Millionaire Challenge

lessonlearned

gothrockchic1 wrote: »

Hi all, college course is going well but quite busy. Out of six modules I have completed two, passed the first one. Module 3 is nearly complete once the report is written and handed in. Lectures have started for Module 4. So progress is getting there

Great news. :T:T:T:T :beer: Make that champers for me...…

Well progress at last. Saw solicitor for the flipper yesterday, hoping to exchange on Tuesday, complete on Friday. Then hopefully we can get cracking in the New Year.

Renos a bit slower than I would like on DS1's house but at least there's hot water now and the heating system is all nice and toasty. Electrician back in January. Outside work will be weather dependent but at least now work can begin on the inside now that the major electrical and plumbing work is done.

Not done any more matched betting - just been too busy to focus on it. Have picked up some more bits and pieces of furniture to up cycle ready to furnish both properties. I shall start on those in the new year whilst the trades and the boys get stuck in.

Also need to start thinking about landscaping.

DS1's house has a large wraparound garden, which is currently an overgrown jungle, having been seriously neglected for several years. We've made a start clearing and pruning but there is a long way to go. We are finding loads of wonderful plants among the undergrowth. Fortunately this one is a long term project. I have made progress on the courtyard entrance - it will be like the Hanging Gardens of Babylon by the time I'm finished with it. :rotfl:

The flipper's garden is small, neat, bland and boring with a lot of gravel and a couple of lonely looking shrubs. I want to turn that into a lush urban oasis by next September which is when we are aiming to put the house back on the market.

I know experienced developers can turn properties around in a matter of weeks but as this is our first commercial project and we are very budget driven we have to do a lot of the work ourselves so we are allowing around 9 months. I think this is realistic and achievable.

I will essentially be managing two projects simultaneously as well as lots of nursing home stuff for mum, dad and OH so I doubt that I will have time for generating additional income. Antiques etc will have to go on the back burner for now.

I also have to oversee the sale of my parent's property in the new year too, so already 2014 looks like its going to be pretty hectic.

Good job I like being busy.

Christmas preps are coming along nicely, all presents brought, cards written and posted, food cupboards well stocked, OH's room in nursing home decorated, bungalow's turn tomorrow. .

Bring it on…..

Kayalana99

lessonlearned wrote: »

Well progress at last. Saw solicitor for the flipper yesterday, hoping to exchange on Tuesday, complete on Friday. Then hopefully we can get cracking in the New Year.

This friday? Did it all go through? :T

Not much to update really, my Dads back of hols and I had abit of a joke with him about buying me a £600 printer for xmas that I need (well want their are cheaper ones) for my business and he offered to lend me abit if I need it but as I brought my 2nd product its gonna take me a while to get sorted with them so I told him I was joking(which I was :P ) and he told me its their if I need it and we'd sort out a way of paying back later. So good news on that front.

I'm really worried about him. Long story short he brought a house(200k) with a friend to do it up and resell...and during it all they fell out...so now house is on market at 300k and my dad wants to buy his friend out at 90k. (Profit is spilt 90/10)

Personally I think he is just screwing himself over because if he doesn't stay with his friend on the house and some offers 270k then he's just lost 20k...hes on about renting it out for a few years then reselling it but he doesn't want the house to get wrecked as its in such good cond now. (He wouldn't be making any profit either if he did this just break even)

I suppose it seems like I am asking for advise but he wouldn't listen to me anyway! My suggestion (because I knew he isn't open to ideas lol) is that he hold off a month or two so his mate starts to get abit worried and then offer a lower amount...because his offer is to high to what the house will sell at but atm the guy wouldn't accept any less.

Karmacat

I think I see what you mean, Kayalana - I'm rubbish at negotiating to buy, so I'd never dream of offering advice - I hope he'll hear yours tho, that sounds good.

What a lot you've had going on! Must be frightening, as well as exhausting, when the babies are so ill, and you're trying to expand your business too.

I've not been able to get online for almost two weeks - router is now replaced, so I'm back with a vengeance, but no online shopping done till today! Nightmare!

