I invited the Realtor who helped us buy our home in 1999 to come over and give us ideas for what we can do to "upgrade" our house for the cost of what we would have spent to sell (about 11% of the current value, which she sees as higher than what Zillow tells us). Our house and property are a mess, thanks to years of child-tending, depression, laziness, distraction, full-time day care and retirement money-growing. But now, of course, with the market in a tailspin, and credit markets seizing up, I have an emergency fund and some cash to invest in the house. Score one for timing Ms. Goddard! That's up there with giving birth three weeks after 9/11!

I am so glad I invited her over: she was honest as a real estate professional could be, yet optimistic that we'd have s shorter recessionary/depression stint given our state's export strengths and tendency to be last in/first out in economic downcycles (except for the dark Boeing years of the mid 1970s?). Inventory in the county is at near ten months, but in my price range it's more like three months. She gave us names of the professionals she uses for remodeling and landscaping. This will be a multi-year project, which means that relocating is probably out of the question this year. Maybe in 2011...

In the meantime I'll see if I can raise our HELOC to $60K or as low as $40K. I read on Mish's Global Economics blog an article excerpt where a woman with a $168K HELOC on her Newport Beach, CA property had found it reduced to $10,000. She had never used the HELOC and found her limit cut to 6% of what it was formerly. I myself would be irritated/squawking like a wet hen if my HELOC was reduced to $1,071, and yes entitlement has a mighty squawk to it. I'm wondering if Citigroup's nervous condition has anything to do with the 94% pruneback.

Mish supports Citigroup's stunning move:
Look at this from Citigroup's point of view.

• She has decreasing home equity, most likely no equity.
• California is in decline with a long way to go before houses can be considered affordable.
• The US is in recession.
• People are losing jobs.
• She does not know the difference between money and credit.
• She does not understand the difference between her money and someone else's money.
• She spent $55,000 trying to "make a baby" (mentioned in the article).
• She is about to adopt a child instead (also mentioned in the article).
• Her cash went down and her expenses are clearly going to rise as a result of the last two points. (Yeah, if FT daycare is now 105% that of a mortgage payment, not to mention diapers, and baby food...)

Yet she had $300K to put down on a home and rental properties. How do people with this kind of thinking get money? Stock options? Inheritances? Rich partners?

What will I do if I can't raise the HELOC? Probably just renovate the bathroom for now, pay it off in four months, see if I can get my MSFT contract renewed for another 12, and if yes, then I'm doing the kitchen.

There's my cue to go get disability insurance, because I can't count on using the HELOC for an emergency fund. Truth be told, I had been doing exactly that since June 2006, using the money only for the windows, which added at least as much in value to the house as I had spent on them, and paying it back at the rate of $1400/week.

I dug holes for two strawberry plants purchased this afternoon: Shuksan and Tristar.

I'm going to restrict the garden beds to two for now, and try some garden ovals in the back and in the front, and move the roses somewhere sunny. Maybe the roses can have an oval to themselves in front -- they do a good job at getting me out in the sun and talking to the neighbours.