PoppyOscar, Le Cochon and the Next Adventure!

edinburgher

My French is a little rough - is a cochon a pig? :eek:

House sounds great for the amount you're paying :T

poppyoscar_3

edinburgher wrote: »

My French is a little rough - is a cochon a pig? :eek:

House sounds great for the amount you're paying :T

Le cochon is my (French) piggy bank - my original MF journey started with him in 2007.

The house is pretty good for the money - I did put down a sizeable deposit as well as the mortgage (almost 60% of the value) but it's a great house. I think we did well as the one over the road is on for £25k more than we paid and doesn't have such a nice aspect or garden, no garage and has been a rental so not as loved.

We would like to do some work on ours - maybe extend a little, but it wouldn't matter if we didn't.

PO xx

poppyoscar_3

Loft insulation now done only to discover BG would have done it for free! grrrr! Mr C has decided to let his house as nothing is happening with the proprty market where he lives. He's going to investigate the mortgage implications with his provider and then going through an agent this time!
Hopefully then we will have a bit of cash to start doing some work on the house. We're going to change a tiny bedroom into an en suite as a first job. I don't think this will devalue as we still have three good bedrooms but currently only one loo/bathroom. The bedroom in question is so tiny a single bed is all you'd get in there anyway. The house also has plenty of scope to extend outdated and loft conversion if at a later date someone wanted to. We just don't need all that space and have decided to make it drop-dead gorgeous inside instead of extending. We do intend to stay here until we're too old to manage stairs so it's worth it!
All sorts starting to come up in the garden - very exciting!
PO xx

edinburgher

Sorry to hear that you ended up doing a job that you could have had completed for free, but at least it's done. It's dramatic how big a difference decent loft insulation can make, when we were looking at houses one of them had an oddly high score for energy efficiency in the single survery - turns out it had c. 50cm of insulation!

Spring does seem to have sprung (well, it's definitely thinking about it) - are you growing veggies? I have to say it was very nice to see the first daffs breaking through the borders in our local park

poppyoscar_3

Hi Edinburgher
They're predicting 17 degrees for us at he end of the week so will definitely be getting outside! Not sure about veggies at present - the size of the garden was the compromise we made with this house - it's gorgeous with a lovely aspect, but not very big. I think Im going to try to grow some veggies but they will be in amongst the borders - when I know a bit more about what's in there I might be able to dedicate a bit of border to veggies.
I have daffs out too!
PO xx

poppyoscar_3

Water metre actually going in today. All washing, washing up, etc done. The bucket the cat drinks from filled and a couple of pans full in the kitchen for the kettle. I know it won't really save anything to speak of but i feel like I am!

abouttimetoo

Hi Poppy, it's been a while since we heard from you, how is everything going? I hope you and Mr C are all settled in your new home now.

Have you head your first water bill in yet following your meter installation? Everyone I know has seen really dramatic differences in price, sadly I can't have one fitted

Regards
ATT

poppyoscar_3

We are settled and very happy in the house. Have been really busy - there are odd things going wrong so have had to get a few things fixed - leaky bath ( through the ceiling) leaky shower pump (also through the ceiling) and we are just in the process of building a proper window sill in the main bedroom as are having plantation shutters in bay upstairs and down. Arm and a leg but worth it!
Have only saved about £500 so far for OPs so not doing so well there. Mr C is keeping his house and we are going to let it as soon as we can. The last tenant made a right mess of it so we went up to try and sort it last weekend. Means money is a bit tight until we do let it though.
We are starting to think about doing the bathroom and ensuite too so it's all exciting.
Hope all well with everyone else! Will definitely get my act together re: posting when I start to get a bit more OP money going!
Haven't had a water bill yet, but I know will be less! Was with SevernTrent before too so know roughly what it will be and it is less than the amount based on rateable value!
PO xx

greent

Ooh, only just found your new diary, Poppy!

Good luck with this adventure

poppyoscar_3

Very excited as new plantation shutters are due to be fitted (and paid for!) tomorrow. Will be nice to be able to go into the lounge and the main bedroom without feeling like a goldfish in a bowl.
Once those are done we need to look at getting a new boiler (we have an old back boiler and the gas bills are very high ) and then quotes for refitting our bathroom into an ultra gorgeous shower room and making the very very titchy 4th bedroom into an ensuite.
We have a budget of about £7500 to do all of that but Mr C is in the construction industry and will be able to pull in a few favours and seems to be able to get stuff at cost/trade prices too so I'm hopeful. We currently have a separate bathroom and loo with I think the original high level flush which takes about 47 gallons every flush despite the brick in it!
PO xx