Home improvements on a budget

Last month's savings went on the turf and the fence, and it looks as if some of this month's will also be spent on home improvements.  There is a trend to build modern houses with a shower in the master en-suite but just a bath in the family ablutions.  That means anytime anyone wants a shower, they come trailing through my room........which is OK for family but not so great with long term house guests - or even short term ones for that matter.

I have had a friend of the FH's round this morning, who is a plumber, and we are going to have an over-bath shower installed in the family bathroom.  I thought it would have to be an electric one, but that was going to be really expensive, considering where he was going to have to bring particular cabling from to supply the shower, but he can do a standard thermostatic mixer shower off the tank, which is just across the landing, and take the pipes up and over through the roof space.  I hesitate to call it a loft as the hatch is a bit small and there is only a lonely tv aerial up there!

Is it really necessary? No.  Will it make my life easier? For sure.  Will it improve my quality of life? Yes - four or five women in a house with only one shower? Of course this will improve things!  And it will be another USP for this house in this development - none of the houses currently on the market have a shower in the bathroom - and when most of the houses are identical in layout, you need something to sway the buyers in your direction, or make them think that your house is really worth the asking price, I think.

(image from soakology.com)

 I could definitely fancy this set up but not at this price!

Anyone new to this blog must think that I am being very spendy.  I am but I'm not, too.  I've been laying in that bath for years, wondering how to get a shower over it one way or another, so this is not a spur-of-the-moment whim. Furthermore, I have the money to pay for it, and no-one will go into debt to achieve this.  Our generally frugal lifestyle allows us to make the monthly savings which pay for this kind of spend - once in a blue moon or two!  And, yes, I am Very Grateful that we are able to make these savings as I know that plenty of people are living one month to the next with not a spare penny.  I know.

Furthermore, I have been told about a chap in the village who does decorating for £50 a day, so he will be on my hit-list to call to get the stairs walls painted - which architect thought it would be a good plan to have a full-height wall around the stairwell, and a window so high in the outside wall that the sill is a flies' graveyard because I am not bringing a ladder in every week or two to get up there to clean it!?  [When the house is on the market, I shall have to, but that will be time enough!]