Learning to walk before I run

edinburgher

@L9XSS - we got ahead of ourselves - popped the champagne the day the builders finished!

We are now home and it has been incredibly tough going. As well as bringing back what felt like half of everything that we own from the inlaws, we had to pack it away again, move and assemble storage options in several rooms and make countless trips up and downstairs in our now 3 level home. For a few days I was averaging c. 200 flights of stairs a day. We are now completely exhausted, but have packed everything away, have got DD1 up to her new bedroom and have just about got rid of the mammoth loads of rubbish and recycling generated during the process.

There have been countless spends on items large and small, as it's all new furniture (bar the bed) in the attic bedroom, various items needed replaced and have been re-purposed elsewhere in the house (for example storage units), meaning that DD2 would need replacements for what is now her bedroom (well, give it a couple of months as she's only a baby) We've also picked up a few cheap but good quality spends that we've put off for a long time, but which will add real quality of life improvements (for example, proper water glasses and coffee cups from IK3A that are the right size and can also be bunged in the dishwasher). Last but not least, the builders took down several window coverings that were in too poor condition to be rescued, or were damaged by the cackhanded manner in which they did so. We've taken the opportunity to replace these with nice made to measure recessed blackout blinds, which should swank the place up no end

I'm not going to lie, we have definitely gone over budget and have a likely negative "walking around" NW of high £,£££. We will, however, get by and I have called time on using CCs to fund all extension/home maintenance spends. I've also started the no doubt painful process of paying off the CCs with a payment of £81.05 to the largest card (1% of the balance).

We will need to screw the nut and will commence doing so once we get back from a short break at the end of October. I've started selling our old bean to cup coffee machine on Edward Bay (passed £100 within a day) and have 5-6 bottles of whisky that I'm going to enquire about auctioning tomorrow morning (perhaps £500 or so). We will also have a negative energy bill for October, as we paid estimated rates last month despite not being in the house and will get the £66 from the gummint.

Apart from the annoying unfinished stairs, the house looks fantastic, very much the calm, plain yet classy space we have hankered after for so long.

£8.52 paid into my SIPP (£10.65 after tax relief, or £3 if Liz Truss announces any more policy decisions) 

Cheery_Daff

So pleased you are in, and that you have the space you wanted (aside from the stairs 🙄). What a celebration! I hope your trips to the tip etc are now over and done with. Fortunately I imagine you've learned plenty after many years on here and those credit cards will be gone in no time at all! 😊😊

killerpeaty

I'm so glad you've got the house back. It sounds like a horribly stressful time but it's all worth it now.

savingholmes

I am sure long term your investment will add tremendous value. Right now enjoy it. 

I am sure you will soon get on top of the money side of things. You seem to go full on when you put your mind to something. 

edinburgher

Planning a fairly quiet day - quick trip to the supermarket (DD1 out of drawing paper), drop off some items we took from inlaws to help us move, remove botched flooring from 2 steps in anticipation of IK3A delivery coming tomorrow and clean the tumble dryer. Family all hale and hearty (if a little sleep deprived).

£80.24 paid off largest CC (1% of total) - will be down to £7x's tomorrow

L9XSS

Interesting Ed I have some Whisky that I have been collecting, I follow the whisky auction site and have bought off here to. It’s nice to see it appreciate as I only took an interest about 8 years ago......Back to normality for you now that the house renovations, improvements have been completed. Time to enjoy it now with your family.

greent

Glad o hear that you're back home  

edinburgher

In retrospect, it's only 4 bottles of whisky! May buy it "off myself" and just drink it, as not sure I CBA shipping 4 bottles. Would need to be over the course of a year or so, as still quite expensive stuff...

£79.43 paid off CC1 (1% of total).

Keeping my eye out for surveys today, as Prolific funds are almost entirely exhausted and I like to keep a wee "bank" of studies that are still to pay out sitting in the background. Still, I have made c. £345 in 3 months

savingholmes

Pretty good going on the surveys.

At that price I'd want to sell the whiskies...

edinburgher

@savingholmes - they definitely have value. If I buy them off myself I would pay the full market value for the bottles from my personal spends account, so the household finances would still benefit.