Hey friends,

I've spent the last couple of weeks stressing over replacing our car. That's sorted now and I write about it further down the newsletter. First though there's updates on the fireplace and landing, I install a new window and we finish up with some viewing and listening recommendations. Enjoy 😊.

🔥 Fireplace

I had a few emails questioning whether there really was an additional fireplace to be found on the right side of the chimney, circled below.

I probably didn't explain my rationale for it properly, so here goes.

We have 3 chimney pots:

This means there are likely 3 flues within the chimney and therefore 3 fireplaces. Something like this:

The reason for each fireplace having a separate flue is to stop smoke and gases from a lit fireplace coming out of a non-lit fireplace. There may be exceptions to this rule I don't know about but it's a neat trick to know how many fireplaces a house originally had just by looking at the number of chimney pots.

There's a fireplace in the current sitting room of course. There was another in our bedroom which I found when renovating. I know the third fireplace isn't in what is now the nursery because I took it back to brick and there was no sign of one being filled in.

Ipso facto the third fireplace must be in what is now the kitchen downstairs. Reader David suggested I could test my theory by taking off the kitchen plinth and seeing if there's a concrete hearth as there'll be no floor tile under the cabinets. Smart thinking. There's some hardboard covering it but yes it is there! I also spied the bottom of a vent.

So then I took the drawers out and cut a hole in the back of the carcass with my multi-tool to reveal the full vent.

Hello!

I cleaned up that mess - no treasure sadly, but I'll take no dead pigeons either - and was left with this:

Very nice. I took some measurements and translated them to the other side and I believe I can get an opening 45cm wide:

So I should be able to get a nice log store in there which I think will also help with the symmetry of the chimney. It's a crude depiction but you get the gist:

However, I'm questioning whether this is a good idea. If I'm bringing in logs from outside and storing a week or two's worth in this cubby am I going to bring in insects? I could use it for decoration only and make sure the logs are clean and dry and then have a basket for the logs I burn. What do you think?

As for the fireplace for the woodburner I've continued taking off plaster higher and higher and there is no sign of a lintel. I've also removed some bricks to the side and can't find the builders opening. So I think the fireplace insert might be holding everything up which could be problematic when removed 😓. The lack of brick pattern is also unexpected.

⚒️ Landing

Upstairs I've continued removing the ceiling, revealing the steel which is holding up the water tank. The joists you see are not continuous and instead butt up to each other on top of the steel. Definitely an issue I'll have to resolve.

I've also removed the towel radiator from the wall which required draining down the system (a process I detailed in this newsletter) and putting stop ends on the pipes below floor level.

My latest task has been to remove the plaster from the walls. Although these walls are coming down I'll probably keep the bricks so taking off the plaster makes sense.

Then I removed the section of the wall made of timber and plasterboard. At this point the boy must think that a home being in a constant state of flux is normal.

🪟 A new garage window

This project has been on my list for a long time. The existing window is metal, single - mostly broken - glazed held in with putty.

I could replace the the panes and putty but I can't fix the rust.

So I'm putting in a new window. It's held in place with nails in a half-swastika shape so there was no pulling them out. Instead I hacked off the mortar filled edges and cut through the nails with my recip saw with metal cutting blade.

I removed the rest of the mortar and the window came out with ease.

The concrete sill has had it's day as well so I knocked it off, first with a sledge hammer but quickly realised the SDS with chisel was the better method.

There are two small bricks on the side that I needed to get out so again I used the SDS. I found it was quicker to attack the brick than the mortar around them.

I grabbed some bricks from my pile,...

mixed some mortar with water,...

and laid a new line of bricks. By taking out the existing half bricks at the edges it allowed me to lay seven whole bricks without cutting them. It matches the rest of the wall too.

I took care to get the new bricks level and to leave enough room for my new window.

I had hoped to use a second-hand window but to find one of the exact size was probably unrealistic so I ordered a new one. The last time I bought windows was for the garden room and there were only two websites that had a decent UI to select the sizes and options I want: Dunster House and ModernUPVCWindows. That was 5 years ago and nothing's changed - I thought there'd be more competition. At the time Dunster House had terrible reviews so I opted for the other but maybe they've improved since. They're certainly cheapest. Since this is only for a garage I thought I'd go for it. £196 incl. sill and delivery. I kept the cost down with no trickle vents or openers. It's toughened glass as I foresee footballs being kicked at it in the future but laminated glass was far too expensive.

First task was to cut the rebates for the shoulders of the sill. This is a good example of 'measure twice, cut once' as first time round I marked out too large an area. I used a hand saw but a jig saw would be quicker.

Then I cut the end caps to size and glued with mitre bond. I learnt last time to peel back the film otherwise it can stuck in the glue.

