So.
So so so.
I have finished placement. Quite sad really as although the stress of assessments has been getting to me I have really LOVED placement and felt that I was working really well. Got great feedback on my assessment too. Sadly my practical exam was a bit shit. Results are available in uni already but dh in Leeds Monday so I won't get in until Tuesday. Am petrified tbh. I have often felt as though I might not have done particularly well but I have never felt as though I might have failed.
Your night out looked amazing fun. Glad you all had such a good time. Vag I'm sad I didn't get to see you but you are right, we will all stay in touch here and on FB.
LadyT I'm in awe of you being on the night out! You are amazing. Hope all is healing well.
Arti how are you doing? I've lost a little where you are on moving/trying to cut back working front. Hope you find a way to working things out.
Deids I was so pleased to see you had such great feedback on your boy from school. You have a lovely little boy there and it is brilliant to see that he is thriving in the right environment.
Beans how is the weekend going? I too need to try to get back to pilates type stuff. My core in non existent. However I seem to have spent the past shift eating cake and chocolates 
. Maybe next week 
.
Kayz have a fab time with dh back!
So the house. Well, this house over the road came up for sale in August and we've not bothered to look at it as it involved a lot of work, no internal pictures on but we knew there was everything to do. But then we looked at it last week for some reason we can't quite work out and we think we can do it.
Current house is 3 bed plus office but with no space to go in to as bedroom 3 and office are in the loft already. No garden apart from a postage stamp at the front facing the road. Been here 5 years and we have put in new external doors, modernised the electrics, fixed the roof and put in a new stove and heating pump. So spent a fair bit. Now is desperate for a new kitchen and needs a fresh coat of paint throughout. That's what we were going to do until we saw the other house.
Other house is 3 bed, 2 reception room plus teeny tiny smaller than a box room kitchen. More of a cubby. BUT it also has a full height cellar (currently storage only, not lined etc), the loft is not done and it has several outhouses and a big garden South facing down to the woods and the stream. The gardens sometimes get flooded. But it is all on a hill so the houses never do.
We will have to modernise the electrics, rip out the storage heaters and put central heating in (so a good chance to go to lpg or oil), skim and replaster (it has artex on the walls!), basically do everything. The kitchen cubby would be a utility with one reception room as a living room and one as a kitchen/diner. Plus of course bloody good survey and check of the roof, chimneys, damp proofing etc. Because of the hill you go in at street level at teh front but at the back the cellar open into the yard and you have to go down stairs from the back door. So the cellar has good windows.
We think we can buy it and do the work to get the basic 3 bed bit and kitchen, electrics, heating etc done so we can move in and then sell our house. Then equity from our house allows us to do the loft which won't be too disruptive (I know I know) because there is a massive cupboard on the landing where the loft access is which would be where the stairs would go so no need to move walls and affect bedrooms etc. We'd put 2 single rooms in the loft so then we'd have 3 single rooms so one for each child and then a double room for us and another double room for guest room/playroom.
Crucially we'd have a much smaller mortgage at the end. So financially we'd be a lot better off. And the amount we'd spend on it isn't ridiculous, it would add up about right to what it would then be worth if we were to sell. Which we wouldn't.
Also, if we can talk to the sellar and convince them to exchange but to delay completion until mid Feb then the house will have been empty for 6 months so we'd be able to get a £5k grant from the council and a £15k interest free loan. So we'd be able to do the loft before moving and thus help do things like bring the central heating up there and other such useful things.
Then we can save up to do the cellar so by the time the dcs are a bit older we have a teenage den to throw them into .
So bigger, future proof house. Much smaller mortgage. Financially better off.
BUT we have to be able to sell ours and not lose too much money on it. I don't think we can hope to get what we bought it for even though we have done a lot of, sadly invisible, work to it because it looks so tired. And the housing market isn't exactly booming around here.
BUT no chain attracts people.
Are we mad?
It is a lot of work. But then can't be too bad doing most of it before we move in can it? And we are only over the road so easy to supervise.