Night off

[tinyjo]

I've decided that sometimes one must eschew sociability in favour of, well, time I suppose. So instead of going with Alex to see Archie off and chat to Lorna and Duncan I'll be going home after we've been to see a house* and settling down to a night in. This evening I need/want to

* Clean the kitchen
* Clean out/reorganise the stuff in the fridge
* Tidy up the rest of the BBQ/weekend detritus
* Eat
* Put on a non-delicates wash
* Write an email to Karen about Brownies
* Sort out this month's bills
* Write email to send to Kev; post it to committee here for comments before sending
* Create caption contacts database?
* Subscribe people to caption_announce
* Post to caption_announce - mention _discuss as well as soliciting for reports/photos
* Write entry about The Village
* archive my Caption 2004 email
* Make a styles plan for Beth
* Put away stuff from radiator/dryer
* Take out non-delicates wash, hang up
* Put on delicates wash
* Touch a bunch of requests in G/UNK and compile a review
* Hit up a couple of interesting requests in web
* Write entry about long term planning
* SO to see if I have enough for a comms review
* Reply to a tonne of comments/entries I should have replied to by now
* Do a review? I like the idea but feel kind of rusty, plus it depends what time it is by the time I get to here!
* Dig out notes on S2 embedding. Post them somewhere I can give people access to them
* Write helpscreening post offering to answer embedding questions (except ones about AIM profiles :) )
* Reorganise / clean out my user pics
* Hang out delicates wash
* Bath
* Get to bed by 11:00pm

Some of this stuff is pretty easy but some of it is going to take a while so I doubt that I'll get all the way through that list. Still, I'm determined to try really hard for the last two items.

I need to re-think how I plan my time I think. I don't tend to check LifeBalance when I'm at home so I don't get the benefit of that. Perhaps I should, although I think that I would have to re-jig the thing first. Still I need to do something to make sure that I don't just end up with one free evening a week in which I'm too knackered to do anything except watch crap TV, hang on IRC and do easy support requests. I can do this, I just have to be organised. I have a free weekend this weekend and I'm keeping it that way, damn it. So nobody organise anything exciting, OK?

I really should do that list with tags, but I can't be bothered, even though it makes my footnote ambiguous. Oh yeah, and while I'm adding random extra sentences, I note in news that all paid users are now in the FotoBilder beta - go forth, upload things, make suggestions in fotobilder_user. It'll be fun.

* Yes, Alex and I have found ourselves, by great good fortune, in a position to look at houses together. Which is very exciting and very scary. Wish me luck...

Comments

[asciident]

Although it looks like erroneous or unconventional spelling, it's actually German, so I'm not sure it warrants the sic. ;)

Your to do list is huge. o_o

[tinyjo.livejournal.com]

it's actually German

Ooh! I never knew that. In that case, I let them off - I'd assumed it was a lazy typing/leet speek derivative.

Your to do list is huge

Yup - I've just been letting it all back up because I haven't had a free weekend in about a month! Hence the musings about time management :)

[celestialweasel.livejournal.com]

If that is 'see a house' as in 'with a view to buying it' I recommend you believe every bad story everyone has ever told you and attempt to learn from their mistakes (we can tell your ours too if you like :-) )

"See a house"?

[t--m--i.livejournal.com]

I bought a house when I didn't have any savings or money for the deposit - boy, did I wish I'd waited.
Anyway, I'm sure if you *want* cautionary tales you can ask...

Actually I thought "another list?". Do you by any chance finding yourself making these lists every 3-5 weeks on a regular basis? And then after a surge of energy and cleaning, feeling unaccountably down and/or unfocussed? Hmm...?

[asciident]

Yep - foto is (obviously, I should hope) photo, and bilder is pictures. He did the same play on words with picpix.com.

Re: "See a house"?

[tinyjo.livejournal.com]

Alex has been lucky enough to get a reasonably substantial sum from the sale of his Grandmothers house, which is why we felt able to go for it now. Our calculation at the moment is that we'll be paying a bit more than we are now but that we can afford to.

As for lists, I kind of have a rolling list in my head. Every now and then though, when I haven't got anything done for a while and it's getting too long, I write it down because it feels more manageable that way, plus it's nice to cross things off. I feel lost without list making :)

[tinyjo.livejournal.com]

You remind me of my dad, who is generally set to be cynical about everything. Personally I like to steer a middle course :) On the other hand, cautionary tales are often useful - fire away!

Yes but no but...

[celestialweasel.livejournal.com]

I am often described as a cynic. I can see the point, however I maintain that I cannot possibly be a cynic as, despite my alleged cynicism, things often turn out worse than I expect them to. Therefore I contend that I am actually an optimist :-)

I have found few people willing to accept this self-assessment however!

Anyway, house advice:-
1. Even though it costs shed loads of money, don't just get the cheapest 'survey' thing - then at least you have some chance of come-back if the surveyor gets it wrong. Conceivably what you can do is to get the cheapest one (the 'valuation') for the mortgage then try and shop around and negotiate a price for the full survey from someone else separately - not that we did this, of course.

2. If things are flagged up by the survey make sure you really find out what is involved and how much it will cost.

3. Ask yourself do I really want to live here. If like me you are chronically middle class (I am not proud of this but have come to terms with it :-) ) be realistic about whether you will be happy with your neighbours. Remember that if you have problems that it will be a total nightmare, both on a day-to-day basis and from the point of view of selling it later when you have to own up to the problems. Remember that buying and selling houses costs money therefore you may not be able to afford to bail out of a bad decision straight away.

4. As per t__m__i's comment make sure you have adequate savings.

From the point of point 3, I imagine you will probably will be in a better position to make sensible decisions than I was. I was very naive. Hey ho.

I would add..

[t--m--i.livejournal.com]

Make sure that you have budgeted or insured for the following:
* interest rates doubling
* a few hundred pounds' worth of work doing on the house every year (plumbers, glaziers, carpenters, builders, central heating engineers etc)
* either or both of you losing your income
* changing the locks
* extra transport or accommodation costs should either of you have to take a job further away
* buildings insurance
* redecorating etc (even if the house you buy has had all its rot and so on beautifully painted over before you move in, it only takes a few years before stuff needs doing and then even if you take weeks off to do it yourself, just the tools and materials can cost hundreds and hundreds of pounds, so you have to save for it)