Siding, and Windows, and Doors! Oh My!

With the renovation work at the house still ongoing (an attic window, the basement hatch, and some last minute touch-ups left), we still haven’t made the last payment to the contractor. Progress has been very slow for the past few weeks,

It’s tough because now, over month later, I’d like to have begun putting a real dent in the debt we took on to finance the project… but there is still one payment to go.

Seems like it’s something that would be easy to work around but I’m generally of the type that likes to pay all of my regular monthly bills and then send every last remaining cent, down to a $1000 buffer, to the credit card companies. It’s a method that’s always worked for me in the past.

With a $4k bill looming, I’m not comfortable doing that.

I know, I know… I could make my “new” buffer the $5k mark, but with things still up in the air, I want to make sure I have as much cash on hand for those last minute unexpected expenses. You know, like the additional $2500 we paid to have the porch rebuilt.

I want the house to be done.

I want to write that last check to the contractor.

And I want things to get settled so I can put my head down and start paying it back, aggressively, like we did with the last loan (for the roof) where we paid the last $8k off in a couple of months.