And once again

 Thank you, Dad.

I went out this morning and retrieved the old (paper! They had Marian Anderson's portrait on them!) I bonds I'd been hanging on to since the early 2000s when my dad put some money that was an inheritance from his parents into them.

Because: the GC found a code problem (old cedar shingles needing removal) that wasn't fully expected, and that will bump up the cost of the job.

Fortunately the local "big bank" could redeem them (my credit union could not). It took some work for the people there; they had never done it before, but they figured it out. I had to run home to get my social security card because I didn't have an account there.

They didn't tell me the amount, I was calculating interest in my head and thought "Well, if I'm lucky, I'll get $5000 above principal, and that will help" - at that point I'd told the GC not to re-roof the garage just yet because I couldn't afford it and the other jobs. Then they handed me the check.

It was twice the principal, plus a little bit. More than what I had started with in my budget, so my reno budget has effectively more than doubled. I almost started crying there in the bank. (A friend of mine had reminded me earlier, when I was worrying about scraping together funds: "God will provide.")

I raced over to my credit union and deposited that in my saving account (well: I have the cost of an initial roof payment in my checking already, and if I'm lucky, I won't have to tap the larger amount in savings before the new month, and maybe I earn a buck or two in interest on it.

But yeah. It's kind of sad bonds aren't such a good investment any more but wow, did these ever take care of me now.

ETA: came home for lunch. The team (about 15 guys!) have the roof stripped down to the rafters/lath and they're preparing to put new OSB down. The GC pointed out the roof and said "those rafters are good and sound, we had to replace barely anything" and it does look like the underlying craftsmanship was good.

However, a persistent leak that I didn't know about on the back of the house means more work needs to be done over the sewing room - which increases the price, and at first I thought the higher price he quoted me was JUST for that area, an I called in to TIAA CREF about getting a loan against my retirement account (not actually starting the process, just getting information on HOW to do it) but when I went home and talked to him, he was like "Oh no no, that higher price was for the roof PLUS the fix on the sewing room, not just the sewing room. Which is a huge relief but I've been through such a rollercoaster of emotions today - worry that I couldn't get the bond cashed in locally, relief-to-the-point-of-tears when I saw how much it was, then worry again and sadness when I thought JUST fixing the roof would eat more than half of the money I had....I'm worn out and not sure how much I'll be able to concentrate on working this afternoon over at school