Making my house a home and my life my own

ajmoney

I am long overdue a new diary as I have just read the first line of my last one. I was married, in my previous house with a much larger mortgage. I hadn’t realised that this was still the same one.

I will add all the financial bits and my plans over the coming days, but the title says it all really.

KajiKita

Happy new diary 😊🤩

Looking forward to reading all your plans 😊

KK

ajmoney

I live in a lovely three bedroom bungalow. I have two mortgage products on the property

Mortgage 1 £37,320.87 monthly payment £311.42

Mortgage 2 £17,117.06 monthly payment £135.27

I remortgaged in July and have been OPing £400 a month, £335.83 to the larger and £64.17 to the smaller bringing the overall total to £400. The amounts probably seem strange and if I am honest I don't truly remember how I came up with that figure so will have to look back at my old diary to help with that.

I became mortgage neutral nearly a year ago now so many people will think it bizarre that I remortgaged in the summer but the set up is working for me. I have saved £18.5k on top of the mortgage balance. My aim is to continue having enough across my savings accounts that I can pay off my mortgage, while using the rest to decorate my house and make it my home (the decorating, house/home bit will be in another post). 

I plan to pay off my mortgage at the end of this fixed rate (July 2027) unless there is a dramatic change in my plans or circumstances. By then the house should be decorated and a good buffer saved so I don't have to empty my savings so I can be mortgage free.

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary. 

ajmoney

Making my house a home...it has not been a smooth ride when it comes to decoration and home improvements. I have had so many tradespeople not turn up that is has taken a long time to get anywhere. I have been in my house for 6 and a half years and internal improvements only started a year ago. I have now had my living room, dining room, 3 bedrooms and hallway plastered and decorated, tomorrow I am getting a carpet fitted in my bedroom. I had hoped to get the bedroom furniture by now so I could set everything up next weekend but I can't find what I want. The range I thought I wanted doesn't work for me so rather than settle for second best I am going to use some temporary solutions. As a perfectionist the temporary solution doesn't sit well but I deserve to live in a lovely house with what I want so it is essential. I bought a hanging rail a couple of months ago when I took the built in wardrobe out so that will get moved into my bedroom tomorrow evening and I have some plastic drawers that I will wash out. It will give me some time to work out how much storage I need.

Once I have got my bed base out of the dining room (I have been sleeping on the mattress on the floor of another room for months) and my clothes into my room I am going to order the carpets for the other bedrooms and hallway. By Christmas I hope to have all the flooring down.

I don't currently have any heating as some radiators were taken off the wall for decorating and I don't know if I can turn the others on without causing leaks and damage. These will be getting fitted tomorrow, I can't begin to say how excited I am to be warm from tomorrow evening.

I am undecided on some of the furniture for my living and dining room too as I don't know what sizes are going to work but I have some old furniture to play about with. 

When I moved here it was from my marital home, a new build that needed no work doing to it but it had no soul to it. I had been in the house less than a year when we went into lockdown. I have had some low times and this house has been my place of solitude, I want to transition it to my comfortable home.

Watty1

Happy new diary. I've followed the big changes you have made, highs and lows, and really looking forward to reading/watching this stage of the journey.

ajmoney

In making my home my own:

1. With help I moved the bedroom furniture I have into my room on Saturday, it feels so warm and cosy  I need to move the temporary hanging rail in and all my clothes so I can claw back space in the rest of the house.

2. I have a problem with the edge of one part of my roof, I got the roofer out who did the work last week and he has given me three options. £200 to repair what is there, £1000 to edge to roof, £10000 to replace the whole roof. I will probably go for option one or three but there might end up being more bits that come away over time. I have said I will think about it and get back to him.

Making my life my own:

I had a scan a couple of months ago to keep on top of something health related and finally had a follow up appointment with the specialist this evening. We talked through surgery or not, he has recommended keeping with the medication I am on and no surgery for now as the meds are doing their job. We talked about some potential peri-menopause syptoms but he has suggested that given that one of my tablets has a large dose of HRT in it, it is likely to come from external factors rather than peri-menopause. I am going to try and see if I can address the stressors in my life, as a lot of these symptoms are present at work this is going to be the start of my focus. I am going to have a chat with my boss tomorrow to see how I might be able to change some of these. 

To help away from work, I am going to keep working at organising my house and research some coping strategies to help with anger.

Ms_Potato_Head

I look forward to following along. It's a long road reclaiming your life after divorce but looks like you're doing amazingly. 

Watty1

Reclaiming life is really hard, esp as you and your ex partner were amicable in the years that followed.    You can do this, you are doing well, just keep going

ajmoney

I am getting the next set of carpets fitted on Friday so am using today to clear as much out of the back bedroom as possible (the other two rooms are already clear). There isn't that much to move but strangely I am finding it hard. I have a friend coming to sit in the house while they are fitted, he is going to help me move the furniture out first thing and back in at the end of the day so hopefully it won't be too disruptive. I would like to order for the last couple this week with the hope they can be fitted over the next fortnight. That will be about a year since the plastering started so it feels timely. My work is starting to calm down so I am aiming to get the rooms set up by the time I go on Christmas leave.

It will be nice to pay out these costs this year so I can start rebuilding some of my funds.

ajmoney

All the carpets have been fitted so apart from the kitchen, bathroom and porch the inside of the house is decorated. There are a few drawers/cupboards/boxes to sort through so that everything in the house is being used and stored in a way I can easily access it which I hope to finish over the next couple of weeks so I can sit back and enjoy my Christmas break. I need to get furniture for a couple of rooms, either to replace temporary solutions or so I have some storage (the living room looks very bare) and think I might have found some options so am going to measure up and have a think. For this first time since I moved in 6 and a half years ago, I am really enjoying being in my house and it is most definitely becoming a home and my own 

It is a nice celebration as it is a year since I became mortgage neutral. I have now have the mortgage amount in savings plus just over £17k, it hasn't grown recently but I have been paying out for carpets etc so all is good. 

I don't have a plan for the house etc next year although I have a list of things I would like to work through in the next 19 months before I plan to pay the mortgage off so will have a think over the festive period on what to tackle next.

My aim for next year is to live life. No idea how but I plan to have fun doing it