THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

[Deleted User]

Well, we've been valued and given the assurance that because of position in the village centre and the size of the house and garden we'll be a des res! however, the area we're intent on moving to seems (inevitably!) to have dried up with very few new properties coming on to the market. There is NOTHING that we haven't either viewed or rejected that has come on the market in the past three weeks. We will have to be patient but I think we'll launch this on to the market before Christmas and hope that something suitable comes available in the New Year. Nothing prepares you for frustration does it???

[Deleted User]

I am needing to be within walking distance from facilities ivyleaf. Having had an OCT eye scan at the opticians and seeing what age is doing to my eyes, same as almost everyone btw even if not wearing glasses. I appreciate that anyone can become incapable of driving, so I want to future proof access to shop, bus, groups, surgery etc.

Being on my own now, I have to make the move as easy as possible and may well have to get a property in need of refurb, which I will want to do before I move. I have already raided part of my sipp and have cash so can do that

That cash will be returned to savings and pension but cannot go back to the sipp, so I am future proofing my income with some future diversification ie an annuity from part of it, enough to top up and future proof my pension to a better level. Those are my plans as I enter my 7th decade, still full of energy and able to effect changes for my future

ivyleaf

kittie wrote: »

I am needing to be within walking distance from facilities ivyleaf. Having had an OCT eye scan at the opticians and seeing what age is doing to my eyes, same as almost everyone btw even if not wearing glasses. I appreciate that anyone can become incapable of driving, so I want to future proof access to shop, bus, groups, surgery etc.

Being on my own now, I have to make the move as easy as possible and may well have to get a property in need of refurb, which I will want to do before I move. I have already raided part of my sipp and have cash so can do that

That cash will be returned to savings and pension but cannot go back to the sipp, so I am future proofing my income with some future diversification ie an annuity from part of it, enough to top up and future proof my pension to a better level. Those are my plans as I enter my 7th decade, still full of energy and able to effect changes for my future

Ah, somehow I hadn't twigged that you weren't within walking distance of anything!

Karmacat

I'm future-proofing too, in a way: the new side gate, the soundproofing (neighbours play music v late and v early, even though they aren't really noisy), repointing - I think this house is more or less the best I could do, given how expensive it is to move, and most of these works need to be done anyway. If there's a problem with the weather or the utilities over the winter, I'll be more snug with these works than without them. And when I'm in the bathroom, because the brick shed's been renovated (more storage for preps! yay!) I won't be hearing rats and whatnot that are scurrying about in the shed, they won't be able to get in with the new door being so good.

Food stocks have taken a bit of a beating, though, storage is completely upside down at the mo because of shifting everything for the builder.

moneyistooshorttomention

kittie wrote: »

I am needing to be within walking distance from facilities ivyleaf. Having had an OCT eye scan at the opticians and seeing what age is doing to my eyes, same as almost everyone btw even if not wearing glasses. I appreciate that anyone can become incapable of driving, so I want to future proof access to shop, bus, groups, surgery etc.

Being on my own now, I have to make the move as easy as possible and may well have to get a property in need of refurb, which I will want to do before I move. I have already raided part of my sipp and have cash so can do that

Re the eyes - are you talking about cataracts?

A friend of mine here (moved over at about same time as myself) is having cataract problems at the moment, though she's only same sort of age as myself. Hence I've been checking out prices on getting this done privately for her - as it seems the NHS is planning to make her wait so long it will severely impact her life. It's £2,000-£2,500 per eye to have it done privately. Worst case analysis = £5,000 if one has to pay that NHS bill for both eyes.

When I changed houses recently I estimated (pretty accurately) on the "swop-over costs" as I call them being around £9,000 (lower end of the market). £9k is rather dearer than £5k (worst case analysis for that particular eye problem to get sorted).

Though - I have been watching people getting up to their 90s having to give up driving for other health reasons (ie it does look as if my elderly father is finally being forced into giving up driving - for those "other health reasons"). So I guess that depends on whether one anticipates that or no....

Being on your own I can fully relate to (unfortunately:eek:). I was only thinking (again) earlier today that it would have been very helpful to have two brains (instead of just one - ie mine) to think about various aspects to do with current house. Then there is the added element of I have acute suspicions some tradespeople have treated me as "a woman" rather than "a person" and that has been one heck of a shock to the system and I can honestly say I've not really known how to get it through to them that they are NOT to do that to me. I am very conscious that many of them are probably "harder" people than I am - currently feeling very thankful indeed that latest tradesperson isnt and I don't think he'll be trying to "walk over a softer person than him".

I think the single most important bit of advice I could give you - as someone planning to move as a "woman" on your own is make sure you have ready access to the Internet 24/7 whilst getting your new-to-you house together. When I bought my current house 4 years back everything/but everything was wrong with it and it barely "worked". In hindsight - the lack of a "resident man" to make the tradespeople take me seriously was the single biggest problem I face. But the second biggest problem I faced was that this house was SO bad that it was causing me major problems accessing the Internet - and I was therefore heavily handicapped re:
1. getting the information I needed about how things "should" be done - to quote at tradespeople.
2. checking out tradespeople.
3. googling/asking how to deal with problems the tradespeople I came across caused.

