Prosperous soul in the making

savingholmes

Thanks Jwil and Crystal. DH isn't  keen on the price - he likes the £7 per metre ones LOL. My favourites were more likeWe will see.  Our cat has wrecked our current one - so whatever we get needs to be cat proof long enough to sell the house. 

Well  I've filled the garden bin and put it out - having done some more pruning. I  may do some more painting after tea, for now I am back to resting. DD has a short day tomorrow 10-2 so has agreed to go in which is promising. DS has been accepted for the MA. Needs an income though. Our favourite house that I've seen says we need to have an offer in our hands before they will et us view.  Frustrating. Another EA has asked for more info on us so may let us view. 

savingholmes

An estate agent rang today but I was busy with work so couldn't take the call. Will aim to ring them back tomorrow. I have an appointment with a joiner to come and quote on Thursday. If his quote isn't too high - I  will then need to agree a date and buy the new oven hob. I  still need to talk to an electrician. I am also wondering whether or not to  go ahead with replastering the kitchen ceiling as DH thinks any cracks will be covered by paint but I really doubt it. 

DD went to 6th form today so that was a result. I took and DS picked her up. Need to do the same potentially tomorrow. She says her head is already starting to feel mashed - so she plans to take Wednesday off to  catch up. She has a shift at work Thursday and Friday. DS hopes to get paid his student loan for his postgrad in a couple of weeks and hopes to then repay the £ he owes us. He is also going to apply for a part time remote working job tonight at DH's work. I would hope he'd get an interview.

We just had a lovely roast beef dinner tea.  Everyone was given a task and did it so that was good. I also ate some plums from our tree and 2 of our apples. DS is going to the chemist shortly to pick up 2 or 3 prescriptions. Will get him to buy some spuds and chocolate while he's in there. I need to update our budget - but basically not doing well!!  Ho hum.

MovingForwards

Do a test patch on the ceiling, see if it does cover them. In theory thick paint will do it (that's what I'm doing for now).

Hope DD feels a little better tomorrow, but perhaps she has done as much education as she can at the moment.
Fingers crossed for DD.

Financially you will be up and down like a yo-yo, it's hard to save when doing a home up.

savingholmes

A  test patch is a great solution - thanks. I described myself very unflatteringly but possibly accurate at the weekend when I said I was a cheapskate (when it comes  to big things) but a fritter spender... Need to make sure spend on the right things

savingholmes

I went into work for half a day today and met up with some colleagues which was nice. DH also went into work but since I dropped DD off at school, I got him to leave work early to pick her up. She is having tomorrow off which simplifies things. In theory DS gets his student loan in 2 weeks and has said he will repay what he owes us then. We will see... I would have more sympathy for him if I didn't know how much he'd earned recently!! Close to the equivalent of a full year's student loan and it's whistled through his hands... 

Our cleaner returns tomorrow. Looking forward to that. I have to finish work early tomorrow though because of ICT which is a pain - so hoping that I manage to get up earlier to compensate as I also worked a short day today and the new computer  kit won't be ready until mid morning Thursday. Irritating.

On the home buying front - we are still going around in circles on what best to do. While there are houses I am interested in - I think they are all far more expensive than our current home - and if we do take the plunge - I want to make sure we are buying in the right place. Once DD leaves school our ties to this area will reduce - and once we are debt free we will be under less pressure - so on paper it seems to make sense to wait. Once stamp duty returns though it could wipe out the benefit of waiting to be debt free. Conversely, if people do end up selling due to job losses due to c19 or brxt - house prices could drop which could make our jump up more affordable. As a long term tracker of house prices - they seem to have shot up disproportionately recently and I am worried they could drop just as fast. Unfortunately the right decision often only becomes apparent with hindsight. I think if we stay around here there is little point moving. Our house is a decent size - and even when we bought it we always said it would take another £100K to get rooms the same size locally. I worry that some of the places with land are all older houses with hidden problems having lived in new/nearly new for most of our married life.... 

I'm going to try and take it step by step. To move we need to redecorate. I own a lot  of paint. Start with that!! Also need to get the kitchen finished. I went upstairs last night to a pool of water on the bathroom floor again - hence my reluctance to replaster yet. If we did just paint it for now it would still look heaps better. There are flooding marks on our ceiling - it would be interesting to see if they go away after painting. If they don't it answers the question on whether we need to replaster anyway.

savingholmes

The bed refund finally came back - £453 and change. It all helps. Just took the dog for a walk. I have one last CC to go out before payday. Around £130. I'm hoping if we can manage to be good between now and Tuesday - that I can clear another £100 off the CC we've been spending on. Once we are back on track with that - need to stop using it as with the kitchen spends and delayed refunds the bill went quite high!

MovingForwards

Stain block paint on the ceiling, do the whole lot though as it's thick paint, then put your normal colour on top.

With older homes, usually what you see is what you get, then you budget / save to do everything over time. Usually hidden problems are when a property has been quickly modernised / adapted for things.

I don't think many people would have sympathy for DS in those circumstances, hopefully he has learnt.

I'm glad the refund came and have confidence you can get through to Tuesday.

Tahlullah.H

I agree, maybe fill the cracks with something like Polyfilla and the use stain block, then paint.

I would always prefer an old house over a new build.  We are all different!  Do you know where the water is coming from in the bathroom?  I must have missed that in your diary?  If it just active bathing routines?  Then maybe get new bathroom flooring fitted, specifically for a wet room?  Bit expensive but will sort the problem.

RelievedSheff

Tahlullah.H said:

I agree, maybe fill the cracks with something like Polyfilla and the use stain block, then paint.

I would always prefer an old house over a new build.  We are all different!  Do you know where the water is coming from in the bathroom?  I must have missed that in your diary?  If it just active bathing routines?  Then maybe get new bathroom flooring fitted, specifically for a wet room?  Bit expensive but will sort the problem.

We thought that about new builds until we looked at and bought our current house last year. It completely changed our minds about new builds and while we have absolutely no intention of moving from this house if we ever did we would certainly consider a new build again. The layouts are certainly more suitable to modern family living than older properties and the running costs are for nothing. We fully expected our 3 bed detached new build to cost a lot more to run than our previous 2 bed 1930's semi. The reality is it costs far less.

Bargainhunter30

Can you look into renting or buying a field locally? This would give you an idea if the actuality of having a small holding would suit. Or is it the more rural lifestyle you want. We are rural here in a smallish town, but with a modern and manageable house. My mother in law has a small holding nearby and although initially I liked the idea of having our own, in reality I dont fancy al the extra work and upkeep. There is always some DIY, maintenance or animal thing to do and they only have 8 acres and 13 animals.