Hey friends,

Wow, you guys really stepped up and gave me a ton of advice and shared your experiences with the various hot water systems and low pressure issues. Thank you!

There were a couple of other good options I hadn't considered:

1. Get a whole-house pump which would then allow for an unvented system which I think is the ultimate choice for hot water, though it could be more maintenance.
2. A combi boiler with an integral hot water cylinder which supplements the flow when two or more outlets are running simultaneously.

The downside of both options is that they could cause issues if our pipes aren't up to scratch. I've heard of people having one of the above installed and then having leak after leak due to the increased pressure.

A good number of you have shower pumps and really like them which is reassuring. I also threw the question out to my neighbours and local badminton crew and a fair few of them also have pumps and gave the thumbs up too. So I think we'll go with this option, save the money to put to other things and kick the can down the road to see what might be best in future.

I conducted a flow test at the kitchen sink which is fed by the mains and it's a measly 8.8 litres a minute. A chap at the bottom of the hill has 36! I suppose we won't get flooded up here at least. For the pump, both the hot and cold will need to be pumped and if more cold water is being pumped through the shower than is re-filling the tank this could cause an issue - something to be explored. I'm waiting again on a plumber so yeh, this is really dragging out and I may run out of things to write about soon. Good thing we've got a guest post...

🧍 Stand-Up Working (Guest Post)

Thank you to Dan (see his GR build here) for the following:

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After listening to a podcast by the legend that is Dr Michael Mosley about the benefits of standing up, I decided to update my office set-up and buy a sitting / standing desk so I could vary my working positions throughout the day. I work at a desk all day, most days and when things get busy, I can spend long periods of time in the office, just sitting down. 

As a nation we are sitting down more than ever and since the pandemic, with the increase in working from home, our time spent sedentary has gone through the roof and this is impacting on our long-term health.

In the podcast, Michael explains how just standing up, can burn extra calories, lower our blood sugar levels and can help keep our bones and muscles strong!

I do a lot of sport outside work and I always thought that this counteracted the sitting down for 8-10 hours a day but sadly it doesn’t. Something needed to change.

After a bit of online research, I concluded that IKEA was the place to go. They have a wide range of options but I decided to go ‘all-in’ and get the ‘BEKANT’ sit/stand desk which can be changed from sitting to standing with the touch of a button! I went for the 160x80cm version which cost £460.00 and comes with a 10 year guarantee.

Assembly was easy. Most people reading this may have already built a garden office so a desk should be a piece of cake!

I’ve had it for around 2 weeks now and I’m really enjoying it. I’ve been doing all of my online meetings standing up and then just breaking up the sitting time by doing an hour or two of standing each day. It’s too early to comment on any health benefits but I’ll be using it for the next 10 – 15 years so hopefully it’ll be a good investment.

The other benefit, not picked up by Dr Mosley, is that when you’re standing up, you’re only one step away from dancing. So, if a banging tune comes on the radio, you can always add a bit of ‘movement’ and burn even more calories (I’d only recommend this if you work from home!).

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Nathan also emailed showing off his very handsome standing desk which he was happy to have shared. The Ikea worktop is paired with legs from Fully.

🏦 Remortgaging

Our home mortgage fixed term is coming to an end in the next few months so for this piece I'll pick at a few things I find interesting relating to it.

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I've been champing at the bit to get this remortgage going as rates are ticking upwards. Annoyingly our current lender isn't interested in offering anything until 3 months before they end of our fixed term. This is tricky because right now our current lender's rates are best and it's also the least work to remortgage (no affordability checks) but with rates increasing it may be better locking in earlier elsewhere.

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I'm using a broker for this. You can find products yourself - Comparethemarket.com is a good starting place - but a good broker will know the eligibility criteria for each lender and have relationships with the underwriters and business development managers which they can lean on to smooth out a wrinkle in your application. My broker is 'whole of market' which is important and doesn't charge a fee as after all broker's get a much heftier fee from the lender.

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When we bought we did so at 85% LTV and decided on a 3 year fix because:

1. While a fix is more expensive initially compared with variable rate mortgages, you're paying for that certainty in monthly payment, which we wanted.
2. A 2-year fix feels too short. Before you know it you're refinancing again.
3. A 5-year fix is a long time for buying a home. You never know if you'll like the location, the neighbours, the commute or if it's a couple living together alone for the first time (us) whether that will work out. If you end up wanting to sell before the end of the fix, you'll be paying early repayment charges.
4. Between the capital repayment element of the mortgage and my then expectations of house price increases we'd be at 75% LTV after 3 years and could remortgage at a lower rate.

