---
title: "Projects for 2022: April update"
---

Three months fly by like magic, and nothing visible gets done - unless you make it visible by talking about it. So where am I, relative to my January post?

=> /blog/projects-for-2022/ Projects for 2022

## Coding

I've done nothing on any existing or new code projects. Turns out spare time is non-existent when you're a parent. I had no work January or February, but also didn't do a single line of code. Let's see how things look a bit later in the year, but I may have been over-ambitious and/or over-confident on this side of things.

## Relocation

We did manage to relocate back to Yorkshire. That is done and dusted, and the new house is really quite nice. We've found one broken window hinge and a minor issue with the gas boiler; other than that, it's lived up to its "no work" promise.

Outdoors, there are some minor projects - the garden shed is very rotten, so I need to replace it at some point. I've got my eye on a sauna pod, but it might be a bit much. We'll see!

The garden is a water trap in general; it puddles and pools whenever there's a big downpour, so I'll need to get better drainage in at some point. Related to that, all the hard surfaces were slippery and filthy, so I had great fun with a pressure washer and put a coat of anti-slip paint on the decking. It's now a usable space \o/.

=> /img/2022-projects-update-april/vignette.jpg The end result

Longer-term, I'd like to replace the gas boiler with a heat pump system and get solar panels installed. Add an electric car with a giant battery to buffer night-time electricity usage, and you've got a model for being off-grid in suburbia. Quite how practical it will be, and whether I can get permission to task builders with jobs ever again, remains to be seen.

## Rationalising houses

I didn't explicitly call this one out as a project, but I'd really like to get down to owning a single house in 2022. I touched on the situation a little in my pig-dog blog coda:

=> /blog/pig-dog-05/ Pig-Dog Blog 5: Coda

The house in Shetland remains ours for now; the plan is to complete the structural works, then sell it at "market value". Taking the repairs into account, we'll make a six-figure **loss** overall, but - I think - this can be "banked" for use against future Capital Gains Tax bills. Hold that thought.

There's another house - the one my sister lives in. It's the first one I ever bought, and I'm selling it to her at cost (i.e. what I paid, plus the mortgage interest I've paid so far). It's worth a good deal more now, and the tax people don't like that - the difference between cost and "market value" is treated as a gift. The difference between what I paid for the house, and the "market value", is what I'm taxed on - at 28% CGT - for transferring it to her.

Fine, whatever. I can offset it against the loss on the Shetland house, but it's "only" a five-figure sum. That leaves most of the banked CGT allowance unclaimed.

So, I opted to exercise-and-hold a good number of GitLab shares, which have dropped sharply in price (down to ~$50) since I wrote my January posts. I pay income tax on that, then CGT on any future gain - which can be offset against the loss on the Shetland house, effectively socialising it.

This is how the rich stay rich, and it should make us all quite grumpy, but I'm not above making use of it when we're talking six figures. I can justify it to myself as long as I merely break even on the two houses, and I've picked the number of shares and sale price quite carefully to ensure that I don't go beyond that. Profiting on housing is a special sort of evil.

Yes, I called this section "rationalising" for more than one reason.

Certainly in my age cohort, and considering where I started from, I'm incredibly lucky to be able to buy a single house, let alone three. I'm confident that I haven't benefited from going beyond one, but often get pushback on the idea. I should pull this out into a separate post with many details sometime.

## The rest

Parenting continues, he's starting to try to stand now, which is unbearably cute.

No real progress on any of my new or body projects. The new house doesn't even have any scales in it yet. I picked up a road bike - a Triban RC500 - but it's currently a bit too aggressive for me, so I need to get some adjustments done. Once I'm comfortable on it, the plan is to cycle to a nearby(ish) parkrun on a regular basis, do that, then cycle back home. Add a swim to turn it into a triathlon, I guess?

I've identified a clinic for laser eye surgery, but I'm holding off on any more big spending until the housing situations are resolved. You know, just in case there are any more surprises.

One more big project has come up, but I can't talk about it yet. Maybe next week. Originally I was going to delay posting this until it came around, but little and often is better. So, watch this space...
