I think DH and I are going to take the kids to Binghamton today to help my MIL clean out her house a bit in preparation for selling, many in 3-6 months. I say clean out a bit because there's not much of a dent we can make in two days (we have to be back tomorrow night to bowl). Let's just say there is many years of accumulation, as well as neglected repairs. She had a realtor over who quoted $90+...but as a realtor (and admittedly not knowing her market, but I do know that there are no inflated markets in our part of NY), I think that's a big stretch. The house has holes in the foundation (when they got their furnace replaced, they were told that it was lucky they did, or else the carbon monixide leak probably would have killed them). Her heating bill is $800 a month on the budget due to the horrible (or lack of?) insulation. Apparently, there are septic problems as well. The kitchen and bath need to be gutted (probably the bedrooms too) and they just need to start over. I'm thinking more like $50-60k tops. But, I wasn't asked, and I am not offering any opinion. Last thing I want to do is get in the middle here. I just hate to see her pinning her hopes on $90k when I just don't see it happening. Maybe I'm wrong about their market - I would LOVE to be wrong here. Anyway, we're going to go down and help where we can. I'm thinking of stopping on the way to the science musuem that we have a membership to. The kids will love it and it will tire them out a bit
A bit of free entertainment yesterday - a trip to the local library and cards at my brother's house next door. We were able to take the kids and set them up with a movie in the basement (both fell asleep on the couch), so no cost for babysitting either.
And, now, a week off from school - that means a week without daycare expense either! We are lucky that our daycare provider does not charge us for days that ds2 doesn't attend (since he only goes two days per week). That's $54 that can stay in the bank!