Buying a little piece of Middle England; Manifesting my way to mortgage free.

debtfreewannabe321

greenbee said:

This house has been over-extended (I realise it's weird to say that when I'm planning on converting the garage, but Stinky dog makes the need for a boot room/porch for grubby wellies and smelly dogs more urgent - he's in the kitchen at the moment - and my office is tiny considering the amoung of time I spend there), and I keep thinking that if they hadn't had such a big island they could have had a smaller extension 🤣.

The kitchen here (1980s) was fairly narrow, and the dining room was small, so knocking those together made sense. What didn't make sense was knocking the boot room into the kitchen as it's SO dark back there. It would have been better to extend the tiny office that way. Downstair loo was moved, and is so tiny and awkward that it's hard for less mobile friends and family members to use, and the utility room has four doors opening into it - one of which opens into the WM door, and another into the TD door . I don't think any thought went into the design at all. 

I think no thought went into ours either 🥴🙈... thankfully we got it around 20k under market price so I'm happy enough to spend a bit on it (eventually). It's really hard visualising the way it should look though when it's so badly done the first time 🤣

debtfreewannabe321

CrazyBee787 said:

I have dm'd you my response to your entry. I do hope you have a lovely relaxing day as planned, all the best CrazyBeeXX

Thank you 😊

debtfreewannabe321

We've had a fabulously productive morning and lunch so far! We have done one tip run and we had an idea to put some of the wood hoard out the front with a big sign on. I painted a big FREE on, yes you guessed it a big bit of wood from the hoard 🤣. We got back from the tip run and all bag were gone 😯 so we put some more out. A guy walking  stopped and I went out to chat with him. He had a van and asked if he could have some, yes, how much do you need was our response! Another guy has also come for one boot load and is coming back for me. The guy walking turned up as the second guy had filled his boot and he filled an entire van full of wood. He's coming back for more and so is the guy who filled his car. We have kept back lots of kindling for ourselves and we STILL have at least two sheds worth. However we can see floors and walls now it's very exciting! It means when the spaces are empty we can visualise what we want to do with the spaces and start to shift stuff about. When we moved in we had to put all the garage stuff around the hoard. So by the end of today we may well have one empty garage at the very least (and we may a tonne of wood left still but I hope not!) it means garden plans can start to happen and garage conversions can be measured properly! 
Right best go shift some more wood now I've had a quick break 😃

KajiKita

Brilliant idea for shifting some of the mountain of wood and you’ve helped others out in the process 😊 I think that will help the feeling of squashedness (more things can move to more sensible homes now) and it will allow more of an energy flow too. 

I had no idea what your kids were facing where you were before - no wonder you were desperate to get from there! 

Do you know any tame architects? It sounds like you need some external input into how to rearrange the ground floor. Or has anyone in your network had to deal with something similar and you’ve liked what they’ve done?

KK

debtfreewannabe321

Wow! The response we got was amazing we have cleared with the help one one guy and his daughter (and DS helped) - Two garages! One carport (just a wood store there which was falling down)! One entire shed top to bottom filled with wood that you could not even step inside!!! Two vans, three car boots full and we still have a small hoard for us to use. And we still have one more shed full of branches and twigs that we've held back for chipping into bits and we have a summer house probably a quarter filled still 🥴😯 unbelievable how much we actually had! We have SO much space now it's amazing!
What a productive day! Absolutely exhausted now from shifting all that wood. We also found a beautiful sleeper hidden under the rubbish wood! Excited to use that in the garden somewhere! 

I didn't do my bulk cooking that I wanted to do but I feel overall this was more important than that and I will just cook the meals as I go. 

KK you never know how much to say on a diary that is public but now we've moved I don't care if anyone from that town sees this. It was awful ...there was one point where police in ski masks with guns and dogs turned up to raid a house on the next street. It was that point that I said, we're moving. 
The kids are so much happier (and safer) now even if we are on a busy road (which is absolutely brilliant for getting rid of free things quickly). 

Architect- yes we know of a few I think we should probably get in touch with some for some inspo. The one who came didn't really offer any solutions but then I guess I need to pay him first for those 🤣.... I've scoured RM for other houses the same to see what they've all done and honestly they've all done exactly the same. Large extension large kitchen and diner on the back. We want to try and do it cheaper so are trying to think of other solutions and I think the one I came up with earlier might work and be the cheapest solution too. 

greenbee

Congrats on getting so much space back!

And thinking about how to configure the ground floor is a good excuse to watch all those home renovation programmes

debtfreewannabe321

greenbee said:

Congrats on getting so much space back!

And thinking about how to configure the ground floor is a good excuse to watch all those home renovation programmes

Haha yes it is 😁

debtfreewannabe321

Oh and not only a NSD, but we were given a lovely gift of gin to say thank you for all the wood! I was just grateful for the space and was not expecting anything in return so that was a lovely surprise 😊

beanielou

Glad that you had a nice birthday.

beanielou

You need Kirsty & Phil!