victoriandream, My DH is an attorney & banker. He is NOT a handyman although he tries...Bless his heart. We are both gardeners &, if I do say so myself, accomplished gardeners. So, we've done the garden restoration & hired 95% of the home renovations. It took us about 15 minutes with a heat gun to realize that we were never going to be able to strip all that paint off the millwork ourselves. And, if we did we would ruin the woodwork! :) There are times in economic & societal cycles when historic homes ARE a good investment. We are not now nor have we been in that type of cycle for, maybe, the past 8 years thereabouts. Will it again turn in favor of historic homes? Sure, but who knows when? Just like...if one had such a desire...avacado-green carpet is again available. (Ugh!) Everything is cyclical. You should, IMO, never purchase an historic home with the intention of making a bundle. That's not realistic. Facts are that it costs considerably more to restore these homes than it would to bulldoze & build new on the site. Those pesky appraisers & lenders don't share our emotional attachments so they often block our dreams of grandeur. In many cases, they save us from ourselves! Yes, we had kids. The ranged in age from 8 to 13 when we purchased that 1848 colonial. Our son is a pro at stripping wallpaper! During their teen years they had great ghost stories to entertain their friends! They may have suffered from things we did as parents (?); but I don't believe living in a period home did them any lasting damage. LOL You will know your stewardship is over when you hesitate before starting the next project. Or, you'll know when the checkbook is running on fumes because you can't even stay in a period home, much less restore it, without being bankrolled. They suck money like a vacuum from your wallet. Your daughter is precious! And, what a grand lady your home is! Wonderful that you've got old pictures for a guide. Did you have to strip ALL that millwork? OMG! I think you've done a lovely job of maintaining the 'feel' for the kitchen while still bringing to a 21st century functionality. I love the windows. The windows in our 1848 home were narrow & tall. Window treatments were like trying to dress spaghetti! Yes, our East Lake, Brilliant Period Cut Glass, & tapestries would have worked wonderfully in your home. The auction was sorta fun...we've actually done that thing twice (auctioning off our entire household...that's how we've managed to upgrade our collections...buy, sell & then re-purchase fewer but higher quality pieces). I've got a cupboard that would be lovely in your kitchen...it's c. 1865 so very appropriate to your home. Here's its official description: A circa 1860-1870 step-back cupboard having pie shelf beneath shaped apron beneath a top case consisting of pair of paneled doors with tombstone and molded design with applied cornice molding. Top case rests on bottom case; double drawers above conforming paneled doors having recessed tombstone and molded design matching doors in top case; side panels of lower case also with inset tombstone shaped panels; side of bottom case terminates with successful "cupids bow" base cutout; front apron and feet conform to shaping above pie shelf. This cupboard retains desirable original chrome yellow surface with red highlights; faux birds eye decoration. (84-inches tall X 45-inches wide X 19 1/8-inches deep.) That's funny about you wanting to become boaters! We started with a small 21' sport lobster boat & quickly got a bad case of "Two-footitis". That's a common disease amongst boaters & it's contagious. We ended up with this...she's a Nordic Tug outfitted for long-distance cruising...the Bahamas to Maine. Stay away from boat shows. They are dangerous places! rofl I can really understand why you fell in love with your home & I'm sure she's grateful for your efforts. I know this may sound like blasphemy; but, have you considered a B&B? If not your heart, at least your tax returns would thank you. :) Your family will make many wonderful memories living in that house. If it were me, I'd sigh & start on that siding before the season gets away! :) /tricia

Your house is lovely in a charming, old-fashioned type of way that appeals to many of us. I'm stealing a phrase from someone else (can't remember whom), but your house says "Ahhh" rather than "Wow!" That's exactly the feel I want from my house. I do not think you should feel pressure to move up to a bigger, more expensive house . . . just because you can /will be able to in the future. We are building a house that's much smaller than we could afford to build, and we're planning to fill it with luxury items . . . in moderation. I think you should proceed with caution because none of us knows what may happen in the coming years, and what you today call a "forever home" may NEED to be sold for any number of reasons: A work move, surprise twins or the need to take in a family member's child, a freeway coming through. None of us ever think these things will happen to us -- until they happen to us. We have to be realistic. I'd say go ahead and improve your small house with lovely things that will please you and enhance your life, but do keep it period appropriate, and don't over-do excessively for the neighborhood.

