Cheery's path to fulfilment - finishing the DIY, looking after myself, appreciating the garden 🌻

Cheery_Daff

Hi all 😊

I'm Cheery 😊 By name and (usually 🙄) by nature. I've been around here for many years, taking in all the excellent wisdom and trying to use as much of it as possible 😊

We are two, Mr Cheery and I. We have been together for over 18 years 😮 We moved to the countryside six years ago, gained a large mortgage, and a giant To Do list, and I have been feeling slightly overwhelmed ever since. 

We have about £168,000 left on our mortgage, and while we did overpay a bit when we moved, haven't done for a while. We're on a 5 year fix at 2.26% - ending October this year.

I work 4 days a week (officially 🙄), a mix of at home and an hour away. Mr Cheery has his works pension, and does some self employed bits and pieces too. His state pension is due in just over 5 years. I'm a fair bit younger, and won't be retiring any time soon unless we win the premium bonds 😂

I'm starting this new diary now because it feels like a good point to consolidate (not debts!! We don't have any except the mortgage!) and to get our house in order, literally and figuratively.

We've been here 6 years, which has gone in the blink of an eye, and in less than 6 years Mr Cheery will be state pension age. I want to be working less than I do now, and I also want the house FINISHED, the garden under control, and me to feel happy and healthy 😊 Easy, straightforward goals! 😂

I love nothing more than plotting and scheming with a cuppa and a notebook in a cafe, so I do tend to post a lot with plans and ideas, some of which never quite make it to fruition 😂 I love hearing what other people are up to, so please do grab a biscuit and join me while I try to get closer to the end of the DIY list, appreciate rather than resent my wild and unruly garden, chip away at the mortgage, and get a bit fitter and healthier than I am now 😊

Cheery_Daff

I'd like to focus on the DIY this year, as it's been hanging over us for a while. We've done a LOT to the house since we moved - builders replaced the joists above the kitchen/dining room, and other builders were here for 4 months in 2021 rebuilding the rooms above and below, and fitting a new kitchen. This traumatised us both (and probably the builders 🙄😂) and there's been plenty of smaller jobs we decided we'd do ourselves as we couldn't face getting anyone else back in. 

This work also took the bulk of Mr Cheery's pension lump sum, and left us with very little in the way of savings, so we're trying to build that back up, and not in a position to throw proper money at anything else right now.

This is also the reason we stopped overpaying the mortgage, but I'd like to start doing that again soon.

This is what's still to do...

Kitchen/dining room
(This was two rooms, now one big one)
* make windowsills from old barn roof tiles
* skirting boards
* level bit of floor where old chimney was and fit some kind of flooring

Bedroom
* make windowsills

Stairs
* plaster/clad & paint walls
* sand/finish/carpet/whatever stairs themselves

Bathroom
* everything! It's perfectly functional, so has been low priority. But the hideous tiles are painted with emulsion which flakes off, the ceiling paint is bubbling, the coving round the ceiling is just random mismatched pieces, and the flooring is stained green carpet 😱😂 We have a new freestanding bath in the garage, but I refuse to even start in here until kitchen/dining room/bedroom are done

Living room
* again, functional, but we want to redo. All woodchip, including the ceiling, and the joins between the ceiling boards are starting to be visible. Windowsills are wood painted with many, many layers of paint, most recently royal blue. Carpet is fine, we'll probably keep that. Damp came in through the old gas fire chimney and shorted the electrics, so one wall has much missing plaster, disconnected wires sticking out, and no working sockets. We pinned a sheet over it all and will likely continue to ignore until after the bathroom is done.

Offshot
This is a kind of utility room with a separate little toilet and shower tucked away in the corner. It's also the main entrance to the house, and a hideous mess. It's got plastic cladding round all walls and ceiling, and Mr Cheery put his hand through the ceiling from the loft, so those plastic boards have been propped up with wood for 2 years. It's always cold. We use it as a pantry, boot storage, washing machine, tools, general dumping ground 🙄 But I'd like it to at least look slightly prettier!

Other things
* several blown double glazing windows 
* one window had a new lintel and needs re-doing inside and out
* Central heating is a bit rubbish and I suspect needs a power flush (and possibly a new boiler, although it won't be getting one of those)

Outside...

Outside we have 11 acres of grass 😱 I try to cut one field as a hay meadow with a scythe, and don't try to talk me out of it or suggest farmers/sheep/whatever because I've heard it all before and this is the way I've decided to do it 😂 Two acres are tiny woodland, planted 3 years ago and growing nicely 😊 The remaining 8 are used by the local dairy farmer for a few pregnant cows over the summer.

