Well now, this changes everything

Well now, this changes everything

It seems life over the past year or so has been chugging along like an old steam train passing through the vast plains of the old American west. Occasionally it might approach a bend, or need to stop at a dusty wooden built town, but inevitably the steam cloud starts rising again and onward the train goes without much change of pace or purpose. This has been my life for the past couple of years; everything has been on autopilot and I’ve laid back to watch the scenery pass on by.

Perhaps I do myself an injustice there actually, I hardly lay back in the typical sense as I still maintain my 9-5 work, coming home every evening to then spend several hours working the online business and matched betting to make hay while the sun is shining… but it has just felt like all that came so naturally and without much thought. I’m incredibly content with that nice warm comfortable office job to be honest. I occasionally joke with coworkers that in 100 years time people will look back at photos of us in our modern open-plan office sitting at computers and proclaim how terribly sad and oppressed we must all be in much the same way we do so now when we look back at people in photos in Victorian workshops 100 years ago.

So you can imagine my surprise, and delight, when my wife presented me with a babygrow and assured me that she had indeed taken more than one test.. just to be sure.

This changes everything

The truth is that it did come as a massive shock to both of us. We hadn’t been trying in the stereotypical sense however we’d been not-not-trying  for a couple of years now. Honestly; I was beginning to think that perhaps it wasn’t meant to be and we could instead look forward to a life of lie-ins, tidy homes and the ability to go out whenever we wanted without having to bring a car boot’s worth of gear every time. So I was naturally delighted with the news, anxious in the lead up to the scans and then even more delighted to be able to share that news with both people in person and now all you internet strangers out there.

My train had arrived at San Francisco and it was time to get off and get to work! Physically; things had to change. Financially; things would change.

After discussing things, we had initially considered moving house. We’ve been in our current place for almost 5 years and while it is perfect for us currently there’s still alot of work which needs doing. We ran the figures and were shocked at the amount of stamp duty this government demands just for the privilege of being allowed to move home! That’s aside from estate agent fees, moving costs, solicitors and surveyors.. plus the time and stress of being in a moving chain. In the end we decided to stay put and instead invest some time and money into doing some of the work we’ve been putting off for these years.

I’ll now bore you all with some photos of my excellent (if I do say so myself) DIY and not-so-DIY skills.

Our back garden is on quite a steep slope, and as a result the old wooden fencing had started to rot away resulting in earth slipping down below. My cats were particular fans of this new shortcut through to their favourite litter box locations, I and the neighbours were not so much. This was one of the jobs I considered doing myself with the help of a friend but decided that the time required would just take us too long and I wanted it to be done properly so it’d stay sturdy. So I found a local small business to come and do the work, which they completed in half a day for the cost of £650:

fenceold
As you can see, the original fence had wooden boarding along the bottom which rotted away resulting in the nails coming lose and earth falling below it. The trees behind also started to branch forward which pushed against the top of the fence line. I had the whole line replaced with concrete gravel boards and close-board fencing.

fencenew

Next up was to sort out the loft. Apparently these small humans come with alot of excess gear and so we needed some additional storage space up in the loft. The previous owner had somehow managed to get an old front door up through the loft hatch and balanced it between beams to create a small storage area but we wanted much more. I decided to take the opportunity to also increase the amount of insulation up in the loft from a very patchy 100mm to 270mm. This task I felt comfortable DIYing so cracked on with it over a few evenings of beam headbanging and sore knees/elbows.

loft1

Here’s the loft as it was previously. The beams running between the insulation are 100mm high and the insulation should be at a constant level across the gaps. First job was to lay out new 170mm insulation going across the beams to rest ontop of the existing insulation. I then had to start putting down 200mm high loft legs to support the boarding which would be going on top

loft2
Once the legs were all down, I needed to saw the insulation roll to the right size and roll it out between the loft legs as i boarded over the top

loft3
I continued doing this down 2 rows to create a storage space and crawl space in order to reach everything easily. In the future I may add additional boards to bridge the gap in the middle but didnt feel it was required right now.

loft4
Total cost for all the insulation, legs, boards and screws was £160 which should be recovered over time from the heating savings.

