Well, thanks, Dad

 Contractor has been. It was the owner (general contractor) of the place plus his painting/siding guy. Contractor is very talkative (in the "hard to get a word in edgewise" sense). The siding guy was a lot quieter but I wonder if that's because English is his second language (he had an accent). 

There's some roof decking damage, as I had feared (a sag in the roof). The contractor also steered me away from a metal roof, warning that the materials were so high right now it would eat my entire budget, and I had other things that needed to be done. But he is going to put in better vents (the turbine type) because I said "those old fashioned round gable vents have to go" and he agreed, they're not efficient enough AND a determined squirrel could get in through them. He's going to get me a rough estimate (which may change depending on the degree of unseen damage). He shot me a provisional one (about $12,000) but it turns out the diagram the service he used sent him had the house to the south of me marked as my address - and that house is 1000 square feet bigger. He texted me the diagram and said "this doesn't look quite right to me, does it look right to you?" and I looked at the compass directions on it and was like "no, my house doesn't point that way" and that the pictured house had more weird fancy gables on it - then I walked out and looked at the neighbor's house and realized - so I texted him back and he said "yeah, you're right." So I guess he has to find another way to figure out the quantity of materials needed BUT it will be less than what the neighbor's house would take. 

Also the siding is going to come off; it's old cheap vinyl siding that's gotten brittle. The contractor thinks there's the "good old wood!" siding underneath (he works a lot on historical homes, so I sense some bias) but I said (a) I don't want to have to pay someone to paint every five years and (b) I want better insulation, and that wouldn't work the way it's set up now. And also the framing around the windows will need to be fixed; there are some rotten spots.

well,. maybe he can salvage the old siding? If it's really in good shape and he can use it, he can have it.

Anyway, I looked at my most recent bank statement and verified I have a decent sum in savings (I never touch that, except for emergencies, and periodically, if I build up enough in checking, I send money over there to cut down the temptation of spending it). And then I realized: oh, you didn't take your inherited IRA RMDs for this year yet (normally I would take them in December). So I logged on to the two services (Fidelity and Vanguard*) and requested the amounts be transferred to savings.

(* No, I don't know why my dad split his investments up so much. He also had investments through Baird - the brokerage where his brother works - and TIAA-CREF, and it's really TIAA-CREF that's letting my mom live in relative luxury for the rest of her life)

And as I did it, I got a little teary, and said to the empty air of my living room "Thanks, Dad." I mean, I wish he was still here and in good health, but I absolutely know he would consider the home renovation a good use of the money. 

If the amount I have set aside turns out not to be enough, my mom's offered me an interest free loan (or even an outright gift - she passed some on to my brother and his family when they had some emergency) by transferring it to the Illinois credit union account I still have (and have checks for) because I guess wire transfers or EFTs are a little more than she would want to do. (Like I said: she is comfortably well off, thanks to my dad, and also thanks to Ohio's generous college-employee pension system, which is still paying my dad's pension balance to her)

I anticipate writing some nosebleedingly high (for me) checks in the near future, but this has to be done: I can't let the house deteriorate more. After the roof and siding are done they're going to tackle the kitchen floor, and the damaged drywall (the contractor seemed to consider that a small simple job) and paint the front door and build a better cover for the crawl space and the attic access. 

I am holding out hope that by the time I am putting up my Christmas tree this November, it'll all be done, and I'll have a sound, snug, and fixed house, and I'll have been able to replace the dishwasher (that's contingent on fixing the subfloor, and also making it harder for mice to get in the crawlspace. 

It's going to be a long and horrific slog - home renovation involves many things I deeply dislike: strangers in my house, noise, disruption, having to move stuff around and/or box stuff up, writing big checks....but ultimately it will be worth it. Because if I plan to stay here? I need the best house I can have. And this guy seems to really know his stuff, and be reliable, and seems to be really concerned about doing things the best way possible.