Prosperous & Creative Soul & MFW Year 3

savingholmes

Thanks BC and Jwil

That's a good call on the rug BC thank you. Jwil - the tree buyer stood me up. Frustrating. Hopefully go to a CS today and dump it all. Had a long catch up with my parents over the house by phone yesterday. They seem excited for me. Last night I was too aggressive on the money-saving side of decluttering - I need to remember there is just me moving this time and therefore to make it as easy as possible. So maybe I contract with the removal people for the basic removals and pay my handyman for the rest if he's available - that way if he lets me down in any way I'm covered - but if he's available he can change my locks the same day etc and do other jobs. I may even take him back to go and look at the outstanding work early Jan if he's free and look at the locks at the same time so he can work out the types of lock I will need.

Cleaner should hopefully come today which will help. I was rather over-enthusiastic in getting stuff out of my wardrobe yesterday plus a couple of mini boxes tipped over and spilled their contents - so looking forward to her restoring calm in there. The other rooms still doing reasonably okay since the weekend - other than the xtree in the box in the hall that I got out for last night's buyer. Need to put that in the car to take to charity.

I've paid for the survey yesterday - but chased survey company today and they haven't had the request through yet. They close down for Xmas on 22/12 so still possible they could do before Xmas. Apparently their turnaround time varies by area so they couldn't give me a straight answer.

I may need to complete a new welcome pack in practice before the searches can be ordered so chased that. 

I'm due to have a sign off convo on my meds next then GP will prescribe them. I need to make sure they give me a big enough supply or I'll run out over the Xmas period. I think how much I've got done the last week or two reflects the clearer thinking with the return of the summer meds versus the horrible ones I was on in between. My sleep is still very haphazard though.

LadyWithAPlan

Ooh you sound v excited and focused about the new place 
I look forward to feeling like that next year 

in the removal costs I personally would not stress about the £1500 to moving everything I want moving I really love 
To have to make big furniture decisions at a time when you are moving and not living in the new property sounds like more open to rushing and possible wrong ones 

Unless  there are pieces at the new place you love or current furniture you don’t love I would be just paying the removal costs and accept them 
also what about the age and quality of your current pieces over theirs ? Often new stuff is not that great quality - the rug sounds fun though 

You may be looking to embrace change and want to leave bits of furniture behind which is a great reason but if it’s more on a one - off removal and reassemble fee I really would take my own stuff - though I am attached to my furniture 

beanielou

I never cease to be amazed by the differences in the Scottish &English system of house buying. 

In Scotland if you instruct a survey it is done almost immediately as it is done before you offer. 

EssexHebridean

I'm going to strongly suggest you use a professional moving company rather than asking the handyman to do it. he may well feel that he ought to quote you, and he may well quote more cheaply, but if it's not what he normally does, he will firstly be slower than a professional team, and secondly, he's less likely to know the tricks that they use to prevent things getting broken, for example.(He won't have - as an example - the big stash of blankets that professional removers use between items to stop things banging around in the truck) It could also then sour your relationship with him at just the time when you will really be able to find value in him being available to do what he does so well for you - the odd jobs that you can't easily tackle yourself.  Everyone assumed we would just hire a van for our move as it was such a short distance - not a flipping chance, and our removals team were worth every penny of what we paid them - they had the flat emptied inside 2.5 hours, and even better, everything was loaded into the new house in well UNDER 2 hours so we could crack on with unpacking. An absolute godsend. 

Start to think now about how you will label things too - we used arrows designating whether a box or an item was going upstairs or down, and then a room numbering system for everything aside from kitchen, bathroom & shed. In conjunction with a floorplan with the coding written on, and A4 sheets with the room numbers stuck to doorframes, the team commented how much easier it was for them than having to try to work out what people mean by front room, living room where there are several receptions, and what is one person's master bedroom is someone else's spare room. They were planning to feed it back to the office as a suggestion for others to use as it was so "as a glance easy". having your system worked out early means that once a box is packed you can just label it and forget about it. Oh - and another one on that - write at least a rough outline on the outside of the box of what is contained in it! That's a big timesaver when you're trying to organise unpacking. 

savingholmes

Thanks LWAP, EH and Beanie - there's furniture I don't want long term but might be useful in the short term.

EH - yes I agree proper movers on the main house stuff - that's what I meant by I had reconsidered overnight and realised I was being unnecessarily tight and making life harder than it needed to be. What I'm tempted to get the handyman to move are some of my garden pots and perhaps an arbour and garden furniture - and that way if it doesn't happen it's not the end of the world. He is very cheap for replacing things like locks and dismantling and reassembling and he might as well bring some stuff with him if he's coming over to do that - but I don't need to decide quite yet.

Thanks for the labelling suggestions too EH - that's a really good idea. 

My solicitor wants to charge me an indemnity related to the house (and related mortgage!!) coming to me in the divorce. I've queried it - I will see what comes back. They are also obsessed with some lights in one of the rooms and want to charge me an indemnity for them despite me saying I think they were fitted before we moved in which was before the regs came into force. If I have to pay it that's £300 in indemnities right there that I was not expecting to pay. I'm not sure whether that then resolves the boiler certificate issue or if that and then other things all need covering separately at additional cost.

They are labouring on about me fixing the gas fire - to which I've counter offered some furniture instead as I don't want to fix the fire. It was made safe a year ago.

