Light the fire...

woodfired

Hi FloppyDisk,

The Esse is generally good in summer. We have a boiler that is linked to the Esse via a large water tank and to be honest it was a lot of work to install and very expensive (the tank alone was over £1000), however, at this time of year we tend to light the Esse once a day or so for an hour and it heats the water for showers etc and perhaps cooks dinner. Although, I must admit I don't do loads of day to day cooking on it in the summer as it can make the kitchen too warm. I have a separate electric hob and oven for times like this.
If we were to move I would have another but without the back boiler as its lovely for the cosy factor and makes a great roast etc but the cost of the installation of the pipework/tank/pumps etc required to run the system is pretty high. We also find it won't run the heating very well as the output isn't high enough. It's great for the underfloor heating in the kitchen diner (on a separate zone) but the rads don't get hot enough on the Esse alone, it's more of a supplement to the boiler.

Hope that helps!

WF.x

woodfired

OK, so I have news. We have agreed a price with the vendors of Dream House, subject to ours going on the market and under offer etc. We have released some funds from the shop in preparation (we put £100k of our equity from our house into it when we bought it) and they should hit our account today. Our MA is reasonably confident that we have a mortgage in place (he is sending a decision in principle this morning apparently) and I have booked the photographer for our house for Monday afternoon! Yikes!!

It seems that we may well be moving (subject to somebody wanting to buy ours etc etc!!) :eek:

woodfired

Gosh I am so tired today! We hosted a family fun day at the local crown green bowling club yesterday. Our business provided a buffet for 100 people free of charge (and made by myself and DH) we also provided all of the alcohol at cost price (before VAT) and all of the profits are going to a fund for cancer treatment in America for a local little girl. We raised over £800 which was amazing but it was hard work. I have just sat down after collecting all of the leftover drink and returning it to the shop and cleaning up the last of the platters from the buffet. We had loads of food left and so gave it all away, all my big serving dishes are scattered around the village with various people eating up salads etc. Really hope I get them all back as they include some expensive Nigella Lawson bowls!
I was shattered last night but I did not sleep well as my mind wouldn't stop whirring as often happens after a really busy day.
I would love to take it easy today but the estate agents are coming to photograph the house tomorrow to get it on the market so I really need to get on with cleaning up!
In money news, the old loan on the shop was cleared and the new one drawn down on Friday :beer:. The additional funds I transferred to a personal account yesterday morning but they haven't yet turned up! :eek: So we have approximately £31k floating around in the clouds somewhere which is rather alarming! I really hope they appear tomorrow when the banks re-open. :eek::eek:
This morning I sent £151.60 to the mortgage to round the figure down to a tidy £114 500. The interest this month was only £170.12. It seems to be dropping quite quickly now, not all that long ago it was over £200. Its a shame we are heading towards more than doubling the mortgage debt by moving house!! :rotfl:

Runders

Hi Woodfired,

No wonder you were shattered that sounds like a busy yet fantastic day, and for such a great cause!

Congratulations on having your offer accepted on the dream home :T That must be so exciting!

woodfired wrote: »

This morning I sent £151.60 to the mortgage to round the figure down to a tidy £114 500. The interest this month was only £170.12. It seems to be dropping quite quickly now, not all that long ago it was over £200. Its a shame we are heading towards more than doubling the mortgage debt by moving house!! :rotfl:

I feel you with the above. My plan was originally to stay where I am, pay the mortgage down so I could switch to a job I would love but paid me a lot less and be happy. Somewhere along the lines I've knee jerked, decided to double my mortgage by moving and now have to keep working for a certain figure. At least you are doing it for your dream home so that's amazing!!

Wishing you lots of luck with it all.

woodfired

Hi Runders! :j

It is indeed a scary thought, increasing the mortgage so drastically and I have spent many a sleepless night agonising over our decision! We will be losing a huge field of a garden at this house to replace with a similar sized plot with the house plonked in the middle. Family and friends adore our current garden as we spend many happy summers days playing cricket and the like, their horror at our moving makes me doubt myself! However, our house went live on rightmove late on Wednesday afternoon and I was panicking about the lack of interest by Saturday, my panic made me realise that I really DO want to move, we have so many plans for that house and I would be really upset to miss out on it. A call to the agents revealed that we do, infact, have 2 viewing booked in for Wednesday, they just hadn't got round to telling me yet!

One viewer is a first time buyer with a mortgage in place, the others are currently in rented, waiting for the right house so fingers crossed they like it!

