Plodding determinedly up a 300k mountain!

beanielou

Glad your OH had a lovely birthday

michelle09

Whoops, it's been a while! Things have been up and down.

Money wins
Picked up extra tutoring work, realised that in 2017 I made £1100 all year. So far in 2018 I'm up to £600. Maybe I wasn't completely mad to think this might be a good career switch if the PhD applications don't come off.

OH should have been home from work at 7am but is still stuck at work. Rubbish, but at least he's had the overtime agreed so he's being paid. I'm less worried than I used to be when he had to drive after this!

Car failures
Just when you think that the finances are starting to be pulled back under control the car engine light flips on! Two weeks before the service and MOT was due.

£500 for the service later and we have discovered that there is a crack in a duct somewhere and water is leaking into the engine. The spark plugs were dripping. Annoyingly, we have to go to a Ford garage to get the parts replaced so that £500 didn't actually fix it.

House Repairs
The kitchen is done and I love it! There seems to be a slight glitch with the fridge but the fitter came back and will be back in a week to see if it needs replacing. We can still use it in the meantime though.

Have started to put the living room back together. Our new dining table and chairs are arriving on the 27th, and I am very excited (not that eating on our bed / the sofa hasn't been an experience). In order to make space, I'm moving one of the book cases to the spare room. All of the wooden furniture in the spare room is grey so I am using my spare time to paint it grey, hopefully it'll be done this week.

Next week someone is coming to rewire our middle floor so all of the lights will be activated by the right light switch. We have just bought all the replacement switches / sockets and light fittings to replace the tobacco stained ones we currently have.

We are so close to finishing. I turn 30 in the summer and I am really keen to be done by then. It would be nice if some of the internal door fitters would actually get back to me this for quotes though!

Current Balance: £245,800.00

Karmacat

No wonder you've been absent for a tiny while - good news all round there, thats a lot of plus points

greent

It's all sounding very positive, michelle
x

CathT

Home improvement are sounding great!

Goldiegirl

Glad the kitchen is done and the rest of the house is taking shape

beanielou

Boo to car but great news on the rest

shangaijimmy

michelle09 wrote: »

W
Next week someone is coming to rewire our middle floor so all of the lights will be activated by the right light switch.

Love it!! I tried my hand at electrics once and tried to fit an extra light in the garage. I thought i'd done a great job until the thing wouldn't switch off!!

Busy_Mee1

Hi Michelle just catching up. The new kitchen sounds fab. Do you think you will ever move out of London to cash in on the house ?

michelle09

Thank you everyone! Jimmy - you're entirely right not to. Turns out the reason we haven't had working light switch for two years is because the previous owner (the king of how not to DIY) incorrectly wired the middle floor. The electrician took a light switch off the wall and went 'this is wrong, and the wrong type of switch'. Put on the right type of switch for £55. But we now have working light switches and a brand new working fuse box.

BusyMee - I think OH is already planning on it! We'd lose a lot of money if we moved now, house prices in London have stagnated / dropped and a house opposite us has just failed to sell for 10k more than we paid. Doesn't even cover the stamp duty. (Bizarrely there are 2 bed flats selling for £50k more than we paid a couple of minutes walk up the road. I don't get the housing market).

We also had all the sockets/switches/light fittings replaced with new white ones. The previous owners were smokers so everything was brown tinged. Not a big deal but it's very exciting that we are fixing the small things now. Just need to save to replace the internal doors and redecorating the whole house now.

Couple of slight down turns - the new fridge has a bit of a problem, lots of condensation is building up at the back. The fitter noticed it and is contacting Bosch. We also had our new dining delivered and there is clearly a dodgy hinge. We love the table and chairs, so hopefully they will come and replace the hinge and we will be sorted.

However, I have an interview for the post I had a meeting for last month! The news had me grinning like an idiot all day. It'll be a £20k pay cut so not very MSE, but it's a dream position so I am very happy. I have another meeting with both potential PhD supervisors on Friday, as long as the weather doesn't put people off.

The weather has knocked my whole winter of barely using the heating out of kilter. But needs must. And I've started investigating September holidays - they are all very exciting but also not very MSE.

Current Balance: £245,800.00