The Hen House Chronicles

MerryHen

I've been thinking and planning and have come up with:

Finance plans
I need to work out what we spend and where because I've completely lost track. I'd even forgotten what month the car insurance is due, the car insurance I've paid on the same date for the past 10 years... getting some grip on spending and household finances is my task for this next month. I have an old budget spreadsheet somewhere, I'll start there.

Mortgage plans
Our original mortgage overpayment goal was to be mortgage free by 40 which we're now set to do even without any extra overpayments (woo!) so I had a little play with the overpayment calculator to see if being mortgage free before 35 is possible, it would mean overpaying by £700 a month which I'm not sure is quite possible, mainly because I'm planning to remortgage next year when our current mortgage deal ends and if our new mortgage has a similar 10% overpayment cap then £700 a month would send us over, but by overpaying £500 we could be mortgage free when we are 35 (and a bit), so that's my new mortgage goal!

Saving plans
We have £22k in savings, some of this is earmarked for home improvements and some for replacing the car when it eventually stops being economical to repair, but we haven't decided how much is in each pot. We need a better idea of how much we'll need for the building works, which we need quotes for, which we've put on hold while the pandemic is happening. For now we'll continue directing whatever money we have left over at the end of the month into the savings, I should have a better idea of how much this is likely to be when I've had a proper look at our finances.

Big home improvement plans
We bought this house knowing it needed work. It's an ~1850s weaver's cottage and though it's been updated since the 19th century it needs work to bring it into the 21st century. We had a new roof put on in February 2017 and a new heating system installed in September 2017, so the house is now warm and relatively watertight. Next I'd like to knock down a couple of walls so the space works a bit better for us. I'm hoping that the things we plan to do will also make the house more appealing to future buyers and that it will therefore be easier to sell when the time comes.
I want to:

• Knock through the kitchen and living room (which is almost certainly a supporting wall).

• Fit a new kitchen.

• Remove a wall in the bathroom (pretty sure it's a stud wall).

• Then split the current (massive) bathroom into a house bathroom and a second separate WC.

• Fit a new bathroom.

We were planning to get started with some of this just as the pandemic happened but when we do get going our first steps will be to get a structural engineer to look at the walls and to get quotes from builders. I'll start looking up some structural engineers and see if any are working at the moment.

Smaller home improvement plans
Until we can get the ball rolling with the big house stuff I'll keep at completing some of the smaller jobs, this is quite a long list. My current project is to do something with our tiny backyard.

For now though I plan to go get a few hours sleep before the toddler wakes up.

LadyGnome

Sorry for your loss. 

Your plans sound very impressive. Good luck. 

Grogged

I'm glad you've come back from a painful period.
Your plans look comprehensive.
You could always put any excess OP in a separate pot and then use them to reduce your next mortgage.
Good luck!

Moneyfordreams

Welcome back and best wishes for all of your family and plans.  

MerryHen

Grogged said:

You could always put any excess OP in a separate pot and then use them to reduce your next mortgage.
Good luck!

I was thinking along similar lines, put extra into house savings so it's available if/when we need it, see where we're at with the house stuff when we remortgage and pay whatever extra we can afford before remortgaging

£500 mortgage overpayment made for this month, always feels good making an overpayment.

House wise my focus for the past few weeks has been on smartening up our outside space. We have a small backyard we've never used because it's overlooked by the house behind and it always seemed too small to do anything with, a couple of weeks ago (after seeing the window cleaner struggling to get through) I started trimming back some of the shrubs and realised it could actually be a nice space and isn't as tiny as I thought, I think all the overgrown plants made it feel smaller. It's ~12ft by 5.5ft so a similar size and shape to balcony and plenty big enough for a bit of seating. So I've been making the most of the light evenings once the toddler is in bed to sort it and it's now clear of weeds and shrubbery and is fairly level. If the Twix wrapper I found in a pile of rubble is anything to go by (which seems to be from when the neighbour's had their wall built) nobody has touched the yard since at least 1986 (when Twix's only cost 16p!) I've ordered some gravel ready for the next stage of its transformation and have grand plans involving decking so hopefully we'll have a nice outdoor space we can use before the end of summer. Lockdown has definitely made me more appreciative of having outdoor space.

Since we've been spending more time on the front door step recently than I ever imagined we would I've been smartening that up too, two blueberry bushes arrived today which I'll get potted up this evening (and the sun's just come out for the first time today too, yay!) The toddler costs us a small fortune in blueberries so I'm seeing this as an investment as much as a way to make the front step look a bit nicer

Sistergold

Hello there @MerryHen
I am sorry about the loss of your son. Well done for pulling yourself together and getting your focus back.
You have a good plan in place and I am confident that all your dreams/plans will come true! Hugs and kisses to your daughter. 

