Cash is flying out of our hands

Even knowing how much work and how much money we had planned on putting into this house has not helped me feel any less stressed about actually writing the checks. Maybe it is a good sign, a sign that things are moving quickly and we will have a livable house very soon. Maybe it is a sign that our budget is not nearly enough for all of the help this house needs. I'm sure this doom and gloom economy is not helping the feeling that we are just watching our bank accounts disappear...

We do, however, have a great house and there really is a lot that has been accomplished so far. We are not even a week in to our renovation and we are ready to paint the bedrooms, the wall in the gym is down, the wall in the office is being rebuilt, the new bathtub is in, the bathroom subfloor and tile backer went in today, we have a new electrical panel with wiring to code, we have lights that work (and look good too) in most of the rooms, and the kitchen is completely gutted and ready to be new next week. Our appliances are being ordered tomorrow, our cork flooring arrives tomorrow, and I plan on ordering the kitchen cabinets tomorrow as well.

The systems of the house have been the most expensive and necessary part of this remodel so far. I've already mentioned a little about the electricity, we are now on to the water issues. The water main comes into the house at the front, goes through a closet, up a wall and through the utility room where it meets up with the water meeter. That is where the main shut off valve is right now. So, if there is a problem with the pipe from the main to the shut off, we have no way to stop the water aside from having the water company come and shut off the main at the street. So we have the plumber coming tomorrow morning to put a new main shut off valve on the water coming into the house, and help us figure out how to deal with the pipe running through the closet! He will also untie the well and city water - they were illegally attached when the prior owner did not pay his water bill and decided to just use the well for the whole house.

We continue to have luck with craigslist and freecycle. Our toilet went today and someone has claimed our vanity cabinets and laminate counter tops for pickup this weekend. Our metal scavenger was back today for the cast iron tub, the old electrical panel and meter, and all of the wire (I had no idea wire could be recycled!). We did order a dumpster to arrive on Saturday - we have quite a bit of old subflooring, drywall, carpet, and other non-recyclable things. Hopefully we will just need one, and we can continue to be careful with how much we toss.