Light the fire...

woodfired

Back to school tomorrow! Where did that summer go?

We've had a good one though, lots of trips out - both in the motorhome and closer to home.  The weather has been kinder this holiday than it often is and the children are old enough now that their friends call round and spend time here rather than us needing to occupy them constantly. It's been nice.

Tomorrow the youngest starts his final year in primary school and the eldest starts year 11 on Tuesday.  It's a big year for us.

Today has been about preparing, I've finished all my laundry, hoovered & dusted downstairs whilst DH took DS to football, prepped a steak dinner and then organised the bedrooms and uniform ready for the new week.  Old uniform has been sorted through and the best of it set aside for my nephew.  
I need to sort out DS' packed lunch and I think I'm done.

Out in the garden this week I've been collecting and sowing seeds from my plants.  I've got trays of delphinium & foxglove seeds and scattered a few at the back of the borders too.  We've had new borders added these past couple of years and filling them is expensive.  I've also managed to root a hydrangea by covering a low hanging branch with soil and weighing it down, on checking the other day it has a healthy root system coming along and I will sever it from its parent and pot on in the next couple of weeks.  New plants for free!

lucielle

The collecting of seeds sounds like good money saving plans. The summer has gone very quickly. 

L

woodfired

lucielle said:

The collecting of seeds sounds like good money saving plans. The summer has gone very quickly. 

L

Thanks Lucielle, I spend a fortune on plants so every little will help.  Love foxgloves and delphiniums too x

woodfired

Back to school, back to work, back to normality!

A bit of drama yesterday as DS realised his new school jumpers were enormous!  Only the next size up but seemed massive on him.  A hot wash and hot tumble dry later and they fit just fine lol !  DH was planning to go buy the smaller size but I couldn't return any as I'd written his name in them.  Crisis averted.

Calm and organised morning this morning, it was a lovely day so a load of laundry washed and hung on the line, lunches made and children packed off to school on time.  I'm now at work until after lunch and then planning to get out on our bikes before dinner and football training for DS.  Will probably use some frozen-on-last-day mince from the shop freezer to make spaghetti bolognaise for dinner, nice and filling for hungry tummies after school.

This weekend will be our last trip out in the motorhome, weather looks good so we are off to a remote Yorkshire village with a small group of friends, £10 per night in a beautiful field by a river, I'm looking forward to it.

In money news not a lot is happening, the mortgage went out yesterday but Halifax isn't yet showing the updated balance. 

I've put a couple of thousand back into savings in the last few weeks after running the EF right down following DH's quiet time at work, that is what the EF is for though and I'm so glad we always carry a chunk of savings for times like this.  DH is due a couple of decent payments in the next few weeks so I shouldn't have to use the EF again for the foreseeable.  I can concentrate on replenishing the coffers hopefully.

I am also waiting for a valuation on our new premises, we are looking into all of our options in case DH's work doesn't come good again, a local commercial property agent visited on Thursday and I'm waiting impatiently for his rental and sale valuations.  With houses I can make a good call usually on the value, however, commercial property of this type is rare round here and the values seem to be plucked from this air so I literally have no idea what it may be worth.  If we get all our figures together we can make an informed decision nearer to Christmas on what the future might look like.

woodfired

Wow, the valuation came back on the works premises, £165000.  That's amazing.  We paid £80k for it just before Christmas and have spent around £20k on the building itself, we did lots of dirty nasty jobs ourselves but even so, a profit of £65000 in a few months is more than we could have hoped for.

The rental valuation was a bit disappointing at £12000 per annum, that would be taxed and we would still have loans to pay back from that so we are definitely leaning towards selling off the machinery and building then paying off all loans and any tax.  By our (very very rough) calculations we could clear all lending aside from our house mortgage and still end up with around £100k in the bank.  This would give us a lovely buffer as DH comes to join me in the shop in a lower paying but much more stable and reliable field of work. We could both be part-time/semi-retired at 40 and 49 which wouldn't be a bad position to be in.  Sooo much to think about and organise but at least we have good options if the present situation with his work continues.

lucielle

Just playing devils advocate, would OH be happy working in the shop. It’s a lot working and living together. We did it for quite a few years before selling up. 

L

woodfired

lucielle said:

Just playing devils advocate, would OH be happy working in the shop. It’s a lot working and living together. We did it for quite a few years before selling up. 

L

Thanks L, it is a good point and not for everyone but we've worked quite closely together in his business for a number of years and do manage it very well to be honest.  As he's been so quiet at his work he has already been working in the shop with me for a while also. 
He will have a different role when (if) he joins me in the shop, he would be in the kitchen making our fresh sandwiches and salads, an income stream he set up when we first bought the shop and ran for a few years before going back to the joinery business and employing staff to continue this aspect so he is well used to it and it shouldn't be too much of a shock.

woodfired

Sunday again.

Just home from our final motorhome trip of the year, a beautiful weekend in the Yorkshire dales in a pretty village by the river.  Very reasonable at £10 per night and all meals taken with us aside from a lovely lunch yesterday in a really nice country pub.  I made a minted lamb hotpot for Friday night which was a real hit with our friends and then hotdogs with onions on Saturday for a quick supper after our lunch out.  

