June was a beautiful month in rural SW Scotland, despite very mixed weather. There was wildlife everywhere and we made steady progress with the endless to do list on the house project.
The focus of most of the month DIY-wise was finishing the kitchen. The kitchen was disrupted massively during the heat pump installation at the end of last year. We removed the oil-fired Rayburn (which used to power the central heating) and had no choice but to move the hot water cylinder from a tiny cupboard upstairs into the corner of the kitchen. The re-organisation means we have a lot more storage and worktop space, but it also means that to minimise cost, we had a lot of cupboards to fabricate, build and install. Although we always try to minimise cost, in this instance it is even more important, as we plan to build an extension in the next couple of years which will become a new kitchen diner. This being the case, we don’t want to spend a lot on a new kitchen that might not be adaptable to the new (as yet undesigned) space. Fortunately, we like the look of oriented strand board (OSB). We bought a couple of basic wall units and cut OSB to size for the doors. A few ebay-sourced handles later, and we have a matching kitchen for a fraction of the price. Well, I say matching – we actually elected to keep the old cream doors for the base units and have all the wall units in OSB. I do have one more customisation project in mind, but that’s a story for another day.
As well as the standard sized units, we boxed in the hot water cylinder and managed to make a new storage shelf above the cylinder itself. This was the trickiest part of the project, as we had to workout how to structurally support the panels, hide the ugly pipework and still maintain access to the heat pump controller and heating system drain point etc. We managed to come up with something, and rather than adding another small base unit next to it, we left a space under the new worktop for a small trolley we already had. It’s easy to pull out when we need to access the controller behind, but hides the technical gubbins the rest of the time.
Like everything, it took longer than we hoped to complete, and we had to remake two of the doors on the corner unit. I wouldn’t have bothered, but Mr. Wombat is more of a perfectionist than me. The room definitely looks a lot better than it did, and the extra storage and worktop space is a revelation. It certainly wouldn’t be to everyone’s taste, but we like it, and we like the cost saving over a traditional kitchen installation even more! We plan to be a little more extravagant with the kitchen design when the new space is built – we’ll still be building it ourselves though😉.
The splashback behind the cooker was almost free – I we just had to buy the tile adhesive. We had been carting around a couple of boxes of stone tiles since they were left over from my very first tiling project about 15 years and 2 houses ago. They seemed too nice to throw out. Keeping them this long and moving them to Scotland probably wasn’t the sensible thing to do, but here we are. I might make the few that are left into coasters. The eagle-eyed amongst you will spot that they’re not actually grouted yet. That’ll be a job for next month.
As well as the kitchen, I made a start on removing the plastic paint from the other gable end of the house. I can’t see the inside of this wall, as it is behind the plasterboard in the kitchen. We’ll remove the plasterboard eventually, but we need to keep a few rooms habitable for now. Removing one particularly deep area of cement pointing actually broke through the wall into what appears to be a bricked up fireplace cavity behind the stud wall. We knew there was a fireplace there, as the hearth is still intact on that side of the kitchen floor, but we had hoped it would still be open like the ones at the other end of the house. It seems to be blocked up with cement blocks – from what I could see through a small hole with my phone torch.
I had to quickly seal up the hole as rain was forecast and we were off on a mini holiday. We received a recall notice for the car and had to book it in at a Hyundai dealer for a software upgrade. As we live 2 hrs from the nearest dealer anyway, I elected to book it in to a dealer in Newcastle (3 1/2 hrs away) and use it as an excuse to visit friends overnight and spend a day exploring the city.
The highlight of June was not DIY progress or mini-holidays, but a new pine marten kit. There is only one this year, but it put on a good show mid-month when it appeared with mum in the garden, played hide and seek around the garden furniture and peered into the the conservatory. I couldn’t decide on my favourite video, so made a compilation 😁
While we were busy, the freedom fund slowly crept up a little higher again in June to hit another record. Only a 0.3% increase this time, so in the grand scheme of things, we probably ought to call it flat.
Freedom fund value – £1,594,409 (up almost £5k on last month)
Expenditure – £2,070.93 (or a 1.56% withdrawal rate) including renovation costs, or £1,997.26 (or a 1.5% withdrawal rate) without renovation costs
Earned income – £720
Expenses were on the low side in June. The renovation jobs we did largely used materials we had already bought and there were no big annual expenses this month. Groceries came in lower than average, as we had made some bulk purchases in May – Like a whole roe deer from a local supplier (in joints and portions and frozen). In this area, venison is sustainable and local as well as being lean – and tasty! Roe deer have no natural predators (only cars), so the wild population is controlled. We are going to have venison available in the freezer for some time.
June’s biggest individual cost was £250 on eating out. This is much higher than normal for us and was driven by our trip to Newcastle, and a treat lunch out at an excellent local fish restaurant.
It seems my latest consultancy client is much more efficient at paying on time, which is refreshing. Possibly because they are based in Germany not the UK? I still have a purchase order covering a few more hours, but am assisting on an ad hoc basis, as and when they need me. It’s not a lot of work, but a little extra income never hurts, and I’m quite enjoying it.
I finally replaced my phone in June, which was long overdue. Although not a cost which shows up, as it came out of the personal allowance money we pay ourselves each month, it did have some impact on my organisation. I don’t quite have notifications set up correctly yet, so apologies to those who commented last month for the slow approval / response. Your comments are always welcome and I think it’s sorted now.
July has been a very busy month on several fronts, hence the lateness of this post. I think the sunshine has supercharged our drive to get things done, but the heat did slow us down on occasion – even in Scotland! There should be plenty to share next month, as we hurtle to towards the end of summer. I hope wherever you are (in the northern hemisphere), you have time to slow down and enjoy the summer while it lasts.
Here is a little flavour of June in our little corner of the world, as well as glimpses of Newcastle and the imposing Hermitage Castle, which we visited on route.
Finding Enough 