Prosperous & Creative Soul & MFW Year 3

jwil

TallGirl said:

Really pleased the roof repair is going well there are always unexpected costs. You are meant to help this house along after the bodger before you. I had to do the same in my house everything was just at the end of its life or bodged badly. Not sure how people can live like that. As Sandy says maybe it just becomes too much or they are plain lazy.

Everything in our house is at the end of it's life.  We don't have the skills to do it ourselves, and don't have the money to do it all at once.  It's not about laziness and it can be very overwhelming and difficult trying to find tradespeople. Sometimes you just have to live like that.

There are definitely people out there who think they can do it all themselves though and probably shouldn't be!

savingholmes

Thanks Jwil, KK, BM, TG, EH, Merlin, Sandy and Lucielle

I am very grateful I didn't sink all my equity into my mortgage - as knowing I am able to pay for these repairs and other repairs and home improvement is helping with the anxiety of the spend. For me just having a roofer here is a little overwhelming at times due to the constant noise from him cutting, hammering or jemmying things off the house! He upsold me something yesterday which is another £200. I think one of the other things I find difficult is that you are completely in the tradesperson's hands and just hoping they are professional and have a good work ethic and aren't taking you for a ride. 

Thankfully this guy seems nice and works hard. What he's done so far looks good - but it started to rain yesterday and it is raining today - and he hates the rain - and it slowed him down compared to where he hoped to be by this point. He also said the supplier hadn't delivered everything he'd ordered so he had to wait for some things until today. My fascia board are done apart from one strip on the garage where he didn't quite have enough. My guttering is part done. He still has the roof to fix and then will do the pointing tomorrow and Friday.

For me every time I have to spend money on repairs I question whether I was too gungho in my decision to buy the house - but I think I just have been spoiled by new or nearly new houses in the past. All houses need repair and maintenance. I was helped with that yesterday by a friend posting a video of a house they are gutting and planning to spend £100K on doing it up. In comparison what I'm doing is miniscule. 

While it is irritating the handyman didn't come this week as planned - I doubt I would have coped with two sources of noise and disruption so it is probably just as well that has effectively been moved to another week. It also delays some of my spend.

I'm still debating what to do about the flooring. I think eventually I will screed the floor and get new flooring laid - but it is whether to try and see if the flooring company will let me move the cost on to a different card and continue delaying - and also whether I need to explore other options for the type of flooring. I'm also debating getting other quotes for work - such as finding out what the garage would cost to convert properly etc - but feel it would be a health and safety hazard to have others here quoting this week - and I don't want to risk ratcheting up cost by exposing that I have other £ to spend. My house looks so much better with new guttering and fascias. He's currently fitting the garage part in front of me.

Right - I'd best log on to work and get cracking. I've used half a day's leave this week though to cushion my hours and am currently in credit as I worked relatively late Monday and Tuesday which helped compensate for starting late.

I made art (collage papers) all evening yesterday while listening to a story. I need to work out how I can best use them and not just keep generating more. 

Fortune_Smiles

I don't think you were gungho in the decision to buy the house SH.  It ticked lots of things on your list of needs and wants and there is always a compromise to make with these things.  We had lots of anticipated and unanticipated costs when we moved to the Fortunate Homestead - some of them quite scary 😲

I feel your pain regarding tradesmen.  All you can do is get recommendations and give them a try.  Some of ours have been marvellous and definitely keepers,  I'm not great with the disruption either.

It's a journey and you'll get there.  You have time and just think of how lovely it will all be once the work is done.