My cat website was also unreachable, because I was offline, so I contented myself with sorting the place out - tidying after I'd been ill September-November, sorting through the craft supplies which had got thrown in with bolts of fabric, that sort of thing. And cleaning - horrifying how dirty a place can get when you don't clean :D

Concepts got a lot clearer - about the novel too, actually, how the military get involved in different ways (they're all people too, after all, including many family members of mine over the years) - and about the cat website too - different platforms - website, blog, twitter, publishing on facebook (won't have a separate page on there just yet, but might do).

I've researched a better camera - when I found out the one I currently have could do CMOS and macro, I wondered if I trained myself to use it properly, it'd be ok, but its still not good enough. Nothing like the cost of Kayalana's machine, of course - £80 will be fine.

ElleWoods

*Kayalana* I bought a 'new' laptop in the summer from the Argos outlet on Ebay. It was practically brand new, just had a tiny scratch on the lid that you have to squint to see. I wanted Windows 7 not 8, so buying from a mainstream store was out of the question. Think it was about £260 with £3.95 P&P.

*Karmacat* looking forward to seeing the site when it's ready for us to browse! I have one cat already and am getting a kitten in a few weeks - can't wait :T. Just hope they get on ok, or at least tolerate each other.

Kayalana99

Love cats..partner is allergic had them through childhood (including looking after mother & 5 kittens at one point ) so cant complain I guess

Still looking on laptop front, buying a new desk tomorrow...should really be getting the laptop but I fell in love with this desk over a month ago and my Dads back and its still their so I have someone to pick it up for me

Will keep looking on ebay I wanted windows 7 personally to...8 looks comlicated

Oh and eldest is finally fully recovered!! little one is getting their but so much better

lessonlearned

Hi Everyone:santa2:

Yes we completed on the flipper today. I was beginning to doubt it would happen because in the end we had to exchange and legal on the same day. A bit nerve-racking for poor DS2. All Santander's fault. It took them 3 attempts to get the mortgage offer right. :rotfl: Still it's all safely done now.

Actually at the risk of sounding all smug and insufferable I am feeling quite pleased with myself now because tying this one up means that Phase 2 of my master plan is now complete.

Cue rubbing of hands and evil cackle - well it is the Panto season:rotfl:

Phase 1 - Rescue - save what I could from the financial train wreck and clear my debts.

Phase 2 - Reboot - start at the beginning again - buy a couple of properties, one for each of the boys.

So there is where I'm now at.

Phase 3 - Rebuild - replenish the coffers ready for the next stage - will begin in the New Year.

I shall spend the festive season mulling over my plan of action, setting goals and targets. Ooh I do love a plan.

Kayalana - I think your advice to your father is very sound. A decision like that needs to be thought through very carefully. As you say if not all his work could be for nothing.

So glad to hear that the children are getting better.

Kitty - my laptop has also died.

One of my goals next year is to get "Techied up". I'm going to treat myself to some kind of tablet, a new mobile - mine is nearly dead and an all singing and dancing sewing machine.

We also need to "tool up" - new power tools for our projects, some portable scaffolding/ladder thingy, and some heavy duty gardening tools.

Time to splash the cash.

I've made a start on buying some furniture and also plants for the flipper's rather sparse garden. We have a great farm shop nearby which has just started selling plants as a sideline. The stock tends to be a bit limited and you never know what they will have in on the day but they are a lot cheaper than any of our established garden centres, even allowing for DS2's discount where he works.

So are we all set for Christmas.

I'm going to put up my tree this weekend, have already done OH's room in the nursing home. Presents all wrapped, cards written, turkey in the freezer, just need to do one final shop for the last few bits and pieces.

Hope you all have a wonderful time.

I look forward to us resuming our challenge in 2014.

Tink - thank's for starting this thread. Your idea to start it was inspired.

:xmassign:

Kayalana99

Hi guys,

Didn't get my desk yesterday - Me + Fam went down to staples to meet my Dad and I realised I didn't have my bank card for my business so OH went out to withdraw cash.

