Suzieque thanks. Sad and frustrated because, 3 years after the dishonest contractors caused all the damage, I have still been unable to get my house restored to the safe, comfortable condition it was before the dishonest contractors destroyed it. In addition to destroying the insulation and vapor barrier while demolishing the wrong part of the house, the dishonest contractors caused it to rain and snow directly into the house for over 2 years. I called the insurance company for the contractor who was bidding (and still adding to the cost of the bid) $40,000+ to repair the damage), and his insurance company informed me that his insurance policy did not cover the work that he was bidding to do on my house. He did not attempt to contact me again after that. The guy who quoted $50,000-$70,000 to repair the damage done by the dishonest contractor said that he would send me a "detailed, itemized proposal" which turned out to be a 2-line text that he sent to me many months later, and when I did not respond within a half hour, he texted again "no answer" and then later said "you can't afford us," which, I guess, was his way of saying "we don't have time to help you". The reason I am guessing this is the case is that the woman who recommended him as being the best and only contractor that she can trust also informed me that after he repaired her house, he said he would do her son's house, but 2 years later he still hasn't done her son's house. So I survived 2 winters paying exorbitant heating costs while living in the 2 "warmest" rooms of the house. I was able to heat the "warm" rooms to about 60 degrees and the upstairs was 28 degrees, since the contractors destroyed all the previously-functional insulation as they were causing it to rain and snow directly into my attic spaces, and onto the drywall ceilings of the finished upstairs rooms. It wasn't until the following summer that I was able to finally find someone willing to do "emergency" patching of all the holes that the dishonest contractor put into the roof. . The next fall and winter I hired a neighbor to help me remove all the water-damaged materials from the upstairs and begin installing good baffles and real insulation, but, after removing the water-damaged materials, we had to wait for the entire underside of the roof, most of the attic spaces, and other parts of the house as well, to get 2 different commercial mold-killing treatments professionally applied before we could start re-doing the baffles and new insulation. This mold remediation was not completed until the end of the 3rd winter that the damage done by the dishonest contractors forced me to live in an unsafe, water-damaged house. And, of course, the work that I originally hired the dishonest contractors do to has still never been done, because repairing the damage that they caused to my house became far more urgent. I am paying for all of this out of my own pocket, since the dishonest contractors refuse to repair any of the substantial damage that they caused to the house. after having already robbed me of close to $15,000. (I don't even want to get into what they did to the back of the house after I had forbidden them to touch the back of the house.) It wasn't until January and February of the 3rd winter that I finally had almost enough insulation replaced for my house to begin to retain most of the heat from the furnace. Then the primary employer of my neighbor that I had been paying to help me do this after he finished work at his "day job" changed his work situation so that he was no longer able to help me, so I am still trying to find someone to finish installing insulation in the places I can't get to (I am 70 years old, and no longer thin enough or flexible enough to fit through small openings). The entire upstairs of my house (more than half of the living space) is still unusable, as it still requires the insulation to be completed before prepping for replacing the drywall can begin, and I have no idea of how long the "patches" to the holes on the roof will last, since they didn't replace any of the wood that the dishonest contractors removed from those areas of the roof-- they only "patched" them with was ice/water barrier and shingles, And there are still large areas of the roof that the dishonest contractor ought to have covered with ice/water barrier but did not. Those areas are still not covered with ice/water barrier.

If it makes you feel better, Hoboken, my main early labor symptom for my last kid (#3) was extreme crankiness. When we got to the hospital, I told my husband that I'd changed my mind, we weren't really having this baby after all. We looked at each other and said, "But we don't have a name for a girl!" This was the days before ultrasounds and I was sure this baby was a girl. He wasn't, so we had a name after all. It could have been like my brother and SIL - it took them several more days after the birth of their kids to agree on names. That really causes issues on the birth certificate front. Good luck, keep breathing, she'll be here soon.

herbflavor, We bought the place because it was all that we could afford at the time without a mortgage, and the housing crisis of 2008 was still fresh on my mind and I absolutely did not want a mortgage, and still don't. We could have qualified for one but we didn't want one. Our next house will also be paid for in cash but it's going to be our "forever" home and we are projecting that its going to cost 200k. DH owns a business, and now I also own a business. Both our businesses do well. We are not rich. We are middle class. But we will not get a mortgage; we are very debt-averse. -------------------------- homechef59: "I'm going to continue with the wall extension for the refrigerator. You said the refrigerator would be too big and stick out. So, frame the wall with an L-shape into the dining room just far enough to make the refrigerator sit flush with the line of cabinets. Just trying to keep a lid on costs and get you some improvements." That is still moving a load-bearing wall, which costs $3k+, right? -------------------------- scone911: "Given your sketch, and based on instinct and experience, I wouldn't put any more money into this house. It's not worth the hassle, and I don't think you will get it back if there are mass market developers in the area who can undercut you every few years with a new subdivision that has all the bells and whistles. This house is already nickel and diming you, and that's really bad for your finances-- when you are young, you have a golden opportunity to start saving for retirement, so you have the power of compounding working for you. Throwing cash into a money pit house on speculation that it might be worth something someday, if everything breaks just right, is asking for trouble, IMO. Don't take that risk if you don't have to." We own it outright; there is no mortgage or lien or backtax; nothing. Free and clear. "I'd divide the land, if possible, and put a stick built or modular in the new section. Keep the old place as a rental if you can. At least the old house gives you somewhere to live while you build, and a modular can go up fast." We prefer to save up our cash towards our "forever" house instead. Also, we think at this time that what the property really has going for it is the land. If we divided it up it would lose a huge amount of its charm. The house itself has no charm at all; the land has charm. It has trees and wildlife and feels like you're in a forest; it's quite pleasant. "If you can get the land divided and ready to go in the next couple of months, you might (just possibly) be able to move into a new place by Christmas-- and get on with your life." No, because that would require getting a mortgage. We believe debt is something you do when things are more certain, and given the state of the economy and world affairs we are very far away from the kind of comfort level that would draw us to a mortgage. I suppose that wraps up this particular thread. I'll post a new one with a much more accurate to-scale sketch of the kitchen, dining and laundry floorplan so it can be hashed out better. Thanks again everyone! This was very insightful and educational.

well he asked me for personal checks made out to him all less than 10k so I doubt hes going to pursue legal action...hes very shady...he said he paid the plumber but he didn't pay him a cent. probably why he never came to finish work. then the plumber could've come after us for his payment too.