Fortune x

EssexHebridean

We "lived with" a lot of stuff when we bought the flat - mainly due to necessity, or rather a combination of necessity (no money), things being OK, or better than in our rented flat (carpets and the kitchen, notably) or just "they'll do for now" - the bathroom. Then of course when we started getting things underway with attempting to clear the mortgage early and really starting to look at the mortgage as debt, that turned into "we don't want to get stuff done until the mortgage is gone" - particularly the big stuff. We're in a similar position to jwil in that we're not great diy'ers - I'm sure there are lots of tasks we can learn to do - the final push to get the flat on the market showed us that - but we don't much enjoy it, and so we choose to take the view that there are others who earn their livings doing such jobs, so we can employ them... I also completely "get" the anxiety around putting yourself in the hands of a tradesperson - we've been unlucky in some aspects on that (builder who did the bathroom proved flaky - with hindsight we should have binned him off once that was done but instead we went ahead and used him for the kitchen as well, at which point he'd decided we were easy pickings and had us over) but also found some real gems - the guy who did our hallway flooring in the flat was absolutely brilliant and I would use him again in a heartbeat. There is such a lot of trust involved though - it really is a challenge! 

DaisyCheerings

It sounds like your new home is really coming along.  I sank through a huge amount of money when I first moved in and my house still needs so much more doing to it.  I think it's just the nature of us choosing houses for reasons other than a perfect build.  I love where I live and I love the house, and that was my priority and the spending can happen when you want it to, once you have the urgent tasks ticked off.  You sound like you're doing a great job though, even though it's obviously overwhelming. 

Blackcats

Well done on getting the work on the roof done.  That's a huge ✅ for an important job to be prioritised.
sounds like you've got some friendly neighbours which is lovely.

jwil

It's great that you can see improvements already.  I don't think you've been to gung ho.  The stuff you are doing now will last for years and ensure the house is more comfortable and water tight. Once the disruption of the work is done you'll be able to really enjoy your new location and views!

Merlin's_Beard

I think whatever house you'd bought there would have been issues, because every house comes with issues that people have just learned to live with, or that bother you more than it did them.

Even brand new houses come with snagging issues, and they definitely don't come with the garden or view that you wanted!

savingholmes

Thanks FS, EH, Jwil, Blackcats, Merlin and Daisy for the reassurance.

The guttering and fascias are now done and today he moved on to the roof membrane and batton work. He was originally going to just do a 1m strip each side but he showed me photos at lunchtime of what my roof looks like beyond that - and said there were even some random holes in the felt. Upshot - he recommended stripping the lot and relaying. He suggested another £3.6K for that if I wanted to go ahead. I talked to my sis - but the reality is that the surveyor had said it might be needed as had a different roofer - so it felt legit - so the real question was the cost. I nudged him down £600. But the job that started the week at 3 days for £4.2K is now costing £9.2K with the extra roof work and repointing and will likely carry on into the weekend. He showed me photos. 

What he's done so far has transformed the house and it was essential. As my sis said - the roof would have been part of what I wanted an EF for so it is what it is. He left slightly earlier today - and is trying to get someone to help him so he can speed up tomorrow and Friday. I talked to a neighbour briefly who is going to take some of the old wood. I've offered him the new guttering left by the previous owner for a roofed gazebo he has.

I went and explored a couple more shops after he left - TKs and MnS food. I got 3 small washable rugs with the same pattern for £13 each that are super soft. I've put them in the lounge in a horizontal row next to the striped rug so I no longer need to look at a strip of cardboard. They are like a velour but with a traditional rug backing. I also got a couple of new bath sheets and some flannels - which were part of my plan as I gave a load away pre-move as they were nearing end of life. I bought a candle for a friend too. I spent close to £80 in TK and around £40 in MnS including on some YS food that goes out of date tomorrow. That will give me some easy meals.I also topped up my milk. 

I'm still debating what to do about the flooring I ordered. The handyman has been in touch and should be able to do 4 days next week (I'm in work for one). So I'll ask his advice too.

The news today is reporting a 10% rise on CTx locally which isn't great but there we go.

KajiKita

This might sound like a strange thing to say, but the house will love you for doing these critical works 😉😊

Liking the sound of the rugs and glad you have easy food in  ❤️

KK