Something I have been grappling with is about if I should sell my house or not.  Getting a bunch of cash out of the house would be nice, but given housing prices are so freaking insane I would be blowing all of the cash I would get out of my house and end up with much higher monthly mortgage payments.

Currently all signs point to me staying put for a while but I'm trying to proceed with options that I would need to do anyway.  Replace the front room window, fix the gutters, fix or rebuild the back porch and maybe replace the furnace.  I'm also having Mr. Sun Solar come out my house tomorrow to look at options for putting in photo-voltaic, solar hotwater and maybe a radiant floor heat system (see furnace).   Some of the changes I would fully expect to break even if I sold the house in the not too distant future, but I likely wouldn't break even with the photo-voltaic and possibly break even with the radiant floor heating system.

A consideration in all of this is what happens if there is a significant problem with liquid fuels, natural gas or a pandemic.  Given FEMA's handling of Katrina and the stated position of the Feds that in the event of a pandemic that they wouldn't do anything.  Given what the Bushites have done to the federal budget they really can't do much of anything.

With the above in mind, I think if everything runs somewhat smoothly and I sell my house I wouldn't break even but I would turn enough of a profit overall to basically not worry about it.  If things don't run smoothly, then I'm in a much better position to ride out the storm.