Finally I have a mortgage I can start to pay off!

themadvix

Morning all,

Thanks Jessy, we did have a lovely time and the food was pretty reasonable too. Thanks Karma (Norfolk is one of my favourite places ).

After lunch yesterday (and a walk in the woods with our friends), we popped to Mum's and I managed to find some blackberries near her house. So this morning I've put together the crumble and it's in the freezer, ready for next weekend. Also this morning I've done various bits of work and am just settling down to the big project.

We've got a viewing later and I'll take my RM survey item to post then.

MS things:
* Clicks done
* Ongoing PA survey done and £20 claimed
* Work, work, work
* Dinner tonight will be shakshuka, with a pouch of piri-piri rice DH brought home from his office drawer and Mexican corn. Still enjoying bits from the garden to supplement the remnants of the veg box. Another one will be ordered this week though.

Gratitudes:
* Eventually our friends' little girl (2) decided that it was okay to talk to us and smile - she spent a good hour just giving us suspicious looks and not talking at all! She was a proper little chatterbox once she got going though
* Lovely food at the pub
* Free blackberries
* Good family Zoom time and a game or two of virtual Boggle

Have a good day all!

Karmacat

It's so good when you let a child decide for herself whether to talk to you or not - I had that earlier this year with a 2 year old great nephew.  Poor thing had been asleep, fell out of his car seat on arrival because his dad was on crutches, and he got stuffed into my hands willy nilly.  Cried the house down, of course, and I left him completely alone after that, to give him time to recover.  I feel very grateful that we recovered after a couple of hours to look at train seats and the screws that hold them down

themadvix

Yes, much better to let them come to you (small children and cats have so much in common!). But it was so funny - she just went completely mute - it wasn't just us she wasn't talking to! And her parents were saying, 'Oh, she talks so much now....'! It was good we actually got to see evidence of this in the end

themadvix

Morning all,

Well the weather has turned here and it's cold, wet and windy this morning. No viewings today, which is lovely as we can just have a quiet day and I should be able to get lots of work done - the end of this project in now in sight!

Another viewing has been booked for tomorrow evening - we've got to do the viewing as it's out of hours and it's an investment buyer. Not sure I want to sell to someone who will rent it out as I'd prefer to sell to people making it their home. We'll see. DH is now researching turning it into a B2L for us. Not sure that it's worth it tbh, from what I understand the government has eliminated a lot of the tax breaks, plus there's the aggro of being a landlord/lady and I'm not sure how I'd feel about watching renters potentially destroying the home we've worked so hard to make nice (I'm sure not all would, but generally they don't take as much care as they would if it was theirs).

Another house has come up that we'd be interested in viewing - it's got a stable block (not currently for horses!) and a garage as well as a big garden. Downside is the location - quite close to the airport (I complain about plane noise at the moment and it's only 2.4 miles away from it). Worth a look potentially though - it ticks all other boxes.

Today, apart from work, I need to blanch and freeze some runner beans. Not sure what we'll eat tonight - part of me is tempted to go out, but whether we'd find anywhere, I'm not sure. (And it's raining....)

MS things:
* PA ongoing survey - another £2 banked
* 1P surveys (bit thin on the ground though at the moment)
* Clicks done
* Inclined just to find food from home for tonight (maybe even make pizza)
* Veg box and extras ordered - the fridge is looking bare, which is a good sign! (And being able to order extras individually means I don't double up on stuff we've got growing in the garden)

Gratitudes:
* Tasty dinner last night
* A peaceful day today
* The viewings keep coming

Have a good day all!

South_coast

The stable house would be handy if you wanted to take a flight though, Vix - you could walk there and offset a smidge of the aircraft emissions. It would encourage packing light 😀!

I had dreams of investment properties once, I was even planning on 4 or 5 flats so that they would pay for each other during void periods (not entirely sure how I thought I would finance this portfolio 🤣); but knowing a) how much effort it's been to pay off one mortgage, and b) how much I stress out about everything and that I would lie awake at night worrying what the tenants were doing to my property has put me off the idea! I still think about buying somewhere as a holiday let occasionally and even tried to convince my parents last year to come in with me on a flat a couple of hours away that we could double up as our own bolt-hole, but after going on a short break there they decided it was too far away (they live an hour closer than me and I would definitely have gone there for a weekend 🙄). Also, my stepdad thought it was hilarious that I was suggesting buying somewhere that was twice the cost of my own flat and not living in it myself!

Hope the weather improves, we had rain overnight and first thing but it's brightened up now (very windy though) so hopefully it's on its way to you

Suffolk_lass

Good tenants are everything if you are considering renting. It sounds as though you expect to still be emotionally attached to your house when you have moved. This was not my experience. I have looked to see what has been done to former houses but I have never felt the same emotional attachment after moving on. I viewed our investment in them as our stepping stones that have enabled us to move to where we wanted to be.

