Ruby's Bought a House, Now I want to Own It!

ruby_eskimo

Happy New Year everyone!  

Christmas was nice, bit quiet but managed to see my parents on Boxing Day (there may have been happy tears) and then MiL later on in the week.  Received some useful gifts (a new jewellery box to keep all my pandora charms in so I can get rid of the tiny boxes everywhere, thereby removing clutter and saving space, lots of fancy toiletries) and some treats, namely DH is renting a vintage VW camper van for us in May 😁  I have always dreamed of having either a purple 1960's Beetle or split screen camper van, so DH is giving me the experience so I can see if it's something I want to save up for.  Really looking forward to it but also a little scared about a) driving something a bit bigger than I'm used to (plus trying to not damage it) and b) DH hates camping of any kind so he's probably not going to enjoy the overnight bits!  So a very selfless gift on his part!  Also will help tick off the aim of visiting a new place in the UK - we're camping around the New Forest and it's somewhere I've driven through a lot but never stopped off in.

During the Christmas break, I spent a lot of time reading (managed to get through 4.5 books) while DH decorated the kitchen - painting, new lighting and new flooring.  Still need to get a new blind for the window but for less than £250 it's totally transformed the room.  So that's one of my goals for the year ticked off already, almost!  While measuring for the kitchen blind I'm getting DH to measure all the other windows so we can order those blinds too and it will be another huge tick of the not so big list of jobs to finish the house. 

Talking of house renovation / decoration, this year is the year my parents are finally in a position to renovate their house.  They've lived there for about 20 years and haven't been able to do anything to it (mainly due to finance and time) and now it really needs some work.  So DH and I have committed to them at least 1 weekend a month to help sort stuff out.  The first issue is decluttering and I'm hoping that we can get it all done by May when they go away for 2 weeks and I'll be moving in to supervise their bathroom getting refitted.  As we declutter the upstairs of the house, DH and I will be redecorating for them, which will keep DH occupied now that we've painted almost everything in this house 😆  We talked a lot about it while we saw them over Christmas and it's our way of thanking them for all the help they've given us over the years (mainly letting me live there rent free for 3 years when I came back from uni) and also they're both not as young as they once were so would be getting people in to do it anyway.  They seem excited about it, my dad because he'll get to have an American style fridge / freezer and my mum because it means that she has someone else (i.e. me) to help her tell my dad that they can get rid of his parents things because I don't need it (we're a family of hoarders, there I've said it!)

Excited by the prospect of a new year and all the possibilities it brings.  Right I'm off to declutter a drawer, now I have the urge to do something productive!

themadvix

Oooh that’s a brilliant present, how exciting! We love the New Forest - it’s so charming and beautiful. Recommend the New Forest Inn (I forget where it is!) for a really delicious pie menu - the veggie balti pie is awesome 😋

Plans for your parents’ house sounds very generous and sensible - I think we may be doing a similar (but more  limited version with the in laws this year). It’s good that they’re excited about it though 😊

joedenise

What a lovely present for you Ruby.  I love our motorhome but don't think I'd like a VW Camper - I like a bit more space than that!  Love the New Forest and usually have at least a week there.  We tend to stay in the Lymington area in the motorhome and take a scooter on the back to get around which is brilliant, except if the weather's awful and then we'll use the buses to get out and about!

That's lovely that you and your DH will be doing so much for your parents to say thank you to them.  Well done.

Fortune_Smiles

Sounds like a fabulous year coming up for you Ruby.

Fortune x

South_coast

themadvix said:

Recommend the New Forest Inn (I forget where it is!) 

I'm going for....the New Forest 🤣🤔!

Glad you had a good Christmas. This year's plans sound fab 👍

ruby_eskimo

themadvix said:

Oooh that’s a brilliant present, how exciting! We love the New Forest - it’s so charming and beautiful. Recommend the New Forest Inn (I forget where it is!) for a really delicious pie menu - the veggie balti pie is awesome 😋

Plans for your parents’ house sounds very generous and sensible - I think we may be doing a similar (but more  limited version with the in laws this year). It’s good that they’re excited about it though 😊

Thanks @themadvix will add that to the list of places to check out.  Good luck to you too, my dad was talking about tiles last night while my mum was going on at him about going to the dump with all the stuff they'd already sorted so I hope they can keep up the momentum while I'm not there.

joedenise said:

What a lovely present for you Ruby.  I love our motorhome but don't think I'd like a VW Camper - I like a bit more space than that!  Love the New Forest and usually have at least a week there.  We tend to stay in the Lymington area in the motorhome and take a scooter on the back to get around which is brilliant, except if the weather's awful and then we'll use the buses to get out and about!

