Today I worked from home so I could nip out and deliver the second batch of food using the carshare near my house. It was fun, but I'm going to call the guy organizing this and see if I can just arrange to have the food picked up the other days. It's not just the cost of hiring the car, it's the inconvenience. Hopefully he'll understand.

I did get a fair amount of writing done for my job too, which felt good. I was able to turn some things around quickly and also turn one thing in earlier than probably anyone expected.

Our contractor's subcontractor came by tonight with an estimate for the first piece of work we want done, taking an archway out of the living room and removing/walling up a door. At first his quote seemed high -- $6500 -- but then he started going over everything that was included. Finding matching hardwood to fix the floors where the archway was, and doing it in a way where it wouldn't look like just squares of new flooring. Finding wood trim to go over the wall where the door was and having it match our existing hundred-year-old trim. Smoothing out the ceiling (it has a popcorn-type thing). Painting the whole living room. Hauling all the waste away. We decided it was a good deal.

We're also having him do some electrical work for $1500. Adding some outlets, including bringing electricity to our front porch.

So, $8000 total. I'm so glad I have the leftover WV money, because it means we can start right away, vs. waiting about two-three months to save up that amount. The work will start June 29 and likely take three weeks, though he said he'll keep it as clean as possible so we can still use the porch and dining room. I'm really excited about this project because I think it'll really open up the living room and make it look more like a cohesive room. I'll be sure to post before and afters when it's done so you can see what I mean!

Since he'll be painting, we need to decide what color we want. We're going to schedule a consultation with a local paint store, on the recommendation of our across-the-alley neighbor. She said it's just $150 and you get an in-home visit with expert color advice.

Our fence, which was meant to be finished weeks ago, is finally getting moving again. Our downstairs neighbors paid the first half, so we just need to pay the second half. But it's still not done, and plus our neighbor gave them a deposit midway through to get them going again, so he needs to get that back before we pay him. Weird stuff. But the fence looks pretty great so far! It's black chain-link. I hope they finish soon. Kids and dogs will benefit from being able to hang out in the back without us worrying about alley traffic.

Oh! I almost forgot. NT got an email from his UK property manager. Among other things, he said those flats are now selling for around 200K pounds. I have the place listed at 140K in my net worth calculations. I've decided I'll take 10% off as I did with the duplex, to cover what selling it would likely cost. But even then, I can value it at 180K. Our net worth is going to have another huge bump next month then!

One thing I haven't heard is whether we'll get any rental income this month or whether it's all going to cover the additional costs of the reno. If we don't we'll need to either borrow some to cover the mortgage payments or wire some money over. When I thought we'd get some money and only be about 20 pounds short, I thought we'd just borrow from NT's dad. But if we're not getting any income it'll be more like 100 pounds we need. Still galls me to pay $50 to send $160 over, but we might do that to avoid having to borrow that much from either of NT's parents, even short-term. We'll see. I asked him to ask the property manager.