Project Mortgage Neutral Begins

ajmoney

House decorating commences next Monday, I am both nervous and excited. I will be going shopping for paint at the weekend 

bubblycrazy

Exciting! Do you know what colour you're going for? 

ajmoney

Kind of. I am going to have a look in real life (away from saved Pinterest ideas) but my friend has grabbed a load of colour charts for me to decide when he comes on Monday.

ajmoney

Week 1 of decorating has been and gone. The bedroom ceiling has been painted and the walls are ready to be painted on Monday. Hopefully that room should be done by the end of next week and the prep on the dining room started. It sould be perfect timing for my parents coming to stay so I can get the bedroom set up again next weekend. It would have been nice to have carpet down and it be truly finished but they can come back to see it in all its glory!

I go on leave in 2 weeks time, no idea where we will be decorating wise at that point but hopefully the living room and dining room will be prepped and the dining room hopefully done. I can have a chat with him about how we deal with leave at that point and whether he comes round or not. I am really happy with the job he is doing.

Watty1

That is great news.  The house is becoming yours.

ajmoney

The first room is nearly done, probably by the end of the week judging by what is left to do. I am going to start moving things ready for when chaos begins in my living/dining room. The plan is to do each separately but it is pretty much a guarantee that the dust will go between each. It is such a good job, I couldn't have done it to this standard or got as much done in this time frame. It won't be quick results but I actually don't care.

I am going to use the next couple of days to decide on the furniture I am going to purchase. Not going to actually buy it and set things up until the 3 rooms are finished and the carpets are down though. It might be the perfectionist in ymbut I don't see the point until then. I am looking forward to spending the money as I have the surplus between my mortgage and savings for this.

ajmoney

Decisons decisions. I knew what I wanted to store in a new unit in my dining room but some of what I have isn't going to fit in it. It looks like the table cutlery will be saying in the kitchen if I go with this range of furniture. Next is to see if which size of unit my board games fit in. Yep, I am going to take the largest box to the store and see if it fits in

Also, I have been looking for years at the table I thought I wanted but in reality it looks like it could swamp the room so rather then a round extending table I may go for a square/rectangular one. It means going for a slightly different colour scheme too but will link the living/dining room instead.

I am worn out looking at dining room furniture so will leave living room stuff for another day!

ajmoney

Today is the first day since the decorating started that I have been a little bit down. I have been away for a couple of days and have come home to so much dust where the rooms has been sanded and prepped ready to decorate. I guess it is the downside to rooms that just have an arch separating them but that are being decorated individually. I have given the living room (the room being decorated second) a qquick wip round with a damp cloth but am loathed to do too much more in case there is still more prep to do tomorrow. I am prepared to do a better dust tomorrow evening when it should definitely be at a decorating stage (I hope). It makes me slightly concerned for when the rooms are switched, not idea how the living room gets sanded and prepped without covering the dining room in dust that has already been completed.

II am also quite unsettled by a work things and something that is going on with one of my hobbies. I am trying not to second guess how things might pan out but when work and this hobby take up a lot of my time it is hard not to. I just need to remember to do what feels right.

ajmoney

Just done the money shuffle and spreadsheet check for April. My aim since I became mortgage neutral is to remain there and use the buffer amount to decorate. Just over half of my money is in a S&S ISA and given the world/politics right now it is not surprising that it is fluctuating but it has meant there has been a slight decrease in the amount in the neutral pot this month. It made me a little sad which is silly. Nevermind, I currently have around £6800 for decorating costs and the rooms that are currently being done won't cost that.

I am hoping the funds will start to pick up soon so the buffer grows, not only for decorating costs but so I can make some informed choices ahead of remortgaging in June/July. I was offered a longer contract at work yesterday which helps these choices too.

ajmoney

Just back from holiday. It was a lovely week away in Turkey, only tainted slightly by the woman at the check in desk asking if I was pregnant   struggling a little with peri-menopausal symptoms at the moment and probably not helped by enjoyable holiday excesses. Now I am back, I will get back on with my physio exercises properly and try and get back to my normal way of eating. I have been wondering if I should switch up what I eat for breakfast to include more protein but I don't like eggs so I find it difficult to do this. I have a nutritionist friend who I should be seeing on Sunday so I will ask him for some advice.

Money wise we did well with our spending while away. I am resisiting the urge to log on and see quite how badly my S&S ISA is doing with the global volatility. I will save that scare for the start of May. How is it already halfway through April?

Back to rubbishy weather but I am determined to try and enjoy the last 6 days of my leave as best as I can.