Well, Raeanne, I don't think our chances look too hot! But then again, we'd have to actually BET THE MONEY to win.... Maddie, have a wonderful vacation! Suzanne, You guys are getting rained out today? Mary Ann, Your margarita and nacho diet sounds good to me! It is overcast and cool here today. I got up at the crack of dawn a spent a couple of hours weeding and tying up tomatoes in the garden. I have 16' of staked tomatoes and 16' supported by the "Florida Weave" as a comparison test on the two methods. I harvested a ton of carrot, onion, lettuce, radish, bok choy, cabbage, and chard. Housework planned for the rest of the day, Spending the day with the kids for Mother's day tomorrow. Happy Mother's day to all Mamas of human AND animal babies : ) Tikanas

This is now getting beyond frustrating.. :-/ Refinisher "A" (the same one who submitted the bare-bones quote for the separate new-install area) had quoted me $825 (no sales tax) to repair (install new oak) an area the size of the former fireplace heart,now removed, and strip/refinish the entire room which is 16x19. But he never responded to either phone messages or emails asking for clarification of his vague new-area quote, which gave me a bad feeling about using him. Refinisher "B" quoted me $904, including sales tax, to do the same job. This refinisher also separately quoted for the new-install area and alternatives to same in prefinished engineered. Yesterday after getting better quotes for the new-install area using prefinished engineered from a different company entirely, I emailed Refinisher B saying that I would like them to just do the repair/refinish 16x19 room (the third company does not do repair/refinish, only new installs of various hard floorings). They responded by email that the $904 quote was based on them doing the ENTIRE job (even though they supplied separate quotes) and if I want them to do only the one room it would be subject to their minimum repair/refinish charge which is $1150 plus sales tax. :-/ Now I am up the creek because that job should be done first before any of the other flooring, and my choice is either to sign with them to get on the schedule ASAP (and pay several hundred dollars more than I expected) -or- start from square one again and try to get more flooring guys in for estimates which... going by recent experience... will take weeks to even get them in the door. At this point I am disgusted. There was nothing on the $904 quote to indicate that it was based on them doing "the whole thing" and I clearly indicated to them at the beginning that I was getting separate quotes for the different flooring option areas of the house. Sorry, just need to vent.

kgwlise, so funny you say this. Read on. First I was going to report that I tried on the whole shebang yesterday -- dress with Spanx hose and shoes. I was pleased. As pesky said, no one's going to think I'm supermodel thin, but somehow that saddlebag bulge did not seem as evident. And, I could breathe! (I bought the Spanx on the larger side.) Now here's the funny part. I got on the scale this morning and have lost 4 lbs. since Monday! Obviously I was retaining water, as kgwlisa suggested. But it normally takes me forever to lose one pound, so this was kinda thrilling. I am now one pound less than I was before the trip. Now, if I can keep this going...? I want to lose 8-9 more pounds! So, in the end, maybe the Spanx, combined with my actual loss, will actually make it look like I lost 5 lbs. in 5 days!! LOL.

And, sparksals, we definitely will not get into a house just so we can stop paying rent. I'm VERY picky, and it might be awhile before we find something that suits our needs. But, I think it's better to start sooner, rather than later, based on everyone's advice. It took me 7 months to find a house. I walked about 50 or so used houses, then every new housing community in 3 counties, which was a good 100 houses. We drove by others and ruled them out due to location. Well, I HATED renting. I hope never to have to go back to renting. Ever. I hate it! I hated sharing walls with others, hating putting up with others' noises, hated padding my landlord's pocketbook, hated not owning a piece of the American pie. So I'd be inclined to buy sooner, rather than later. But I agree that you should not rush into the single largest financial investment of your life. Take your time, look around, get a good handle on pricing, find a good loan, find a good realtor, etc. I grew up on the bottom floor of a 2 family. It helped my dad get the American Dream. The problem was, the house was original when he sold as he came from a poor country and did not believe in "wasting money" to update as everything worked, nor did he have a lot of time to do things due to working 5-7 days per week. Your husband is still in school, and the real estate market is not at the bottom yet. We just kept renting until my husband was finished with school. It kept the pressure off him and let him graduate. Owning a home is more than just the difference in payments--if a leak occurs, you or your DH have to fix it. Depends on where the OP is. Some markets did not have an increase so it may not matter if they wait to buy. After what I went through, I would get out there asap. There are a lot of houses for sale in most parts, it takes time to cover them all. Yes, owning a home everything falls on you. With my truck driver hubby, something always happens the rare times he drives the roads. I've dealt with storms & tree branches as well as not having water due to the softener being clogged. A few months ago we put out $7,000 on a new furnace. Not knowing what you can buy for the amount you are looking at, decide if you want an updated house or good mechanicals like newer roof, furnace, upgraded electric, central air, etc. I know someone that purchased a house they did not move into until 6 months after buying it as it needed floors redone, the master redone plus other cosmetics. The master had been torn apart by the original owner, so this was a must for them to live there. They then moved in to have all sorts of mechanical problems, water heater, electric. I see a heating/cooling truck there now, don't know if they are fixing something else or doing central air. I can't stress enough to sign up on every site you can find, even the local smaller sites to get email updates. One site gives addresses in the emails where it may not say so in the listing. This site has been very helpful to me. Good luck. It's a good time to buy a house in most areas.