Bricks Not Books

Fortune_Smiles

Happy New Year @VintageHistorian .  I hope 2021 brings you health, wealth and happiness.

Fortune x

savingwannabe

Hello my darling. Things have been manic here with v serious condition of my friend and work so i havent had time to log on I have just skim read. I am so sorry sending deepest love to  you both. SWx

ruby_eskimo

Happy New Year VH, your Christmas sounds lovely and relaxing, hope you're feeling well rested enough for the start back this week.  Thanks for the heads up re: Blinds 2 go, have been meaning to order from there for a while so will go and see if the sale is still on.

VintageHistorian

It's amazing what the week and a half off work has done for my brain! Hasn't made work itself any easier, but I actually have some energy to do things around/for the house, after months of looking around and going "I can't be bothered".

I did the Homebase order, with click and collect. No where near as organised as supermarkets are with that kind of thing, but nevermind. I got 3 tins of paint (one for the kitchen wall, sealer for the edges of the doors, and then door paint) plus a new curtain pole (tried to order 2 but only one was in stock), a new dust sheet for the painting as ours has disappeared, and some extra curtain rings. I then had to go back after picking up the order (and collecting my Waitrose and Tesco orders on the way back) as I got home and realised they hadn't given me the dust sheet! Which was a bit of an essential feature.

After lunch (this all happened yesterday) I decided to paint one side of the kitchen door to see how long it would take. Good news was that once I'd got myself all set up it only took about 20 minutes! Bad news was that when I went to wash off the paint brush I discovered that the paint wouldn't come off, and I'd got loads of it on my hands after trying to help it wash off the brush! Turns out it's oil-based paint, so water won't work. I had to wash my hands (after I'd scraped off the worst excesses using kitchen roll) in olive oil and Fairy washing up liquid, after Googling frantically for an answer.

I was glad I managed to get enough off to be able to use my phone though, as Mr VH had told me he would be in a 90 minute Zoom call to discuss applications for a post at his job. I'd originally figured he would be done by 3:30, so I'd tried sitting on the floor and patiently waiting it out. He actually finished at 5pm, as they decided to do all the reviews in one go (they'd already read them all and made notes so it was comparing the result) so I would have been sitting on the cold kitchen floor for quite some time if I hadn't decided to give it a try. We now need to buy some white spirit, in the mean time the paintbrush is sitting in a cup of water. If it ends up being binned it won't be the end of the world, although I'll be a bit annoyed at the waste.

Also the paint had a horribly strong smell so we'll need to pick our time carefully before doing the doors upstairs, I don't want to paint our bedroom door and then have to leave the windows open to let out both the heat and the smell! They may have to be a spring job. The side that I did does look very nice, but I can see a few patches that I missed so even though it's Dulux "once" I think it will have to be applied twice, to even it out and catch the bits I missed. In comparison to yesterday's running around trying to deal with everything, I have spent today sitting on my bum playing Animal Crossing. Back to work on Monday and this time it will be a full 5 day week.

January has started off with an OP of £59.06, including £15.51 from Prolific, and a £5.85 TT. Will try to keep the momentum going!

VintageHistorian

Total overpayment for January was £72.15, not a bad way to kick off a new year of payments.

Doors have not progressed  But last Saturday we painted the "feature wall" in the kitchen! Two coats in one afternoon and it looks really smart. Just need to back over the skirting board and two other walls with white paint as the blue spread further than we wanted (we didn't realise we were out of masking tape until we were ready to start). That will be a task for another day, especially as we'll need it for the door hinges anyway.

Me and DH have had a look for some new lampshades for our lights and have found some we can agree on that are on the Dunelm website, so I'll probably get round to ordering those next week at some point. We still have the ones that were here when we moved in and I suspect they weren't actually bought by the sellers, who rented this place out for the 8 or 9 years they owned it! Some are very manky, so it will be nice to have fresh new ones in place. We'll just need to learn how to put them up.

Did the money shuffle last night and everything is nicely squared away. I need to remember to open a new regular saver for the new card fund, and sort out internet banking with the building society so I can see what I've saved! Maternity leave fund is looking very healthy. We've been told that the postmortem report has arrived so a copy is being sent to us, and we're going to have a call with a consultant to discuss it. The bereavement midwife had a quick look for me and said it doesn't look like there's any firm conclusion about the cause of the miscarriage, but looking at things with 15 weeks distance I can accept it, at least it means there isn't a genetic issue with me and Mr VH. We'll see what the consultant says as well, and what support we might get next time round.