Dad turns up and sat in the car with me for abit and as we was sat their the lights went off!!!

Got it today I know your not supposed to love objects but I'm in awe.... it looked big in the shop, it looked big when OH (gotta love him) was setting it up....but it wasn't untill it was placed where my other desk was I realized just how big it was...

Its got a lockable draw as well which will be so handy with the kiddies.

Worked out how much I need for product 3 (the expensive one whether to buy the big machine or small machine >.>) and with all the extras, new printer etc going to be a whooping £1200 for the small machine! Desk has set me back £100 for laptop so need £1300-£1400 really but hoping to get some more listed from product 2 soon so fingers crossed I'll start making some sales with them (7 so far out of 1000 lol but they were last min xmas gifts...so doubt they will sell anymore just yet as sales are a halt now which is to b expected ! )

Grinning from ear to ear atm lol :-)

I might post a pic of my old desk just for laughs its that bad but going out tonight so I'll see if I get round to it.

Karmacat

Ooh, some good news on here now! LL, congratulations on the flipper and the progression of the plan, especially

SoftWarmKitty - lots of kitty stories please :T I'm two weeks behind now on the website because of the router, and I'm off tomorrow (since this is an open website, its a good job I've never said where I live!) so next week will just be plotting again, as well as looking after my mum, who is post-operative again, tho a routine op for her age.

Hope everyone has a lovely, safe, happy Christmas - see you all soon, and thank you all so much for contributing to this thread.

Kayalana99

My OH is finshing for xmas so just thought I'd wish you all a good xmas and new year,

I gave up facebook recently and its been hard but I find myself scrolling through this site instead ...and the reason for giving it up was wasting time I could be spending on my business but I do feel this forum is beneficial to be in alot of ways so I will simply be taking a break to focus on getting everything into shape.

So...will be back in the new year (2nd Jan ), hopefully with my business organised properly and my goals for the new year ready to start.

Look forward to hearing peoples new years resolutions as well.

:beer:

lessonlearned

Good afternoon fellow Millionaires in Waiting.

How are we all, suitably refreshed after Christmas and raring to go or feeling tired, jaded and hungover.

Well I'm bursting with ideas and plans, my head is spinning and I'm itching to get started. Problem is I'm knackered so today is a rest day. I'm pottering about, tidying up and cooking up a storm.

Yesterday we visited the flipper and had a good poke about. Whilst there we set to and uncovered two pretty original fireplaces in the bedrooms, nice old floorboards in every room, and a fab-u-lous minton tiled floor in the hall. Lots of nice original period features underneath the 70's "modernising", unfortunately the electrics look pretty "period" too. :rotfl:

Still you can't have everything. Luckily the bathroom and kitchen are much better than I remembered so we can claw back a bit there. The kitchen just needs a bit of reconfiguration. I can use the the existing carcasses and replace the doors, worktops, tiling etc. Should save a few pennies there. The bathroom just needs a new bath and floor covering.

Aiming to make a start ripping out and get cracking in the New Year.

A bit of storm damage to DS1's roof - we can get that fixed when we do the outside work in the spring. In the meantime he has a couple of weeks off and his leg is now out of plaster so we are cracking on with some of the easier inside jobs. Well easier for me because I'm only acting in an advisory capacity - he's doing all the graft.

Treated him to a power screwdriver because he was getting blisters trying to dismantle old fitted wardrobes. They were built to last - unfortunately they are horrible and have to go…..

I must say I am really enjoying my role as project manager or should that be "general dogsbody".

At last I've finally learned how to delegate……TBH I've been forced too because I'm just too old and decrepit now for heavy manual work and labouring.

Time to use my brains and let us others do the muscle work. :rotfl:

I realised I have a domain name that I bought some time ago and never used. It's up for renewal, only £8 so will renew and then I really must see how I can use it to add value and perhaps even make a bit of money with it.

I'm not much of a tekkie but DS2 is so he could handle all the technical stuff. I need to think about it.

Need to do a money sort out in the next couple of days ready for Stage 3 of my master plan…….

Time to set my next year's goals.