May 07 - W/C - 19th Feb 07

[Frenchsmallfry]

Happy Monday................

[ShowOfHands]

Maple syrup? Never had it- vaguely heard of it. Is it nice? I'm such a country bumpkin, never had KKs, haven't a clue what maple syrup is and as my ridiculously long and boring story will attest, I don't own a mobile phone. I am, however, resolved to get one now.

[scootermum]

No havent moved it.Its just fed up.Buzzing agin loudly this morning when I left in the wee small hours.Well 6.30 but felt like 4 am to me.Am shattered...

Have emailed you lwatkins-package will be in post tomorrow..

Felt quite sick after pancakes last night.Well did have 4 with syrup so hardly surprising.DH off to football cest soir, his back having miraculously recovered enough to allow him to go, so will be just dd and I.Hopefuly she will go to bed like a little lamb and I will be left to eat my microwave tea for one in peace.I bet I will be in bed by 7.30 at the latest.Thats the plan anyway!Except that Life on Mars is on, which I like.Well I like John Simm anyway.Sky plus.Its a wonderful thing..

Its v quiet on here these last two days.Hope everyone is ok..
Asessor coming in 30 mins.I hope he doenst give me a hard time as I may lose it with him.Hopefully he will look at my hagard face and take pity..(hmm)

[scootermum]

Dont get one.I once lsot mine for three weeks and I loved it.But then I suppose it is useful for emergencies..

Bit dissapointing the house then?
We saw one, (despite us 'not really looking') at the weekend, which was like that, needed a ton of work but would be lovely when done and it was going for a song.A few years ago I would've jumped at it.Now I just think it might be too much hassle..I have grown very lazy in my old age I think!
We had a chap come round to our house from up the lane the other day.(Its not even on the market but dh had been talking about it in the lcoal pub as we got it valued just to see what it might be worth).He said he was very keen on buying it and offered us 5 k under the asking price.We said we would want the asking price for it.He said that would be fine and would just check with his mortgage company and get back to us.He hasnt rung yet.Im not even sure I want to move and yet that fact that he hasnt rung is really annoying me.
Should I go and give him a knock do you think?

[Juicylucytoo]

Have to make my own pancakes tonight and eat them on my own DH is out on a boys day/night out and doesn't know what time or what state he will get home in.
I hate being pregnant. He has all the fun these days and I'm just tired all the time.

And to top it all I thought I had a cunning scheme - plan was to buy loola AND light pushchair off ebay for the same price (ish) as a bugaboo off ebay would be (about £300). Now there's a thread dissing (sp) loolas, which has started me off again. Confused, tired and hate my job and it's not even Wednesday!!!

[scootermum]

Ah, ignore the thread juicy.My friend said she hated Pand t's the other day.I closed my ears to such blasphemy...

Chin up ducky..here is some of my chocolate to pep you up..(hands it over)

[ShowOfHands]

Chocolate?

House was fine, could be fantastic. Is habitable as is but needs an overhaul, just the right level of project I suppose. However, have been stung by previous experience and can't get excited by the whole thing. Especially with sealed bids. I think there's little chance of us getting it so I won't get my hopes up.

JL I'll come and have pancakes with you in spirit!

[scootermum]

Here it is..Caramel..cant stop eating it at the moment.NO WONDER MY BACK IS SO FAT.

what is a sealed bid?

[ShowOfHands]

We write down how much we are prepared to offer, any other info ie if we are in a chain, if we already have a mortgage offer, deposit etc and submit to the estate agents. The vendor reads all of the bids and decides who is the winner.

Like a crap lottery.

[lillaura]

just seena lovely double stroller one side pink one side blue!!!!!!!! here

[Creena]

God! Just write a massive post but it seems to have disappeared into the ether. I hate it when MN does that! Anyway, what I was asking was...

SOH - sounds a lot like the house buying process that exists in Scotland to me. How did you feel about the house once you'd viewed it? Did you like it enough to be up for going through a bidding process? Then having to refurbish it etc if your bid was successful?

[Juicylucytoo]

Chocolate - what a fab idea. Accepted with thanks

Re Buggy nightmare. Am not going to make a decision this week, I think that's the best idea. Will just watch ebay and see how I feel next week.

