Pay off mortgage and start having even more fun 😁

LadyWithAPlan

Sounds like a fabulous trip and those savings are great ! 

You seen any interesting keepsakes or bracelets yet ?

newgirly

Thanks south coast 😊

Hi lady, not yet! I did buy all the girls (DD, DIL, DGD and ds2’s girlfriend some little Maltese flower stud earrings in Valletta the other day only €7 each) but nothing for me yet. If I don’t find something here I might look for something in Whitby, dh bought me a small jet necklace and earrings a few years ago which I love but don’t wear really as I wear the same set everyday now, so perhaps a jet ring or bracelet if there’s nothing here. 

Day one completed with the family, spent the afternoon in my cabin have a rest 😆 have Aunt a walking tour of the ship which took ages, mum and aunt are at low to mid levels of annoying each other so far 🤣 Today we are on a tuk tuk around split which my dad booked, it’s got warnings that it’s not suitable for people with a fear of heights, watched a few you tube videos and can’t see why so am booked on it too, it may be a huge mistake 😳 I am VERY scared of heights. I once chanced the cable car with the kids at Alton towers and was sat between them all with my head down eyes shut holding their hands crying 🤣 

This trip supposed to have given us some time to talk about the future and what we want to do, where we want to live etc. not got far with that yet really. We had a brief chat last night and not got much further on. Dh is happy to move area whereas I feel like I’ll just be coming back “home” all the time. The village where we lived years ago is lovely and near a major shopping place and 15 mins drive from home and is a bit cheaper with the sort of house we had before which I’d like again (old skinny terrace with long garden). BUT it has one shop and a pub and it’s a ten min walk to the bus stop outside the village on the main road. I would need to change doctors and my current one is the best rated in quite a wide area , others are a lot less good. I loved it there but felt isolated as young mum with two babies and a toddler, but that’s a very long time ago! Do I want to move from somewhere I can walk to my two best friends and parents and catch the bus to hospital outside the door almost? I prefer the village but I don’t know what I want! Dh would jump at the chance to move there again, but I do worry about maybe having to move back again further down the line when we are older or if once of us goes - sorry to be morbid but you never know 🤔

daisy_1571

I think its easy to get overwhelmed if you are trying to pick a house or area that will be perfect for everything and for all time going forward.   Yes theres a good chance you will need or want go move again when older or only one of you but think instead of the next ten years.  How important is walking to your two pals etc?   Until you can put some value or weighting or figure on individual things, its hard to know if one thing outweighs another, like bus stop versus the need to be in a skinny terraced house etc etc?

If you genuinely can't decide, go back to basics - why are you thinking of moving?   What would be the problem with staying put after all the work you've done on the house?  If that place/area is 'home' and has so many things going for it why not stay?   Amateur psychology alert lol  -  Is it actually that you just want a new all-consuming project to think about and to fill up all the mental energy you've needed to use on challenges and mortgage thoughts for the last ten or more years?   

You are moving into a new phase of life with kids out the house and possibly full retiral from the business that has taken up a huge amount of both your thoughts and hours of dhs life for many years - do you need to take a year and both decompress ?  See how you live when the dust has settled.   

Moving costs are not cheap  - how many holidays can you have now while you are both physically fit and young if you divert that money to holidays rather than solicitors fees and stamp duty?   Going away every 6 to 8 weeks while you get used to being retired and slowly work your way through the house decluttering and doing jobs to make the house in tip top condition would nicely fill out your first year and give dh some proper 'relaxation with structure' as he might take to it like duck to water or he might really struggle to fill the 80 or more hours a week hes used to being away out the house and with his time structured or filled with things he has to achieve or being used to reacting and firefighting at work all week?

Just some thoughts for you both to think about.  (Id say if you didn't get chatting naturally about it last week shelve it for this week.  Having the family there with the extra stress that brings plus the time you'll be with them means any discussion is likely to be shoehorned in with neither of you in the right mindset.  Enjoy doing the holiday things then talk about it once you're home again) 

Dxxx

South_coast

Daisy speaks a lot of sense (as always!)

Enjoy the rest of your trip, NG x

daisy_1571

Lol, thank you south coast xxxxx

themadvix

South_coast said:

Daisy speaks a lot of sense (as always!)

Enjoy the rest of your trip, NG x

Seconded! 😊

daisy_1571

You're making me blush ! 😆 

Dxxx

newgirly

Hi Daisy, thank you - some very wise points! 

It’s hard not to plan ahead as a worrier, a lot of what you mentioned we will try and do anyway like giving it a bit of time once they are all moved out to see how it really feels, as well as clearing out and redecorating/ doing repairs for it to be in the best condition. We might then love it more and want to stay or perhaps not 🤔

Dh will still be working but not such long hours (not sure where yet) so will have more free time hopefully but I do want it to be filled with fun stuff not more hard slog for the poor old thing 😆 plus we need to be looking properly at his early retirement plans. 

Balancing the priorities is very hard, a good gp nearby is probably one of my top wants, close to family, a garden that’s not next door a giant log cabin with a pot smoking son living in it 🤣 price wise a bit extra for costs is ok, but who wants another big mortgage again after all that hard work 😱  I don’t know, probably I just need a good old fashioned pros and cons list really. We have done lots of work but there is a lot of cosmetic work still to do or redo really, It’s got some good points and some bad, both in the house itself and the area. 

We will no doubt revisit all this at home again, things have been a bit hectic the last few days! ❤️


Very tired all of a sudden this week, not sure if I’m overdoing it! Watched a show last night which we never usually do and it wasn’t very good, then had to virtually stagger back to the cabin as I was so tired. Not ideal when we were up early for a trip to Dubrovnik today. This one bought by dd for my 50th, a stop at a nice village then the main city. Very hot and very busy and not an easy place to spend a penny as dh found out when he had to quite for a very long time (and pay) 😆 however I did take lots of photos including some of us on the Jesuit stairs - aka the “steps of shame” for any Game of Thrones fans , which I am 😬 so that was great and few of parts of “kings landing”. 

Tomorrow we are off in Corfu town, and dh has insisted he must have greek salad and mythos beer, this is something I shan’t challenge 😬

Jessy103

Sounds like you're having an amazing time NG! I would have very much enjoyed the stairs of shame 😀 x

newgirly

Hi jessy, it was good but very hot and busy as you would expect 😆

I’ve woken with I think a cold today, I’ve had a scratchy throat for days 😩 yesterday we stopped in Corfu and had salad right by the waters edge  then wandered around the town which was lovely, very evocative of days gone by when I would go to Greece alone with friends for a drinking holiday as a teenager 🤣 found a gorgeous tiny shop selling handmade and repurposed accessories and he spent a whopping €42 on a wash bag and ultra thin beach bag, they are waterproof lined which I thought was useful and hopefully long lasting. 

Off today in Taranto with my Aunt and dh, no idea what it’s like as I’ve done zero research this time 🤔