We have over a mile of dry stone walls, which glare at me with an evil eye as they fall down at regular intervals.

The garden itself is quite big, an odd shape, soggy, lumpy with mole hills, and with a footpath running down the drive, bisecting the two bits of garden. I love it, but it drives me potty 😂 I want it appreciate it, but often find myself overwhelmed.

And me...

I am 43, four stone heavier than I was a few years ago, and an office job and lots of driving have made me far more sedentary than I was. I've enjoyed running (very slowly) and have done a couple of marathons and triathlons in the past, and am currently trying to get back into the swing with a few Joe Wicks workouts. I mostly cook from scratch and do more meal planning and batch cooking than I did, but I do succumb to more vending machine trips and cafe cakes than I should... 

So, this diary is to help me get all these things under control 😁

We are fortunate - our last house was paid off (because Mr Cheery is older and just paid the mortgage for 25 years, nothing dramatic). We are lucky that we could, if health or circumstances dictated, sell up and move somewhere smaller than without a mortgage. I'd like to enjoy the place finished before we need to do that!

I'll be back later with some financial details... 😊😊

Cheery_Daff

And reserving for more planning, because I know what you lot are like with jumping in! 😂

LATER - EDITING TO ADD CURRENT FINANCIAL INFO

I use YNAB, so I can give actual figures (or monthly averages) for the whole of 2023. Interesting to compare these to 2021 figures at the start of my last diary, here.

FIXED MANDATORY EXPENSES
* Mortgage = £919.99
* Council tax = £204 (paid over 12 months, not had notification of new figure yet)
* House phone and internet = £29.99
* My union fees = £28.81
* Water bill (septic tank so no drainage included) = £12.04 (averaged over whole year)
* My life insurance = £7.63
* TV licence = £13.12 (paid annually)

= £1215.58

RELATIVELY FIXED STUFF
* My mobile = £10 (sim only)
* Mr Cheery's mobbile = £10 (sim only)
* Electric = £60.72 DD
* Gas = £140 (monthly average for last year - this is LPG though, and I pay for the whole tank when it arrives, so last year it was 2 deliveries in the year, the year before it was 3)
* Car insurance = £50.50 (just paid £606 for the year - £10 a month more than last year)
* Breakdown cover = £6.55 (paid annually, both cars over 15 now so might be more this year)
* Car tax = £5 (two cars, both £30 a year paid annually)
* House insurance = £50 ish (paid £200 annually last year, paid £300 this year but they've now cancelled policy, and cheapest next quote was £600 so I'll use that for now and update when I've bought it tomorrow)

= £332.77

OTHER THINGS THAT I CAN'T CHANGE MUCH ABOUT
* Car maintenance = £169.02 (monthly average for last year, covers both cars, includes massive bill for one car that I wouldn't have agreed to if I'd realised quoted figure didn't include VAT - switched garages now so this will hopefully be much less)
* Home maintenance = £34.38 (monthly average last year, includes eg chimney sweep, will also need to allow for septic tank emptying this year)
* Dentist = £41.91 (we both have crappy teeth)
* Medical = £27.75 (we both have free prescriptions now, but this covers all the over the counter stuff - feels high, but it also included my LPA forms last year, and an optician trip)

= £273.06

(Back later to continue.....)

KajiKita

Haven’t read the opening posts yet, but I’m here! 😊👏🤩

KK

redofromstart

Ooh biscuits, I'm in!

Cheery_Daff

KajiKita said:

Haven’t read the opening posts yet, but I’m here! 😊👏🤩

KK

Ha, I wouldn't bother, same old waffling from me 😂

Cheery_Daff

redofromstart said:

Ooh biscuits, I'm in!

Welcome aboard! I should probably stick to virtual biscuits for the time being 🙄😂

KajiKita

Cheery_Daff said:

redofromstart said:

Ooh biscuits, I'm in!

Welcome aboard! I should probably stick to virtual biscuits for the time being 🙄😂

Me too! 😂😂😉

KK

Greying_Pilgrim

Cheery..... thanks for leaving the trail of biscuit crumbs - I'm in 😁

Greying X

Ramouth

Happy new diary!  I’ll be following with interest hoping for some inspiration to get on with the ever growing list of jobs that need doing at home.  Best of luck to you!

Tescodealqueen

Following the crowd