Next came the sealant and some packers to level things out a bit more. I pressed the sill into the sealant. If the mortar was fully dry I would likely have fixed the sill with screws into the brick but drilling it would have caused the bricks to move. Sealant will hold it.

Next I pre-drilled holes in the left and right sides of the window frame 15cm from bottom and top and one in the middle (every 40cm is good).

I held the frame plumb and marked the locations I needed to drill then tightened the supplied screws. It's certainly not as easy as with a timber frame! I also drove some smaller screws in the base of the frame to fix it to the sill.

At this point I'd forgotten that Abi was going out for dinner so I juggled looking after the lad with getting the glass in. Not easy! When you fit the frame make sure the bits that hold the glass in place (I forget the name of them) are on the inside and that the glass is the right way around - there's usually a sticker to denote which side should face internally. Then hammer the bits back in place with a nylon hammer.

Finally I mixed some white masonry paint with some water to try to match the rest of the bricks and then I used white silicone sealant inside and out. Done 🙌

Overall Dunster House were fine. I'm not sure they'd be my go-to for our house's windows but certainly good enough for an outbuilding. No FENZA sign off required for this job of course.

The other window is fine, it just needs a paint touch up. The door however does need replacing. Like with the window, I periodically check ebay for used UPVC doors that will fit but no luck. They also all seem to have a big threshold which is no good for getting the mower in an out. A new wooden door would probably set us back about £250 and would rot at the bottom again in a few years. Ideally I'd go for a steel door but they're £500. I'm weighing my options. I'm open to ideas here👂.

🚙 We bought a new car

Fitting a window myself was pretty money-saving of me I think. This purchase was not. I probably wouldn't write about it if I hadn't mentioned wanting a new car a few times already so this is how the story ends. But we'll start at the beginning.

Abi had an accident. She's fine, if a little rattled, but the Astra wasn't and our insurer wrote it off. After trying to low ball us 3 times they eventually came to a fair figure of £9,500. I bought the Astra at 1 year used in 2018 for £9,200 and have put 20,000+ miles on it - which tells you everything about used car prices right now.

Goodbye 'dolphin'.

Category of Car

This is clearly the time to upgrade to something bigger. An estate car would be the sensible choice but Abi thinks they're too long for her to handle and I do agree parking would be trickier. Before the Astra was written off I thought maybe she should use it and I should get an estate for my DIY store runs and for family trips but there's the cost and hassle of doubling up on MOTs, services, road tax, insurance and keeping them clean. I like to keep mindful of the saying 'the things you own end up owning you'. Also, we rarely require the car at the same time.

So this thought train led me to SUVs. They're not the best to drive or most economical, nor do they have the largest boot space but they're a good all rounder. They also do one thing really well - they're easy to get in and out of. Good if you're older or like us, have to lift a kid into a child seat. They sell at premium though.

Car ownership economics

I think of car ownership on a sliding scale. Starting at the bottom you have:

1) 'Bangernomics' - Buy an old banger, drive it until it dies or a repair costs more than the worth of the car. Scrap it and repeat. Pros: cheapest method and no worries about bumps and scrapes. Cons: Hassle of breakdowns and repairs and older cars aren't as safe as newer ones.

2) The car enthusiast - You're happy to spend a bit more and enjoy researching makes and models and learning about what problems might come up. You do the majority of work yourself to keep the cost of repairs down. Some may buy old but premium cars and tinker their weekends away. Possibly the car equivalent of my DIYing. Highly respectable...as long as you don't put a loud exhaust on.

3) Decent used - a few years old, most of the depreciation has happened but still plenty of life in it. Will need things like the cambelt replaced during your ownership.

4) 1-3 years used - Someone else has taken the steepest depreciation hit but it's pretty new and may still have warranty. Hold for a few years, sell and repeat.

5) Buying brand new outright, on HP, PCP or leasing - Probably in that order. While you don't have to worry about maintenance with the latter two, if you plan on handing the car back and getting another one, there's hassle and admin involved with that which I'm not keen on.

Company cars aside, my first car was in category 1) but since then I've stayed in 3) and 4) as I think they have a good balance of cost vs hassle.

Choosing a Car

SUV is an all encompassing term referring all the way from hatchbacks on stilts, to massive Hummers. To help I found a useful website that order types of cars by size and boot space.

Once I got an idea of some I compared them more closely here. For fun, here's the UK's most popular car vs America's 🤯.

I was previously keen on the SEAT Ateca but ruled it out as too small, along with its sister car, the Skoda Karoq. Ford's Kuga and Toyota's RAV4 are probably too large for our needs so I narrowed it down to the Kia Sportage (new version), Hyundai Tucson (new version) or a VW Tiguan.