You have GOT GOT GOT GOT to have your Internet fully up-and-running - so you can check tradespeople out all along the line if you are trying to modernise a house. Multiply that by a factor of "goodness knows how much" if you are a woman on your own (yes I know it's the 21st century - but a lot them don't seem to realise that:mad::cool::mad::cool::mad::cool:).

[Deleted User]

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Re the eyes - are you talking about cataracts?
.

fortunately not, although two local friends have recently had theirs done. The common age related problem is called AMD and the optician said that most people develop this but I saw my scan and having had floaters for a few years and tearing away around the optic nerve, only seen because of the special optional scan, well this was a scary `what if` reality check. There are three ranges in the scan, green, orange and red and I am in the green but I saw the way my retina/macula had changed and it wasn`t nice

I have a very good local handyman, born and bred here, who knows everyone and is a bit younger than me. My husband thought a lot of him as a person and as a handyman. So luckily I have a male perspective to advise. A very good friend of my husbands is a structural engineer, retired and has already offered to help, so I feel pretty assured re decision-making, although, at the end of the day, it is my decision but it is also reassuring to be looking locally where people know people as it is a small quiet area

moneyistooshorttomention

kittie wrote: »

A very good friend of my husbands is a structural engineer, retired and has already offered to help, so I feel pretty assured re decision-making, although, at the end of the day, it is my decision but it is also reassuring to be looking locally where people know people as it is a small quiet area

Sounds like you might manage to come on the right side of that equation re "people know people".

It's been a huge handicap to me imo. I've recently seen other people commenting here that many tradespeople have an "expectation" that people needing work done will use people that are "local" precisely because they are "local". That being that it seems to be a pretty common expectation that many tradespeople locally seem to expect that they have a "right" to be first in line for any work locally.

With that - many don't get/keep their standards up to normal - because of expectation that work will "by rights" go in their direction anyway. With that - some of them don't seem to be aware there are national standards and they must keep to them....

There are a lot of "local loyalty" customers here and this is a huge problem. I guess it will take a while before the Internet and "normal expectations" bring that type of tradesperson up to scratch or drive them "out of the market" and they arent a problem any longer....

I will choose "local" all else being equal - BUT "all else needs to be equal"....

maryb

Kittie you are so right to take into account what age can do to your independence if your eyesight fails. I have had a whole litany of problems with my eyes although I have been extremely lucky and have had fantastic treatment from the NHS. I was also very lucky when I developed Vitreo Macular traction - I was due to have a vitrectomy and it spontaneously resolved less than a week before the date of the operation.

But there is no doubt that my eyesight is deteriorating. I do very little sewing these days because my vision goes very blurry after just an hour of close work. And it was one of the things I was so looking forward to having time to do when I retired.

So it has clarified our thinking on where we see ourselves in ten years time. At one stage we thought of moving to the country when the DDs were off our hands and we no longer had to commute. No way I could contemplate that now. Chances are, I will have to stop driving at some stage (even though the DVLA gave me back my licence with no restrictions after my last visual field test) and I want to be in an area with good public transport

GreyQueen

:(Being prudent about aging and eyesight is extremely wise.

My Dad was in hospital a few years ago having surgery for a detached retina, something I have been informed I am at a high risk of incurring myself, due to my degree of short-sightedness.

A fellow patient was in there for some other eye problem, and the prognosis was poor; his repaired vision was not going to be sufficient to allow him to drive.

This man still had many years of his working life left. He had, in pursuit of the rural dream, sold up in a city and moved out to a village, whilst driving into that city to work.

He was now utterly scr*wed because said city had experienced galloping house price inflation and there was no public transport connecting his village to the city; he was worried sick about how he would be able to earn a living. He couldn't afford to move back, you see.

In the course of my life, I have seen a lot of people come to economic grief, and even a few die in RTAs, commuting back into towns and cities where they used to live, for work and other purposes.

Think very carefully before moving away from where you make your living or, for those outwith the workforce, from where you access everything from your groceries to your social life.

At best, you spend a LOT more time and money going about your daily business than you otherwise would have done, at worse you can pay with your life.

mardatha

I think as you get older maybe that's when it pays to stay put. In familiar surroundings, what you are used to and among the people you are used to. I sometimes get fed up here and think of moving to a village with a shop and or a cafe - somewhere with more people for when I feel cut off. But that would bring a whole load of problems with it - maybe noisy kids, maybe the odd car theft, maybe vandalism. Stuff that I've never had up here. So in the end I decided to stay put. I don't drive but can still walk to the bus stop - and if I couldn't then I know that Sainsbugs and Amazon bring me whatever I need. And I have 3 children living within 25 miles who would come if summoned.