The Writers' Lounge

Next week is shaping up to be really busy, and I'm not sure all of how I'm going to get everything done.

I ended up ditching the interview Tuesday. They sent me up the stairwell, and whilst I normally take stairwells, taking stairwells straight up to an interview when the stairwell is 30-40 degrees is not cool. By the time I got up three flights of stairs - especially in interview clothes - I was hardly fit for interview. And the building said a different company name. I bailed.

But when it rains it pours and I tentatively have a project coordinator interview next week. I think. They tried to invite me Monday, which doesn't work as an office day, so I asked them if they had any way to fit me in Friday, which I already had off for annual leave. Hopefully I can figure out a bettter interview outfit before then because I'm broke. 'Broke' anyway. I cut everything to the quick this month, figuratively speaking, cutting down credit limits. Still thinking it's a shame because I like the company where I work, and it has good benefits. But I can't stay there knowing I'll never move up. I'd like to get to a point where I'm making an average to above-average income. So that was pretty much that when they basically told me that there was no way to move up from being an admin unless they specifically put you in estates or compliance or whatever.

I also have my first meet and greet for an ad-hoc dog-walking client next week, they just need coverage on a Sunday. I'll be excited to use my Halifax account again. Any secondary income I'm putting straight into overpayments, so hopefully in future years I'll get closer to 20% overpayments anyway.

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On the house front - I was doing the maths and I don't think I really need to get more than £6,000 overpaid each year. I mean it'd be nicer to overpay the fully 20% each year, but looking at my income level and wanting to also put money into savings and retirement accounts, £6,000 gets the basics of where I want to go - the mortgage would be less than £400/month by 2030, so not a big deal if we got a second house. Especially if Patrick is also saving £500 into the joint account, meaning we'd have a hefty sum for a possible down payment on another place. Then we could be neighbours.

So, I'm thinking about using the house as project management experience, because it is. But I mean, I am thinking about actually charting it out with progress tracking, KPIs, etc. and posting updates on it on LinkedIn.

A basic rundown of it would be back-logging the projects getting the house purchased (stakeholders including my housemate, the mortgage adviser, banks, contractors, etc.), getting moved in, and then getting projects started over here.

Many projects are going to be done by myself, Patrick, and his dad, some of that involves training, so I guess those would be 'start to finish' and 'finish to start' projects.

Several of the projects - relandscaping, a bathroom extension downstairs, possibly extending the kitchen and bathroom upstairs (if not the bedroom), and getting a kitchen/utility room in are 'finish to start' projects completely contingent on getting gas installed. Getting converted to GFCH will mean we have the burner removed (space for a washer/dryer and kitchen table, getting a dishwasher in), the oil tank will be removed (to allow us to re-landscape.)

It would also force me to try to make a scope, budget, and timeline for the works and give ourselves goals because right now we've been waffling. I think five years is a good scope because it gives us time to financially recover from the moving and purchase, and it lets us try to save up for a second house in case we end up wanting to go our separate ways. It's a super long time for a project that would be as low-budget as ours, but since we're living in it and trying to do the work ourselves, I think that's fair. We're not a house-flipping show, we're a house-to-home project.

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ETA: I've been plugging it into Monday and I'm going to make a tracker on Excel I think, but, I think I will try to budget and plan for an ideal goal of 2028 for all of our House 2 Home project, but with a deadline of 2030. Because we're also trying to rebuild savings for emergencies or possibly getting a second house so we each have our own, so that slows things down a bit (plus, trying to do some works ourselves, which would mean timing things out to work with Patrick's dad and each others' schedules.)

The big things I'd like to make sure we get done this year are renewing the fencing and gates (for Jake), and getting converted to gas because so many projects can't start until that's done. The pet projects I'd really like to get done are re-doing the flooring in the sitting room, hall, stairs, bedrooms and landing.

