Five Year Fix, Five Year Plan

Merlin's_Beard

For the kitchen, which has french doors, I want something bright, with large block of colour, green and leafy. Especially as everything put into the kitchen area (kitchen units/floor) are going to be very grey and neutral and "basic range from the housing developer"-ish

But fashion dictates that what's available is either delicate leafy and beige, or bold and blocky and ochre, or has a big old poppy right in the middle of it. Hopefully the ones I've ordered off ebay will be true to colour.

I will say this about ochre though, the more you look at it, the more it inserts itself into my mind as good for the living room... 

Basically I've been renting in a variety of neutral coloured rooms for about 10 years and I'm ready to stick some colour onto everything.

savingholmes

I have ochre, grey and white curtains in my living room -stripes - very restful 

Merlin's_Beard

Curtains have arrived and I'm happy with them. More muted than I originally thought I'd go for, but I like them so that's all  that matters. Much rejoicing up and down the land (mainly of relief).

Ordered some curtains (ochre, grey, and something that looks like white but may be oatmeal-y) for the living room just now, will cross fingers that they are also okay, and then that's the whole of downstairs done.

Financial update for the end of the month:

£113 from surveys - pretty good! I've been trying to sit on prolific when I'm in the house and it's showing. £33 from prolific and the rest from job-specific surveys, which tend to have a higher pay rate but be rarer (I got very lucky this month in how many of those I got and how fast I could jump on limited places)

£123 from interest - most of this is from my LISA, so goodbye to payouts like that from interest after this month but it's very helpful right now.

Between the two of them I've (probably) paid for all the curtains and blinds I'm aiming to have sorted by move in date without touching salary at all, so I'm well chuffed with that.

My petrol spend this month is double what I budget for it - but I had two weeks off so have been bombing up and down the country seeing people.

My food spend is down, mostly because I'm trying to empty my cupboards/fridge/freezer before they get hauled across the village, partly because I've been turning up at friends houses and letting them feed me.

Sadly but unsurprisingly, the last two do not balance out 

Also received - in the interests of full disclosure - £2000 from my parents to help with all the house stuff. For various reasons, I'm treating this as a loan at the minute and not really counting it.

savingholmes

Things seem to be going well

Merlin's_Beard

Things are going okay savingholmes! Curtains for the living room are here and sorted and fine!

Also been to finalise flooring quote and choices. A huge chunk of money, but at least I can now wiggle my YNAB pots around and know exactly what I've got left. Having organised YNAB pots just makes me feel better.

Only sort-before-moving expenses I've got left is the snagging survey, some blinds, curtains for whichever bedroom I move into.

And then back into the whole solicitor/developer thing. Solicitor offered July 28th as a completion date at exchange. Sales department of the developer says they hadn't authorised that, were expecting to exchange with completion on notice, but still on track to exchange in July. Exchanged with July 28th anyway.

Sales department now saying that they give 4 weeks (ish) notice to completion with a more formal 7-10 days solicitor notice, do not know when I am completing, have raised it with site team. As yet no reply yet (have just chased them up).

I hope everyone else finds that as confusing as I do, because I do not understand what is going on or when I am getting this house. More importantly, I do not know whether I can give notice on my rented flat and if I go past the 17th I'm then paying both rent and mortgage in August :eek:

killerpeaty

That is very confusing. I don't know much about new builds, can you speak with your solicitor about it?

Glad you got your curtains! But ouch on the petrol, maybe a few more meals at friends next month.

Cornish_mum

Good luck with the exchange, so confusing and stressful, I hope it all gets sorted out soon CM

Merlin's_Beard

killerpeaty said:

That is very confusing. I don't know much about new builds, can you speak with your solicitor about it?

Glad you got your curtains! But ouch on the petrol, maybe a few more meals at friends next month.

Apparently the sales team are having a meeting with managers and site tomorrow, and should be able to tell me more. I don't think solicitors can help at this point - if the house isn't finished and connected to mains and checked by NHBC then it can't get sold to me.

However I do know who my next door neighbours will be by random chance, and they've just been told end of August after the sales team aggressively pushed July at them, so frustratingly I feel like mine will be pushed back too.

@Cornish_mum stressful and confusing is about right! I'm a FTB buying from a developer - this is meant to be the easy way!

If everything does get pushed back, I'll try and look on the side of having another month to save before I have to pay out my entire life savings I guess.

killerpeaty

But if your contract says a date then it becomes breach of contract and the wronged party (you) can sue. Your solicitor would be able to let you know your rights, then you might be able to wrangle some stuff out of the developer by not suing. 

South_coast

Your solicitor will be able to clarify whether you exchanged on notice or on a fixed date. It will definitely be one or the other, those are the only two options