Sealed bids. That's pants. Hope you get lucky SOH.

[ShowOfHands]

Incredibly similar to the Scottish system Creena, they're only doing it this way because of the amount of interest. And I think they hope they can convince people to offer a lot more than the original asking price- as often happens in Scotland.

I like the house, would be happy to do the work to it. I am not offering any more than the original asking price though as it was valued at that and in my very humble opinion, is worth that. I do think we'll be outbid though, in which case the hunt continues...

[Creena]

That sucks, SOH! I don't really like the sealed bids process at all. I just think that it makes vendors greedy and gives them unrealistic expectations about how much they should be getting for their houses. I think you're being sensible by deciding on what you think the house is worth and sticking to it, rather than getting carried away by the whole horrible competitive nature of the bidding process and offering more than the house is worth, just so you can 'win' it. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you - all the other positive factors you've got going for you are bound to heavily influence the vendor.

House hunting is still very much on the back burner round these parts, especially since the big 'to do' we had about it a little while ago! It raised its ugly head this weekend though; sadly, it's not something that can be easily discussed or resolved. DH is very stubborn. I did inform him during this weekend's 'discussions' that, if he still feels that we can't move house unless I rturn to work immediately after having the baby, then I guess we're not moving house then. Rather childish of me I suspect, but I think it kind of made the penny drop for DH with regard to our present situation. He said, in a stunned tone of voice "but we'll never cope! We don't have enough room as it is without the baby even being here yet!" No shit, Sherlock.

[scootermum]

You sound in a simialr situation to us Creena.We live in a tiny two up two down cottage with a postage stamp back yard.It will certainly be snug with two lo's and us in it..
But we are toying with the ideas of getting a bigger mortgage and buying a bigger house and struggling for a few years till DH qualifies as an accountant or option 2 releasing equity in our house and paying off debts which would ease our situation alot and also allow us to do some improvements to the house so when we do move after dh is qualified we will be in a slightly better postion, or third option, None of the above..

Plus if we move will have to keep the house tidy for viewings to try to sell ours which I cant be bothered to do.
DH keeps saying,'but if we move into a house that only costs such and such but still get the bigger mortgage we will have a bigger house and be able to pay off our debts'.He doesnt seem to get that any house that allows us to do that will either be in a harry horrendous location or no better than what we currently have size wise.I think he truly believes that somehow we will stumble on a seriously underprices but very lovely 3 bed cottage in the county and the vendor will jsut give it us cheap becuase he likes the cut of our jib!
Decisions, decisions..
Is anyone on here a financial advisor?Thats what we need...

[Juicylucytoo]

My very considered financial advise is...Win the lottery!!

Well that's our plan anyway

[notsolilKel]

JL, I'll have some pancakes with you too. I'll even bring round the real maple syrup. And I think your plan re the buggies is a good one. You're def going to want a lightweight one by the time bubs hits 6mo just because they're so much easier to manage. And of course you want the all-singing-all-dancing deluxe Loola now. Presto, Ebay to the rescue. Got to love Ebay...

SOH your story of the househunt was so sad. I could just see you on the verge, crying I think you're being quite wise in not getting hopes up. Just put your bid in, tell your story, and play up the fact that you're ready NOW. This has real value with sellers, believe me.

As for homes in general, we're also stuck in a small place with a second on the way. Granted it's our own fault for creating bambino no 2 in the first place. We thought about moving this year (like, now) but after viewing some places in our current price range, there was no way. Better to sit tight for another year, pay off a few debts, and go for a bigger place in a nicer area next year.

Though our place is only 2bd, it's not like we live in a tent - plenty of people round the world squeeze big families into small homes and manage somehow. that's what I keep telling myself anyway - ask me again when I've got DS and DD-to-be screaming in their cots in one room ----

I did hear from some sage person that it's good to have kids share bedrooms because then if you ever get more bedrooms you can dedicate them to playroom or guestroom...

Clearly I've seen too many TV shows with names like "A Place in Paradise" and "Makeover in 30 seconds"...!!!

[scootermum]

o well, at least I wont be the only one with two under two in the same room then Kel.We can compare notes when the time comes...