In better news I got a voucher from work this week, my back pay to April  and a December increment comes on Friday so I'm relatively quids in, My pay increase is a few hundred more than expected too (over the year) which was a bonus - which I was very excited about before I read potential indemnity costs above. However trying to see the bigger picture - a bit like the divorce fees - one off costs - long term gain. It is lovely to get such a big lump sum just before Xmas.

I'm going to carry over a CC balance into payday rather than part paying some now - but can clear it all Friday - including my new survey fee and still save the £800 next pay period I had planned before changing my house purchase choice. That excludes any moving related fees - which are part move date dependent - and partly due to come from equity and part from savings. 

Once my payslip came I got distracted in a very MSE spreadsheet geeky way - while I recalculated what it would mean. There's something I need to finish for work - but it needs focus and I got interrupted by colleagues too much today to focus on that. I may get up early tomorrow and do it instead.

Blackcats

How nice to get your pay rise and back pay.  Of course you should have been benefitting from the pay rise in your pay packet for several months already but at least you've got it now and a chunk of money at this time is very welcome!

savingholmes

My meds review this morning went well but I've been advised to ring around GP practices to see if they would accept a shared care option as they have the right to refuse. The costs would otherwise be in the region of £130 per private prescription for 3-12 months!! Cue rabbit in the headlights look. I could afford it but it would sacrifice my savings plans.

My cleaner was still unwell today. I'm so glad I sent her home the other week as it turned out she was contagious and I had a lucky escape. I gave her 'lighter' duties today - so she dropped the stuff off at the charity shop for me (there's a trolley there) and a car park among other things - so that saved me a job.

I have 3 excess bin bags I need to either squeeze into the neighbours bin or take to the tip - as I also have an electronics item to take. Also need to take old batteries somewhere safe. Came across 4 or 5 phones in my decluttering but not done anything with them yet.

Struggling to warm up today. Might be lack of sleep & dehydration. I need to drink more. Had the heating on pretty much all day. I didn't do any more work this evening - as that could compromise sleep further. I've replied to some legal and EA emails. The latter were all in my junk folder. The mortgage company has requested the valuation so I'm hoping I'll find out quickly if there are insurmountable issues.

My boiler guy came up trumps. Loyalty pays. A replacement certificate is on its way. Will see exactly what it is when it arrives. I am extremely relieved about that. Not sure if that is also the guarantee or if I still need to chase that separately. 

I got my annual mortgage statement today - for the mortgage year to the 30/11 I'd repaid £7912 off the capital - roughly a £500 improvement compared with year one. 

MovingForwards

Great news about your pay and backdate.

As your new property is cheaper than the original one, is it worth potentially souring relations with your buyers when they've been patient? Of course you can say no, stand your ground and reiterate the age of work, after checking what you wrote in your sellers pack. However, having substantial 'spare' money for your EF, is it really an expense or are you miffed. Could you make cutbacks elsewhere to recoup the money or are you saving in some areas with your new home.

savingholmes

MovingForwards said:

Great news about your pay and backdate.

As your new property is cheaper than the original one, is it worth potentially souring relations with your buyers when they've been patient? Of course you can say no, stand your ground and reiterate the age of work, after checking what you wrote in your sellers pack. However, having substantial 'spare' money for your EF, is it really an expense or are you miffed. Could you make cutbacks elsewhere to recoup the money or are you saving in some areas with your new home.

Hi MF - I don't mind the £50-60 indemnity - but the reason given was wrong if that makes sense. Very ASD of me probably so I don't mind you bringing it up.  I do mind the solicitor trying to make me sign up to an indemnity just because I took on the mortgage and bought Ex out. I think someone has misunderstood something. Either me in how I answered a question or them in how they interpreted what I wrote. That part was due to be around £240.
  
I don't want to fix the gas fire as that could cost £250-500 plus upheaval and there's no guarantee what I choose would fit or that I could get it fitted in time. While the part would only cost about £20 - the issue is that you have to know the make and model to get the right part - and I don't nor does the engineer as I already asked. I've suggested to the solicitor that she offer them some of the furniture they asked for a price on in lieu of that so will see what happens there.

savingholmes

Slept a bit better last night although unsurprisingly I woke up thinking about everything house related. Ultra relieved about the boiler certificate. Really hope they fit in my survey on the new house before Xmas. I may chase again today by ringing the surveyors directly.

I cleaned my garage fridge freezer and drawers etc over the last few days. I need to finish mopping up a pool of water at the bottom and then list it. Need to keep looking at other garage items I could list.

I've spotted a bench and coat rack for £80 in the Rnge online that I'd be interested in for the new house. Ideally I need to find one that has it and see if it has any weight limits. I will resist buying it ahead of the move though.

So pleased that my pay is going up more than expected too by close to £400 per year. It will make my AVC plans easier. It will be very weird the first month of payments though. I checked my pensions again. One I moved to Vgd in Sept has improved significantly already and is almost back to where that fund was in Sept 21. It had suffered a lot at Av**a. My Vgd AVC one is up (growth) £400-500 since I took it out 14 months ago. It does go up and down but it was a nice boost to see that yesterday. I'm only counting what I contribute in my signature - as otherwise it would be a bit soul destroying on the months it goes down.

On a total countdown to Xmas. Still debating whether to use any more leave to extend my break.