22 Foxhole East

f0xh0les

The other two quotes came back - it was literally a two-liner -  The planned works  will cost £94k , many thanks - with no price breakdown, so I asked them to break it down, just had one back that reckoned the dormer roof room was going to cost £42k, which is utter utter nonsense sh^te.   It is half that amount.

So going to concentrate on getting the top and middle floors completely sorted by end of year.

The ground floor  rooms at the front of the house (living  room and back reception room aka DH's study)  will be a lot better by Christmas, but the kitchen and back of the house will just take me longer.  But by the end of the year it will be just the back of the house that needs sorting.

Hopefully I will be working, and after all this year's planned building works, should still have about £60k left in the Emergency Fund, plus I am managing to save just over £1k a month at the moment anyway,  I will be able to do something early in the year to make it nicer in there.  Just not all at the same time. 

Maybe while DH is in Swissland (should hear back about that in the next couple of weeks).

KajiKita

f0xh0les said:

The other two quotes came back - it was literally a two-liner -  The planned works  will cost £94k , many thanks - with no price breakdown, so I asked them to break it down, just had one back that reckoned the dormer roof room was going to cost £42k, which is utter utter nonsense sh^te.   It is half that amount.

So going to concentrate on getting the top and middle floors completely sorted by end of year.

The ground floor  rooms at the front of the house (living  room and back reception room aka DH's study)  will be a lot better by Christmas, but the kitchen and back of the house will just take me longer.  But by the end of the year it will be just the back of the house that needs sorting.

Hopefully I will be working, and after all this year's planned building works, should still have about £60k left in the Emergency Fund, plus I am managing to save just over £1k a month at the moment anyway,  I will be able to do something early in the year to make it nicer in there.  Just not all at the same time. 

Maybe while DH is in Swissland (should hear back about that in the next couple of weeks).

Fair enough. Doing the whole lot at once would be pretty unpleasant to live though too! 

KK

slm6002

I'm currently doing one room at a time.  Now saving up for our bathroom and its booked in for March.  Be prepared to have quite a wait before they can start.  The builders I use currently have a 6-9 month waiting list.  Hopefully that is just me though and you will be sorted before Christmas.

MatyMoo

Delurking to say I had a kitchen fitter running early & a bathroom fitter running late so they both ended up in the house together……..never, ever, again 😱

one space at a time with a biiiig gap between in case of delays!

f0xh0les

MatyMoo said:

Delurking to say I had a kitchen fitter running early & a bathroom fitter running late so they both ended up in the house together……..never, ever, again 😱

Oh but what if they had met and fell in lurve??!!!  

Well what has gone on with me recently?   Ended up on half dose hrt because lovely man dr is a twonk.  Cheers for that babe! Back on a higher dose, and a much evener keel.

Have told the builder with the reasonable quote we will go ahead - still waiting for him to get back to me with a start date when I thought 'B0gger! I need a party wall agreement with next door' which is a whole lot easier than it sounds.  Next door is a house rented out room by room for ex-addicts in recovery from whatever their poison was.  They are on the whole a lovely bunch, rarely any problem, all working and getting their lives back together.  Some are long term, there are rarely people there for less than a year, and if there are going to be any problems, it is evident in the first week or two and they are moved on pretty sharpish so the other residents don't have to put up with that near them.   Quite a few have moved out and live in the neighbouring roads, with partners now, and it is nice to bump into them in the corner shop or the petrol station.  Not all halfway houses are problems..... unless you ask them for details of their letting agent, or ask them if they know the name of the person who owns their house - they nod and smile and say they will find out for me, and then nothing, for weeks, so you ask again, and they say they will stick the info through the door - never happens -  so when I saw that you should submit your party wall request 2 MONTHS!! before the work starts, and that 2 months does not start until 14 days after the date on your request, I turned Secret Squirrell to find out the info myself

I figured the council might have a list of HMO licensees on the interweb somewhere, tucked down the back of a sofa,  so managed to find a pdf for the whole city -  but the most recent copy seems to be 2016 and I know the house next door sold 6 months before we bought ours and it had been completely gutted and refitted -  I knew which ward we were in, so was able to find the house quicker, and found the name of  a licensee, googled him, found him on gov.uk companies house info page,  googled him and found his residential address (and date of birth????), Rightm0ved his address to see the last time it sold (not after 2016), so used that name and address on all the paperwork,  and yesterday morning took myself off and found his house (OMG enormous flippin' house or what???), delivered my letter to his family member (complete with all plans just so he understands what I am on about) and now I await his response - I included a SAE for his convenience.