We might get snow this weekend! I'm trying not to get too excited as it might all change at the last minute, but tomorrow I'm going to pop to Tescos and get a few extra lunchtime noodle packets for Mr VH. If we can't get out of the village then I can make bread in the breadmaker for breakfasts, and we have plenty of food in the freezer to keep us ticking over for dinners, but lunches are often fresher items and that's where we always struggle. Mr VH likes the Naked Noodle pots so I'll get a few more of those. We also have our Brexit supplies but I'm trying to keep those as a "last resort" kind of supply.

February has kicked off with an OP of £40.32, and I think I have around £5 sitting in PA so I'll cash that out this weekend. Need to get back in to checking it more frequently.

Have a good weekend everyone!

VintageHistorian

Project House Improvements continues - I've ordered the lampshades! They should arrive by Monday, and then we have to hope that they fit. We'll also need to find two that match for the upstairs and downstairs hallway lights, the walls are pale yellow the carpet for the stairs is dark blue, and the floors downstairs are dark hardwood, so I have no idea what to get that will match. I was leaning towards dark blue but Mr VH wasn't sure. I'm sure we'll find something eventually.

Rightmove finally updated it's sold prices in our area, our neighbours on one side sold their house for £270k, and the other side sold for £227.5k. We're the middle terrace, we have one bedroom more than the £227.5k one, and a longer but messier garden than the £270k one. We bought this place for £190k, so if we can get £230k from selling in the future then we'd be quite happy with that.

As a result I'm now seriously planning to save up for my share of future house move costs, and also looking around at how we might start a bit of a clearout so the place looks neat when the time comes. I can see a few bits I want to stick up on eBay, so those should be the priority, and then any money earned from that avenue can go to the house move costs. I think we'll need about £10k for stamp duty, solicitors costs and a removal company, so I need at least £5k, plus extra for any immediate repairs or purchases our next house might need. I'm looking at our local area on Rightmove and there's currently !!!!!! all available, but that's a good thing as I don't want to see the house of my dreams when we're not in a position to sell!

I've also added more steps to Project House Improvements over the coming months. Mr VH is going along with it with an amused look on his face, I'm sure he'll spot a few things he wants to sort out as it all progresses.

And speaking of house moves, my parents own house move is slowly ticking along. My Dad came round at the weekend with some boxes of books, cushions and Christmas decorations they want to store here to start making room for packing the rest of the house. He stayed outdoors and kept away from us as we shuffled things around. I had a text message from my Mum to say he was on his way and also had our Christmas presents with him! I was given strict instructions to A) not open them and not send him back with the family's gifts XD So now we have two lots of Christmas presents, and Mum is hoping we can celebrate Christmas together at Easter.

OPs are gently ticking over. Apart from the lampshades I haven't got much else to buy this month, but I want to divert most of what's leftover to the house move savings so we'll see what scope there is for OPs next week!

VintageHistorian

End of the month is rapidly approaching so I sat down to do a little money shuffle. Put £200 in my Lifetime ISA, £200 in the house move fund, and sent £47.61 as an overpayment! Wasn't sure if I wanted to split it with the emergency fund, but in the end I decided to chuck it all at the mortgage.

So total for February is - £109.86! And we're tantalisingly close to dropping under the £140k mark on the mortgage. In fact I think it'll just be under in March, but then interest will push it back over before it comes under permanently in April. 

Mr VH put up the new lampshades and discovered that every light fitting has something wrong with it, so we'll probably budget to get them all replaced over the summer. It's just the way with this place, 9 years of landlord ownership and they did nothing to actually maintain it properly. We've still got to get lampshades for the upstairs and downstairs hallways, and Mr VH wants to get the strip light in the kitchen replaced with something significantly less ugly, so we'll do that when the rest of the lights are dealt with.

And I forgot to mention that the post-mortem report came back as inconclusive. Which we weren't entirely surprised at (although we were miffed that there was no genetic report, either because the hospital didn't send anything or the hospital doing the test lost the samples, not sure which), we just have to hope that next pregnancy goes better. Haven't heard anything about a consultant appointment, I have a feeling that they may be reluctant to have a meeting with us when there's nothing to really tell us. But we shall see.

In happier news we got an email from Centre Parcs saying they're hoping to reopen on 12th April. Our holiday is booked for the 19th, so I'm trying not to get too excited at the thought that we might be able to go. They can't do indoor dining but that's fine, we'll take a pile of books and our picnic basket and blanket and a bunch of picnic foods for lunches, and then order takeaway or delivery for the evenings. It'll just be nice to have a break away from the house!

