Prosperous soul, mortgage neutrality & creativity Year 2

savingholmes

That house also needs the existing decking and rail removing - but I'd be tempted to put patio and a new retaining wall down instead as I hate decking - it's too slippy - unless I bought composite stuff which tends to be dear. The more expensive house also needed something doing with the garden so although it was in a better state there were still issues with it.

TallGirl

All sounding very positive will be interesting to see the other cheaper house and see how much damage their might be. You can do everything in one go (I did) or take your time live there and do room by room. Only problem with that is if you need big stuff doing like rewiring and plumbing. I did both as there was no enough plugs and it was quite bodged to start with. It is nice to be able to do it all to your taste but I right now materials are super expensive mine was all done just before Covid. I do wish I had been able to live here a bit longer before I did it all as I might have made some different choices. As long as it is livable it is not too bad however working around furniture etc is a big pain. 

On a side note it does sound like your ideal location would be better suited to you post retirement in terms of travel to work. You would have more time to visit family so it would not be as bad with the distance. I am sure you will find the right one in the meantime I enjoy reading your thoughts. 

LadyWithAPlan

This all sounds like you are having fun weighing up pros and cons and at least you have some nice choices 
I need to get back out and start viewing again but it takes so much time and I think financially I want another £30k in savings first . 

badmemory

I would be careful of downsizing too much.  I went from a 5 to a 3 bed & it took me years to get used to it even though we went down from 4 to 2 people.

savingholmes

Thanks TallGirl, BM and LWAP

I've asked if I can change my viewing to tomorrow afternoon but they haven't come back to me. I've booked the afternoon off anyway.

I'd had a 3 day gap in meds over the weekend - other than the very small tablet Sunday - and ended up pretty much unable to sleep all night having taken the proper doses yesterday. So frustrated!! My feet were like blocks of ice earlier - ended up putting my trainers on inside and a slanket/hoodie to warm up and the heating on. That wasn't enough so put elec blanket on too and in the end was suddenly boiling. I might see if I have any tests lying around and do one and just check I'm not fighting off illness.

I think that house could work for me - as long as the issues/main desirables cost less than £50K to resolve. On paper it claims to have a similar footprint to this house - but in my experience they all lie!! The EPC tends to be the most accurate and that says its 107m2 vs 123m2 here. So down but not as far as some of the other properties I've considered. If I do have to spend up to £50K - I won't have as big an EF and may not be able to put as much into pension - but I was looking at the pension gross figure excluding the tax benefit so may work out there or there abouts by the time I consider the tax refund.

If I bought a doer upper - I potentially have a friends and family I could stay with during the works - potentially interspersed with cottages / b&b or equivalent as needed. I'd want to get as much done as possible in one go I think rather than have it drag on. If I thought I was going down that route though - I'd need to let more of this house's contents go rather than store it but most of it can be re-bought on FB cheaply enough if desired later. I'd already said even at £1.5K very little of what I'd want to keep would merit that kind of removal cost so I may be able to get that down further yet. I'm most attached to my bed and bedroom furniture, my work chair, DS's bed as it's relatively new, possibly my main chair as it was expensive originally although I've slightly broken the reclining mechanism, 2 glass desktops. My art work, journals, some bedding, a few mini tables. Lamps (most of which can collapse down). Dining chairs.

My head was buzzing with all of this all night!

EssexHebridean

You can get non slip stuff for decking I think - so that could be worth looking at.

I'd echo the thing of being cautious about downsizing too much too. Having just moved from a 2 bed flat to a three bed house with a footprint of double the size, we have been truly astonished how much room our "stuff" takes up. I think when you've lived somewhere for a bit you "absorb" things a bit into your way of living - so you have the storage solutions that suit, you have the way of packing those solutions "just right" so the stuff in them takes up as little room as possible. We were expecting our "stuff" to feel insignificant in the far larger house, with far more storage on the face of it - but in fact we've almost struggled to find space for some things! decluttering because you want to is one thing - decluttering because you are forced to - because you are then in a property that simply doesn't have room for all the thigs you have is rather different I suspect. Not least as it would potentially result in being forced to let go of things that actually you really want to keep! 

WelshmansDaughter

I had so much to get rid of that I did just get rid of anything that I could. It has meant that now I am missing things that I could have a use for (scythette would have been very handy) but honestly I don't regret it at all. It makes me more likely to use stuff I already have, get a bit inventive and has taught me the value of planning.
The Minimalists have a rule, if it costs less than $20 to replace if you need it, get rid of it. 

savingholmes

Thanks EH and WD

I'm going to look at the 3 bed £225K house tomorrow. I've booked the afternoon off as flexi. The weather is due to be rainy but in it's own way it's good to see it in different weathers - challenges the romance of the idea. The viewing is about working out how badly trashed or otherwise it is and how much of my reno money would be sucked into must haves rather than desirables. I therefore want to be super awkward and test multiple windows and doors - as the neighbour alleged some were falling out and it would be good to know if that's an exaggeration and whether it is worth buying with the level of issues it may have. If I like it I may offer on it tomorrow - as I've already worked out what I'd like to do to it. 

