Pay off mortgage and start having even more fun 😁

themadvix

South_coast said:

P.S. I hope you're going to stick around once you're MF!

Of course she will, she's part of the furniture round here If she disappears, we should all invest in Prim4rk shares - we'll know she's fallen off the wagon without our gentle nagging 😉

The book is beautiful NG and congratulations to DS2! Fingers crossed it all goes smoothly!

You are so close now - also fingers crossed for a smooth finish before the end of the month!

newgirly

World book day makes me feel so nostalgic for when mine were little GP, I mess those days 😊

Sc is right I won’t be going anywhere, more likely start a new savings pot for moving and or emergency fund, which may well involve shares in primarni Vix  😂 


This lovely weather is making me want to get stuck into starting to sort certain areas of the house out, like ds1’s old bedroom, I may as well wait though as it’s currently the cat room and when ds2 moves I’ll use their smaller bedroom for that. Not sure what to do with the two big bedrooms though 😳 we spent so many years before the loft room desperate for more room as the boys shared and soon we will have all this space. I’m on rightmove all the time at the moment, I’m feeling like we need a change. The most sensible thing to do is probably spend some time and money getting the house looking it’s best and clearing out as much stuff (log cabin) as we can and then seeing how we feel after all of that. It seems sensible to spend some time living here just us and see how it goes. 

Off to the gym this morning, then some housework and animal feeding as ds2 and dil are in York for the weekend. Last night dh and I took ds1 to see the big lebowski at the cinema, it’s his favourite film, he’s seen it about fifty times 😆 however my new wake up time of five am everyday for no reason is making me so tired by the end of the day, so it will hopefully be an early night tonight! 

daisy_1571

The thing about the house is to stop seeing rooms as 'bedrooms' try to see them just as rooms.  If you can see it as a floorplan and link the windows to the outside world then you can use all of the rooms in ways that suit you both.  I always find it odd when people spend all their time in one room while having other rooms dressed as bedrooms and they barely go in them other to hoover and dust.  

We have a little room that catches a lot of sun so it has 3 individual chairs, a radio, some bookcases and lots of pictures on the wall.  In bright mornings we have out ten o clock cuppa and read for a while in there.  Thats that rooms purpose for the way we live.   We have a bigger living room with no TV, if friends come round we entertain there or on sunny afternoons its glorious but we have a cosier, darker north facing room upstairs where we watch TV.  I have my craft room.  Mr d has 'his' room where he has all his band memorabilia, very favourite books in a bookcase etc, a modern versionof a manly study you could say.  Are these rooms strictly necessary?   No of course not and one day we'll have to give them up and downsize.  But for the moment we use every single room in our house in our way, no 'spare room', so it works for us.

See how you feel about it once you get the space to yourselves.   You might want to move your bedroom back to the original main big bedroom and use the loft one as your craft sitting room with a kettle and radio or other music device where you can spend a few hours playing.  Maybe some gym equipment in a room someplace.   Maybe have 2 sitting rooms.  Maybe a small room could be shelved so you keep all the clutter and holiday stuff and Xmas stuff neatly stored and easily accessible.   Lots of options 

Dxxx

Ramouth

A first floor living room so that the dining table can move into the living room and you can close off the conservatory with some doors and keep the heat in?  I have no idea of your house layout so this may be a ridiculous suggestion 😂 but in my imagination you have a big lounge knocked through to a smaller dining room with conservatory off the back and kitchen to the side..

newgirly

That’s exactly the layout ramouth! 

Daisy, that’s very good advice, we do need one spare room or room that has a sofa bed perhaps as I’m sure ds1 will move to Leeds at some point and he’s already said he will be back for West Ham all the time 😆 Our box room was made into a mini library by dil last year which works really well, I might swap that and give that room to the cats (that sounds crazy I know, when our kids used to have to share 😆) so they can have their tray, beds, toys etc. out of the way. Then make one of the big bedrooms into a tv/library room. We will stay in the loft room as it’s bigger than the main bedroom. 