Next month I want to get some little house plants, like cacti or succulents, to go on our windowsills and brighten the place up. Just got to find a place that accurately lists sizes so I can get suitable cute pots for them.

Have a good rest of the week!

ruby_eskimo

Well done on the overpayments, every little bit helps towards the overall picture.  Shame about the light fittings, hopefully it's not too much of a hassle to rectify.  We found out that none of our lights are earthed properly and will probably have to have the house re-wired at some point.  Even if the consultant can't give you definitive answers, hopefully you can still have a conversation with them and a break away would be lovely, fingers crossed you can still go.

VintageHistorian

This diary got a little bit forgotten about over the past few weeks. 

I was, until very recently, pregnant again, and once again the hormones and exhaustion ganged up on my brain and made the mental effort of many things very difficult. Sadly I had another miscarriage just over a week ago, at 9 weeks and 3 days this time. Also ended up in hospital again as I bled an alarming amount and had to be admitted to be monitored.

I have to go back at the end of this coming week for a scan to make sure that everything has cleared. We're also supposed to be having the debriefing from my late miscarriage back in October, but I have a feeling that the Doctor will have completely forgotten that that is the case and will do the scan and then be surprised that we're actually there to discuss the earlier one with her too.

When I miscarried last time we were told that I would be able to get an early scan to check the heartbeat. But due to Covid the hospital put in a policy of emergency scans only. As a result, and because I miscarried at home so there was nothing for the hospital to check, I have no idea when the baby stopped growing, or if it managed to get to the heartbeat stage before I lost it. Normally I will defend the NHS loudly but this time I feel disappointed that I was left with no support after having a traumatic late miscarriage. And moreso because I can't be tested for anything until I've had 3 miscarriages. The 2 I've had have been devastating enough, and Mr VH is undertstandably incredibly upset at having to see me be admitted to hospital twice as well. This time he was allowed into A&E with me, but there was no spare private room and since I was on a women's only ward he was told he would have to leave. I ended up pulling the blanket over my head and having a little cry alone once I was on the ward.

Because of this "3 miscarriages before you get help" issue we're going to look into paying for private tests to check for any problems. Not very MSE, and I hate private healthcare with every fibre of my being (I don't think it's right that how you're treated is based on how deep your wallet it) but at the same time the fact that I've been hospitalised twice is really concerning, and Mr VH is reluctant to try again without some effort being made to at least check that I don't have some kind of blood clotting disorder. I've also got an appointment with my GP at the end of May to try and argue to for some help, but if she refuses then we'll ask her to refer to me to a private clinic for tests. My in-laws spoke to someone they know whose daughter was treated at a clinic in Surrey, but we're in Essex I'm hoping we can find a good place that's a bit closer.

In spite of all this we decided to go ahead with our 5 days in Center Parcs. Mr VH was worried about the drive wearing me out (and I realised he was being sensible as a 15 minute pootle to keep the battery charged made me want a nap on the sofa) so my in-laws drove us up on Monday afternoon and my Dad came and picked us up on Friday morning. It seems silly going on holiday 3 days after being in hospital but we both feel it was the right thing to do. We got dinner delivered every evening (I didn't even have to meal plan, we just picked something off the menu), we took books with us, and we started off with short little walks near the lodge and built up to longer ones once I felt a bit stronger. It was so peaceful and beautiful, and having a mental break from where "it" all happened helped me focus on other things. I've actually started to feel more tearful and upset since we got back, although that might also be my hormones coming back down. I'm returning to work on Monday (still WFH) and I'm dreading it somewhat. My boss is quite understanding though so if I realise I need more time after a few days back then I know he'll support it. Like last time I just have to take this all one day at a time.

Moneysaving hasn't really been at the forefront of my thoughts recently, so I'll have to go back for March numbers later. I did make a small TT of just over £8 today, and I still have money left in unspent so I will have another look later this week and see how much can be OPed and how much can be shuffled towards other savings.

Sorry that this is a rather sad and depressing post. Normally service will hopefully be returned in the coming weeks as I process more of what happened and my hormones get back into a normal cycle.

Fortune_Smiles

I'm so sorry to hear your news VH and please, please, never, ever feel you have to apologise for writing about your experience.  Whatever normal service is for you will return in due course.  Take all the time you need.  In the meantime, we're here for you.

Fortune x