Viking's Diary

bit_by_bit

Welcome back Viking. I have just read your diary. Well done for the progress so far. It may not be as fast as you want it to be but every little helps. 
I think having a little one also changes your  perspective but also takes up a lot of  time and energy. And you need a bit of time and energy for this journey.
It may be helpful to just aim for £50 or a £100 at a time to clear instead of the whole amount. Its a marathon not a sprint.
I shall try to keep up with your diary but I am not very good at consistency  . 

Viking_mfw

I think that's a really good point, bit by bit. If I look at the whole amount it seems impossible. Getting up to the next round number on the savings (at hundred pound intervals) or down to the next round one on the mortgage is probably the best way to see it happening. 

Books are my major weakness but I have slowed down reading a huge amount under lockdown so have a big backlog and keep reminding myself of that. 

Viking_mfw

Well the money from We Buy Books came in so I have paid that, the rewards from my account and the fiver the lodger repaid me back into the PB EF. Still searching for £72 quid or so to go back to pay off the insurance premium. 

Currently occupying my mind is what to do about the leaky bath - or rather the leaks that happen when people (cough DH cough) take long showers. The water runs straight down the wall of the room below the bathroom. This is because the people who owned the house before, well-known for their terrible choices when it comes to decorating and DIY, retiled the bathroom on top of the old tiles, and the new tiles do not go below the level of the bath, so it is impossible to get the hole properly sealed with silicone sealant. (It's just too big - we have consulted a plumber friend on this.)  Options we have considered include essentially pulling the bath out, tiling another row and then shoving it back in, but my feeling is that this would be so difficult and costly we would essentially be throwing away money given that the bathroom is on the long term sort it out list., and at worst we might suddenly need to pay for a new bath/ tap/ plumbing. We also considered using foam filler under the bath at the back but apart from being extremely difficult logistically unless you have Mr Tickle as your handyman (although it has just occurred to me we could pull the sealant out, foam fill then seal on top), we have looked online and this is... um... not recommended, we'll go with. 

Can't remember if I said that I found a gift card lurking in my purse we'd been given when DS1 was born, and used it to buy him some t-shirts in the next size up (he grows like a week and has moved from age 2-3 clothes in March to age 4-5 now. They each have a different vehicle pattern on bright coloured background and he LOVES them. As does the child of one of my friends who saw them in a picture and is now being bought his own   We have finally run out of second hand clothes we'd been gifted to put DS1 in so have been telling relatives asking what to buy for his birthday to go for clothes, poor boy. 

ToeDipper

Viking_mfw said:

Currently occupying my mind is what to do about the leaky bath - or rather the leaks that happen when people (cough DH cough) take long showers.

When we moved into our flat we saved for two years before having enough to do it up. Halfway through that time, the electric shower was irreparably damaged by water coming through from the flat upstairs.

We bought one of those plastic/rubber shower hoses that plug into your bath taps, and for a year we washed sitting/squatting in the bath. I won't lie, it was awful! But it did the job - we were clean, we saved money on water bills due to the terrible water pressure, and we were super motivated to save enough to rip out and replace the lot!

It's definitely not a long-term solution, but depending on how long you have to go before you'll be in a position to do the bathroom, potentially it might be an option rather than risking damage from the dodgy tiling? 

Viking_mfw

I can only imagine my husband's face!! After thinking a bit I've ordered a solid strip thing which should cover the gap (I hope) although we might then need to silicone seal round the top or top up the grout or something. But as DH said, it can't be worse than it is now, and at a tenner it's worth trying. 
Luckily at the moment the leaks aren't damaging anything because it's the old kitchen beneath the bathroom, which we ripped out last year. But there doesn't seem much point doing up that room until we've dealt with the leaks, and I also don't want to rot the floorboards. 

South_coast

Sounds like a good stop-gap solution. I've just returned to being able to shower in my bathroom (also only a temporary repair as I'm not ready to replace it yet but didn't want to cause any damage) and it's so exciting! Was totally fed up with baths!

bit_by_bit

Well done for finding a solution. I hope it works for you. We did a similar thing with our bath years ago and it lasted a year or so.

Viking_mfw

Although there's a certain something for being able to cut short DH's marathon showers by yelling up the stairs that water is running down the walls again...

Strip has arrived. Early showers all round tmw then we'll get it sealed on and fingers crossed. 

Viking_mfw

I spent an hour clearing out the old silicone and scraping layers of it off the bath and then DH applied the new strip which looks good. Going for a single bead of silicone along the top and the joins tomorrow for a belt and braces effect but I'm hopeful this will solve the problem. Am fairly sure we've identified the problem spot which is where two tiles aren't aligned - there's a definite step up as you go along the bath. Fingers crossed anyway! 

becky170

Hi Viking, just been catching up with your diary. Really hope you've managed to fix your bath. I'm embarrassed to say that we stopped using our shower 3 years ago as it kept leaking into the kitchen even after resealing it. We've been making do with a showerhead in the bath ever since. Think it's definitely time for us to have a new bathroom