Mortgages, DIY, pets and life - my MFW journey

DawnW

Jackies wrote: »

i don't think there is any such thing as a NSD when you own a house lol Today DH and I have been stripping wallpaper in our bedroom..............gotta love woodchip! Its taken us 5 hrs to do 2 walls and half the ceiling lol! Will finish tomorrow but then need to find a plasterer to fix the walls lol

Woodchip on the ceiling as well? :eek::rotfl:
We had it over most of our house too, and until I looked up just then, thought 'but not on the ceilings'. A BIG ceiling that I am sitting under at the moment is actually still covered in you-know-what. :eek: How did I miss that?

We had the house decorated from top to bottom before we moved in last year, (as the walls were all in such a state, plaster came off when I took off the woodchip and the other sort with swirly patterns, etc) but decided to have this ceiling just painted over, as unlike most of the others, it looks sound.

I am sure if I pulled it off, the whole lot would come down :eek:
The others did!

Jackies

DawnW wrote: »

Woodchip on the ceiling as well? :eek::rotfl:
We had it over most of our house too, and until I looked up just then, thought 'but not on the ceilings'. A BIG ceiling that I am sitting under at the moment is actually still covered in you-know-what. :eek: How did I miss that?

We had the house decorated from top to bottom before we moved in last year, (as the walls were all in such a state, plaster came off when I took off the woodchip and the other sort with swirly patterns, etc) but decided to have this ceiling just painted over, as unlike most of the others, it looks sound.

I am sure if I pulled it off, the whole lot would come down :eek:
The others did!

Hi Dawn thanks for your post!

Fortunately no woodchip on the ceiling....just 4 layers of wallpaper! I mean who wallpapers their ceiling once?! Let alone 4 times?! lol

Our front room and second bedroom are covered in the stuff too so as and when we get round to doing them, the joy of woodchip awaits us again!

We didn't lose too much plaster underneath the actual woodchip and we were very good at making sure we didn't leave the steamers on too long so as not to blow the plaster, but the plaster that is sound has quite alot of fine cracks which isnt much help to us as we want to paint the walls not re-wallpaper. The main plaster loss was when we removed the dado rail.......right back to the plaster board in some places! Ooops!

BaconandEggs

Hi,
Loving your blog. Great to read about people with similar goals.
Great that you've found those extra bits of cash.

I also remember being pretty chuffed when we found that we could claim tax back on our professional fees. I feel your pain when it comes to stripping woodchip. We moved house 12 months ago and there was woodchip everywhere - numberous layers. So far we've completely re-done 2 bedrooms. I was dreaming about stripping woodchip after a day spent on it.
I've come to really enjoy DIY. Love a Saturday morning spent listening to the radio and getting things done, and the sense of satisfaction when the job is sorted.

Good luck on being MF!

Jackies

BaconandEggs wrote: »

Hi,
Loving your blog. Great to read about people with similar goals.
Great that you've found those extra bits of cash.

I also remember being pretty chuffed when we found that we could claim tax back on our professional fees. I feel your pain when it comes to stripping woodchip. We moved house 12 months ago and there was woodchip everywhere - numberous layers. So far we've completely re-done 2 bedrooms. I was dreaming about stripping woodchip after a day spent on it.
I've come to really enjoy DIY. Love a Saturday morning spent listening to the radio and getting things done, and the sense of satisfaction when the job is sorted.

Good luck on being MF!

Hi! And thanks for reading! I knew the blogs are for the OPs really, but it is nice to know that other people are reading too!

Am still waiting to hear from from HMRC re: my tax rebate - I'm not holding my breath, we'll seen when/if it comes!!

We're down to the final wall to be stripped in the bedroom! Hurrah!

Jackies

Another day, more wallpaper stripping! We've removed all the woodchip at last - just some wallpaper from ceiling left to go and then we're good to try and get it replastered

Ordered a new curtain track for our baywindow too Not cheap will look pretty!

BaconandEggs

Curtain tracks and poles can be surprisingly expensive for bay windows. I've fitted curtains to a couple of windows now which were quite tricky. Often easier to use a track. For some reason my wife wanted poles - but managed to get the looking ok.

Congratulations on removing the woodchip!

Jackies

BaconandEggs wrote: »

Curtain tracks and poles can be surprisingly expensive for bay windows. I've fitted curtains to a couple of windows now which were quite tricky. Often easier to use a track. For some reason my wife wanted poles - but managed to get the looking ok.

Congratulations on removing the woodchip!

Yes they can! I wanted a curtain pole but in the end opted for a track as it was cheaper - cost me £32 in the end which I thought was abit pricey but hey - you're always going to use it arent you! Had to order online in the end as couldn't get the right length in store

Saved some more money in ISA today........I'm part of the sealed club challenge but my sealed pot was full so had to empty it (not so sealed anymore hahaha!) just removed the £1 coins and 50ps in there........had £59.50! Lots of 20ps etc left but just needed to clear enough space to add more money. So thats now paid into the ISA fund giving a grand total of 2215.42 since the ISA year started plus the1000 I put in there before the end of the last ISA year.

Jackies

Nowt much to add currently! Busy looking for a plasterer to come and repair our woodchip ravaged walls lol

10 days and counting till payday!

Sleepy_head_2

Welcome!

Don't you just love woodchip! I spent weeks stripping the stuff which seemed to be superglued to every wall in the house I bought last year. Unfortunately the house I bought was also previously owned by a heavy smoker so the steamers produced a lovely nicotene 'shower' you had to dodge too! We have the swirly stuff on the ceilings too and also decided it might be holding the ceilings up so we just painted it...

With regards to the rebate for washing your uniform at home, the tax office simply changed my OH's tax code so he was better off monthly rather than pay him a cheque. Was a shame but at least he got the money back.

Good luck with your mortgage free challenge

Sleepy head

Jackies

Sleepy_head wrote: »

Welcome!

Don't you just love woodchip! I spent weeks stripping the stuff which seemed to be superglued to every wall in the house I bought last year. Unfortunately the house I bought was also previously owned by a heavy smoker so the steamers produced a lovely nicotene 'shower' you had to dodge too! We have the swirly stuff on the ceilings too and also decided it might be holding the ceilings up so we just painted it...

With regards to the rebate for washing your uniform at home, the tax office simply changed my OH's tax code so he was better off monthly rather than pay him a cheque. Was a shame but at least he got the money back.

Good luck with your mortgage free challenge

Sleepy head

Someone was saying that because I'm claiming for so many years (backdated for 4 years) then I may actually get some money rather than an adjustment to my tax code. Either way I'm happy!

All the woodchip and ceilings are chipped! YAY! Now just finalising the look for a plasterer to skim the walls for me.

The attempt to save money and spend less failed miserably - washing machine gave up the ghost today so just spent £270 on a new one lol Ah well!