Prosperous & Creative Soul Year 4

TallGirl

Loving the progress on the drive and getting the damp sorted. Also the decluttering and finding places of things to live. I like to have surfaces clear and places to put things down when I am working in the kitchen or sitting in the lounge. Christmas decks are lovely but also takes up a lot of space. Once you get the floor done it will be great to get it all up and you can finally see your new home all festive. 

Humdinger1

I've subscribed @savingholmes and am so looking forward to following your adventures.   Congratulations on everything you've achieved; truly you are an inspiration.   Love Humdinger xx 

LadyWithAPlan

Happy new diary and good to get clarity on how financially you have moved on vs the ex - constant debt would really stress me out.

The house will look great for Xmas!

savingholmes

Thanks Lucielle and WD, Julicorn, LWAP, TG and Humdinger, Jwil, Skint

Yes the raised beds should look fantastic once planted up. The front ones are almost done. They had to borrow a tape measure and screwdriver set from me and a drill from next door!! Organisation isn't their strongest skill. They are still putting the paver edging in in some places. They are hoping to finish this week. I hope I don't need too much soil - think I may have underestimated how much soil it will take to fill them!

I found the xmas decs the other day - and they are in the cupboard under the stairs which I need to clear out anyway for the floor so may put some up in advance of the floor being done. I think last year I used some of my light sets on my bigger house plants so depending on where the sockets are might start with that.

EssexHebridean

Happy new diary!

It's lovely showing a home you love to people who haven't seen it before, or haven't seen it since you've made significant changes is such a lovely feeling - it's nice to see things through other people's eyes isn't it! 

I've been trying to keep reminding myself of the "tidy as you go" principle - by way of an update on that. It's still quite small-scale at the moment but things like trying to make sure that food packaging goes straight in the bin, wiping up water splashes around the sink, and at the least gathering stuff for the DW together in one place even if that stuff doesn't make it to the machine right now really are all helping to reduce feelings of overwhelm around "so much needing to be done I don't know where to start, and so I do nothing". I'm also reminding myself that it is about small steps and making new habits which then become "muscle memory" and second nature. It definitely made a difference to getting things ready for our friends to visit at the weekend though so I'm already seeing benefits even if I don't feel I'm really "there" yet with the process. Small wins... 

No Christmas decs here until December, and probably not early December either! I'm still at the stage of uttering about all the christmas music being played too early!  

savingholmes

Thanks EH

I adore Xmas lights and would happily have extra lights tlup all year round. I'm not one for lots of Xmas knicknacks although I'd did buy an iridescent stag recently some canes and something that looks a bit like Ruzo from xmas carol. Perhaps I'm fooling myself... 

Last year I bought a white birch type Xmas tree. In my new house I have a huge bay tree which would look amazing with lights but I'd need a lot of help so that might be a next year job. 

I only have 2 outdoor sockets and no electricity in garage so that will be a factor too.

EssexHebridean

Ooh - a bay, handy to have the bread sauce ingredients on tap, as it were! I miss our lovely bay from the flat I have to admit, although we do have a couple of small ones now, nothing quite ready to have leaves taken off it yet I don't think... 

WelshmansDaughter

Re the raised beds, you can put leaf mulch, twigs or upside down turf in the bottom to help fill it and provide organic material. Anything that would go in your compost really 

savingholmes

Thanks WD, EH - yes the bay tree is huge - I'd guess at least 20ft maybe even 30ft.

Apparently my raised beds took 18t of soil! It makes the tiers of my garden more accessible safely so hopefully will make any weeding and pruning easier. They dug out most of the bamboo and grasses today. Just one clump of bamboo still to come out. Most of the front raised bed is now planted up which is very exciting. Some evergreens, a hydrangea and some flowering perennials and I even decanted some small pots of bulbs. It is going to make planting up & maintenance so much easier as no or very little bending to do in future.

One of the labourers also moved some huge rocks that had come out from under my original concrete - to help prop up my dry stone wall. He also planted a broom in the upper tier and a red robin bush. They are coming back tomorrow as the paver edging still isn't finished (I was right on the concrete not setting if temperatures were too low!!) but the gravel layer has been whacked down. They are going to finish the edging tomorrow (honest...) and also do more transplanting for me from my seemingly endless pots (I may have over-bought - I know you're shocked)... Then tarmac should be delivered Monday morning. 

He tried to fleece me this morning - saying doing the soil had been 2 days extra labour (x 2 men) and that by rights he should charge me £720 per day for the set up. I pointed out that he was probably paying his labourers more like £100 a day each and queried the cost of the soil. He claimed the soil had been £950. So having already paid £600 earlier in the week I said I could potentially pay an extra couple of hundred. He tried to push for more - and I said I'd have to discuss it with a family member and get back to him at which point he backed down. 

We had a bit of a discussion about how much everything was costing me -and I had tears in my eyes and showed him some of the other problems in my house I'd not been able to afford to have fixed yet. At that point he settled on £350 above what I'd already paid. Then later he came back and said he'd be willing to knock it down to £200 extra - providing I could pay £1.6K of the remaining balance today - and the rest Monday (£3K) when the job is done.

So the whole job will have cost me £11.8K (about £800 more than planned). Given I had a quote from someone else for £17K for less work (60-70%) - and another for £7K for the easier half of the work - I think I've actually done okay even if its painful to part with that kind of £. I've put it on a 21 month 0% card so feel very fortunate that this was an option for me as it means I can continue to get income from my savings and if my job goes south - maintain my cashflow and pay the mortgage!

savingholmes

I will probably give at least some of them a tip. I got £50 out already - but a couple of guys in particular I'd potentially give more to as there were large chunks of time when they were here working on their own. At some point I'll also get bark and top dress everything but that definitely needs to go into a different pay month. I'll just get bags for that and potentially pay DD's BF to help me with that.

I have a regular saver that matures this weekend but still trying to put what I can on the 0% card as it is only 0% on purchases in the first 60 days. I'll then work out a payment plan for all my cards so I ensure that they are all cleared within their interest free period - or I find a way of continuing to stooze my £ and get other 0% on purchase cards in future. Key dates - March &Sept 25 and Aug 2026. Mortgage fix ends Jan 2027 so don't want any CC debt ideally by mid 2026.

Next week I need to empty my lounge and hallway / understairs cupboard ready for asbestos removal next Friday and a new floor on the Monday. I then will only have 4 days left to get everything ready for a wider family visit and celebration here. Exciting but slightly nerve wracking. I'm planning to do 3-8 wider family gathering and then chuck everyone other than DS and his partner out - so we can have some quiet time together too. Then hopefully some time together on the Sunday before they head back home. So there is a lot to do! I also need to fit in trying to buy my Mum some specific jewellery she's asked for - but that may or may not be possible as it is all dependent on what anyone has in stock and with the workmen here tomorrow I have very time for any in-person shopping which seems to be what she's expecting. It also means she's slightly fried the budget I had anticipated... 

I've had my official letter about my job - and I'm safe for now - although it has a standard clause reserving the right to restructure possibly within 12 months or so of the transfer so not completely out of the woods. It also mentions some specific work I'm involved in as a potential trigger for review when it comes to an end. Therefore continuing to try to balance maximising AVCs to safeguard long term options and maximise my tax free lump sum linked to my pension against maintaining a decent emergency fund and clearing down any wider borrowing. TBH if I was made redundant on the current terms post age 55 (after my next birthday) I'd probably welcome it as it would give me my pension unreduced. I'd still need to get another job / create self employed income but the pension would meet about 60% of my minimum income requirements.