We packed up early this morning and made it home just as the rain set in so a quiet day watching Burghley eventing has been lovely.  I managed to get some uniform washed on Friday ready for tomorrow so, although I've done a bit of laundry, it isn't urgent and I've had a relaxing afternoon with a little nap! 

Back in the garden I've continued to save seed, I bought a cheap packet of annual mallow (lavatera?) in spring and they have been fabulous and so easy to grow so I've made a point to save those seeds for next spring along with a plant that came from a mixed pack of seeds that looks just like the mallow but is a beautiful purple flower instead. I've labelled the seeds carefully and WILL remember to use them next year! 

I'm also picking lots of tasty tomatoes that I have found the best use for in home made bruschetta.  I often have this as a starter in a restaurant but have never made it 'til now and I must say, it is fabulous.  I use Jason's sourdough bread and it is gorgeous with lots of good olive oil, so much so that I'm impatiently waiting for more tomatoes to ripen so I can make it again lol.

In other news we put some feelers out to see about selling our CNC machine and it seems we may be looking at a valuation close to £40 000 which would be amazing and is almost 25% higher than we were expecting.  We have a dealer who is very interested in buying it and is coming to see it later this month.  I also did an online valuation of our van that we bought at auction for around £2000 18 months ago - cant remember exactly how much we paid without checking- but it could be worth as much as £3800 according to M*torway.  It isn't in the best condition which will mean it's worth less than that but if we could get £3000 for it that would be fab.  Obviously, the more we can sell everything for, the bigger our buffer fund will be once everything is paid off.  So far the universe seems to be pushing us towards selling up!

woodfired

Winter preps are underway over here.

We have cleared an area down the side of our garage that DH is going to put a roof on and gutters to create a lean-to shelter for storing our winter wood supplies.  We have some metal sheets left over from the re-roof of our workshop earlier this year and lots of lengths of wood to build the framework so it shouldn't cost anything but will free up so much room in the garage if the wood doesn't have to go in there.  

I spent ages yesterday sorting through old junk and have a huge pile ready to go to the tip, I've booked a van appointment in for Saturday morning to take it all to the recycling centre.  The rear or the garage that runs down to the brook looks so much better as it is where we tend to store stuff we don't use regularly (then it becomes a dumping ground), we have cleared it all and it looks lovely now,  all ready for winter.

We are going to write a to do list of broken down jobs to help us get ready for winter.  It's a reasonably large property and a high maintenance garden (loads of huge trees that are a nightmare in autumn) and it can get a bit overwhelming clearing leaves and keeping on top of moss and algae everywhere.  My thinking is if we can break the jobs down into sections we can tick off in a couple of hours it will be more motivating to tick off the list and less outfacing.  

Inside the house I've had what I hope will be a good idea.  We have a large double larder cupboard that dh fit in an alcove in the utility room above the dog bed.  I don't really use it regularly as we have lots of storage in there.  I noticed last week that there are some radiator pipes running up the back and it gets quite warm.  I've found an old USB fan and I'm going to try drying my washing in there.  The upper half of the cupboard doors are open with decorative metalwork so airflow and humidity should be ok, especially with the fan.  I've popped my maiden in there with a load of washing to give it a try.  It will be much better than hanging all over downstairs if it works, fingers crossed.

woodfired

The maiden in the cupboard was ok but not brill, I've relocated it to next to a large radiator and placed a USB fan on the radiator, angled towards the washing and its sending the warm air nicely into the clothes and seems to be drying them faster.

Outside we had our tip appointment yesterday and got rid of lots of rubbish which has really cleared the place up nicely.  I don't use the van service often but it's great and so much cheaper than using skips, I must make more use of it.

We have moved the motorhome to the front of the house to it's winter parking spot and it will have a rinse off and its cover put on this coming week in the nicer weather.  Then DH mowed all the lawns whilst I spent some time sweeping the drive of fallen leaves and brushed the cobwebs from round the windows and doors.  I also gave the patio a good sweep, it needs some algae treatment this week as it's slowly turning green and will get slippery in the wet.  I found a product called wet&forget that has been great on the stonework and flags, it takes a few days to begin to work but is really good and seems to keep the algae from returning for quite a while.  The rest of the garden is starting to get a bit overgrown but everything is in full flower so I don't want to start cutting it back yet, the wind last week hasn't helped matters either, things have flopped but continued to flower!  Oh and my saved-seed seedlings have come up well and will need potting on in a week or so. 

I had another good crop of tomatoes from the greenhouse on Friday that made bruschetta for DH & I for dinner and then DD & her friends who had a movie night at ours, they fancied pizza but changed their minds when they tried the bruschetta which was a win.

Today we are having a slow day relaxing by the fire after a busy week and another busy week to come. I have a large beef joint roasting in the oven for dinner & meals this week and lots of meat in the fridge that I need to sort out and freeze, it came from the wholesale butchers on Friday and I haven't managed to find room in the freezer just yet but I will do today.  The house is tidy, clean and warm, the garden is mostly tidy and we have lots of good food in.  I can relax. xx