Things are feeling a bit stressy at home right now, the work situation is not helping so maybe I’ll try and get dh out for a walk today. He was working all weekend which he is now not as I made a fuss as I’m fed up of never seeing him plus it’s my birthday week 😁 it will do him good! 

Ds2 has a mortgage illustration so many mortgage questions including op ones have been asked, this makes me very happy as I’ve been able to give a few ideas of how much of a difference certain amounts may make if they can afford to make them. 

I hope everyone has a nice Sunday 😊

Alchemilla

So much going on for you and belated Happy Birthday!

newgirly

Thank you 😊

Well we made it for a walk out on Sunday to the seaside, went to S0uthend for the first time in years. It was quite early and we didn’t stay long but nice to get some fresh air. Other than that I’ve taken mum out and been to the gym, yesterday i made a huge pot of lentil dhal which I managed to have some of before ds2 and dil ate some and portioned up the rest for lunches 😆 dh had homemade toad in the hole with some reduced Lidl sausages from the freezer. 

Today I’m doing a bit of work for dh sewing books and later on I’m going to take best friend to see Bridget jones using my meerkat code. I might go past ds2’s flat to show her the outside, they got a mortgage offer yesterday after a bank valuation on monday, it’s moving super fast! 

I’ve suggested to best friend a couple of nights away, that was always the plan to book something instead of buying presents but due to my current situation with dhs work she said leave it. Well I got a bit of birthday money which I was going to spend on a follow up cardiologist appointment at Bart’s , but I’ve decided I want to do the trip anyway 😬 I’ll try and budget for the appointment from somewhere else in a couple of months, so I think we are looking at a hotel or air bnb in the Cotswolds. She’s offered to drive and it’s somewhere we both fancy 😊  

I’ve noticed we are getting £50 each as a bonus from n@tionwide soon, that’s great news! Apparently it’s not instead of the £100 bonus we have had each the last couple of years so hopefully that will be given this year too. You can’t beat a bit of free money! 

themadvix

Exciting times for DS2!

Cotswolds break sounds lovely - much nicer than a hospital appointment! But I think you're wise to find the money for that too as you say!

newgirly

😆 It sure does! In a way I feel like I want to avoid any possible delayed trauma from going back there 😩  but i decided on a yearly conversation with the cardiologist to be on the safe side, so I should just do it! 

Last nights film was ok, just ok really. Ds2 and I describe things as “Bridget Jones levels of busy” if we go to a film that has too many people there (we tend to dislike people in cinemas 😁) and boy was it busy last night, it was a sea of noisy popcorn eating women 😂 Best friend was wowed by the novelty of going to see an age fifteen film as she only ever goes with her ten year old, so that was a nice change for her! Free ticket for her as I used a meerkat with my pass. 

I also wasted a vast amount of time yesterday removing the nails I had done before my mini cruise, I’d wanted to keep them up but I’m a bit broke really so googled it and had a go myself, I’ll get them done again when I go away in May. So I think it was about £30 odd saved, I mean I spend zero usually on anything like that, as a rubbish “Essex girl” I do my own hair and beauty, I dread to think what it would cost nowadays to get the whole lot done if that’s just the cost of nails, I think best friend was paying about £50 a go just for eyelashes 😳

Dh had an email yesterday from the commercial agent who actually bothered to come and value the factory, it’s good news! It was being rented for years at 24k then it was put up to 30k not so long ago (he is renting it to he is evil bosses) when the lease ended as it was what we thought was below market value, they have said put it up at about £38 looking for 35k 😱. This could change things, there’s still various other costs to come from that and corporation tax etc. but I mean it’s possible to live on that if we are mf once we have cleared the car finance/ cc/ holiday balances 🙄 Dh is a bit cagey when it comes to paying money out from the rent, he likes to keep a cushion in there so may not wish to do that. I’ve already suggested that perhaps he could retire very soon and he didn’t seem keen, now it’s getting closer perhaps the thought of being at home with me is a bit scary 😂

gallygirl

That's great news NG, this could end up working out well for you!