So the workmen have been out at the house all weekend. How they can work in this weather I do not know. Yesterday they took down the rotting, wooden carport. The roof was totally caving in. They took down the fence, too, which was mostly down anyway, but they got it all stacked and ready to be hauled away. Today a man is coming to haul it away. He uses it for winter heating. Since it was neither weather treated or painted wood, it is safe to do so. He is also taking away all of the many boxes of kindling that didn't go when we gave away the bulk of the stacked wood. He will also be taking all the beams from when we tore down the green house a few years ago.

They are cutting all of the tree branches that overhang the house, getting rid of the old chest freezer that weighs 20,000 pounds (or something ridiculous), hauling away a bunch of old concrete, and ripping out some rhodies that were planted too close to the house.

Then next weekend (I think) they will be pressure washing the house and repairing a small area of the siding, putting up new gutters, taking the window in to have the inside pane of glass repaired, landscaping and whatnot.

I'm not sure when they will start painting. The inside can be done at any time. The outside will have to dry for several days after they pressure wash it. August is our dryest month so it should get done by the end of the month. I hope.

After they are done painting we will have someone in to decide whether the living room and play room rugs are salvagable. All of the bedroom rugs are, but there is some arts and crafts paint and other things that kids inevitably stain carpets with on the two main areas. We are thinking we may just replace the play room floor, which is really a dining room, with lineoleum that looks like tile, and then just do the living room rug. The other possibility is to put in a wooden flooring. Costco sells a fairly inexpensive one in two different shades (a light or a dark) and since it is going in a house we are selling, it doesn't have to be the color I would want, it can be just a fairly nice color. I would want a honey blond if I had to live with it, but other light colors would be good in that house, too.

Mom says she will pay for it all and we can pay her back when we sell it. I told her she's speculating that we will actually get enough from fixing it up to pay her back. We still have to cover the just under $17K mortgage payoff and the realtor fee. With the market the way it is out there anything can happen. One house that was 1200 square feet, 3 bed, 1 bath sold for $83,000, and a 1400 2 bed, 2 bath for $98,000, and one that was 1600, 4 bed, 2 bath sold for $35,000. Although that one was a foreclosure and I have a feeling it was trashed.

There's a house for sale down the block for $179,000 and I think those people are just dreaming. There is another one for sale for $28,000. I just do not know what our house will bring. It's assessed at $97,000 (used to be $110,000). We paid $65,000 for it and I would be more than happy to just get that. That would pay off the mortgage, the realtor, Mom, and give us some money left for a downpayment. The lot is worth $35,000. If we even got that it would pay off the mortgage, Mom, and the realtor, leave us with abour $10K and stop us leaking all the money that a second house requires you to spend even if there was nothing left for a downpayment.

I don't know. I hate the uncertainty of the future sometimes. Speaking of uncertainty...well, not really, as DH has been assurred by everyone that his job is safe, they fired a bunch of people where DH works and will not be replacing them this year, that means instead of the 2 jobs he is currently working (because they never rehired people after the last round of firing), he and his alternate get to take on the responsibility of 3 positions (one above his paygrade and one below it). No raise to go with the increased responsibility, and he's day rate so no overtime either) though he may be required to work extra weeks. The money would be nice, but having his home time cut down to a week instead of two will be hard, particularly while homeschooling my son.

He did say there were other companies up there hiring for what he does so if things get bad he does have options, but right now he loves his company and his work and he's totally not the type to jump ship unless he's being threatened with unemployment. He was with the last company just shy of 15 years and would still be with them if they hadn't lost the big contracts. They should be rehiring those positions next year when things ramp up again.