Kframe, yes we get a refund sometimes more than $2500. We discussed this some time ago and I am pretty sure he adjusted it the maximum (or minimum allowed). I am definitely going to follow up on this. I know you are supposed come as close to breaking even as possible on taxes, so I am not sure what is going on with it. As a followup on the 401K, we decided to go ahead and do the max. Well, the HR gal called my husband and told him that because we was in a highly-paid mgmt position, it was too much and he would probably get money back. We both laughed at the "highly-paid" part, but anyway we had to cut it to about $9000 a year. We didn't realize we would have this same issue as his previous job because this company is much, much larger with many employees above him. I check out Pond's website and found this questions posted. Question: "My husband and I are each contributing 10% of our incomes to our companies 401(k) plans and have some money left over to invest elsewhere. Would it be better to put that money away for our kids college or make extra payments against the mortgage?" Pond's answer: "Probably neither at this stage. Rather, you should add to your retirement savings plans at work if you can get to 15%, great. Then, I think you both should do an IRA. While saving for college and paying down the mortgage are both noble objectives, your most important objective at this stage in your life is putting enough money away for retirement. Moreover, contributing to plans at work and IRAs are simply better financially than college savings and extra mortgage payments. Since there are limits as to how much you can contribute to retirement plans, each year its a use it or lose it proposition. If you forego putting as much money as you can into a plan in a particular year, its a year that can never be made up in the future. But once youre over the hurdle of putting enough money away for your retirement, then you can go on to college savings and prepaying your mortgage. Perhaps you could do a little of both with whatevers left over at the end of the month." I have been putting a bit extra toward my mortgage for almost two years now. Maybe I shouldn't. Next week we will be talking to my in-laws accountant. I think I better print this out and bring it with me.

Check out this thread on the Appliances Forum. It may have info to help you. I am still considering a 30" CC, and I REALLY like the look of the plain center panel instead of the awkward looking center grates. Nice that it is the same height as the grates. Here is a link that might be useful: Images and Info of new Capital Culinarian

I was away a lot when you first posted and missed it. I'm SO glad you've gotten a couple of reasonable bids. Before you sign on with either contractor, please nail down in writing exactly who pays for which materials (do you pay for the wire, or is it included?) and what happens with overruns. I always tell people I knew my contractor was the right guy because his bid was three times more than the other ones. That's overly simplistic, but he counted how many junction boxes he'd need, the amount of master plumber attention getting the new drains laid through slab would take, and all the other little details. He figures trades time by the half day or day, so that when the plumber didn't like the drain venting which was piecemeal, when he opened up the wall, he just fixed it. He was there and he was being paid, and there was no, "Hey, Lady, look at this. That's going to cost you an extra thousand dollars." There were extras, like when I asked for extra special cabinet materials, or added moving a light switch in the dining room, but there were no overruns to the contract. We made a contract and he stuck to it because he'd thought the job through and priced it accordingly. I just don't want you to get stuck. If you have a firm budget, lock it down with the contractor to make sure that there will be no nasty surprises once you get started. And since one of the reasonable bids seems to be from someone you've worked with, and been happy with, before, I'd think that that would be a plus in his favor that would be worth a lot of peace of mind.

thatsmuchbetter: Although I also suspected that it wasn't reasonably bid, at this point your $1,000 tile job theory isn't holding up. You have an entire agenda to push and you don't care if it matches up with the facts of this case or not. For the most part we have to take the information that we get here at face value. Sure there are a lot of questions about how this job could go so wrong. If the facts are as presented - then a contractor took advantage of a consumer who didn't have a lot of sophistication about managing a job like this. To Elisia Ellis: You need to understand that if things are as you presented them, the cost of the work was probably significantly out of line for what you needed to be done even if it was done right ( I don't have all the details, so I'm hedging here). The work that was done was grossly incompetent at any price. That this could have gone so badly makes me think that you need some trusted help to resolve the problem with the current contractor and repair your bathroom. This should be a family member or trusted friend who can guide you on legal action, as well as helping you to make decisions with correcting the bathroom. It's not really likely for this to happen as you described unless a contractor was taking advantage of a homeowner without the sophistication and experience to manage such a project. You don't need to be shamed or feel ashamed -- but I think recovering your money and repairing your bathroom is going to be more complex than even the original job - and it's not something that you should go at alone. Get some assistance from someone who can help you to think through this (again, a family member or trusted friend who has business skills -- not a paid person). You will probably need legal assistance and such, but before you go there, you will probably need a trusted advocate who can commit to helping you sort through this.