Turning Straw into Gold: Creating Long Term Security & A Solid Home

Dakota_Rose

Love the sound of your kitchen set up!

MillQueen

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82162441#Comment_82162441

That sounds lovely! I love a period terrace, they are my favourite, precisely for their size. A separate hallway is very exciting - have you done any stair and hallway styling yet? I am thinking of getting a finial post that looks like a massive antique crystal when I find the right one at the right price, and I am now the proud owner of a hallway bench (a vintage church pew, only £5 in the charity shop!). Sadly all of the stained glass is gone out of the front doors and windows though, but I'd replace it if I stay and am ever rich enough. I'd really like a glass sunburst above the door. I love my house, I had never seen anything so big and grand before, it was love at first sight. It's like something from a novel with full height gothic style stone mullion windows, ruins in the back garden, loads of rooms, and secretive staircases. It's styled like a villa, but with a few connected in a row. It is my dream house but will probably lead to bankruptcy.

I'm writing this from the dining room, since I've taken the "sit in a different room" challenge seriously.

@Dakota_Rose, it is a good kitchen and I have tried to style it with some older furniture, but the fittings are very modern and not really well suited with the house. It's 20 feet with lots of period style windows, but the kitchen units are brand new from the renovation before I moved in. It's "rented house style" with subway tiles and grey cupboards. It will probably do 10 years though, so in the money saving spirit I am leaving it alone, as it's very functional and clean. If I ever get to re-do it, I'll have teracotta floors and an island, a big armchair with the fireplace reinstated, and everything will be done in real wood, and I'd get fitted pantry cupboards around the chimney breasts…. and an aga!!! I am obsessed with having an aga. I'd also really like an indoor garden, with rocks and ferns, but not yet sure where I would put it.

Maybe if my plans to get promoted at work ever take off I can do some of that. I love talking about my house, everyone around me is sick of hearing about it, but I just love it so much 😍😍

Dakota_Rose

🥰 it’s lovely that you love it as you do. We also have a doer upper and I visualise it as it will be one day. The next things on our list are a new front door with some stained glass panels and oak porch, a real fire and built-in bookcases in the sitting room, and a proper patio area in between the house and large lawn. I don’t necessarily need a promotion - I just need not to quit 😂.

ArtyJ931

I have a Minton floor in the hall and have picked out one of the tiles and used a lighter shade of it as the wall colour in the downstairs hallway. That’s as far as I have got!

Blackcats

@MillQueen - happy Fredagsmys (Sweden's cosy Friday tradition)

Perhaps you can sit in your "best" sofa, with a cup of sticky toffee tea, some chocolate Brazil nuts and cosy tv or a cosy book. I've got Victoria sponge brew, some Lindt dark mint chocolate, knitting and Inspector Morse 😉. Mind you it's DH's turn to pick our Saturday night film tomorrow and Robocop is anything but cosy!

MillQueen

@Dakota_Rose, I am glad you love your house too and those things sound beautiful - they sound like a good investment in terms of adding value as well 😍. Yes, don't quit 🤣. What colour door do you want? I too get excited at the thought of built in bookcases. I'd like to turn the dining room into a library.

@ArtyJ931, OMG I am so jealous of your Minton floor! This is a stylish choice to paint the walls to suit the tiles. I keep seeing people stripping the paint from stair rails and adding a runner, and I'd love to do all that at some point, but I'm just not really much of a decorator unless I'm paying someone else.

Spent £11.62 on yellow sticker items, but no other spends today: I got mixed mushrooms, and shitake mushrooms, a bag of pears, bag of sweet potatoes, small toast loaf, large kefir, pizza, gnocchi, 2 packs of zero salt stock cubes, strawberries, tomatoes, cavalo nero, mixed peppers, 6pts of milk.

I am thinking I'll do something with the peppers, shitake mushrooms and gnocchi tomorrow and that will last a few days and probably be a nice work lunch for my late shift on Monday. Also will roast the sweet potatoes to take for work lunches. I like cavalo nero best on top of a bean stew or vegetable soup, but I haven't got particularly great ingredients for that, so I'll maybe make the potato soup I was thinking of doing, with a tin of whatever beans I've got in the cupboard stirred in, the cavalo nero on top, and maybe even a bit of crispy chilli oil and whatever seeds I've got. Mushrooms on toast will also be an easy thing to have for a weeknight tea (this is one of my favourite cheap meals). If I can get to midweek with what I have then I will be happy, even better if I can be creative and last until next weekend.

I am trying to get to the end of the month without putting the heating on, but I am pretty cold now. I've put a hoody on and wrapped up in some blankets and a hot water bottle, to watch Twilight with some kefir and strawberries and a cup of bedtime tea. I have been reading about a "no buy year" in which you only spend on essentials, food, utilitues and petrol, and I think I will give this a go next year, at least as a "low buy year", though I like the idea of the full on version. Might give it a go until Xmas to see what it's like.

MillQueen

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82163838#Comment_82163838

@Blackcats, I have just seen this and moved to the best sofa, as you have reminded me 🤣. Happy Fredagsmys to you too! I have got some chocolate brazils hidden (in a place where I will need a ladder to reach them as I was very determined not to eat them before treat time - the trouble is that it's worked a little too well and now I can't be bothered to get them). Gosh yes Robocop isn't quite the relaxing watch you'd hope for is it. I was going to go for Twilight, but decided it's too gloomy. I need to get the most out of my netflix subcription, but I always end up reading instead. What's the Victoria Sponge tea like? I've not opened mine yet, just the sticky toffee one.

Chocolatefund

I’ve also thought about a no buy year, but I’ve still got some final renovation plans for the house. There’s also too much stuff for the house that I still want. A proper wardrobe being one of them.

I think Id have to get my house exactly how I want it before I attempt it.

MillQueen

@Chocolatefund, well I guess you could have a "buy only what you want for the house" year and not buy other stuff. Life's too short to never have what you want and be depriving yourself.

I'm in a bit of a stage where I'm prioritising financial security, as I need to get into a better place with that, and for me it's more important to do that than buy things for the house currently.

Dakota_Rose

Our heating made a guest appearance yesterday evening but is back off again for now. I’m really cold tonight but can’t complain when under a snuggly duvet with thermal socks and warm clothes on. We never have the heating on overnight whatever the season.

We’d like a wooden front door that we can paint to match our nice garden gates - a pebble kind of colour. It’s a pretty shade and complements the render of the house quite well. You’ve just reminded me of the stairs and runner we’d like to have done too. I could spend a fortune and become very overwhelmed if I thought about renovating all at once. Since we’ve really settled in, I’ve managed a kind of renovation blindness - I don’t really notice the things that need doing so much anymore.

Did you go for Twilight in the end?