In other news, we have taken our caravan for a test run after repairs on the heating/hot water system were finally completed this week. We only ventured half an hour away but it was very quiet and picturesque and we all had a lovely time. Even better, the site fees were £44 for 2 nights (very cheap) and the only spends were lunch at a cafe on Saturday (sadly this was £23 for a very poor lunch but never mind). The caravan was perfect and we are now looking forward to our summer holiday in Norfolk in a few weeks time. Oh, and the repair came in at £452, much less than we were expecting as it has been a tricky job. Good news all round.

Finally, I have been rounding up our savings from various accounts to pop into Premium Bonds for a few months until we are ready to move (touch wood). Including the money released from the business, we now have £38 500 in premium bonds, plus another £4000 ish in other savings accounts. I'm aiming to get the PBs up to £40k asap! Love a challenge like this, it's addictive!!xx

zcrat41

Fantastic news about your house!! Hope the viewings go well.

Well done on your charity efforts too

Runders

woodfired wrote: »

Hi Runders! :j

It is indeed a scary thought, increasing the mortgage so drastically and I have spent many a sleepless night agonising over our decision! We will be losing a huge field of a garden at this house to replace with a similar sized plot with the house plonked in the middle. Family and friends adore our current garden as we spend many happy summers days playing cricket and the like, their horror at our moving makes me doubt myself! However, our house went live on rightmove late on Wednesday afternoon and I was panicking about the lack of interest by Saturday, my panic made me realise that I really DO want to move, we have so many plans for that house and I would be really upset to miss out on it. A call to the agents revealed that we do, infact, have 2 viewing booked in for Wednesday, they just hadn't got round to telling me yet!

I have this currently. I am waiting for the exchange to happen today and I am so nervous that it isn't going to happen. I think this tells me all I need to know really. Fingers crossed for your viewings!!

woodfired wrote: »

In other news, we have taken our caravan for a test run after repairs on the heating/hot water system were finally completed this week. We only ventured half an hour away but it was very quiet and picturesque and we all had a lovely time. Even better, the site fees were £44 for 2 nights (very cheap) and the only spends were lunch at a cafe on Saturday (sadly this was £23 for a very poor lunch but never mind). The caravan was perfect and we are now looking forward to our summer holiday in Norfolk in a few weeks time.

Glad the caravan test drive went well! I am actually about to move out of Norfolk - the fact everyone comes on holiday here sometimes makes me think I am mad to leave. But it is a beautiful county and I am sure you will have a fantastic holiday. If you want any tips on places to visit just give me a shout.

woodfired

Thanks Runders, hope things are quickly sorted out for you with your purchase, it sounds a nightmare!

So, not a lot to report really. We have had 3 viewings on the house, some lovely feedback but no further action yet. I'm very impatient though and keep checking the page views on Zoopla and wondering why there are no further viewings booked. Must get a grip. :rotfl:

Elsewhere, I am scrabbling for pennies to send to the PB account, it's very novel to have most of our money in one place rather than spread over lots of accounts and I feel richer because of this which is ridiculous!! I am aiming to have £40k in premium bonds in the next month (currently made it to £39k). We still have a couple of reg savers open, totalling £3500 and then a bit in high interest current accounts but I keep shifting bits over to the PBs to try to make my target! :rotfl: Its addictive - like overpaying.

Speaking of overpaying, the mortgage is still sat at £114 500, once I've reached my PB target I will revert to OPing. We are still on track to clear sub account 2 by October 31st.

I have added a bit of cash to my Monz0 account which is earmarked for our holiday and not counted in my savings total. There is now just under £500 in there and I am hoping we won't need much more than that.

savingholmes

Just caught up on your diary. Very inspiring. Hope you get your dream property. I did wonder what the attraction of premium bonds is? What benefit do they give you?

woodfired

Hi savingholmes! Thanks for your kind words and encouragement! Much appreciated.
To be honest with regards to the premium bonds, they are probably not a great place for long term savings. I tend to have a small balance (approx £1000) in premium bonds usually. However, short-term as we wait for the possibility of a house move in the next 6 months I decided that any interest on an easy access savings account would be hardly worth it and I might as well play the PB 'lottery' with a larger balance for a few months :rotfl:.

We normally cycle savings through as many 5% regular savers as we can open and keep small balances in 5% current accounts where possible, however, we don't want to tie up our savings in the reg savers at this point as we may well need the cash out earlier (forfeiting the interest). Therefore PBs it is for the short term and who knows? Old ERNIE may just come up trumps for us .