Light the fire...

woodfired · 7 November 2017 at 8:50PM

Hi All :wave:

After lurking for a few years and having been inspired by lots of the amazing stories on this board I have decided that its time to join in and post my (our) journey.

I am a mum of two (DD is 8, DS is 3) and have been married to my lovely DH for 10 years.
We moved into our current house 4 years ago. We paid £150k for it and spent around £85k re-modelling and extending. Its now valued at around £300k with a mortgage of £135 900 outstanding, current term is 22 years 5 months. TBH the mortgage is only this high as we released £100k of equity to purchase a business 7 years ago. Said business is still going strong but there are changes afoot which I will explain later.

Anyway the plan is to attempt to pay of the mortgage and business loan (£83k) in 10 years so that we can both work part time in our little shop and enjoy a bit more freedom. I think this target is realistic but hope to shave even more off this timeframe with the help of you lovely people!

Thanks for reading
Woodfired.x

woodfired · 7 November 2017 at 9:02PM

So off we go!
Our fixed rate was up last month and I managed to re-fix just before the rate rise was announced in last weeks budget. We are now on 1.64% saving £52 per month. Also switched my phone to pay as you go and along with a 2% pay rise I found approx £95 extra to overpay each month. So I rounded this up to £300 and rang the bank! This alone should bring the term down to around 14 years so a good start but room for improvement.

We do have around £12500 in savings but a chunk of this is earmarked to be ploughed back into the business so I am also working to keep the savings topped up in addition to overpaying.

woodfired · 11 November 2017 at 4:30PM

A lovely day here, washing out on the line, will hopefully dry before it goes dark.

Esse is lit in the kitchen (wood fired and fed by the off-cuts from FIL's joinery business) which will heat up the hot water tank for showers later and keep the house warm by feeding the underfloor heating. The hot water tank is in a small attic room that gets really warm as a result and so is used as my laundry room, it is great for drying washing in the winter as we don't have a drier. I sometimes dry washing on the Esse itself (it is like an Aga cooker, not a stove), however, I have to be careful as it can get very hot and scorch clothes. The system cost a fortune to install but saves us loads on heating and cooking costs and besides that I just love having a toasty warm kitchen whenever we have it lit!

Quite MSE today, spent the moring tidying the house and washing windows, now having a quiet hour with DS in front of the stove in the lounge. Will throw some chicken thighs, chorizo and vegetables in the Esse for dinner and try to resist the lure of the takeaway! Happy saturday everyone!

greent · 11 November 2017 at 6:58PM

Esse sounds fab!

x

wishingthemortgaheaway · 12 November 2017 at 6:43AM

I'm assuming the house was in pretty dire need of a refurb if you managed to double its value with the work you did.
You will have to share the story. (I'm a complete Rightmove lurker)

Good luck on your journey. It sounds like you will smash it.

woodfired · 12 November 2017 at 10:03AM

Hi there Greent & wishing!
Thanks for stopping by

The story starts in 1996 when my lovely DH had the foresight to buy (at the tender age of 20) his first house. It was a total wreck that took years to renovate but he paid only £24000. Years later we added a double extension (it was a terraced cottage with garden) to make it 3 bed with a large kitchen. We sold it in 2012 for £221000. I don't think (and certainly hope) this can ever be repeated but it helped us buy our business and we are so grateful that it did. Although if he had £100k to spend back then we would be laughing now!! Hindsight!

Anyway, we used to peek at the garden of the house we own now and dream of living here. It is 100 yards up the road from that first house and is similar apart from the fact we have 1/3 acre of secluded garden which is very unusual around here.

When it came on the market after the elderly owner died it was a complete bargain at £130k. However, ours wasn't even on the market and we knew it would go fast. We offered our friend (a builder) £20k to buy it, which would still be a bargain, and promised him the job of renovating it. It was on the market 2 days! Our house went on the market and sold 6 months later, at which point we could then complete on this. The upshot was we spent a little more than we would have liked on the renovation as we would probably have done more ourselves, however, it enabled us to buy the house we had be dreaming of and we were pleasantly surprised when it was valued at £300k.

woodfired · 12 November 2017 at 10:09AM

Just to add, it was a total mess! We knocked it back to four walls and the roof so we could lower the ceilings and make 2 bedrooms in the attic. We built a double height extension to increase floor space by almost 1/3. Obviously it was totally rewired, plumbed for our incredibly complicated Esse system that is designed by ourselves and pretty unique, new windows, doors, rendering knocked off an re-pointed, new floors and interior walls and hubby built an oak porch for the front. When I put it like that, I suppose £85k doesn't seem so bad......

Botherthatcat · 12 November 2017 at 10:26AM

Happy new diary! Good luck with your journey and congratulations on your refurbishment

woodfired · 12 November 2017 at 10:27AM

So I forgot to bring the washing in last night

luckily for me it is another beautiful day in the Ribble Valley so it will come in, hopefully dry, later.

I caved and got a takeaway last night, it has been a rough couple of days with the funeral of my best friends Dad on Friday who passed away very suddenly at only 65 last week. Makes you realise how short life can be, we must make the most of it.

We are planning to go for a long walk later and I really should do some work in the veg patch whilst it's dry. I know I left some potatoes in the ground when I gave up trying to find any that weren't riddled with nasty slugs :mad: I had tried a red variety which seemed better but the ones I left a bit longer in the ground were soon full of them. I'm a farmers daughter and pretty tough but i've cut through one too many slugs as I sliced potatoes in the kitchen, they do make a mess on the chopping board....

woodfired · 12 November 2017 at 3:25PM

Thanks Botherthatcat

Had to abandon the walk, it was just too cold. A beautiful bright sunny day but that wind is biting. DH carried on and I took the children to Grandma and Grandad's Farm where he walked to meet us.

Had a cosy brew instead whilst the children played with Grandad and now home, just waiting for a late lunch of corned beef pasties to bake. I'm not going to bother in the garden either, no fun at these temperatures! Will stay inside, sort uniforms and clothes for the week, plan our meals and generally keep warm. Should really mark some books (i'm a part-time teacher) but not sure if I can be bothered!

woodfired · 14 November 2017 at 9:14PM

Busy day today, been at work then came home to a list of jobs I would normally tackle tomorrow on my day off, however, taking friend who lost her Dad out for the day so trying to get organised tonight instead.

Have paid the wages and submitted payroll info to HMRC, fed us and the children. Just completed an online shop to arrive tomorrow after school (£2 delivery) which totaled only £45 and should feed us through til Wednesday next week. I have lots of meat in the freezer and have planned out our meals (not that we ever manage to stick to this!) We are also very lucky to use a lot of the stock from the shop as top ups and for milk, bread etc. I also often buy meal (and prawns when on offer) from the wholesalers in bulk which helps keep costs down. I don't actually 'pay' for these items, they are classed as a disposal and so feel as though they are free, although obviously they aren't!

I am now catching up on diaries whilst prepping a few bits for the sandwiches we make at home each morning for our shop. We get up at 6am and make 25-35 sandwiches before leaving for work at 7.30. It's hard work but an important income stream for the business and we haven't been able to find anyone reliable enough to do the job instead!

So all in all a busy but productive day, I might now sneak a tiny glass of homemade damson brandy whilst watching Nigella as it's my day off tomorrow. I feel i've earned it!

Enjoy your evening!

Light the fire...

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