Help calm me. House buying and selling stress

Karmalady I wish that we had thought of the cleaning 23 years ago when we bought our bungalow, in our defensive though we didn’t think we would be here for long.
However, glass paned internal doors are an absolute nightmare, but they let in so much light, I grit my teeth and clean each pane on 6 doors, both sides! regularly and wonder why no one uses the door handles, why do they just push the glass?

We've gone down to 5 degrees here and freezing fog! Such a change from yesterday!

I wonder if anyone thought ahead to ease of cleaning, it did not cross my mind when I was buying

We are heading to cooler temperatures, hitting frost temperatures from thursday, The warmth has been a nice distraction

Sorry to hear about your bike problem karmalady.

I agree that having an easy to maintain home and garden is of great benefit when retired. Saying that I've just realised it's mow the lawns day, hell! I so hate doing it.

In my old house, I only had enough energy to hoover upstairs/downstairs on alternate days, it was just too large. Now it takes about ten minutes to do all of the rooms!

I was talking to my neighbour about 'bungalow' living and how I was still getting used to it. Apparently she fell downstairs at her previous house, carrying a ladder. Her foot turned backwards under her, snapping her ankle and the doctor warned her they might have to amputate. They saved it with many steel pins, luckily. I'm going to make more effort to enjoy single level!

A lasting legacy from your son. I am glad you had a good day Franbern

I was just now thinking how nice it is to have a home that is easy to manage and to keep clean. Bonus as I don`t like housework. I made 7 vegan bolognese packs for the freezer this morning. I am not vegan but do like meatless meals. That will fill up the empty space in my ready meal drawer

I have bike repairs this week, complicated but I need to replace a tyre and that involved dismantling the hub gear. Tyre ordered, very tough to get that type on, then replace wheel onto bike, fix chain and hub gearing and then fine tune my v brakes. I`ll just say that I did a very long and extremely hilly ride yesterday on my e bike, without tools, it ended up taking me 4 hours because of an unforseen problem, I was exhausted and ended up walking 3.5 miles home. Lesson learnt. The replacement tyre is to make sure I avoid a blowout ie a big bang and an uncontrollable bike. Hills are very steep here, in certain areas.

Having an easy to manage home was not on my list when looking to buy but is actually very important as we age. I would rather spend my precious time on my hobbies than on housework

How lovely Fran to have all your son's friends & family remembering him in such a pleasant way with you and your DDs . 20yrs on and still dearly remembered by so many says a lot about your son.

Very glad to hear it was such a positive experience Franbern. Happy Mother's Day x

Franbern it sounds a bittersweet day for you, so pleased that so many came out to honour your son.??

I know this is OFF TOPIC, but I must report what a wonderful afternoon I had yesterday. Train to Paddington was uneventful, then got down to the tube to discover that TWO lines had just been closed (no idea why). Glad I had a daughter with me, so she found another route with two tubes - very packed. then short taxi ride. Could not believe how many people came to the twenty year memorial for my lovely son. A sprinkling of MP's etc. One of my daughters quoted Terry Pratchett as how some people make such an indelible mark during their lifetime, and that whilst people are talking out someone with love, they remain alive.

My son had 25 far too short years, he packed so much into it and so twenty years later there was this large number of people who remembered him so very well,and put themselves out - on a beautifully sunny Saturday afternoon to come along to celebrate his life. I had a few tears, but on the whole it was a joyous occasion.;

After he died I took all the hundreds of cards and letters, etc and put them in the largest photo album I could find at the time. (Amongst them a letter from Tony Blair - at that time the PM). I even took all the little cards off the fifty plus floral tributes and kept those. I took this album with me, and it was left on a table, and so many people were delighted to be able to go through it.

Arrived home, very tired, at 11.00 pm last night with some wonderful memories.

karmalady

Mine was state pension topup yogi, not nat insurance. It was offered to all several years ago. Like a mini annuity. I am glad I got it, all annuities are expensive and die with the recipient.

I think I will start by circling necessary info with a red pen, that will make me evaluate it twice and I can do it in small steps

National Insurance is state pension Karmalady I was missing 3 whole years and 3 partial, how that can happen I don't know, can only think it was when I swapped from paper tax return to online. But the partial when I pay yearly is strange!

I honestly think that you would do well to get a structural engineer around for advice and a report. They may advise some waterproofing membrane of some sort and perhaps timber would be ok on top of that. Either way they would advise on below floor ventilation before you do anything. That would need to be sorted first. I would not go by forum advice, you need that professional report before you consider flooring. Then you can be specific with a builder. It is a very big expense, don`t cut corners at this stage

our last house, eco, had a heat sink floor, concrete with stone tiles on top. We had big windows and it was south facing and absorbed heat when the sun was lower in the sky. In summer it did not have solar energy on it because it was shaded by a verandah when the sun was high

It`s fairly complicated wrt to position. If the sun is going to blaze on the floor during summer, then maybe think twice, it might make the room too hot. If there is not too much sun then it might well make a perfect heat sink

www.smarterhomes.org.nz/smart-guides/design/thermal-mass-for-heating-and-cooling/

Thanks Oopsadaisy1. My friend also has concrete floors and thinks they are marvellous, but I could be looking at triple the cost of floorboards apparently so £30K.

Great idea Franbern, I used to that in my early days of marriage, got out of the habit. I hope tomorrow goes well, it's so nice your late son's friends want to celebrate his life in this way. Have a safe journey and I hope you have a quiet Mother's Day on Sunday x

SHandy, if you paid for your tv with any sort of plastic or even a cheque, you could probably find details as to how you paid, and when and from whom on one of those statements.

