the guesses) but the food and wine critique was a great laugh. The blatant racism toward the Thai workers was less funny...

Cheers,

Billy