Karmacat

For the airport noise, madvix, you might be lucky in the direction of the noise?  You might not, of course, but its worth checking.  Options are good

themadvix

Afternoon all,

Thanks ladies. The weather remained shocking all of yesterday SC, but that didn't stop us eating out to help out. We went to a local pub and had a *really* nice meal - I had a prawn, smoked salmon and langoustine tagliatelle and the quantities of fish in it were excellent. That's it now though - homecooked food until we go away.

SL - you're probably right, I probably won't be so emotionally attached once we've moved. But it is our first home (both together and in terms of finances) and we've put our blood, sweat and tears into it.

We viewed the 'airport' property this morning. It was lovely... except the planes. Karma, it's literally on the flight path - no way you wouldn't hear them - you can read the tail numbers without magnification (we'd never get rid of my FIL!)... Sadly, we're pretty sure this makes it a no-go, but we will return to check the noise levels over a longer period - only one flight passed over while we were there and we had to get back as DH had an appointment. Such a pity as it was a really lovely property otherwise.

Have booked a viewing of another on Tuesday - it's been on the market a while, but we'd initially dismissed it as too expensive (£500k), but we've since upped our budget and as it's been there a while, they might be willing to negotiate. It's a bit further than we'd like to go and there is another drawback (that might not be the word), which I'm not going to discuss here, but is a potential concern/not sure how I feel about it. It's grade II listed and thatched, so that would bring a whole host of research and other questions - SL, I'm looking at you!

In the meantime, I've got a couple of different work projects to get on with (hooray, a change from the big one), and hoping to have Friday off as DH has it off. Possibly have a viewing here today at 5, but the agent doesn't think anyone's going to turn up (they've been unable to confirm it).

MS things:
* Have ordered some vouchers for food for when we're away from S&S
* PA ongoing survey - last day today
* Clicks etc.

Gratitudes:
* A nice drive out into the countryside this morning
* The wind has died down
* Different work to do

Have a good day all!

Busy_Mee

The house hunt is all sounding quite promising Mad Vix. Once you have made the decision to move, it is just finding the right place. 

We have never found a "perfect" place but usually a house in the right location that will some alteration becomes perfect. We have also gone back to earlier discounted properties. Our last house we dismissed because the living room was too dark but we realised we could just chop down the trees that were making it dark. £400 for a tree surgeon and we got a house in the right area. Our current house was completely awful but on a good plot with a lovely view and we literally rebuilt it. I wouldn't recommend that, but in my experience there isn't much that you can't solve if the location and situation is right (and there are no strict planning restrictions). A flight path you can't resolve and there are only limited flights at the moment, it will get busier when things go back to normal.

themadvix

Afternoon all,

Thanks Busy Mee - wise words. Location is definitely key, I think, but we're limited by the budget (isn't everyone) for what we want - it seems everything would be 'perfect' but for one (key) thing. (And by perfect, I mean we could make it so - we're pretty good at envisaging what we'd like to do/what would need to be done.) 

We did have a viewing yesterday in the end - was all a bit short notice - the agents aren't great! Today is a house-free day however, which is lovely. I've baked a banana cake with previously frozen bananas (they were very brown before they went in the freezer), blanched and frozen all my runners (only about 6 portions!) and taken one RM parcel to the PO. Another to go this afternoon (rolls eyes!). Have also got a lot of work bits completed. Lunch will be pancakes as there's milk on the turn again.... this seems to be happening a lot lately and it's not even thundery now. I'll also need to chop and prep some eating apples for apple turnovers (and freeze) as they're on the turn.

Veg box and extras came this morning, so looking forward to some tasty meals and renewed enthusiasm for cooking. Have also nabbed a TGTG bag from a corner shop - not had one from there before, so intrigued as to what it will contain. Slightly concerned that it'll be stuff we would never eat like ready meals. If it is, I won't make that mistake again. I think dinner will be planned after we've collected it.

Once I've finished up the small project I'm working on, I need to sort out my rates - one client is on different rates for different projects (and I confess I don't even know what the rates are as they were all set a long time ago and they don't always lay it out for me in the POs/job notifications). They will probably remain different rates, but I need to clarify what they are (email archive here I come) and then some of them need to be increased. I'll be sending out emails to clients to give them forewarning - they won't go up until Jan (new US tax year), but some have been the same for 6 years now and that's no good. 

MS things:
* Finished one ongoing PA survey, only to sign up to another 2-week daily surveys job. It pays well though!
* NV survey
* RM posting - you get extra for having to go to the PO
* Clicks etc.
* Saved beans, bananas and apples from waste
* Received my 'Norfolk passport' today - will net us 10% off food in the restaurant at the hotel we're staying at

Gratitudes:
* Different staff at the PO - always helps when sending secretive parcels!
* House-free day - we can relax
* The excitement of a TGTG collection later

Have a good day all!