It's in a dreamy location with stunning views. Major hospital is 20 miles away but there's a minor injuries unit, GP etc. It will make travelling anywhere more difficult - but I do very little of that in practice. I used the loo of the nearby leisure centre at the weekend!!! So I know the house is within a mile or two of a pool and gym if I felt so inclined. The local high school is also nearby and does adult education classes. There's a nice little town, a choice of supermarkets including Ald1 and BnM as well as 2 of the big 4.

BM & EH - Size wise its 15% smaller than this - but that's a lot better than some of the others I've looked at. I use about 60% of my house now the kids have left - basically all of downstairs plus my bedroom. Tomorrow's house is a split level one so slightly bigger on top than bottom - and has the best views on the top floor but decent ones from the downstairs back bedrooms too. There's a garage if I ever wanted to convert it - but there's also straight stairs that look like they'd be easy to add a stair lift to if that was a requirement in later life. If I went for tomorrow's house I'd dedicate one of the back rooms to art. I'd move the walls to make the other back bedroom bigger ideally and make that my room so I get the view in the morning. I'm not sure my superking would fit without some wall changes - especially if I want to face the views. It already has an unnecessarily large ensuite - so hoping to nick some space from that and possibly move a door. I'd potentially make that ensuite a wet room - but was considering that for any next house anyway as it would be easier for me.

I know for some of the other houses I've said I don't want work - but that's partly because they were near or above the top of my budget. In this case I like the idea of for the first time ever having money up front to make a house how I'd like and not having to compromise to fit others' tastes. I accept I could be being very naive. I see it as an extension of exploring what I really want in life. The trick will be deciding whether to do all the work upfront (if I go for it) versus staging it. 

It's the difficulty of storage and physically moving stuff EH that puts me off keeping stuff - as all the flooring needs to be replaced - and before that I want to move some walls and increase the window sizes. I could store some stuff in my garage and any unused bedrooms but need to consider what my priorities are. I won't have a spare pair of hands to help me move stuff once I move unless I make a special arrangement. Everything will need that bit more planning.

WD & EH - of the furniture in my living room a bureau was £20 and a table £5 on FB - so it's that debate of effort of keeping it versus potential joy of buying new/different later. I have an L-shaped sofa - probably 15-17 years old - but unless it fit in the conservatory (in which case it would probably drown the space) - the L is on the wrong side for the lounge. So I may need to thank and release it. My recliner isn't very old - but I haven't been kind to it. I've kept catching the electronic recliner function on the edge of a metal laptop table and the mechanism is protesting. Most of my other furniture is from the Swedish shop and readily available on FB. Quite a bit was bought cheaply there post divorce anyway.

savingholmes

I've done a few different budgets - and different versions of pension contribution plans. It's amazing how much money we lose in tax and therefore how much we still keep even if we significantly up pension contributions. I would have increased my pension contributions earlier this year - but because I want to build my EF/moving fund and didn't want to scare the mortgage company off I have delayed.

It was such a revelation to find out (post divorce) that I can have a 100% tax free AVC fund provided it's no more than 25% of my main pension and AVC pot combined. I was playing with salary calculators and spreadsheets in the middle of the night when I couldn't sleep - and finished work early. I've been stuttering with stress and brain freeze recently - so trying to be a little kinder to myself. 

I have also done an early retirement budget for if I stayed here versus moving. It might be doable but it would be harder.

I'd have to proactively change my cleaner's hours for example - and although I could do that due to a move out of area, I'm struggling to do that if I'm staying here. She's company for me as well and I will miss her. I probably would have a cleaner when I move - but for a shorter period each week - or maybe even fortnightly. On my cleaner therefore my costs could be £50-100 a month instead of closer to £200. So perhaps save £1.2K there. I'd also probably get the construction work sorted first - so I'd have a few months of saving that cost - although that might be redirected to extra travel costs or temp accommodation costs.

I'm expecting my energy bills to go down as its smaller and its EPC is comparable to or better than mine. Perhaps £25pcm but it all helps (£300 per year). C Tax is also due to be lower - perhaps £40 pcm (£480 per year). Because I'd be paying off around £17K of my mortgage to hit the 75% LTV - my mortgage would drop too (I'd redirect the monthly savings to AVCs). I currently OP £20 which I may stop - and it would drop at least £90 anyway - so I'd save £110 just there. (£1310 per year). 

That's £3.3K in annual reduced costs just there. That's without investigating insurance or anything like that (which TBH could go either way). Over the remaining 20 year life of my mortgage - that would equate to £66K! Well that's the business case approved.... 

Just need to make sure the risks don't outweigh the benefits... 

savingholmes

WelshmansDaughter said:

I had so much to get rid of that I did just get rid of anything that I could. It has meant that now I am missing things that I could have a use for (scythette would have been very handy) but honestly I don't regret it at all. It makes me more likely to use stuff I already have, get a bit inventive and has taught me the value of planning.
The Minimalists have a rule, if it costs less than $20 to replace if you need it, get rid of it. 

I'm really impressed with how much you've let go. You like me have come so far with that in the last year or two.