From Flat to Farmhouse

FloppyDisk

Oooooh, a full on horse! Will it be a share with kiddo?

I'm sure I will get itchy feet now it is lighter, but this winter horse-free has been quite a piece of cake!

Waiting for the vendors to get back to us with responses to enquiries, then we are all ready to exchange. We had said we wanted to move before the end of next month, so I'm sure everyone feels like that is plenty of time, but when that involves giving a month's notice on a certain day of the month it makes it a bit more tricky.

smallholdingsister

Yes a share with Kiddo.

Going to see one Sunday.

IME you never get to move quite when you want.

FloppyDisk

Fingers crossed for Sunday! Are you avoiding TBs now? I'm attempting to do heaps of core work so if I do get another I will hopefully be harder to buck off.

If we can exchange in the next 2 weeks we could time it so we don't pay any extra rent.

FloppyDisk

Just had an email confirming that our mortgage has arrived with the solicitor - We are going to move into our dream house tomorrow :j

Elephantchunks

Fab news! Hope the move goes smoothly for you both. Enjoy!

FloppyDisk

We are in! It's lovely, and there are horses next door - possible livery maybe???

Only trouble is that it is enormous and all of our furniture is looking a bit dwarfed, so we need to acquire lots of new 'stuff' but we are both fans of reclamation yards and charity shops for that sort of thing. To the other end of the extreme, we want to do lots of re-jigging to move the kitchen and add in another bedroom, and longer term - an en-suite. Over paying the mortgage is not top priority but I will try to throw some Tilly Tidies that way to make some progress. We have a few weeks before our first payment so it will be a big one when it comes.

FloppyDisk

We are still alive! I did start a new thread for the new house assuming we would pay that one off and stop being daft house collectors but we have come to the realisation that this house doesn't come quite close enough to a farmhouse and in 5-10 years time we really would like to have some land (for me) and workshops (for OH). Not sure whether to be daunted or excited by that prospect but we will see where we go!

For now we are ignoring-ish the mortgage and only throwing tilly tidies and a monthly direct debit round up at it, all other spare cash is going in our savings pot for the new kitchen which we hope to have finished by Christmas in time for a new valuation and remortgage next year. That will probably see us using up all our savings which makes me hugely uncomfortable, so I am hoping I can spend the next 6 months penny pinching to give us a safety net.

That said, there is indeed a spare stable next door

FloppyDisk

Mid-month update - I have closed my Tesco bank account now that the interest has dropped and moved that over to the joint savings account with Marcus.
This month's extras include managing to secure an Airbnb booking in August for some guests that stayed last year plus their friend so doubling the rate to use the other spare room.
Looking ahead to the end of the year, if we used every penny on the kitchen works, we would have £-592.92 in the joint accounts, which is fine as we can save that within a month and in reality we will probably pop much of it on a 0% CC anyway (and still have a small backup in my account). But obviously the aim is to try to minimise that so I'm on a mission to rattle some pennies out of the sofa.

FloppyDisk

Just managed to save the airbnb booking from disaster after t'otherhalf tried to plan the biggest chunk of kitchen re-work in the 4 days before they arrive.
Other than that mild drama, the month has flown by with not much news. I have fixed the leccy bills for the next 2 years and now need to sort out a credit card to start piling day to day spends on.
Had a blinder of a riding lesson at the weekend on a crazy borrowed horse which has really given me a confidence boost that although I'm not out competing I am still improving - must keep hiding some horse savings away from the kitchen pot!

hiddenshadow

I have horse savings tucked away, despite probably needing house renovation & car savings pots.