I would be extremely cautious if the industry that your primary bread earner is not certain. 30% drop in salary is not insignificant and maybe that way for a long period of time. I have seen several people getting caught in this housing "crunch" as you call it. Divorces seem to be the biggest issue since the house HAS to be liquidated to cash out the other person, unless there is another source of money. If you are overimproved, then you can't even get out of the situation without bringing large sumes of money to the table, ie under water.... I have personally seen a few of these in the past few years. The second common problem seems to be job transfers. There is a house in the neighborhood for sale at 1.5 mil, down from above 2 mil. That is a HUGE drop. They have been in Europe due to the job transfer for over a year and the house is empty. I have seen many of these around. My brother bought into a bigger house/better neighborhood. As a consequence, my SIL is now working full time. She was working part time before. These are choices and consequences of house decisions that people make. I have heard from some colleagues that they are not where they want to be financially because of the housing drop, stock market drop etc. These things happen in life. No one can predict. What you have to plan for is multiple scenarios and be comfortable with many possibilities. Some people are fine with uncertainties of the future and immediate pleasure and others are less comfortable with that. You and your DH has to be able to figure out where your comfort level is. These types of discussions are very difficult because we have to examine our core values and how we live with them. We also have to be honest about our uncertainties and risk taking levels with ourselves and our families. Only you know how to balance now versus later, which is what balancing house remodel versus retirement/college savings are all about. I wish you the best. If I were you, I would save for 2 years as if you were doing the large remodel. Then when you have the money in hand, and the economy hopefully has become more stable (or less stable!) and hopefully things (the decisions) are more certain for your family. Then you can decide how to procede. Nothing has to happen now. Your house is not so bad that it is unhabitable, I presume. 2 years is nothing!

My husband and I both work full time for the State of California. When Christmas is on a weekday, we get the day off with pay. When Christmas is on a Saturday, as it is this year, we get 8 hours of "Holiday Credit" - which is like 8 hours of vacation time. You schedule the time off when you want to be off. You can use it as soon as the first work day following the holiday, or you can save it to use whenever... When Christmas falls on a Sunday, we get the next day (Monday) off with pay. (Same goes for all of the other holidays that we get that can fall on a different day of the week. The exception is Veteran's Day [November 11]. If it falls on a Saturday we get Friday off with pay; if it falls on a Sunday we get Monday off with pay.) Every year the Governor signs an Executive Order giving full-time state employees 4 hours of "Informal Time Off" (ITO) for the Christmas/New Year holidays. No, not 4 hours for each -- it's a total of 4 hours. We can use it to take the afternoon off either Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve (or if they are on a Sunday we can take the afternoon off the preceeding Friday), or we can save the time to use later. For the folks who work less than full time, there is a chart showing how much ITO they get on a prorated basis. You can also use any accrued leave time (vacation, CTO, holiday credits, saved ITO, etc.) to take time off, but you have to request it in advance and obtain approval for your request. Hubs and I both earn 21 vacation days each year (14 hours per month, for 12 months, for a total of 168 hours, which is 21 days, which is just over 4 work weeks). But state offices are almost deserted this time of year, so it's nice to be there and be able to get stuff done without constant interruptions, so I don't like to "waste" my vacation hours taking time off for the holidays. And, I don't think it's worth it to waste the 4 hours ITO to take the afternoon off on Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve because everyone is "cut loose" around 2:30 anyway. My husband's office has already told everyone that they will be allowed to leave at noon on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. Scissors mentioned "using or losing" floating holiday credits. It used to be like that in our state service, but then an employee sued, saying that he'd earned the time and it shouldn't be taken away (they put a cap on how many vacation hours you can have on the books, etc.), and the court ruled in his favor. So, now they can strongly encourage you to use up your time, but they don't wipe it off the books. Right now I've got 72 hours of holiday credits (9 weekend holidays) on the books as well as 4 years' worth of holiday ITO, in addition to my vacation hours, CTO, etc., etc. And this year's holiday credits and ITO will get added to my leave balances, too.