I'm so glad Kevin is an electrician. Some of the stuff we found elsewhere was just as bad. There is aluminum wiring throughout the house and the stuff in the basement (the one switch on the old bathroom wall) that was HOT! to the touch. Plus the insulation has split open in some places.

In the end though, I love my house, and all its 1950s secrets and charms. How many people can say they have a laundry shoot? And use it? A little bit more hard work and a few more dollars into it, and everything will good again!

The big upgrade now has a big delay.

A few weeks ago I was advised I was part of a political struggle at work, I was just the person in the midde, and as a result the battle ended with me bringing in an even smaller check each month. My options were take this huge paycut (which was not properly disclosed to me at the time), or loose my job. I took the cut, as it was advertised. It turned out to be much more, about four times NET what I was told was gross, and now its put our whole financial plan out of whack.

So the upgrade will continue, but we are highly unsure as to the speed of it now. Job drama sucks. Just wanted to put up a note so you all know why the speed has slowed down considerably.

So sorry to hear about your work troubles. I have my desk all packed up and ready to go (just in case) and am trying to get prepared for 4 day work weeks too which would be about a 20% paycut as well :(

Well, that sucks sorry to hear that it will be slow if you are like me nooooo waiting is hard to take.... but maybe it is good on the other hand:biggrin:
As it will be perfect in the long run!

I just think its sad that some GROWN women have to bring so much cattiness and pettiness into the workplace. This whole thing came about over my desk space, and a personal issue between the woman who initiated this and my boss.

i dont get it why do you then get the pay cut???

Because work politics suck, and its even worse when you are stuck in the middle and have to be the one to take the compromise.

Anyways...the HVAC guys are coming out tomorrow. I'm hoping that they'll be able to make things work out a little better with the existing heating ducts. We'll be starting to wire the basement after that.

I hear you...I took about a $1500 a month pay cut this year. Really changed how we lived. Can't say the tank spending suffered but that was only because we kind of stopped going out for dinner as much or to bars/clubs every weekend. My pay cut was all because my industry has less money to go around and there was NO way the producers or directors of the shows I work on were going to take a paycut.

Sorry to hear you got caught in the middle of other peoples problems and took the worst of it. I hate crap like this.

Hope it doesn't slow down too much! I was hoping to see this thing move along fast!!!

So far the cut is really eating into my discretionary budget, and that is where tank money comes from. Bleh! I miss the little things that discretionary money brings, like morning Starbucks runs, and my weekly dinner & a movie date with a friend.

Tonight will give us the next big piece of the puzzle, the HVAC. Depending on the price, we'll either move ahead with it now, or we'll sit on it for a few months. Either way we can still start doing the "little" things like wiring, and framing in walls. Its putting out large sums of cash all at once that is the big hold up at this point.

The best part though is that really to plan all this stuff out up until this point has cost us practically nothing beyond a few sheets of paper, pens, and lunch breaks surfing the internet for ideas. Tearing out the walls has cost us nothing aside from our own time. Same will go for most of the wiring and framing. I am really happy though that we are handy. Its working wonderfully in our favour.

boo that noise Catherine, hopefully you can get the ball rolling sooner rather than later. Office politics suck the big one...if there's ever anything I can do to help this build move along, let me know...because once it IS done (however long that may take) there'll be a barebeque at your house FYI :D