.... That is the question.
Do we go for it? Or do we back out? We had our second offer accepted and if we don't pull out we are due to complete on the 9th April.
We had the survey done today and as expected the house is a complete and utter DIY bodge-job. And the two things that we thought we could wait and do later are things that we need to get done sooner, and a couple of other things need doing before we even think about decorating. The attic and roof need sorting out, which we could have waited to do but will need to at least get the basics done now; and we wanted to save up and get proper sash windows put in but as the existing windows need replacing as a priority we'll have to sacrifice other aspects of the work to get them done first too.
How long could I stand to live in a building site? How bad do I think a building site could be? I guess if people can build their own house while living in a caravan - and get pregnant and have baby while living in said caravan - I think I can manage living in a bedroom. That's what we'll have, in reality. A kitchen that functions but is only temporary, a bathroom that functions but is only temporary, and a bedroom for the three of us which will also be our living room and office until other rooms are finished.
I think it will be worth it. It will be hard work and a long hard slog but the prospect of having a family home at the end of it that Ben and hopefully his siblings can grow up in must be worth the effort.
Maybe I'll enter Ben into some "cute baby" competitions, and any prize money can go towards fixing up the house too....!
Monday, March 30, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Our house, in the middle of...
...our street.
Yep, we've been house-hunting again.
We went to look at a couple of places to buy on Saturday, and I ended up falling in love with a house I didn't even want to look at initially, because the garden backed on to the railway line. It's a shell of a house, and a repossession, but what a house. It's a pretty big old Victorian mid-terrace, with a front yard and a back garden bigger than our garden in Wythenshawe was. Two accessible and usable loft spaces, three bedrooms, upststairs bathroom/toilet, downstairs toilet, two reception rooms and a huge kitchen.
Put an offer in last night, it felt like a bit of a cheeky offer considering the asking price but, speaking to the estate agent, it's roughly what they would value the place at in its current condition anyway. And, circumstances being what they are (and my parents having a load of equity in their house) we are in a really good position. If the sellers say yes, we could own the place in a couple of weeks - the thing with my parents means that we don't even need to go through the rigmarole of setting up a mortgage!
Then the process begins of fixing it up. It really is a shell, it needs rewiring and replumbing, the main loft space needs making accessible, the kitchen needs sorting out, plastering and flooring needs doing in all the rooms, and we've said that as long as the kitchen is usable and our bedroom is done, we can move in and do the rest while we live there.
Here's hoping the sellers are amenable to our offer... or if they're not, that they at least give us an idea of how much they would accept!
Yep, we've been house-hunting again.
We went to look at a couple of places to buy on Saturday, and I ended up falling in love with a house I didn't even want to look at initially, because the garden backed on to the railway line. It's a shell of a house, and a repossession, but what a house. It's a pretty big old Victorian mid-terrace, with a front yard and a back garden bigger than our garden in Wythenshawe was. Two accessible and usable loft spaces, three bedrooms, upststairs bathroom/toilet, downstairs toilet, two reception rooms and a huge kitchen.
Put an offer in last night, it felt like a bit of a cheeky offer considering the asking price but, speaking to the estate agent, it's roughly what they would value the place at in its current condition anyway. And, circumstances being what they are (and my parents having a load of equity in their house) we are in a really good position. If the sellers say yes, we could own the place in a couple of weeks - the thing with my parents means that we don't even need to go through the rigmarole of setting up a mortgage!
Then the process begins of fixing it up. It really is a shell, it needs rewiring and replumbing, the main loft space needs making accessible, the kitchen needs sorting out, plastering and flooring needs doing in all the rooms, and we've said that as long as the kitchen is usable and our bedroom is done, we can move in and do the rest while we live there.
Here's hoping the sellers are amenable to our offer... or if they're not, that they at least give us an idea of how much they would accept!
Monday, March 09, 2009
When the brain takes over.
We've just had a really lovely morning. The one thing that I'd already paid to do, we didn't actually do, but in the end as it turns out the morning was just perfect really!
I've been designing an invitation for work (they won an award at the Sussex Food and Drink Awards!) for a champagne celebration. Nick needed a draft of it for this morning, and only gave me the information last Thursday. I'd emailed him a few draft ideas, and last night at about 10.30pm he emailed back saying I like this one, can you do it like this and can I have a printed draft by 10am in the morning?
