What are you looking forward to in 2013

[Kaz]

Weka that all sounds lovely

Frank I'm sure a meet/meets could be on the cards

[TheOstrich]

What are you looking forward to in 2013?

Surviving ....

[pederito1]

A VV meet with some of the lovely ladies and a gent or two would be fine for me.

[Osc]

Osc, can I be nosy and ask what your plans are for the old post office building?

Not nosy at all, Jo. The building where we ran the post office is on the street parallel to our street, we can see the roof from our house. The post office was downstairs and upstairs was a flat, where my inlaws lived in later years. This whole building is now ours (after a legal process that dragged on for five years, you don't want to know ). The idea is that we apply to change the downstairs portion from commercial to residential and then turn the whole building into our home. There will be certain restrictions as the council will want us to preserve the shop front facade as part of the streetscape, and our architects have drawn up very exciting plans, incorporating the old exterior with a modern interior and even managing to create a little roof terrace for us as there is no yard or garden, it is surrounded by other buildings. When we decided earlier this year to retire, part of the financial plan was that we would need to sell our house and move to the other building, and the money from selling the house less the cost of the work would form our retirement fund.

We are very fortunate in that the architects we chose are very enthusiastic about the project, the owner of the firm grew up locally and still lives here, he says that he is looking forward to driving past it every day and saying "I was involved in that". We have chosen to have the architects oversee the project which is expensive but we feel worth it for us, as we don't think we would have the knowledge or ability to work our way through it. I try not to have nightmares about getting rid of our old furniture, and downsizing all our "stuff" and we plan to do all this gradually. We should end up with a nice two bedroom house, we will have an ensuite bedroom upstairs for ourselves, together with a good sized kitchen/living/diner - one of the windows has a superb view down the street, over and beyond the harbour to the sea and this window will be a floor to ceiling feature. Downstairs will be another bedroom and bathroom, a big utility/store room and a music room cum study for Mr. Osc's musical instruments and all my sort of officey stuff.

We have lived in this house for almost 36 years, it's the only house we ever bought so the idea of selling and packing everything up is rather daunting. We don't know yet when we will need to sell - if we could get a bank to lend us some money against the sale, that would be good as we then would not need to rent, but that's a pretty unlikely scenario. So now I bet you're sorry you asked

[saundra]

i dont make plans now
as long as my family are in good health and happy
i will be fine
i hopefully continue along lifes way
as i am
but i do wish all V V s a happy new year in health wealth and happiness

[Gal]

Do you know, I can't think of ONE thing I have to mark on my 2013 calendar! Not one!

I might make a mental note to see if I can book Molly's Cottage in Grasmere today for late April. It'll give me something to look forward to!!

Other than that, I'd love for Jen to get a foot on the fashion career ladder - please God! And for Smudge to calm down a bit And health and happiness for all xxx

[Kaz]

Osc that all sounds amazing - I wish you every success with it all

Gal booking a break is a very good idea - knowing we had a holiday to look forward to this past May gave me something to look forward to when I desperately needed it! (((((((((((Gal)))))))))))))))

[Lozzles]

I don't usually make plans as I'm pretty disorganised and a bit of a procrastinator
But...I hope to finally set up my own counselling practice this year. I also need another new finger joint
I'm hoping for health love and happiness for the family and that's about it.

[JoM]

Not sorry I asked at all Osc - it sounds like it'll be amazing! I'm already envious of that view you described!
Please keep us updated though the whole process, it's all very interesting.

[JoM]

I don't usually make plans as I'm pretty disorganised and a bit of a procrastinator
But...I hope to finally set up my own counselling practice this year

Good luck Loz, I hope this will work out for you