Well, I was wrong on the house price increases. They've gone up a lot more than I was expecting and we're now sitting at around 68% LTV. Nice, but it's no man's land in terms of lenders' thresholds - 60% LTV below and 75% LTV above. We could probably have reached the 75% LTV threshold a year ago had we done a 2-year fix, but no regrets.

If we remortgage on a 2 or 3 year fix and house prices go up by a more modest 5%p.a. we'll be at <60% LTV at the end and we'll have access to the lowest rates. BUT, getting my crystal ball out, I wouldn't bet on a 5-year fix in 2 or 3 years' time at 60% LTV being cheaper than a 5-year fix today at (up to) 75% LTV.

So this time we're locking in for 5 years. We know we're not moving, the rate is good and we don't have to concern ourselves with the matter again in the meantime.

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When it comes to selecting a product it's not so much the rate or monthly payment which is important but the overall cost once product fees and other things like legals, valuation and annoying CHAPS fees are taken into account. Most comparison sites will show you the total 'initial term cost' but if not you just add the fees to the total interest costs to get a side by side comparison. If you're comparing between different length fixes you can just divide that total figure by the number of years the fix is for.

As a general rule the larger the mortgage balance the better it is to have a low rate but higher product fee and vice versa for small mortgage balances.

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Suppose you have a £100k mortgage and you remortgage onto a new rate 1.2% less than previously, you might sensibly conclude that your monthly payment would drop by £100...but it doesn't. Well it sort of does, the interest element of the monthly payment goes down by £100 but the capital element goes up. So the overall payment is reduced but not by the whole amount.

Oh, so if more capital is being paid off monthly the mortgage must get paid off sooner then right? Also no....because of amortisation. While you pay more of the capital initially you pay less towards the end of the mortgage term than you would on a higher rate. Kind of a bummer really.

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We're a long way from the next lowest LTV so we won't be paying the mortgage down to reach it but what if you're close? Here's the calculation to make:

• Let's say your house is now worth £200,000
• Your mortgage is £154,000 (77% LTV)
• The mortgage rate offered is 2.94% (actual % I found for LTV)
• £154,000 x 2.94% = £4,528
• If you paid down the £4,000 to bring down the LTV to the 75% threshold (£150,000) the rate you can get is 1.82% (again, actual %)
• £150,000 x 1.82% = £2,730
• £4,528 - £2,730 = £1,798 (the difference*)
• £1,798 / £4,000 = a guaranteed 45% return on investment.

Incredible, and beats pretty much any investment. Well worth paying down in this case.

*The difference applies to the first month of the new mortgage only.

✂️ Snippets

Juggling - Since Abi returned to work I've been taking over more of the childcare duties. Among his toys are few bean bag balls so I've decided to make it a goal this year to learn to juggle. I'm pretty sure the boy sees me as his personal jester already, so I may as well play the part. I've been following this video and so far I'm up to the 'three-ball flash'. Feels good! Of course, if I never mention this again, you'll know I've given up.

Tennis elbow - Something I haven't moaned about in a while is my elbow and that's because it feels fully healed. My badminton smashes are as good, or poor, as they've ever been. A number of you have mentioned the same ailment and the one thing that helped mine is a support strap. I put it on for sports, DIY and lifting heavy things and it does help. It might be one of those injuries that once it's happened the first time can reoccur more readily so I just need to take care not to put too much strain on it.

Curtain twitching - My neighbour 2 doors down messaged me in a panic as his neighbour, another door down, had some builders putting in one of these pre-fab 'log cabins' which aren't log cabins at all and I'm not a fan of but that's all by the by. The problem was the height; 3m tall right on his boundary, against permitted development rules and there's no planning. Since my neighbour intends to build a GR next to it and it won't adversely affect him in the long term, my advice and favoured tactic was for him to gently point out the error but put it in his back pocket for when he wants to do something perhaps not quite to the letter of PD or planning permission and may annoy said neighbour. Reminding them of their own mischievousness might just get them to back down. Mutually assured destruction is the way forward here.

YT comment of the week -

I prefer to think of it as 'well-spoken' but perhaps I'm splitting hairs. I even it out by dressing like a vagabond most of the time. To answer the question though I must have picked it up from my mum. My dad's from Barnsley so it's not from him...

Who's tightfisted? - Whenever I've been asked for a discount code over the years I've noticed two locations that regularly come up with pride and identity associated with saving a bob or two - 1. Yorkshire and 2. Scotland. Perhaps being half Yorkshireman is why I like it too.

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Hit "reply" if you've got any comments on this week's newsletter – otherwise I'll see you next time. Have an epic week :)

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