Xx

MerryHen

Sistergold said:

Hello there @MerryHen
I am sorry about the loss of your son. Well done for pulling yourself together and getting your focus back.
You have a good plan in place and I am confident that all your dreams/plans will come true! Hugs and kisses to your daughter. 

Xx

Thanks @Sistergold, I've had a look at your diary and your drive to achieve your dreams is fantastic, will continue reading and cheering you on 

MerryHen

I'm not sure how the energy company has been estimating our gas and electricity usage but we're £1053 in credit. Admittedly I have been pretty bad at submitting meter readings since having kids, and since DS died we've spent a fair bit of time staying with family down south (he's buried down there), but even so, £1053! I've reduced our monthly payment to be more in line with what we actually use. The energy company is suggesting I reduce it by a lot more, I guess to use up the credit, but I think I'll request the money back instead, it can go towards house savings and mortgage overpayment. I also realised it's been three years since I last checked if we're on the best tariff so that's a job for this week.

My work has slowed down since the pandemic started, especially over the past couple of weeks. It can be up and down anyway so I'm unsure if this particular lull is covid linked or just a natural fluctuation, likely a bit of both. I don't really mind the break though, it's given me a bit of breathing space and has meant I can focus on a few things around the house. I work ten hours a week, which is far less than I used to work pre-kids but with a toddler at home even ten hours feels like a bit of a slog sometimes. The toddler was due to start with a childminder in April so I could focus on work for a few hours during the week but that obviously couldn't happen. Her childminder reopened this week but we've decided to put her place on hold for now and I'm continuing to work evenings once she's in bed. It was a bit gutting not sending her but I know we've made the right choice for us by keeping her home. This change of plans does mean I'm now in two minds about whether to continue with my work or whether to let it go for now. I like having it and it's nice having my own bit of income but it'd also be nice to have a bit of time to focus on something else that isn't childcare or work, and I know it isn't a job I want to do forever, I just need to figure out what it is I do want to do. I don't think there are any easy answers here, it comes down to what I want more, job/money vs time. I am erring towards time but I'll stick with what I'm doing for now and see how the next few months go.

Anyway, with a bit less work coming my way I've been able to get a few housey and admin jobs done which has been nice.

One stinky job was sorting out the grey water drain. Clearing the back yard revealed it was backing up and overflowing into the yard, after a poke around I discovered hair from the bath and shower was probably the culprit. A bit of hair-dissolver-drain-unclogger and it seems to be draining much better. The bath now has a nice new hair catcher and the outside drain a smart new plastic cover (with an expertly cut extra notch to accommodate the dishwasher pipe   ) which should stop leaves going down. Hopefully these two small additions prevent any future blockages.

I've also managed to get a bit more front-step gardening done and it's looking good! One of the new blueberry bushes has been potted up, there wasn't quite enough ericaceous compost for the second so I ordered another bag of that. In the meantime I noticed the lemon tree was was looking a bit sorry for itself, so I repotted that in the pot meant for the second blueberry bush using some special citrus compost and gave it some citrus food, I've been putting it out in the nice weather and bringing it back in at night, hopefully a bit of TLC will perk it up a bit. The ericaceous compost arrived today but now I'm waiting for a third pot for the second blueberry bush. Once that's here and all fruit trees have pots I'll have a nice little front step orchard/grove (or whatever a small collection of blueberry and lemon trees is called).

In quite a MSE move I also made a plant pot out of a big tomato tin (think 2.5kg of tomatoes) which I painted Forget-Me-Nots onto and planted Forget-Me-Not seeds into. We planted Forget-Me-Nots at DS's burial place last year, he's in a woodland burial site, but didn't get to see them in bloom this year because of lockdown, my mum sent photos when she visited him just before lockdown and they had spread around his plot and looked beautiful so I can't wait for ours to grow too.

I also discovered a house plant I've been watering for the past 18 months, and congratulating myself on keeping in such great condition, is in fact made of plastic. So my heady sense of greenfingered prowess was quickly restored to it's normal level of 'I'm not really sure what I'm doing here.'

teapot2

Morning Merry Hen, that's an amazing amount of credit with your energy company.  I'd definitely be claiming it back and using the money for an OP or saving.  I'd also definitely use a comparison site to check the tariff and switch.  Its worth sending regular meter readings if you can and some companies will send a regular email to remind you to do that.
Your orchard sounds good but lol at your plastic plant

greent

Wow - that's some credit balance! - agree getting it back and using elsewhere seems like a good plan:)

Apologies - but the watering the plastic plant for the last 18 months did make me chuckle somewhat.. x