Between the fence, loft, day job, matched betting, hospital appointments, seeing parents and somehow finding time to sleep it’s been a busy month so far. Next up on my list to do starting in the new year will be:

  • Clear out the garage, add shelving and reorganise
  • Clear out the spare (baby’s) room, re-carpet and wallpaper/paint
  • Fit new fire resistant doors on the bedrooms
  • Shift furnite into the dining room and add a door to the archway between that and the living room
  • Child-proof the kitchen, living room, garden and landing
  • Assemble all the baby’s room furniture, pram, car seat and mountain of accessories already gifted by friends/family

Finances

My wife and I are in a bit of a sticky situation with regards to her company maternity leave. We are 6 weeks short of her company’s required service to get the maternity leave pay and so are currently facing statutory maternity pay which is a weekly loss of over £500!! It’s incredibly frustrating to be looking at such a massive financial hit for the sake of 6 weeks worth of employment time and she’s talking with her HR department about it but that’s just how these things go. Fortunately we should be OK thanks to the decision not the increase the mortgage & move plus the extra money I bring in from matched betting. Depending on how she’s feeling next year, my wife may also continue tutoring privately in the evenings to bring in extra cash which would all be tax free as she would then be way below the threshold limit.

For the first time ever I took advantage of the Black Friday sales, plus my work’s cashback voucher scheme to purchase alot of the required furniture and pram/pushchair.  I’ve no doubt this was an extravagance and we could have easily gotten all of it 2nd hand for much cheaper but my wife understandably wanted these new and it was hard to argue against given the tens of thousands we’ve saved by not moving. In her words ‘if we can’t have a new house, I want at least some new things!’. 

Finally we still had a couple of thousand left over in the honeymoon fund from generous wedding gifts. As we’re soon to be very busy next year we decided to take one last holiday as a couple in January to New York. I’ve always wanted to go to New York and seriously considered heading that way instead of Australia for the gap year over a decade ago now. Following a horrific overnight flight back from Florida a couple of years ago I vowed to never again endure that in economy class and so we utilised the British Airways 2-for-1 voucher earnt from wedding spending on my American Express BA card, plus the Avios points, to buy 2 business class return tickets for the bargain price of £650 each.

That’s it from me. I hope you all have a lovely, and profitable Christmas & New year.

16 thoughts on “Well now, this changes everything

  1. Congratulations to you and Mrs ERG. Having a child will indeed change everything but TFS has shown that the plan to FIRE can be tweaked to accommodate! All the best for 2019!

  2. This is possibly the best blog post I have read from all of last year (I did actually read it in 2018 btw, just only gotten around to writing up a comment now!)

    Mega mega congratulations to both of you, you must be over the moon :)

    “I gave up alcohol almost 5 months ago now” – wow this is impressive. I’ve toyed with the idea a few times but always wussed out. I have no idea how you managed to stay so productive in the previous few years, if I drink too much I just end up doing nothing for the next few days. I just can’t hack the booze so I guess it’s my body’s way of keeping it in some sort of moderation!?

    The new fence and loft insulation/boarding look great, I do love a good few pics of DIY as you will probably know haha :) – I had to repair our fences last year and it was a right ballache, but luckily when we moved in our loft was already boarded and insulated, and is now full of empty boxes of baby gear and also some actual baby gear that we are saving in case #2 comes along some time soon :)

    ‘if we can’t have a new house, I want at least some new things!’ – totally understand this one. We did buy a few bits second hand but the majority of stuff you really want new for a baby don’t you. 2nd hand baby stuff can be pretty rank for obvious reasons! :)

    Enjoy your New York trip and hope you have a smashing 2019, sure it will be!

    1. Thank you for the kind words, we are both very happy especially as things seemed to be taking awhile to happen and I had started to think that perhaps it just wasn’t meant to be.

      Giving up alcohol has without a doubt been the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I think it says alot about the problem when I could actually continue to function relativley normally despite drinking huge amounts.. that ought to be a massive warning sign! The fact you are pretty much knocked out the next day following a heavy night shows your body hasn’t developed too much of a tolerance, which is certainly a good then. The first 2 weeks were pretty awful with bad headaches, drowsiness and awful sleep. I’m so glad to have gotten through that and it is perhaps the fear of having to go through it again which stops me wanting to get back on the booze.

      Glad you liked the DIY shots, I was reminded of your in-progress garden photos when I started the loft project so thought I’d do the same. The previous owner had done a real hatchet job in our loft with all sorts of different objects jammed between the beams. It was good to get up there and do a proper job once and for all, plus the extra storage space is already getting filled up as we try to empty the baby’s room.

      Hope you have a great 2019 as well.

  3. Wow, congratulations!

    I’ve been reading your blog for a while (it, among others, actually inspired me to start blogging in English), so for some reason I’m extra happy for you.

    -Eelis

  4. Great news about starting a family. Do you think once you see your baby it will change your mind on being frugal? I know many people that scrimp on themselves but want their children to have everything top quality. I am hoping to keep my nerve and frugal if we have a family.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *