Adding value before making over payments

MichaelDH

Hey Kittenkirst

This is the recipe for the Sesame Chicken: http://gimmedelicious.com/2016/12/26/20-minute-sesame-chicken/

Drew did attempt it a few weeks ago but some how managed to burn it so wasn't the best... but the bits that weren't burnt were nice

MichaelDH

It's Friday already!

Been a bit naughty with totally unnecessary spends.Drew and I have both been feeling a bit under the weather this week so there's been a couple of trips to the local Tesco for chocolate/biscuits/cake (for medicinal purposes obviously ) and last night I couldn't be bothered to cook so we had fish and chips. Must do better next week!

Haven't really got much planned for the weekend so hoping to do a bit of sorting out upstairs and maybe start a pile of stuff for selling on eBay or local selling sites and a pile for the local charity shop. We've got various bottles of alcohol that we have been given but will probably never drink so will have to have a think about what to do with that... Not sure if it's allowed to be sold via facebook... If not might see if any local groups need some raffle prizes.

Also want to do some research about fences this weekend. Next door have chopped down the trees and shrubs that were over hanging the fence in places and we can now see just how poor condition the fence is and how the trees and shrubs were probably keeping it propped up so will need replacing sooner rather than later. The fence the other side isn't much better so that will need replacing too. There's a little footpath at the side of our house that leads to some fields at the end of the garden so unfortunately we are responsible for fencing both sides plus the end of the garden. Not sure what the etiquette is when it comes to replacing the fence between us and next door... don't think we need their permission, it's our fence, but would obviously let them know in advance of any work. Do we need to consult with them about height of fence? Current fence is approx 5 feet and it's had a trellis added at some point to make it about a foot higher. We are thinking to replace with a 6 foot fence but wouldn't want them to take offence at this. Maybe something similar to the existing fence would be better. I'm probably over thinking this a little...

Kittenkirst

With the fencing I'd probably just go and have a chat, let them know you're aware it's their responsibility but you wanted to check with them that they are happy for it to be replaced in xxx height. That should be easy enough.

I know with our neighbours we weren't sure who was responsible for the planting around our shared parking. After a brief convo we discovered everyone hated the plants put in by the house builders so we all agreed to pull them out and replace with some bark. Looks much better now and everyone's happy

Sesame chicken looks great so I've bookmarked it to try; gf will be gung-ho with the siracha I am sure

Good luck with the eBay sorting!

MichaelDH

Thank's KK. I'm sure they will be fine about fence, they are very friendly and I'm sure they will be pleased it's getting replaced as looks a bit of an eyesore for them now that it's no longer covered up by shrubs and trees. We are just unlucky that all three fences are our responsibility so will be a big cost but should last for many years and improve security too

We didn't have any siracha so used a bit of tabasco instead and it was fine, not too hot.

MichaelDH

So I called up the mortgage company (Coventry) to check a few details. They are going to send me some details for registering to manage the mortgage online i.e. see the balance, see how much we have paid, how much interest we are paying etc.

Although I thought we had a 2 year fix it turns out it's not quite 2 years. Our mortgage started on 17th August 2016 and fixed period ends 30th June.

Can any of you very clever mortgage savvy people help me with a couple of questions?

1. If interest is applied daily, am I right in thinking that in Feb (28 days) less interest is paid than in Apr, Jun, Sep, Nov (30 days), and the most interest is paid in Jan, Mar, May, Jul, Aug, Oct, Dec (31 days)?

2. We received funds on 17th August, and our first payment (£838.98 instead of £668.08) was taken on 15th September, so am I right in thinking the first payment included interest from 17th-31st Aug plus 1st-30th Sept (45 days)?

3. Our mortgage started off at £170,199. The interest rate is 2.45%. Am I right in thinking that if we continue to just pay the minimum payment of £668.08 then by June 2018 the balance will be around £163,319, or have I miscalculated this? We did have an illustration but that was based on lending a higher amount but we reduced our offer prior to exchange of contract/completion and didn't get a revised illustration.

4. At the end of the fixed period we intend to increase our mortgage to fund an extension. With this in mind, is it a waste of time to make over payments now knowing that we intend to increase our mortgage in less than 12 months time? Should we instead continue to save up towards the extension so that we don't need to increase our mortgage by as much, i.e. if we have £10k saved then we only need to borrow £30k instead of £40k (*amounts for illustrative purposes only, haven't sorted out plans or costings yet)

Thank you very much for your help.

Schoolworker

I have been overpaying for years but I now only overpay a small amount of £200 and put a big chunk of money In savings every month. I have been doing this so my mortgage amount is going down even though we have been approved extra funding from our lender for an extension which is due to start mid September so requesting this money in 2 weeks. Our build costs have increased since we had to find a new builder so will need to use some of our savings and got a bit for contingencies or decorating afterwards. My view is that as I'm still overpaying my overall mortgage is reduced due to my overpayments. Hope this makes sense

MichaelDH

Thanks Schoolworker. Hope your extension project goes well. What do you plan to use the extra space for? We are really struggling to deiced how to use the extra space and whether we should go the whole way and create some extra space upstairs...

I'm very tempted to just increase the direct debit by £131.92 to £800 per month just so that we are over paying something, and maybe back date this for the months that have already passed. At least this will get us used to having slightly higher mortgage payments when we lend more money.

Schoolworker

I think it's a good idea to pay more so you are used to it. Our mortgage currently is £660 and I do overpayment of £200. The new mortgage will be £905 so I only have to adjust money going into savings so my budget works.

We are doing a 2 storey back extension upstairs is an additional double bedroom with ensuite ours and the kids will swap rooms and have a double sized room each with a single Room as a spare. Downstairs our original small kitchen will be utility section and new extension is big kitchen and dining area.

Currently we have a dining area just off the lunge so will decide what use this will have after works done. Looking forward to the end product but not whilst the work is happening. We are moving out but need to pack up Several rooms for works to happen - the joys.
I'm sure you will work out what you wish to do.

MichaelDH

Morning Schoolworker. Thanks for the reply

Your house plans sound exciting, and pretty similar to what we have in mind. Did it take a long time to come up with the right plan? Obviously the mortgage payment will be increasing quite a lot but definitely sounds like the extra space is worth it.

We have a 1950's (1930's style) 3 bed semi with a garage. It's already a very good size, especially as there's only the two of us plus our puppy Oscar, but it's the layout that doesn't really work for us. The back of the house is a little dark at times, where as the front of the house is lovely and sunny, so we've already removed most of the dividing wall between the living room and dining room to make it one huge sunny room. The small kitchen is next to the dining room, again quite dark at times because it's at the back of the house, and I really don't like being in there, it feels quite isolated to the house.

Extending the kitchen will be easy enough, could either got out the back, in to the back of the garage, or both. The biggest thing to over come downstairs is to some how make the kitchen feel less isolated. I would also like a separate utility off the kitchen and a living. Upstairs we already have two very good sized double bedrooms plus a decent size single bedroom. I don't personally think it it's necessary to extend upstairs, but partner think's we might as well as long as what we do adds value.

If we do extend upstairs I think we would be looking to make the existing single bedroom in to a double, adding a further single bedroom and possibly adding an en-suite to one of the double bedrooms Lots and lots to think about .

MichaelDH

So today is the first anniversary of getting the keys to our house :):)

It's been a lot of hard work so far, expensive and frustrating at times, and there's still lots to do, but it has all been worth it!

Yes there's still 29 years left on the current mortgage (we plan to reduce this significantly over time), but turning the clock back 18 months I never thought we would be able to buy a nice house (although requiring some modernisation) in a lovely village that we plan to live in for a very long time so feeling very proud today