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

debtfreewannabe321

Okay I took all your comments into consideration (thank you @KajiKita @Baldybear @missymoo81 @daisy_1571 & @dawnybabes ) and passed them on to DP who was of the opinion new is best before this. But I reminded him my fridge which has lasted 6 years plus, looks like new and cost a fraction of the new price as it was a graded item is perfectly fine, also I've had a few other things like hoovers and washing machines and dishwashers second hand and they have all worked well. And a new expensive brand was out of our reach. SO we got past that bit then it was to decide between a rangemaster which didn't have an induction but looked very nice (cream colour) and the hob was very scratched up or a Stoves brand (which I hadn't heard of before researching) also reconditioned or the basic entry level Belling one. After reading up on all (they all had great reviews and then very awful ones which doesn't help) and we used co pilot to do a bit of research we decided on the Stoves Sterling one in stainless steel. It does look very nice, it had the induction which we preferred and also the 3 oven/grill section and I noticed there were so many more options if you had a 100cm gap. But that would have probably confused me more The condition looks almost perfect aside from some marks to the side of it which hopefully can't be seen anyway. The price was the same as the Belling one we looked at but obviously a better spec than that one. 

DP has done the rest of the chimney, it looks good, the builder had a look at the lintels and has said they look fine and we took lots of pictures for building control to sign off. All we need now is some fire boards to go in front of the brick. We did briefly toy with the idea of pre moulded fire chambers which is what we had in the last house in the chimney for the log burner, but after getting a rough quote from the local stove shop today we walked away a little gobsmacked he was super helpful though and told us how we can do it cheaply with fire boards, heat resistant paint and that's it....that sounded a lot cheaper considering our budget and we are able to then add tiles, or chambers later down the line. At the moment the idea is to have a fully functioning kitchen as cheaply as possible whilst it still being safe, clean, and pretty altogether The fire chambers are very pretty though (but for nearly a grand I think we might have to say no). My idea is to get the fire boards, spray paint it in heat resistant paint and then stencil over it in another colour. So I can have a pretty pattern but on the cheap lol. 

Perhaps I can sleep now knowing the oven is bought and sorted. We have officially broken into the kitchen budget now though which makes me nervous for some reason 😬 I paid with my klarna card and opted for 3 monthly payments just in case the money is needed elsewhere meaning I can budget this into monthly budgets for two more months. Oh we also bought the cooker hood too. 

I am now onto thinking about the extra storage I need in the kitchen as I am short on cupboard space. I loved the ik3a regissor tall glass cabinet. But considering I am cutting costs everywhere I am not sure I can part with £450 for a display cabinet. Instead I am wondering if I can recreate the same space with kitchen cupboards and legs 🤔I've upcycled plenty of things before and used legs bought online to completely change the look along with pelmets and fancy edgings etc....so will cost it up and see if it 1- looks nice, 2- is way cheaper than just buying the cupboard  

We've moved the freezer into the car port. We have also removed the fake room within the room DP created to contain dust, so all dust sheets removed, and also a large dresser. The room only has the fridge, large sofa and large dresser in now (that sounds a lot but it was rammed with furniture a few days ago!) it's looking pretty big and I am easily able to visualise it finished now which is exciting. 😁👏

missymoo81

I’m sure you could make a display cabinet! You seem very handy. And yay for getting rid of the dust sheets. I’m so pleased you managed to make a decision on the oven and I hope you slept knowing it was another thing done 😊.

Watty1

Am confideent you could make / build / create something that would be uniquely yours.   (Now waiting for pics)

daisy_1571

debtfreewannabe321 said:

Watty1 said:

Well he cleaned the house.   Full marks. He could easily have downright refused to do that too.  There is a good kid there really.

i was impressed he swapped that with me so I took it. We got home and the floors were clean, the washing was gone and it all looked great tbf. However, when I went upstairs I found where the extra curtains (from the bay window that had been taken out) had gone, the clean UNironed washing also and several blankets - on my bed. 😏😏 So, curtains got chucked back downstairs, too late though I have a stye now from the dust off of them. The washing brought back downstairs for ironing...... I didn't grumble, I appreciated what he did do. 
However I seriously need to do something about this ironing pile it really gets me down. It is never ending and I could just cry at it. I HATE this job. SO MUCH. I suppose if DS moves out i will have slightly less but DP INSISTS everything has to be ironed so piles it all up. he is more than willing to do it because he loves ironing but it is on his time frame which can range from twice a month to one time a month. i cannot be putting up with this anymore. Sadly the new kitchen and laundry area doesn't account for space for places to hide ironing out of my way. So it's in full view all the time. I need to find somewhere to keep it or lessen the load. OKay...ironing rant over. 😑😏

Have you had any more thoughts about where you can store the ironing till he gets on with it?   As I understand it, the issue isn't the ironing as he does his, the issue is where to keep his clothes until it gets ironed?