That's lovely that you and your DH will be doing so much for your parents to say thank you to them.  Well done.

Thanks @joedenise, I actually thought of you and your motorhome trips when he said we'd be going around the New Forest.  Think we're staying near Brockenhurst, Milford on Sea and Linwood so get a bit of countryside and coast  over the few days.  Not sure how DH is going to fare in a VW as he's over 6ft but we'll make it work for a few nights.

Fortune_Smiles said:

Sounds like a fabulous year coming up for you Ruby.

Fortune x

South_coast said:

themadvix said:

Recommend the New Forest Inn (I forget where it is!) 

I'm going for....the New Forest 🤣🤔!

Glad you had a good Christmas. This year's plans sound fab 👍

Thanks @Fortune_Smiles and @South_coast keeping the fingers crossed!

ruby_eskimo

First day back at work was fairly uneventful yesterday.  Just a lot of emails to delete and then trying to get my head in the right place to actually do work (what is it I do again...?!)  Managed a walk after work and some yoga followed by a night in front of the telly with DH.

Today started with another workout (the 5:30 wake ups haven't been as brutal as I thought they might be) and have a rare day of no meetings so time to ponder and plan out what the next few months are going to look like work project wise.  Have realised that I've fallen into the rut of just wearing leggings every day and leaving the rest of my clothes to languish in the wardrobe.  Will try and make more of an effort tomorrow, but for now it's leggings and a big fluffy jumper.  Even have a blanket over my legs because it's rather cold 🥶

themadvix

South_coast said:

themadvix said:

Recommend the New Forest Inn (I forget where it is!) 

I'm going for....the New Forest 🤣🤔!

🙄🙄🙄😂

It's in Emery Down. With his height, I hope he booked a pop-top!

ruby_eskimo

themadvix said:

South_coast said:

themadvix said:

Recommend the New Forest Inn (I forget where it is!) 

I'm going for....the New Forest 🤣🤔!

🙄🙄🙄😂

It's in Emery Down. With his height, I hope he booked a pop-top!

Don't worry, he definitely has!

ruby_eskimo

Its been a bit of a slow start to the year really with not a lot happening so far...  Work has been relatively quiet although did have a rather stressful day yesterday when I received an email telling me that I was going to be supporting a centrally funded project that I (and my boss) knew nothing about.  Turns out the only way this service could get the money was to say that I was going to deliver a whole bunch of training that a) isn't my job and b) I'm not prepared for.  After lots of strange calls with the people involved where I told them they couldn't just assume that I was able to help, I've made some suggestions of what I could do to help and have left it at that.

The only slightly exciting news is that we've booked to go to Lisbon for a weekend in October for our wedding anniversary 🤞  Managed to get what I think is quite a bargain - 3 nights including breakfast and flights for £309 for the two of us.  Neither of us has been to Portugal before so we thought it would make a change, the weather will still be warm and we can have fun trying all of the custard tarts!  We really are making up for the lack of travel over the past couple of years - that's 3 trips booked and maybe a 4th on the horizon, if we can get the finances to balance out.  DH's also talking about going on a Norwegian Fjords cruise next year (never been on a cruise in his life) so that could be interesting 😆

Have been keeping up with my healthy habits since the beginning of the year and feel a lot better for it, even dragged myself out in the rain for a walk yesterday evening because I knew I'd feel better afterwards; being in front of the computer all day really does mess with my head sometimes.  Have also managed 6 NSD's so far as well and the spends have been for essential things like food or library reservations 😏  Speaking of the library, it baffles me that more people don't use it.  I'm in a book club and some of the ladies were complaining that one of the books that someone's chosen for this year is quite expensive as it's a bit obscure and out of print by the looks of things.  But there are like 12 copies in the local libraries!  I love buying books but I limit what I bring in to my favourite authors otherwise I'd have no space and be bankrupt!  Already worked my way through 3 books so far this year and started on another one over lunch today.

Booked Friday off of work as I have lots of leave to use so will spend the day getting the house in order ahead of a weekend of helping my parents declutter their house.  I'm not sure how successful we're going to be but I have a bucket with some cleaning materials in it and a LOT of strong bin bags so will update you afterwards, if I manage to survive.