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Mrs_Money_Penny

How how is the cleaning going? Hope you are getting straight and it doesn’t seem so overwhelming. Take care xx

Chrystal

Just checking in and hoping that everything is OK?  Sending ((((hugs)))) XXX

Four_Seasons

Hope you are ok and settling in a little now x

MeandO

Hello everyone, thank you for your posts and check-ins, sorry I’ve not posted for a while, I don’t seem to have had a spare moment and am absolutely exhausted constantly. Sometimes I feel completely overwhelmed with what I have taken on, so am trying to view it as smaller tasks that need doing. 

The house is looking much better than it did when I moved in, although evidently still needs work. Within the next month I am having some ceilings and walls skimmed, new carpet laid throughout (thank goodness), a new window fitted in the bathroom (hopefully within the month) and there should be scaffolding going up to start the work needed on the exterior. Fingers crossed a plumber that visited last week comes back with a decent price to rip the bathroom out and put new ‘everything’ in as he has some availability next month and getting a new bathroom in would go a long way to making this house feel like ours. I’ve also had a reasonable quote from someone to flatten and level the garden for me as it is more like a waste ground atm. I’m hoping he will be able to do that really soon as it is depressing looking out on our unusable garden presently. 

I am finding it really stressful trying to constantly chase and organise tradesmen though, it is a bit of a nightmare. None seem to turn up when they say they will, if they turn up at all. It’s hard work in itself.

I have been furiously scrubbing, cleaning, unpacking, decluttering again (as I underestimated how much stuff we still had and how much smaller the upstairs of this house was) and painting these past two weeks. I’ve managed to prime and paint all of the skirtings, stair woodwork, panelling and spindles (not fun at all), wooden loft hatch and meter box. I’ve also primed and painted 5 internal doors that I thought I would have to replace as they were in such a bad state, but with a bit of primer and paint they look nearly as good as new, so have saved myself some time and money there. I completely removed an old heavy door that was on one of the reception rooms as it was horrible and filthy and I won’t bother replacing it, it opens up the room nicely. 

I’ve painted the walls In the two reception rooms and have plans to paint DS’s room once the ceiling has been skimmed. The entire hallway and landing will need painting once the plasterer has finished with them too. I originally planned on paying someone to paint all the woodwork for me, and to do some decorating, but I’m pleased I just got on with it myself now and saved money. 

I’ve also been extremely frugal and only spent £16 since moving in on decorating supplies. A tin of satin paint for wood cost me £14 in home bargains and a tin of good primer only cost me £2 in the diy store as my parents had kindly given me a £20 voucher. I used paint I already had from the last house to paint both the lounge and sitting room and am wallpapering some alcoves with wallpaper I have had for some time. I’m quite proud of my budget redecorating.
I need to be frugal though as I will have some big bills ahead of me for the work I can’t do myself and fencing, a gate and an entire bathroom suite to purchase.

I have managed to sell a few things on fb that don’t fit in this house including a horrible shelf the previous owners left here. I’ve made £60 on items so far. I will be listing some things one eBay as soon as I get chance to do so.

I have bought blinds for all the windows that needed them already which cost around £270, but saved on blinds for two windows by buying a roll of privacy window film from Amazon for £14.99 and using that on those instead. The windows are huge in this house, I’m tall and I have to use a ladder to reach the windows to open them, so the blinds were never going to be cheap.
The flooring for the entire house except the kitchen and bathroom has cost me just over £3,000, but it is an absolute necessity. Oh, and I spent just under £9 on replacing a new floorboard yesterday which OH and I did. 

So all in all, it’s coming together. The outside space needs A LOT of TLC and I am embarrassed by the state of it atm, but the neighbours know it was left in that state by the previous owners and I will be improving it as soon as I can.

The house still doesn’t feel like our home yet, but it feels like a nicer place to be than it was and I’m much more relaxed here than I was in the last house. I do not miss that area one bit, although there have been times when I have wondered what the heck I have done in moving to a house that needs so much work. The area is lovely though and DS seems to like it here. I think he will be happier once the rubbish bathroom has been ripped out and his bedroom sorted though. 

I am exhausted and every part of me hurts and aches at the moment. I am covered in bruises and cuts from shifting furniture, falling over boxes and having a heavy bookcase fall on the back of my leg which I was lucky not to break. I do have a broken finger from a cleaning injury though... I knew cleaning was bad for me. 😂
I’ve not been sleeping great either, but hopefully that will get better as we settle here and the new carpets are fitted and I can no longer smell the stench of wet dog from the carpets when I’m drifting off to sleep. 🤢

The stress and worry of normal life hasn’t gone away unfortunately as my poor Mum has been rushed into hospital today with a suspected heart attack, so I doubt I will sleep tonight with worrying about her and my Dad who is due another op in a week or so. It has been a horrible 12 months for my family and they are the loveliest, kindest people you could ever hope to meet. Life isn’t fair at times.