How about just putting it away unironed?  I'd imagine its wearing ironed clothes he likes rather than looking at ironed clothes in the wardrobe?   If he's OK with ironing an item just before putting it on problem solved - in our house ironed clothes often actually got creased in the wardrobe (back in the days when mr daisy had to wear shirts to work I mean, no clothes been ironed in my house for a very long time) as we had too much in the wardrobes.  You just have to then set up an easy way to get ironing board up and down quickly otherwise it will start to sit out - best place is to keep board near or in the wardrobe or in hall if he would iron on way to his morning shower.   You might need to get one of those iron holders that can store the iron warm and screw it inside wardrobe or cupboard too then it all goes away each time.

If he likes his wardrobe to look ironed then I'd say, put all the ironed things to one end, the end that he usually opens, the unironed stuff can all go together at the other end until he has time to do it, he can ignore that stuff until then and still enjoy the ironed view he gets when he opens the door.  If its more than just shirts then each drawer has to get sectioned or else one drawer allocated to the unironed stuff. 

There shouldn't be more clothes than could fit in the wardrobe and drawers ironed so it should all be able to go away?

Its probably doing him a favour actually as clothes in a pile will be getting more creased and as the item gets drier the creases become harder to get out. 

Daisy xxx 

debtfreewannabe321

I wish I was as confident in the ability to build one I have priced up various materials to make it ourselves and so far it is coming in WAY over what the cupboard is costing 😬 building materials are so expensive these days. I will keep searching. I also tried kitchen cupboards with side panels and legs, that was double the cost 🤔😱 not sure how?! 
Today the chimney is getting some concrete to fill holes, we have fireboards ready to go in and I am looking for brick slips or tiles to cover it. I looked at the paint and decided against it. For the size we need to cover it will cost as much as a basic metro tile to do the whole thing so I would rather the tiles. Also looking at brick slips though because that is the look I was after (but our bricks are shoddy as!)

It is absolutely pouring with rain here, I have a thunderstorm headache brewing too. Going to make a hearty curry for dinner and warm us all up as the temperature has really dropped here 🥶and after such hot days we are really feeling it!

daisy_1571

it occurs that you maybe do ironing for son and daughter?  Same system can apply for them - I cant see the exidiot standing ironing stuff for your son so he'll either be happy to go without or will be doing his own in the near future?  Your daughter too should be able to do her own if she's out working?  Its doing them a misservice to not teach them how to do something then stand back and let them decide on whether they will do it or not.  I wish my mum had taught me how she ironed before I left home and had to trial and error learn myself. 

Dxxxx

redofromstart

I had a flat steam press for the work and school shirts, made it all faster and easier to do. When the children were little you could get a school polo shirt done in one press. 

It also made a great cat sunbed as it was cooling down but that was just an added bonus. 

daisy_1571

Redo 😆 🤣 😂 😹  fabulous secondary use of the heat

Dxx

debtfreewannabe321

daisy_1571 said:

it occurs that you maybe do ironing for son and daughter?  Same system can apply for them - I cant see the exidiot standing ironing stuff for your son so he'll either be happy to go without or will be doing his own in the near future?  Your daughter too should be able to do her own if she's out working?  Its doing them a misservice to not teach them how to do something then stand back and let them decide on whether they will do it or not.  I wish my mum had taught me how she ironed before I left home and had to trial and error learn myself. 

Dxxxx

Omg the first time I even mentioned the children learn how to iron themselves it ended up in a three way phone call from child to ex to me. I suppose I should be grateful Esther wasn't involved too 🙄🙄🙄 honestly! They made out they were living in a prison and I could not be bothered with the arguments. 
My eldest (same dad btw!) knew how to cook, iron, do general housework, change a plug, put a shelf up, garden and many other things I taught him because ex was in the slightest bit concerned about 'parenting' when he was younger. Now ex is older and has older gfs along with it who like to tell ex he should be intervening when mum is making the children do jobs it is impossible to parent. Seriously they all make out i am like some sort of prison warden. 
I also left home unable to cook, iron, and do anything! I had to teach myself everything or ring mum and ask her (back before the internet obviously 🤣). 
Both have been warned they will move out Unable to do anything and a few times they've made an attempt to learn various things. So DD can cook basic things now. DS can do some gardening and DIY, and housework but neither have shown any interest in ironing. 
I can't see idiot doing it either but I can see ds listening to him whereas he doesn't listen to me. He rings dad instead like it's child line 😏🤣. 

debtfreewannabe321

redofromstart said:

I had a flat steam press for the work and school shirts, made it all faster and easier to do. When the children were little you could get a school polo shirt done in one press. 

It also made a great cat sunbed as it was cooling down but that was just an added bonus. 

Never heard of one of these I will look! I absolutely hate ironing! I think it's because it was my job when I went to boarding school.....say no more. Every Sunday night was taken up with this chore....