Last week he assembled the lift platform attached to the tractor up even with the roof, placed a BIG ladder against it and went on the roof to repair a shingle that had come up where the roofers left a bent nail. Everything went great, good safety measures. I didn't make photos because I was fetching things, including a brick to hold down the shingle until the black cement cured. You know how pliers, bricks and other necessary items get up there if he's on the roof and you are on the ground. In the picture, he's about to retrieve the brick with the long pole that he uses to change light bulbs in high places. I just happened to walk up, camera still around my neck from my trip to the wilds. Those of you with DIY husbands know that this is just one in a long succession of fun events, as evidenced by FlowerLady's report above. Nell

I just read this post and wanted to respond. I was interested in the responses that you recieved V. Some were helpful. I have a few thoughts on this subject as well. I found it amazing that someone would have the guts to post that if you can't feed them don't breed them. As if by asking the question about how to prepare for the future, you are not doing your duty. It sounds like you are doing a great job feeding them, if you will, and are now looking toward the future. Good for you. I also found it interesting that the debate came down to a pick one scenario for everyone who did respond. You are crazy to pay for their college and not take care of yourself or you are selfish to take care of your retirement and not help your kids. I put forth that you have set two goals and want to know how to make both of those goals work. Without knowing more about your financial situation, no one can tell you how to do this or if it's possible. What I will tell you is about myself. I am a stay at home mother of three. My husband is ten years older than I am. He wants to retire in his early 60's (62 at the latest). Our children will just be going to college at about the time he wants to retire. I want to pay for college for my children. These are both valid goals. We gathered all of our information together and went and paid 400$ to a financial planner. It was the BEST thing we ever did. We are not rich. But we thought it was well worth the money to have someone help us look at our overall financial well being and help us draw some basic predictions (conservative predicitons) towards the future. He looked at our insurance and our finances. We found out we probably needed more disability insurance, if something were to happen to my husband, there is no way we could have held on to the house and made things work, even if I went back to work. We found out that we were doing fine with retirement and needed to think about college funds. I have the peace of mind now, knowing that if my husband were to die or get injured we could keep the house, maintain our style of living and be OK. And I won't have to go to work. That is important to us. We can retire in our 60s but it will most likely be age 65 (instead of 62) and pay most of our kids college expensis. I would strongly suggest that you think about going to a financial planner. Pick one wisely but know that they are worth the money in my book. Some things to think about- you can save for the local state university and your child will end up in Harvard. Then what? For us, we decided to save as much as we could towards helping our children get a basic four year degree. If we have enough to pay for their college, great. If they go to Harvard, Yale etc- high expensis, they will have to work and get student loans and scholarships. Or you will save for college and they won't go to college. Then what? This is one reason we have not put anything in their name that will equal a large chunk of money that will be theirs at age 18. Although they are adults at age 18, we know that they are still young and still lack the in depth decision makign skills they might need. We would hate to see our money spent on a nice car at the expense of college. The choice will be theirs at that time. What college to go to? How to help pay for it- live at home, work, not go? They will be well on their way to adult hood and able to make decisions that impact their future. Even now, our children are encouraged to save for college. (ages 4,2,5 months). We take any gift money sent to them and put it in the bank in their name. We give them a small allowance and help them split it up to tithing, spending, savings (my 2 and 5 months old don't get it yet, but they will). We are setting a policy now that any money they get in gifts at least 1/2 will go to the bank. This will be their money towards college and other expensis they may have as they grow and leave home. (Down payment on a home? Down payment on an appt? Down payment on a car? college?) The other thing we did- we took all of our money (except for a little bit) and put it in our accounts. We have not seperated out college vs retirement vs a big wedding. We figure it is all ours and if something comes up that we have to spend it, we want to be able to do so with out feeling like we are spending our childrens' money. WE earned it and we want to use it the best way we need to at any given time. You just never know what will come up (accident, job loss, etc.)... So it's in one big pot with our name on it (except for a very little bit). Closer to college time we will sit down and figure out where we stand- how much we have total, how much we can help each child out with college, how much we need for retirement etc. Then we will help our children. It is my belief that we had these children and along the lines of if you can't feed them don't breed them- we want to help them along in their adult hood the best we can. It seems a shame to force them to take on student loans when we will hopefully be in a position to help them if not pay for their college totally. I have some personal reasons for wanting to help my children through college based on my history. But there you have it. On the flip side though, we do not want to hurt our retirement or not retire to help our children. As someone posted earlier- $30,000 at age 30 is easier to pay off in the long run than the same debt at age 60 on a fixed income. I maintain that there is probably a fine line between these two goals that you can walk. I would put forth that with some research and budgeting, most families can be in the position we are now in. It's not ideal- we scrimp a bit and we don't do everything (many) of the things I'd like to do (like move to a huge house, go on more vacations, fly etc). But I feel good about where we stand. We know we can take care of ourselves and our children now and for many years to come. We know we can retire and help our kids through college. A 529 is a great option. We have one for each child. There are other options- roth iras, coverdale ira, schwab accounts, drips, etc. You get the idea. This is one reason we went to a financial planner. He helped us untangle the information and then backed off and let us make the decisions that we felt were best. Good Luck. Ginger