I have also been having quite a bit of anxiety regarding DS and the ex, but nothing will ever change there so I need to try and accept that. 

Anyway, time for bed for me, hopefully this week will be a better one. For everyone. Xx

Four_Seasons

Thank you so much for updating I wondered how things were going.  You have achieved so much in such a short time with all your hard work I am sure you will make it into a wonderful home. 
So sorry to hear about your Mum and Dad. Sending you hugs x

Chrystal

So relieved to hear from you, but sorry about your Mum and Dad.  Sending healing thoughts and gentle (((hugs))) to all of you.
It sounds as though you've moved mountains with regard to what you're doing in the new house, and it's great that DS likes it there. 
I'm certain that before long it will feel totally yours and hopefully you'll be able to relax and enjoy it and all the hard work and hassle will have been worth it.  XXX

Drawingaline

Yey on all the budgeting decorating! Wish mine had cost that amount, and I haven't touched any gloss as I loath painting woodwork. 

I hear you on tradespeople. I have a little list of people I now trust to turn up, quote and do the job. However I know I pay for this privilege. The handyman in particular is probably at the high end cost wise, but he always comes when he says, is upfront on availability and will send the quote through within 7 days. Sometimes the extra £50 is worth it for this. Took time to weed out the less reliable ones though. 

And blinds are so expensive. I need some and I have been wavering over them we have some up but they are old and don't go up and down easily, but what I want seems so extravagant I can't bring myself to actually buy them 🤦

Honeysucklelou2

Good to hear from you  MeandO. Sorry to hear about your mum and dad. Hope that there is positive news this week for both of them.

One sentence really stood out in your post “ I’m much more relaxed here than I was in the last house.” That is wonderful that, even with the amount of work you have, you feel more relaxed.

Sorry to hear about the finger...

MeandO

Thank you all for your kind words and encouragement xx

I managed to get some shelves up yesterday in the utility room which should help with storage. The house doesn't have any other place to store stuff as there are no built in cupboards, so I need to get as much in there as I can! I brought the shelves frm the last house so they didn't cost me anything, although I have bought new ones for DS's room to fit his alcoves - they're not up yet though until the plastering is completed and room decorated. 

It's not been a great day.
A neighbour told me he thought I had drainage issues, apparently he also told the previous owners who did nothing about it, just like they've done nothing about anything in the house during their ownership. I called a drainage company out today who have found quite a big problem and need to dig the drains out and divert them next week which is going to cost anywhere between £800 - £1500. Today's call out cost me £60. 
My budget is rapidly decreasing and the potential of having any money left over once I've paid for everything is disappearing fast. In fact, I'm worried if I can afford to pay everything as things are going at the moment.  

The postie delivered a little gift from an old neighbour which was lovely of them and cheered me up a little as I received it straight after drain-gate. 

I listed quite a few little things on FB yesterday and have sold two of them, making £10. Hopefully I will sell an item of furniture in the next few weeks for £60 too, there's a couple of people interested in it. There is another item due to be sold for £30, but the potential buyer has delayed quite a bit so I don't know if that will come to anything. 
I've chased up a council tax refund of just over £13 this morning and I'm due a £30+ refund from the last home insurance. Every little bit helps at the moment.
I have at least two things I want to put on ebay, but will wait until there's a listing offer as I don't want to pay loads in fees. I'm debating whether to do a car boot sale, but I'm not a fan of doing them and really don't want to get up at 4am to sell stuff!!! FB marketplace seems to have quietened down a bit from what it was lately though, perhaps lots of people are having to watch the pennies more now. 

I had a water meter fitted yesterday too which I requested after seeing my first non-metered water bill. It should drop from around £60 a month non-metered to £30 with the meter - much better. 

Debt_Me_Out_Of_Here

Wow you have achieved so much in such a short space of time! I really admire your motivation to do so much stuff yourself! It sounds like there are a few issues to sort, but I'm sure you'll get all of it sorted, you seem very capable! It sounds like you've made the right decision. This place might need work, but it sounds like you're already more comfortable there than you ever were in the previous house. It'll feel like a whole new place with new carpets and bathroom (and a working drain...) - and once you've got the garden sorted, you won't know yourself!
Sending good thoughts for your parents too, hope they're ok.