Asessor has been and gone and is happy with work so far thank God.Am having a night off from it tonight and will resume tomorrow night at it, fresh as a daisy!(Or not)

One more meeting for me today then off home as shattered..
Speak to you tomorrow all..

[Juicylucytoo]

If our house purchase actually goes through we'll have more room, but will need a lottery win to do all the rennovations which are needed to make it a dream home. This all assumes I don't kill the estate agent before we exchange or the vendor vicariously through him. We were told the completion date would be end of June (as tennants need to vacate), now it's 21st July - 2 days after DH goes back to work after being home for 8 weeks. Talk about crappy timing. Estate agent suggested I could still take possession and just move later - oh yes and pay two mortgages for a month, yeah we've really got that kind of cash. Ar*ehole

Will save a pancake for you NLK - these will be my very first pancakes, so you may want to pass on the first few

[Juicylucytoo]

BTW - I shared a room with my sisters for years - did me no harm, honest .

Plus this is really common in Germany among my friends to let the kids share until they are 5 / 6 or even older, even if it's a boy and girl. Seems to work really well.

[Creena]

Scoots - my DH is exactly the same! He genuinely believes that we will just happen upon a spacious, smartly done up house in a quiet, perfect area, all for about...ooooh....tuppence! Or that he'll be strolling down the street one day and someone will rush up to him, saying "Here! Have my lovely house! For free!"

Anyway. I plan to start having a massive clearout soon. Anything ebayable will be ebayed; I'm going to hire a skip and throw away loads of tat that we just seem to have accumulated; I'm going to fill numerous cardboard boxes with all of DH's IT paraphenalia (several thousand cables and wires, microphones, blank CDs etc) and put them into the garage. I'm going minimalist (at least until the baby arrives, anyway)!

I've also finally got around to creating a profile. The photo gallery is not for the faint hearted.

[notsolilKel]

JL curious about these German friends of yours with sharing bedrooms. My DH is German -- our conversations are quite hilarious sometimes due to Lost In Translation type of colloquialisms...

mmm pancakes strike me as a yummy afternoon snack mmm

[notsolilKel]

funny thing about thinking you're going to move house, and then not... last autumn we listed our house (part of our short lived pipedream to move to bigger house before bubs2 arrives). Anyway after all the tidying up for showing the house (which is SUCH a pain) and finishing those bits we put off for ages (shelves in hallway, fresh linen on the kitchen table) our house looked so nice I actually felt like staying in it for awhile!! Course stupid Next Directory got the best of it - bloody matching sets of curtains - grrrrrr

[Creena]

Yep, it's the whole getting the house read to sell malarkey that I don't enjoy! Back when we were supposed to be selling, I got a painter and decorator around to do the big decorating jobs that we'd been putting off. I wish I'd known then that DH would change his mind as I could have saved myself some money. I also had really atrocious morning sickness at the time and breathing in paint fumes and having to make endless cups of tea for the decorator was not what I wanted to be doing at the time!

[Juicylucytoo]

Lilkel - Yes all my friends in Germany with 2 kids don't have the bedrooms to give them seperate rooms, but apparently it's really common to share. I also lived with a family and the kids (boy and girl) shared a room and I got the spare room. They were about 7 and 9 before they got their own rooms.

Also my sister put her boys back in together so they wouldn't wander into her room during the night.

I didn't get my own room until I was 10. I don't get the british obsession with giving 1 year olds their own room!!

[LupinsBigLump]

SOH I was watching location location or relocation one of thise the other day - someones sealed bid got accepted and it £140,000 higher than the next lowest bid - all fell through because they felt they got ripped off - good luck hope it all goes well

We would love to buy but we pay out soooo much every month in rent and bills and dp being self employed we never have enough left over to save deposit

Lillaura - not seen a buggy like that b4 - quite cute

Had yummy pancakes last night - will have more tnit I love em

My typing hand is very achy, I have just stuck another 200 items on my picturetrail (all girls if any of you need some girly clothes) cant believe ther was soooo much - didnt look that much in the cupboard

Top tip for achy legs and feet - especially swollen restless ones - lye on your left side as much as possible - remarkable improvement today - aparently your vena cava is on the right and it gets squished and doesnt pump as well - so lye on left and it can flow better when you sleep