Aaargh. The one he'd chosen was the one I'd not actually finished designing! So I spent another hour on it last night and decided I needed to go to sleep as the computer screen was beginning to swim.
This morning, and I still can't get over this, Ben's been so good! He's only been a tiny bit sick, he's not cried, he's been so good and actually really lovely company while I've been frantically trying to get his breakfast, my breakfast, designs finished and drafts printed all before 9.45am so we had enough time to run down to the shop with them.
Nick, bless him, called me a miracle worker again :) It's nice to be appreciated!
We were supposed to go to our mummy and baby yoga group after that, but after chatting to the girls in the shop (and Ben having cuddles) and a nappy change later, we actually set off from Steyning at 10.30am - which is when yoga starts. Ah well. But. Halfway down the Long Furlong (towards Durrington), I suddenly started thinking: Where is it I'm going this morning? Yoga. Yoga's in the Burlington, the Burlington is on the seafront. In Worthing. I'm going towards Durrington, which is where the mums and tots group is...
Half an hour later we parked up in Worthing and I decided that as we were already really late, we'd not try and rush to get there for 15 minutes, we'd have a leisurely wander through Worthing instead and meet up with the girls for coffee after they'd finished yoga. It all worked out - Ben had a 45 minute sleep, I had a 45 minute walkabout, I met the girls for coffee, walked back to the car with Bianca, met Libby halfway back, and got back home before Steve got in for lunch!
A lovely morning, all in all.
AND then Ben fell asleep in the car again on the way home and slept until 2pm. Fabulous.
I've been designing an invitation for work (they won an award at the Sussex Food and Drink Awards!) for a champagne celebration. Nick needed a draft of it for this morning, and only gave me the information last Thursday. I'd emailed him a few draft ideas, and last night at about 10.30pm he emailed back saying I like this one, can you do it like this and can I have a printed draft by 10am in the morning?
Aaargh. The one he'd chosen was the one I'd not actually finished designing! So I spent another hour on it last night and decided I needed to go to sleep as the computer screen was beginning to swim.
This morning, and I still can't get over this, Ben's been so good! He's only been a tiny bit sick, he's not cried, he's been so good and actually really lovely company while I've been frantically trying to get his breakfast, my breakfast, designs finished and drafts printed all before 9.45am so we had enough time to run down to the shop with them.
Nick, bless him, called me a miracle worker again :) It's nice to be appreciated!
We were supposed to go to our mummy and baby yoga group after that, but after chatting to the girls in the shop (and Ben having cuddles) and a nappy change later, we actually set off from Steyning at 10.30am - which is when yoga starts. Ah well. But. Halfway down the Long Furlong (towards Durrington), I suddenly started thinking: Where is it I'm going this morning? Yoga. Yoga's in the Burlington, the Burlington is on the seafront. In Worthing. I'm going towards Durrington, which is where the mums and tots group is...
Half an hour later we parked up in Worthing and I decided that as we were already really late, we'd not try and rush to get there for 15 minutes, we'd have a leisurely wander through Worthing instead and meet up with the girls for coffee after they'd finished yoga. It all worked out - Ben had a 45 minute sleep, I had a 45 minute walkabout, I met the girls for coffee, walked back to the car with Bianca, met Libby halfway back, and got back home before Steve got in for lunch!
A lovely morning, all in all.
AND then Ben fell asleep in the car again on the way home and slept until 2pm. Fabulous.
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
High Time...
... for an update.
Ben had his final immunisations today, the final set until he's 13 months old. I'm glad they wait until they're 13 months, it would be a pretty rubbish birthday present otherwise. So: today. Three injections, two in one leg and one in the other. By the 3rd injection Ben was mightily displeased, as you might expect, so we had a cuddle and a feed back in the waiting room, and he's now forgiven me (or forgotten it ever happened) and is back on the boob - at home, so mummy can have her cup of tea and her biscuits.
He's 4 months old now, and has finally reached 12lbs - that's about 5.4kg in new money. Still in 0-3 month clothes, but that's good - he got nearly 3 months' wear out of his newborn clothes and although he's filling out his 0-3month clothes lenthways, he's still a skinny lad (sorry, slender) and 3-6month stuff would likely fall straight off. After the worrying fortnight where he only put on 3oz, he then went on to put on 11oz the following fortnight!
