10 years to clear £334K - our FIRE journey

greenbee

Delurking to say that for east facing I like Dulux Cornish Clay. It’s a neutral which is green in east light, but also looks good at other times of day. I’m considering using it in my north-facing living room which also has east and west windows. It’s warm and light. 

For an east-facing bedroom that gets practically no light at any time of day/year I’m considering Dulux Wild Primrose.

It feels as if I’ve only just stopped choosing colours for the old house and now have to start all over again. I just wish I could remember some of the colour combinations from the old house - I tend to remember the wall colours but not the ones used on the woodwork. 

CCW007

Thanks Greenbee, I like both of those! Wild primrose is the sort of colour I had imagined.

Our living room is natural Hessian which I really like. It's also east facing and only has the bay window, no window at the back which makes the room quite dark in the afternoons and evenings.

KajiKita

Fwiw, we had a yellow like that on the walls in our kitchen. It was good quality paint but even so, over time it faded down to something horribly sharp and acid. (I think paler shades of pigments are inherently less stable.) I wanted a warm bright colour in the dining room - two small windows, east and west facing, so used a warmer, richer, slightly more orange yellow. That’s standing up really well so far. 

KK 

greenbee

CCW007 said:

Thanks Greenbee, I like both of those! Wild primrose is the sort of colour I had imagined.

Our living room is natural Hessian which I really like. It's also east facing and only has the bay window, no window at the back which makes the room quite dark in the afternoons and evenings.

The other combination I like is natural calico (grey based cream, which means it doesn't impact on other colours in the room) with Egyptian cotton woodwork (I like my woodwork to be a darker version of the walls or a contrasting colour rather than white). 

savingholmes

Good luck with your paint choices.

Very ambitious to strip out the room just before Xmas. I bet it will be worth it when it's all in and finished though.

Happy New Year.

remote_control

Ooo I love Natural Hessian 

CCW007

Ambitious = crazy I've come to realise! Even talking about it, we didn't realise how much work we have to do before the room.is replastered. Then it will be putting all the furniture back in until we get a new fitted kitchen some time next year. It will be worth it in the end!

Yesterday's task was to move the dresser back out the utility where we had recently moved it. Our plan to move the consumer unit from under the bathroom to the originally planned location was thwarted by logistics so we have a new plan but it is going exactly where the dresser was moved to!

Got more furniture tetris later today when we have to swap two more side boards over as the long one won't go where the dresser was - all good fun!

Spent Christmas day wiring in a new socket at the bottom of the stairs so we finally removed the "temporary" extension cable (almost nine years!) that the router plugs into.

Spendy month on the credit card due to car and home insurance renewals. Also planning today / tomorrow to convert our monthly gym membership to annual to avoid huge hike so that will be a big chunk. Otherwise spends are not too bad.

Got payslip and backdated pay is around £750 which is fab, must have miscalculated tax and NI though or maybe I counted an extra month as pay rise was applied last month so maybe I counted that in the backdated pay. Anyway, very happy with that.

Got to see OHs family boxing day and seeing my family this weekend.  Working these thre days before new year as most of the team is off and I had the week before Christmas off instead.

KajiKita

We *never* realise how much work (or cost!) is involved in a project before we start it here, so you aren’t alone! 😉 (Mr KK wants to redo the bathroom - I have told him firmly that we need to cost it fully, including his and plumber’s labour before I will even consider it). 

👏 Yaay for the new socket - jobs like that, that have been ‘looking at you’ for ages before they get done are sooo satisfying 😊🎉

Excellent news on the back pay - instant contingency fund for the kitchen 😊

Enjoy what’s left of your break 😊

KK

savingholmes

It sounds like it is coming together.  Have a good break when you are finally off again.

CCW007

My diary seems to be more about refurbishing my house than paying off the mortgage but the two are linked!

I was thinking about this last night and didn't want to monopolise KK's diary so thought I'd document it here.

The kitchen is being plastered mid January.  We are going to need to rip up the laminate in there and remove all the skirting so after plastering we will need to replace the skirting and flooring. We have a new rad to fit as well.

Then the free standing furniture will move back in until we get a fitted kitchen - I have contacted a couple of local fitters and one is coming out this morning to have a look.

When we moved in there was an old Wilex (?) Domino fuse board which we replaced with a modern fuse board in the same location.  The fuse board is under the bathroom which is really not ideal so we will be moving it before the kitchen is plastered.  Once the kitchen is rewired, all the downstairs will have been rewired and one bedroom which is on a ring which can be expanded as we do each of the other bedrooms so that will be the wiring completely done.

The bathroom used to have "Jack and Jill" doors from both the main bedroom and the hallway.  When we rewired and plastered in the main bedroom, we blocked up the original door to the bathroom and had the plasterer create a new door frame further along the wall (where the bath currently is).  The bathroom is large and there is loads of wasted space plus there is a huge airing cupboard and long hallway with window outside the bathroom which is also all wasted.  The plan is to split the bathroom into two with an en-suite shower room using the new doorframe and a family bathroom incorporating the airing cupboard (reduced down to what is actually needed) and the hallway with window for ventilation. 

However this needs to wait until we sort out the utility / entrance hall, which currently has a downstairs loo.  We want to reduce the size of the utility area and make the downstairs loo into a wet room.  This will be great for hosing down the dogs and I think will make the house more saleable as there is a second reception downstairs which OH uses as his offices which could easily be converted to a bedroom along with having a wet room on the ground floor for accessibility.  So wet room first so we have facilities before we strip out the bathroom and convert it.

The main bedroom needs skirting and door frames fitted, new carpet laid (I can do this), new rad plumbed in and decorating before we can move in.  Ideally need new furniture too.

Then we have the other three bedrooms to rewire then plaster / carpet / decorate.

All the windows need replacing at some point in the near future.  They are double glazed but old so no trickle vents and a couple are clouding up.

The porch at the front of the house (not used as an entrance but is useful storage and tumble dryer lives there) is falling down and needs rebuilding (or removing but we would need to find other space for what's in there).

Some of the render on the outside of the house is blown and needs to be replaced and this will be a major job.  

The frame of the conservatory (more of a boot room and where the dogs sleep) is collapsing and we need to decide what to do.  It's 5m x 1.5m so no chance of getting a second hand one that size so we could increase the footprint to make it more usable, get rid completely, add an orangery to have a room which is usable all year round or (OH's preference) extend with a view to increase the value when we sell.  Realistically, we are here until our fixed rate ends in 2032 so we do need to think about what will work for us as well as what will make the house more saleable.

But on the positive side, since we have been here we have:

- Renovated what was a very damp store room and made it into OH's office which no longer has damp issues
- Refurbed the living room, installed a wood burner, oak flooring
- Completely replaced the roof, swapping concrete tiles for slate
- Rewired, plastered main bedroom
- New boiler and oil tank
- New rads in office and living room

Sorry for the incredibly long post but it's very useful for me to get this down - I'm sure there is more to be done and more that we have done.  We really didn't appreciate how much of a project this house would be and that it's not easy to do whilst living in the house whilst the work is being done!