Whenever I purchase ANY new item for the home I staple the receipt inside the front cover of the instruction booklet for that item. This also helps should I later wish to re-sell that item (as I will be doing with my larder fridge, under-the-counter freezer and worktop water boiler (after my kitchen is done). So, when I sell these I will be able to show the purchasers exactly how old they are, how much was paid originally, as well as giving them the instruction booklet.

Have had a quiet day - tomorrow have a trip (afternoon and evening) to Central London to attend a 20th anniversary get-together with my youngest son's old workmates for the anniversary of his death,. Wonderful, that they remember him so well, the suggestion for this came from them. My other AC were all attending, but one of them has had to cancel as she is still testing P+ for Covid. All the others will be there. Going to be a slightly sad, very nostalgic afternoon. Train to London early afternoon, and will arrive back here very late (for me) Saturday night.

I have just has my invite from local surgery to get my next booster and have booked for next Saturday morning.

Google it thoroughly Shandy I think it has to be insulated and waterproofed? And get a reputable company in with a guarantee.
we have concrete floors already in our bungalow, it’s about 70 years old and the concrete has started to go like sand. A weak mix MrOops says. (Although it is 70 yrs old,)
However, it’s going to be covered either with a new carpet and underlay or oak flooring, as it’s far to expensive to dig up and replace.
Another job to be done.

I worry about the cost of replacing items, and have foolishly lost the receipt for my new smart tv.

Can I ask if anyone here has ever had their floors replaced with concrete? My bungalow is 96 sq m, I'm having to have about 75 sq m replaced.

I received my new saga home insurance renewal quote today, I am very happy, they have added some good things including escape of water and increased cover for each bicycle. etc I have a lot of expensive stuff, hobby, maintenance stuff etc and contents is a standard 75k with standard buildings up to 1 million. . Frozen food is insured up to contents cover etc its a really comprehensive policy so I am happy to renew £40 less from last year, price held for 3 years.

Having heard about a person being underinsured and a fire from her next door, I am always cautious about being properly covered. Two years before dh died, we went around and photographed everything, including in drawers. I still have the pictures but should really do it again. We assessed everything, item by item and believe me we were underinsured after we totalled it up. we had to double contents cover. Insurance on that eco house had to be specialist and was over £600, so £239 is pleasing

oh my goodness, worth checking

www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/married-women-missing-state-pension-boost/#auto

re underpaid state pensions, I think I may be one of those. It looks as though they are sifting through records now, putting over 80s and widowed women at the top of the list. I won`t need to do anything but wait. I would be in part 2 of the automatic topups list. Fingers very much crossed

Mine was state pension topup yogi, not nat insurance. It was offered to all several years ago. Like a mini annuity. I am glad I got it, all annuities are expensive and die with the recipient.

I think I will start by circling necessary info with a red pen, that will make me evaluate it twice and I can do it in small steps

Morning all

Lovely sunny day

New patio doors fitted yesterday and they are sooo nice, really pleased with them, makes that room look so much bigger and brighter, I'm very happy!

I topped up my nat. insurance too Karmalady didn't see a deference this month but next month I should get about £120 more per month!

I remember that dh had to take some contracted out pension and the result is that I now get £79 a month after being widowed, static ie no increases. I looked into it after dh died and kind of worked it out then and tbh cannot be bothered looking into it any more.

I paid a large amount of money to increase my state pension by £25 a week. I worked out at the time that I needed to live for 14 years to make it worthwhile, I cannot remember the date off the top of my head. I never appreciated that I would have to count that in tax calculations, foggy head so may have been soon after dh died

I found the two older smaller finance books, very messy again, going back to 2004. I really will be methodical picking out what I need now and going forward. I have already taken my on-going `dying tidy` file out and will have to sort that too in order to provide up to date information

It is so much psychologically easier to just do house maintenance. I bear in mind that none of us can forsee the future. My mother was living happily in her house and had a stroke, was than in a care home for a number of months. All out of the blue

No not yet, I get mine six monthly. Only peanuts so I'm not excited!

Have you had an up to date forecast shandy, so you know exactly what will be coming in?

Morning all, 52F this morning!

At least the interest rates are going up karmalady. I do feel for the people that have stretched themselves 'offering over' with mortgages. When we bought in 1987 the interest rate was high and we didn't have two pennies to rub together, it was miserable.

Martin Lewis is saying to ditch the ISA as rates are only 0.8, whereas fixed rates are 1%, so anyone with less than £100K in savings won't pay tax anyway. I'm going to make sure my money works for me this year, State pension next April thank heavens!

I remember shandy, it is funny now but wasn`t for you at the time

I have just looked at my bank account. at some savings interest that came in today, reality is that it is 1/4 of what it was last year when it was a decent fixed rate. Urghh

I still need to plod on with my new finances/info/passwords book, I have only done some basics so far but not during the nice weather. Painter is coming to do the last room next week, I will do it then. I have house insurance in two weeks and will continue with the company I have now. So painter and insurance plus council tax starts again in april, I do 10 monthly payments. May will see me back on an even keel but I am going to add up all my big bills plus some extra for maintenance, christmas and birthdays and divide by 12, will transfer that amount every month into a different bank savings account as a holding fund. Crikey this reminds me of dividing the months money and keeping it in envelopes in a drawer. Upside is that it worked then and will work now.