Lumiona's MFW Diary

Lumiona

Not much news so far, hope to complete on our new home in the next month.

We've decided against making overpayments during the next 5 years, the interest savings are just not worth it, especially with our decent rate. We'll be putting aside for a lump sum repayment at the end of the term. So our next goal is to be mortgage neutral by Jan 2027. 

There is quite a bit of updating to do in the new property, new boiler and radiators, electric rewire, new kitchen, bathroom. Complete redecoration top to bottom. 

We just need to get in there asap. 

savingholmes

Exciting stuff. Hope this one goes through okay for you. Will watch with interest. You have a great LTV and presumably are saving while living with parents / in laws

Lumiona

We're pushing to be in at Christmas, we have a possible date of 21st December but it could still be January, either way we should be in very soon. I can't wait, I want to give Mum her space back.

There's quite a lot to do but most of the decor is neutral (albeit anaglypta and woodchip everywhere, even the ceiling). Our first thing to do is to furnish the house. We have beds on order for the kids, we need sofas, having only brought an old 2 seater. We also need wardrobes as we had fitted in our old place.

savingholmes

You can get a lot of decent furniture on FB if you look. Could be an option. Hope you get the completion date you want.

Lumiona

We're in!! We completed on Friday 4th Feb. What a journey, it was awful (moving house: zero ⭐. Would not recommend!!) Why in the hell does it take 5 months to buy a house? We'd already sold so just one transaction in a small chain of 3 properties. 

Anyway, we're in now. We still need to get a lot of our stuff out of storage. There is so much redecorating to do and we need a lot of furniture; wardrobes/ desks/ sofas. Thankfully we've saved quite a bit whilst trying to buy. Every room needs an overhaul, I have an insta account to document the renovation (they love a house renovation over there).

So mortgage wise: we are back up to the value we owed back in 2007= £120,000. However we now have a bigger house with £200k equity (so should house prices drop we should be ok). Also we are on a far better rate of 0.99% for 5 years, this was also incredible luck and timing. My big goal is to have all the funds ready to pay off in 5 years time, if not all then most. I'm not aiming to make chunky repayments as we have quite a bit of spending to do here but will do lots of Tilly tidying into the mortgage account, I like neat accounts 😊.

South_coast

Congratulations on your new home 🏡!

Best of luck with your plans

savingholmes

Welcome to your new home

powerspowers

Congratulations on your new home and good luck with the Reno! Is it liveable for a slow renovation or in a mess? 

Nicely done on the 0.99% fix that’ll make a big difference 

Lumiona

Thanks guys ☺️. It is completely livable, the decor is neutral but textured walls and ceilings everywhere. The shower is awful, cold and trickling so we might have to do the bathroom first. Needs a new boiler, it's 30yrs old and needs new radiators everywhere, the current ones are small and single walled, not enough for the size of house.

Lumiona

Well we've started on the Reno and I had been making Tilly tidys to the mortgage but now the rates have changed and I'm earning more in my Chase savings at 1.5% than my mortgage at 0.99% so I'll be leaving the mortgage to tick along and save up until the fixed rate runs out in 2027.

Big expensive works undertaken already; we've bought all the new furniture and we have new boiler and radiators, made a start on the electrics and we have the loft being boarded with new ladder next week.

We still have a huge list of jobs to do but it feels like home.

We've also been extremely lucky in these difficult times that I've been given a big payrise.