The 'scenic route' to mortgage freedom...

PiggyBankShaker

THEY'RE HERE! THEY'RE HERE! The window fitters are here! They're making a massive mess and I'm trying not to freak out about damage to the bare floorboards in our bedroom but THEY'RE HERE!

Also - total shock - the architect has emailed!! Just a holding one to acknowledge that he hasn't emailed us in ages, but apparently he'll have quotes from three builders to us to have a look at sometime next week. I'll believe when I see it. In theory, its not to late to go ahead as we could change the kitchen design to suit, but the quotes will have to be truly bargaintastic for us to even consider going ahead now.   

South_coast

Wow, are there really 49 countries in Europe 🤔? I should pay more attention to Eurovision!

Staffordia

South_coast said:

Wow, are there really 49 countries in Europe 🤔? I should pay more attention to Eurovision!

@South_coast Not sure you should use Eurovision as a geography guide, haven't Australia competed?

savingholmes

I had no idea there were so many countries in Europe either. Fantastic thing to do. What do you do when you are in the countries?

South_coast

Staffordia said:

@South_coast Not sure you should use Eurovision as a geography guide, haven't Australia competed?

Ah, fair point! And Israel too, I think!

PiggyBankShaker

Don't get me started! I love geography and DH loves Eurovision - we're quite the nerds tbh. According the the UN there are only 44 countries in Europe, which doesn't include the 'transcontinental' countries of Russia, Turkey, Cyprus, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, and Kazakhstan. It also doesn't recognise Kosovo as independent. So for my own travel tracking spreadsheet (remember what I said about being a nerd?) I include Kosovo, but exclude Kazakhstan, because I have grouped this with the other 'Stans' which we hope to visit en bloc when the kids are a bit older. The traditional 'geographic' limits of Europe include the Bosporus, which is why half of Turkey is in Europe and half is in Asia, and the Ural mountains which runs down through Russia and Kazakstan. I guess the closest match to my view of Europe is the membership of the the Council of Europe which has 47 members, but excludes Kosovo, Belarus, the Vatican and Kazakstan for varying political reasons.  

PiggyBankShaker

Very quick check in as I'm off to my 2nd job today and it starts at 8.30am.

Went to Ikea last night, spent £8 in the shop, and £29 in the cafe. I was stressed by how much 'peopling' I've been having to do with the builders (I find cheerful small talk genuinely exhausting) and so i wanted to get out of the house for a bit and I also didn't have the energy to cook. 

The windows are all in and they're coming back today to do snagging. We'll still have to do 'framing' ourselves, but DH has promised he will sort that.

Our 'self-present' that I ordered before Christmas has arrived from Poland - so I'm chuffed with that. Oh, and the first of my 44p books as well.

Really must dash! Have a great day moneysavers.

PiggyBankShaker

Hag a good day at work, my energy levels stayed quite high most of the day and I didn't feel whacked when I got in. Don't know if that is my hormone levels or something but it certainly made a nice change. Back in at 9am tomorrow so I need to get a decent nights sleep tonight.

The windows fitters came and went and finished the filling and sealing. The windows look great from the outside but we need to do the framing inside ourselves so they still look very much like a work in progress. Still I'm counting it as a win though, the first of 2022 - on the house front at least.

The front path is booked in with the tiler for the first half of May - that's exciting too and the last thing that we really need a professional to do out the front, the rest - painting, gardening, making gravel path - we can do ourselves. And then that'll be our "kerb appeal'' sorted. The front garden was really REALLY awful when we moved in, just a concrete slab with random patches of tarmac and gravel and weeds all over it. Even in it's half-finished state it a hundred times better. DH built two raised beds from reclaimed sleepers and I planted one up before the autumn set it. It's be nice to do the other one in the spring.

Not much else to report - except pay day on Monday!!! Turns out from his payslip that DH's bonus might be a bit bigger than we thought, possibly £3900ish? He did tell me earlier but I've forgotten the exact figure. It's all going on the windows anyway, so we won't really see any of it. 

Right to sleep! Good night moneysavers.

savingholmes

Sounds productive. Can relate on the peopling... 

Great news on the bonus. Sounds like things are coming together in the house and garden for you now.

PiggyBankShaker

Morning campers - lovely sunny day here today, really lifts the spirits seeing nice blue skies and it feels like spring is around the corner. It's probably freezing, but as I'm not planning on going outside today I'm not really bothered.

My plan today is do a bit of cleaning and tidying, and I might change our bed too depending on how I feel. The window fitters seemed to have made a lot of dust so I'm going to concentrate on the rooms with the new windows, and the bathroom and the kitchen too. DH did clean the kitchen window when I was in work yesterday, but he is really not very good at it and it looks worse than before, with streaks all over it, so I might tackle that as well.

We've had a chat ahead of payday and agreed where our money is going. Nothing for savings or mortgage overpayments this month unfortunately because there's loads of 'special' expenditure, like the windows, path deposit, kitchen deposit and the Greece holiday. But the flip is that we don't have to take any money out of our savings either, as we expected to have to do, so that a win.

Tomorrow I have to go to the bank with my Dad to sort out his power of attorney and then I have to go in his loft and get his suitcase out. I also have several work meetings and a friend wants me to go to their house to collect some Christmas gifts she was too ill to deliver in December. I also have my annual review on Thursday, whilst I'm not dreading, it will be nice to get it over with.

Right that's everything I think. Have great day!