Renovator8, I'm sorry my last post seemed grouchy. Ok, lol, it didn't just "seem" like it - I was hot, tired & grumpy - ya think it showed, just a teeny bit? I did see where you quoted the reg's that included the pre-fab pool with 24" limit. That's the same thing our city said - is that a federal regulation? The inspector that came (& put the ki-bosh on ours - in a friendly, apologetic manner, I should be fair & point out) gave the impression that it was a local "city" ordinance. Now I'm curious, not that it really matters. Our pool was filled to just about 20" or so, just for safety reasons. (My 4 year-old is tiny for his age, heck - he'd be small for a 3 year-old). Although he was never in it without my supervision, that's as deep as I was comfy with. Mr. Inspector Fella walked all around it, and said "Nope, you're good to go - this doesn't require a permit". Until he read the print on the side that said "Max fill 30 inches". He was surprised & clearly embarrassed to have to make me drain it. I know I got off-topic, & yep - I did rant a bit. Sorry about that. However, while I did start the topic w/the pool situation, it was literally because it had gotten me thinking about other permit issues, & I really wanted to hear from others if they did things without them, as we have done on occasion. Oh - here's another one (rant, I guess?) for ya! Anyone else have their town do this? Every 5 years or so, the city hires a firm to fly over town & do aerial photography.. Then city employees pour over every lot, comparing it to the previous aerial map looking for changes. If they see a new deck, for example, they look to see if a permit was obtained. Lol, do the clerks get a temporary job title change to "Code Compliance Officer"? :-) My Dad built a deck attached to his house years ago, didn't even think about getting a permit. It was in backyard, with a privacy fence - I don't know if he was being stubborn (he certainly had it in him, lol) or just didn't know he needed a permit in the first place. After he passed away, an inspector showed up at Moms front door w/a tape measure & clipboard. She about fainted, when he told her the aerials indicated a deck - but not well enough for dimensions. He needed to get accurate measurements for property assessment records (or something like that). Poor lady thought she was in big trouble, lol, called me at the office all upset. "No, you're not going to jail, mom. But your property taxes are about to go up". And they did. (That wasn't meant to be a rant - more of a funny story/memory lol). Anyway, sorry if I offended. I didn't want to! :-) Btw, you think I live in Kansas? What? Next you'll be thinking I'm a girl.. Then you'll think I have some tools... I don't know where people come up with things, I swear. ;-)

Kellyeng, that's so funny that the neighbors would think you could do something about the landscaping! C9pilot, I agree that the sprinkler system map is a great thing to leave. When we sold a house we built we left a copy of the house plans. To give you an update, I haven't heard from the new owners in over two weeks, so I'm hoping I won't. I did talk to the man who did the inspection on their house, and they wrote him a letter asking for $4000 for repairs of things he didn't catch. I can't even imagine what they're talking about. The funniest (or saddest) part is that they never paid him for the inspection. The inspector said it's the most troubling thing that's ever happened in his 18 years of inspections.