Moving forward and upwards

Skint_yet_Again

What sort of fire are you having put in with a pipe that links to a liner ? Are you having log burner ? Wow £3k per fireplace is a lot if this is not your forever home. Will you be able to recover the cost if you sell ? 

I’m a central heating fan too SW. Open fires are nice to look at but messy & hard work from what I recall from childhood. 

Irenadler

(Stands in front of multi-fuel stove) Yes, they can be messy, having to brush up the ash and spent coals....

What I've found is that it gives off incredible heat, so only used when it really is bitterly cold outside. Think I needed a smaller one as it is like a blast furnace when fully going so I need to sit in the furthest part of the room away from it (or in the hallway!), open up all the doors to warm the rest of the place. Heating automatically turns off, and then the bedroom is really cool, erm, not really selling this am I?  And it ain't cheap, really needed to find a proper coal merchant round here for it....

It does look so cheerful when it's going, even a bit mesmerising watching the flames, makes me feel a bit like a cave-woman but, ideally I think it should be in the countryside where the smoke blows away from neighbours.... or you have a very high chimney stack....On the plus side, I have heated up food (beans, stew, soup), cooked jacket spuds, and even had a go at roasted chestnuts and water for endless and necessary cuppa's, as well as warming myself. 

As for the dog, she is in doggie heaven, lying on the thick rug in front of it, on her back, paws up, snoozing...   

MovingForwards

Skinty, it is a st0ve / log burner. I've always wanted a real fire. I wanted a proper open fire, but the st0ve type ones are much better heat and cost wise.

I guess to answer your question, yes, I can recover the money I will put into it, if I was to sell. At the moment I don't know if we will be moving. I honestly do not want to take on a bigger mortgage or have to run it to retirement; on both financial and health grounds!
-- I'm inclined to think this is our home for life. TomBo won't / can't save, is on about giving his niece any inheritance from his mom and so I don't see how a move could realistically happen.

Regarding the cost to recovery of it. This flat really hasn't been touched for many years, there also isn't a high / frequent turnover of sales within this block or even of old flats in the area, the new build set down the road often has numerous sales going on. These old ones are snapped up pretty quickly compared to the NBs. The last sold old flat, across the road 3 months ago went for £22k more than I paid. In some ways it's better (nicely decorated, main bedroom is slightly wider than mine) in other ways mine is better (normal shaped kitchen with pantry, decent size lounge, private garden, not above commercial premises, main door flat). I actually ruled out one that was for sale when I was looking because for me there were more negatives to it than positives. One of the shops which has opened up under those flats over lockdown has the potential to be very noisy 7 days a week, if it manages to secure regular customers. 
-- I think the 'ceiling' for these flats are £100k, at the moment, if they are done right and with care.

Ideally I would have an aga / range in the kitchen and have that heating the whole flat, but it's potentially a bit much for a small flat 😁

Ren, you have put into words how I feel about them and why I want one 😉

savingholmes

Sounds like you got a really good deal on my your to flat.

MovingForwards

I think so SH, as long as I can keep to good budgets when doing things, it should balance out quite well.

riotlady

Totally agree about real fires- could stare at one for ages! 

Irenadler

Well, all I can say then is, go for it! Sings 'Chestnuts roasting on an open fire....'

MovingForwards

That's why it would be so nice to have a real fire, to have soup / stew cooking on the top, have a coffee pot simmering away. Proper old school 😁 just not sure where my TV would go as it's in front of the chimney breast at the moment 🤭

Did some weeding yesterday, got this one plant that's popping up everywhere. I do need to do a final tidy up and be prepared to cover things when it gets even colder.

Some of the onions are starting to grow, hopefully they will fatten up nicely. Potentially I need to have at least 200 onions growing each year, which is going to be interesting!
I don't want to think about how many spuds I need to produce.
But I'm going for 25 cabbages and cauliflowers.
A lot of carrots.
Some turnips, swedes, parsnips and other root veg. Plus everything else I want to grow.
I'm going to have to get my planning head on over the next few weeks, factor in rotational planting and be very canny with how I use the space 🙈

Haven't decided what I'm doing the weekend, I'm currently dictated to by weather.

Moved a bit of money to savings.

Having ox cheek stew with homegrown spuds, tomatoes and herbs.

Skint_yet_Again

You could always go really “old school” and get rid of the tv 😳 Save money as no tv licence. Could imagine you & tombo on a winters night sat round the stove watching the fire, stew bubbling away on top 😊

That’s a lot of veg to grow! Are you also planning for paths between the crops ? My DF has grass paths between his veg beds, just wide enough to mow. Saves taking up all the turf & not walking on mud all the time. 

Have a lovely weekend, hope the weather stays fine & dry for you. 

Irenadler

Wowsers on the vegetable growing/planning. That would be fantastic, you'd almost be self-reliant with root crops, and a good amount of greens.

One thing I remember doing is planting potatoes, however, they got blight, so dug out, one tiny stray kept coming up every year with blight on it... a pain... My top tip: maybe you could try potato bags/containers to stop that happening?

That way you've got extra room for the rest, and rotating is easier, because they are 'out' of the rota. I have tried the bags, just need to top up with soil or compost, much easier than mounding up. And if blight strikes, you can help prevent it using fresh soil next season, for them.... To harvest, it's just tip out, rather than heavy digging, then re-use soil on other beds if it's disease free. Course, you are better using smaller bags so you can tip, not the huge builders bag I tried, which you can't shift when adding soil to it!