The Tiguan is interesting in that the 2020 face-lifted model isn't that different from the 2016 model so you can get a pretty good looking vehicle for...not cheap exactly, but less than the other options - especially if you go for manual. I think this was the sensible choice but test driving one felt a bit underwhelming and the boot is on the smaller side.

The other two are newer (in their facelifted versions which I liked the look of) and therefore more expensive. The Sportage comes with a whopping 7 year warranty compared with Tucson's 5 years and while they share many of the same parts I much preferred everything about the Tucson - the styling, the drive, the interior and the boot's bigger - so I ruled out the Sportage though I will say it's much improved over it's older model which we had on holiday last month.

The Tucson is delightful. Exploring the engine and trim levels we settled on a full hybrid which gets 50mpg and 227bhp in Ultimate trim - mostly for the memory driver seats which should really be a standard feature on most cars.

As the car came out at the beginning of 2021 used models are a max of 2 years old and so pretty pricey still and out of our affordability. So I looked into financing for the first time (Category 5! 🙈). On HP we'd put in a big deposit and pay the rest over a couple of years but at the 11.4% interest I was quoted it takes it to within £2-3k of buying the vehicle brand new (though we could pay it off earlier and save on interest).

Hyundai were offering 2 PCP deals on new vehicles. The first was a £1500 discount, 7.9% finance and a balloon payment at the end or full price, 0% finance for 2 years + balloon. The latter was much cheaper overall so after negotiating the price down a bit we went for it.

The balloon payment is pretty big and I guess is intended to keep people on the hamster wheel of 'affordable' monthly payments and trading in every 2-4 years for a new model. Our intention is to pay it and then hold the vehicle for the long term and so bring down the average yearly cost. If our side extension is done by then and we have solar panels then our next car can be a proper EV. That's probably the way to go now if you can get one through BIK at work though.

Conclusion: I've disregarded one of my financial rules - 'if you can't afford to buy it outright you can't afford it all' - and instead we've traded money for convenience. I suppose that isn't the worst use of cash. More than anything I'm glad it's over and done with and I can stop thinking about it. It's a very plush car and I'm hoping the financial pain will subside over time and the joy of the vehicle endures but it could very well be the other way around!

👋

Here's some stuff I've enjoyed watching and listening to lately that I think you might enjoy:

🎦 Earth (BBC iPlayer) - A journey through geological time presented by Chris Packham. I loved this series and Packham's passion and knowledge shines through. I used to think he was a little...abrasive maybe? but after publicly explaining his autism it's clear he's just endearingly awkward. I really respect him for that and can see him filling Attenborough's shoes.

🎦 Unknown: Cave of Bones (Netflix) - Not as scary as it sounds, this documentary follows the palaeontologists uncovering the remains of Homo naledi in a cave system in South Africa. It focuses on how such a small brained hominin was capable of such elaborate burial rituals whereas I'd have been more interested in its lineage given it was walking around in the same place and time as anatomically modern humans. Still, it's a good watch if you're interested in our origin story.

🎦 Extraction 2 (Netflix) - I wouldn't say this is a great film but I really appreciated the long lasting one-shot action sequences, so much better than a bunch of jump cuts. Good for disengaging your brain at the end of the day.

🎦 Arnie (Netflix) - A 3-part documentary on Arnold Shwarzenegger. I've read his book Total Recall and the series follows the same but watered down path of: bodybuilder>real estate investor>action hero>comedy actor>politician. He's led an incredible life and I'm in awe and a bit (okay, very) jealous of his highly driven personality. He seems like a good guy too. I liked his video where he addressed the Russian people at the start of the Ukraine war.

🎧 How to take over the world (podcast) - In a similar vein to the above this podcast looks at the defining characteristics of history's high achievers and tells their story in doing so. The host covers figures like Julius Caesar, Steve Jobs, Horatio Nelson and for me probably the most interesting person to have lived, Leonardo Da Vinci, a true polymath. One intriguing link is many of them seem to have been very light eaters. That rules me out then.

🎧 This is Money (podcast) - I tend to dip in and out of podcasts but this one has been a weekly listen for me for over a year. Georgie Frost is an amusing host and Simon Lambert gives some brilliant insights into the economy.

🎧 Uncanny Season 2 (podcast) - I've linked this one from BBC Sounds before. It's real-life people telling their experiences with, potentially, the supernatural. I'm a sceptic but enjoy it as bite-sized horror for the ears 👻.

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

P.s. If you think a friend will enjoy this newsletter, feel free to send them this link where they can sign up.

P.p.s. You can find all previous newsletters here.