By 2028 I'm hoping all of the stuff will be done aside from the extension. Solar panels, gas conversion, flooring, decoration, patio out front, etc. If I'm diligent about overpaying the mortgage, we can possibly see about getting a loan to get the extension done too because Patrick's been sick a few times and we would really benefit from having two bathrooms. I'd like to get most of the landscaping done, but I don't see having a garden office in yet because those run £10-15K, but no one can tell the future. For all I know I'll get a job that pays an extra 10-20K a year sometime next year and have that much extra money to work with monthly.

Jake's been bouncing around the front door this morning and I went to check to make sure he was okay. He's been watching squirrels lol. I love this house.

I still can't believe we lucked out so much. We wouldn't have even gotten this place either, we were trying to get a sale on a completely different place, but it fell through because Nationwide detected damp and wouldn't mortgage it without £5k+ in repairs. Walking distance to hiking and two other parks that I know of, right outside a bus stop, bus route goes right by my eye clinic, grocers, etc.

Since I don't have court next week since they settled, I'm going to try to get housework done this long weekend. I don't have a lawnmower yet - I only want to get one of those little push lawnmowers, nothing fancy. I did get gloves and a rake so I can do some weeding.

It's a bit silly I guess - we're going to have to landscape both the front and back garden because the garden needs levelled. This is one of the things we knew before buying the house, so no concern there. But it does make mowing the lawn and weeding seem a little funny and it is definitely performative because there will need to be a lot of work done to it eventually. I have a pressure washer too, so I might see about doing that today as well. We were going to do it two days ago, but it needs some parts screwed together. But, I have more energy today.

In the end, I'm not sure if I'm landscaping to have a miniature dog agility course, or trying to get an urban farm out back. I suppose with all the squirrels and birds, it would be hard to grow food out there.

The other thing I might try today if I have the energy is removing the wallpaper in the sitting room. So we can hopefully patch and paint it this month (or if it needs replastered, see about getting someone out for that.)

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Patrick's doctor has finally been telling him what we've all known for a long time - he needs to lose weight. His blood pressure is sky-high and he's only 37. His legs are giving him trouble and he's trying to blame the weather, but he's been told from the get-go that if he puts enough weight on he could mess up the fused discs in his back and risk paralysis.

I'd say not my circus, not my monkeys, but he pays half the house-related bills so it is a bit my circus and a bit my monkeys and a large part of why I'm trying to make sure I overpay so much - if he keels over or becomes unable to work then I don't want us to not be able to afford the place. I also think he should be talking to the housing advisers at NIHE and keeping them updated on his situation. He said there's no point since he currently has a house but I pointed out given his health conditions he will want to keep that list updated for the day he ends up needing supported or sheltered accommodation.

But, we're doing really well for now. Currently we're putting in £400/month each - that covers the mortgage, the rates, the insurance, the internet, the electric and the heating. I think we should raise it at some point again and basically try to put money into our account like we have a £750 rent + utilities, insurance, rates. So that would be more like £550-600 each. We wouldn't actually be paying that much monthly, but it would build our savings for response and cyclical works (like getting a new cooker). And every time I overpay £1,000 our mortgage goes down so the amount we'd save per month would increase.

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I've been thinking about trying to study a STEM course through Open University. I mean, this isn't a new thought, it's been on my mind years. I always said if I could afford it I'd be a student my whole life, and over here I thought a formal qualification might help with getting jobs here. I think this is especially true the closer I get to 40 (I could then put that on my CV and have a recent graduation date instead of my degree from a university in a different country over ten years ago.)

But I was reading a few studies on protecting cognition as you age and basically how you 'use it or lose it' and I've been thinking getting back into formal education even on a part-time basis might be a good idea for subjects I found challenging and maybe even higher qualifications for the ones I was good at. Open University is generally pretty affordable, and I could try to do STEM subjects the way I always wished I could as a child - with 1:1 support (the money I'm not spending on a 'name brand' university I can hire a PhD student from Queens University Belfast to tutor me privately.)

So, that's something to think about. I wouldn't use the settlement money toward it, but I wouldn't need to - the settlement money will pay off debt I incurred during the time my arm was broken, and I've sold the car, so then basically all my expenses would be insurance and the house related items.