I looked at his legs while I held the bits of cotton wool over the punctures, and couldn't help remembering how spindly they were for his first set of jabs. His legs are a lovely shape, he's growing so well. I'm trying to find some decent pictures to put in...
He's really started to enjoy his ladybird spinner that his auntie Ruth bought him, he can rotate all the way round by himself and loves playing with the different colours and textures and things. Crinkle Caterpillar is still a firm favourite though, he keeps Ben company in his car seat and on his bouncer and I'm hoping it's washable as the amount of drool Ben produces is phenomenal.
I attempted to start playing with food with Ben last week, but the "what's this muck?!" face, together with tummy aches, has put me off for a bit. I think I'm going to wait now until he actually shows an interest, trying to grab hold of my food, really trying to put anything and everything into his mouth. We tried banana (too slimy, didn't like it much!), apple and banana puree (same reaction as just banana), carrot (a raw stick - was gummed a lot but wasn't interested really) and toast (the best reaction. Evidently doesn't taste of much and feels nice to gum to death and then spit out with a sneeze). He'll suck soup off my finger quite happily, but not off a spoon, at least, not with the intention of swallowing it! So that's weaning postponed for now. Not that I'm desperate to wean - I'm actually kind of glad that I'm still preferable to anything else!
Other developments are his ability to roll from his front onto his back (I have sort of got video evidence of this, although I didn't get the camera far enough away and apart from Ben knocking his head on my knee there's no proof apart from my word that I didn't roll him over myself!), and he has discovered giggling - what a GORGEOUS sound that is! Looking forward to it being a frequent sound in the coming days.
He's growing so fast, too fast and not fast enough all at the same time.
Ben had his final immunisations today, the final set until he's 13 months old. I'm glad they wait until they're 13 months, it would be a pretty rubbish birthday present otherwise. So: today. Three injections, two in one leg and one in the other. By the 3rd injection Ben was mightily displeased, as you might expect, so we had a cuddle and a feed back in the waiting room, and he's now forgiven me (or forgotten it ever happened) and is back on the boob - at home, so mummy can have her cup of tea and her biscuits.
He's 4 months old now, and has finally reached 12lbs - that's about 5.4kg in new money. Still in 0-3 month clothes, but that's good - he got nearly 3 months' wear out of his newborn clothes and although he's filling out his 0-3month clothes lenthways, he's still a skinny lad (sorry, slender) and 3-6month stuff would likely fall straight off. After the worrying fortnight where he only put on 3oz, he then went on to put on 11oz the following fortnight!
I looked at his legs while I held the bits of cotton wool over the punctures, and couldn't help remembering how spindly they were for his first set of jabs. His legs are a lovely shape, he's growing so well. I'm trying to find some decent pictures to put in...
He's really started to enjoy his ladybird spinner that his auntie Ruth bought him, he can rotate all the way round by himself and loves playing with the different colours and textures and things. Crinkle Caterpillar is still a firm favourite though, he keeps Ben company in his car seat and on his bouncer and I'm hoping it's washable as the amount of drool Ben produces is phenomenal.
I attempted to start playing with food with Ben last week, but the "what's this muck?!" face, together with tummy aches, has put me off for a bit. I think I'm going to wait now until he actually shows an interest, trying to grab hold of my food, really trying to put anything and everything into his mouth. We tried banana (too slimy, didn't like it much!), apple and banana puree (same reaction as just banana), carrot (a raw stick - was gummed a lot but wasn't interested really) and toast (the best reaction. Evidently doesn't taste of much and feels nice to gum to death and then spit out with a sneeze). He'll suck soup off my finger quite happily, but not off a spoon, at least, not with the intention of swallowing it! So that's weaning postponed for now. Not that I'm desperate to wean - I'm actually kind of glad that I'm still preferable to anything else!
Other developments are his ability to roll from his front onto his back (I have sort of got video evidence of this, although I didn't get the camera far enough away and apart from Ben knocking his head on my knee there's no proof apart from my word that I didn't roll him over myself!), and he has discovered giggling - what a GORGEOUS sound that is! Looking forward to it being a frequent sound in the coming days.
He's growing so fast, too fast and not fast enough all at the same time.
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