 So now I am waiting for the next door house owner, and the builder, to get back to me.

 Got home, and at supper time last night looked at DH and said - we forgot to sign the bl00dy letter.  I typed our names, but forgot to sign the bloody thing.  Hopefully he will agree and it will never be needed.

DH was horrified I just rocked up to this guy's house and hand delivered it - we  really are very different people!

The house is looking much tidier in anticipation of our visitors next week (dreading it already!).  5,4,3,2,1!

 DS1 and 2 are making very little effort to find gainful employment as far as I can see.

After my money shunting exploits earlier in the month, I should be about £50 better off from opening one bank account and having the interest paid monthly instead of yearly. It is one where I can get my hands on the money quite quickly if I need to -   I already have an ISA maturing in March, the kids regular savers cash out in April, and another ISA pays out in July.   So the second quarter of next year seems quite sorted moneywise.  We probably shouldn't go away as there will be cramming sessions in the Easter hols for  DS3, but I will see his stress levels, and gauge it on that.

I am still planning on taking DS3 and DS4 away in the October half term, DH can't come as his teaching starts the week before.   Oh well!   So of course, I got an email yesterday asking if I can work 2 days in the middle of half term, going to have to politely decline.  I must get into the travel agents and book this bloody thing or DS3 is going to stop loving me.  He is desperate to get away somewhere.

University terms and school terms are not flippin' family friendly.  Every October half term DH's term is 2 weeks in and he has to meet all his tutees and is still working on snagging issues with courses.  Every C-word, DH is marking essays, every Feb half term DH is teaching, every Easter DH is marking exams and essays, there is about two and a half weeks at the start of the Summer holidays that we could go on holiday together all year.   - we should find out mid September about DH is Swissland (like Alice in Wonderland but more sitting down and looking clever).  

beanielou

Hope all goes to plan. 

KajiKita

Sending Paddington-hard-stares to DSs 1 and 2 …. Has DH clocked this? 

<ducks behind sofa in anticipation of more personal possessions being evicted to the shed> 

I am *massively* impressed by your ability to track down next door’s landlord - wow! Remind me never, ever to owe you any money! 😉😂😂👏

Sending gentle ~~~~~~~ vibes for your visitors at least being civil next week …..! 

KK

f0xh0les

The freezer is now full of gluten free/dairy free magnums (salted caramel and raspberry ripple flavours) I am making a menu plan already, if she starts turning nasty I will throw some cookies at her to try and distract her.   Or a gluten free Victoria Sponge.    Food as distraction.  It works with lions... or so I hear.......

Rent day again tomorrow (I think DS1 and 2 are going to get bored of this very quickly). This week's money will go toward back to school purchases for DS3 and 4. What they do to their drinks bottles is strange and unnatural behaviour.  

The last week of the month is always tight, but it is tight because I have shunted funds to savings and left myself short.  I will probably have to transfer some back for 48 hours, but still, one month I will be surprised when I do not have to.

Maybe I will have a promising  new career tracking down criminals, or missing persons?  Finding hidden assets, or proceeds of crime?   DH says it is stalker behaviour.   I told him to fiddle off.

Finished Richard Osman book #3 last night.  I do love the Thursday Murder Club books. I don't know who is playing whom in the films and am deliberately not looking.

apple_muncher

Oooh, I hadn't realised there was a third book out!

If there are any goodies left after their visit, can me and pip come up and help you munch them up???!!!

apple_muncher

Silly me! Just looked for it on b0rr0wb0x, only to discover that I've already read it. Nevertheless, I've downloaded it to read again 😎