I need to purchase a laptop for my blogging and Empty Cabin Media work.  For a few years, I’ve been eying up an Apple Macbook Pro and spent some time yesterday reading up on them and comparing them to similar Windows based laptops.  The specific Windows based model I want is a Lenovo T500.

From what I’ve found, I can get a very nice Lenovo laptop with similar specifications to the MacBook Pro for anywhere from $1000 – $1500.00.  The similar MacBook Pro I really like is $2500.00.  Here’s my dilemma: I know the Macs are slick.  They are light, easy to use, fast, and have some really really cool software, but to be honest they aren’t $1000.00 more cool.  At least not to me.  Not based on what I know at this point.

Upon further reflection last night, I decided that if MacBook Pros are $1000 or so more than Windows based laptops, than they must have some feature or features I’m not considering.  I mean, I could buy two Lenovo laptops for the price of one MacBook Pro.  I must not be considering something.  Just for the record the following considerations don’t justify an additional $1000.00 for me:

• MacBooks are really really “purdy” (as we say here in the South) – Completely agree, best looking computer on the market.  But, so are BMWs…but I don’t own one.
• MacOS instead of Vista – Yes I hate Vista, but I’d live with it to save $1000.00
• Easier to use – I agree with that too, but I’m a software/computer guy, so I’m real comfortable using computers, and even frequently use a command line (*gasp*)
• Steve Jobs – I agree, cool guy and all, but I don’t think he needs my $1000.00

Now, it might seem like at this point I am anti-Apple, o’contrar monfrar.  I really want an Apple.  I’d love to run the Coda editor, Evernote for Mac, and Things.  I also really like the OS/X operating system as well.

I know many of you have both Apple machines and Windows based machines.  I would love to hear your input on my dilema/decision.  I even know some of you that are personal finance/frugal bloggers that have Apple computers.  How did you justify the additional cost?  Why do you elect to spend the extra money for the Apple?  Was it worth it?

<begin shameless begging>Hey, if you’re an Apple person or retailer and want to just give me one to review and keep.  I promise I’ll write all kinds of good stuff about how great my new MacBook is, the software, the support, etc etc. <end shameless begging> <== hehe, can’t blame a guy for trying right?

Seriously, add a comment with your thoughts.  It would really help me out.

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Okay, I am going to lay it all out and see what you think.

We own a home in another state. I am gainfully employed and making a decent wage – at least for us – in our new location. We are coming up on fourteen months since our move and we have had little or no interest in our home. When we last refinanced, our home was 90% mortgaged. We used most of the money from our second mortgage to improve the home just before the subprime mortgage crisis hit.

Our house has plummeted in value over the last year and a half. The mortgage is now worth 120% of the value of the home. A drop in value would not be so bad if we were living in the house, but the problem is that we now live in a different state.

We have stayed current on our mortgage, home equity loan, insurance, utilities and property taxes by rustling up extra income as best we could. We had a renter in the house for a short time, but the rent did not cover our expenses. Our monthly obligations for this house are between $1,000 and $1,200 per month, depending on utilities.

Our credit score is currently very good – in the top 10% of all credit scores, but this month we officially go into the red. We have a little bit of wiggle room since I recently took out $14,000 by virtue of a 0% APR balance transfer through March of 2010. We have exhausted our savings (other than the balance transfer money) and have cashed out most of our retirement savings.

Here are my options as I see them:

Short sale

This means we lower the price as far as possible to get it to sell. I think this means that our second mortgage probably does not get paid and our first mortgage holder gets what they gets. In a short sale, the balance of the loan counts as household income on my tax return next year. So if my loan amount is $150,000 and I sell it for $90,000, I have to report the difference of $60,000 as income to the IRS next year. Lovely.

It is unclear to me how this strategy affects my credit.

Foreclosure

Just quit making payments. I have seen some calculators where a foreclosure only dings my credit score by 100 points – which is not too bad since my rating is very high. It seems to me that there must be more to this penalty.

Bankruptcy

Thankfully, this is not strong a possibility at the moment, unless I lose my job. We could be living relatively comfortably on my income if we did not have this house. In fact, we probably could have put $8,000 to $10,000 in the bank this last year . . . instead we have stayed current on our payments and have nothing to show for it.

Deed in lieu

With this strategy, I strike a deal with the second mortgage company where I agree to pay them or they forgive the loan or let me pay it off at a reduced rate. As a result of our agreement, they release their lien on the home. I then simply give the house to the first mortgage holder and beg them not to foreclose. I have friends who made this work and it did not affect their credit, however,for most of them, they executed this strategy before this current crisis.

Status quo

Stick it out, keep making payments and hope it sells sometime in the next year. The problem is that I would be very unlikely to recoup my investment, unless home values shot up 30% in the next year. The payments I am making are not going into equity and in the meantime I am making no retirement contributions and we have no savings or emergency fund.

So you can see, we are in a pickle.

I am not desperate or worried – I am confident that God has a plan. Even in bankruptcy, He will meet our needs. However, that fact does not excuse ignorance or laziness on my behalf. I am researching every possible option in order to make the best decision for my family and our future.

Most GLBL readers are smart people – any thoughts or suggestions?

Photo by dingbat2005

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It’s been a while since I’ve solicited any feedback from you, so I thought it was about time to do it again.  I created Gather Little by Little for one single purpose, to help others.  I wanted to share my financial learnings with others in hopes that they could begin their join me in my journey to get my finances under control.  I have not deviated from that purpose other than to hope that maybe someday I can do this as a full-time job.  That would truely be a dream come true.

As always, Gather Little by Little is for you: long-term readers, new readers, and visitors from search engines looking for answers.  To keep Gather Little by Little heading in the direction (the one that most benefits you most), I’d really like to hear your feedback about it.

If you would,  please consider the following questions and leave a comment or contact me directly with your thoughts, feedback and suggestions.  Anything is fair game, and don’t worry about hurting my feelings, I want your honest and sincere feedback.

• What do you like about Gather Little by Little?
• Do do you not like?
• What are some things I can improve on?
• What would you like to see me start doing, continue doing, and/or stop doing?
• What are your thoughts on the layout and theme?  How about the logo?
• Is there too much advertising?  Does it blend well and is the advertising related to the topics I discuss?
• Are the articles what you want to hear?  Are their topics you would like to see me address that I haven’t?  Or maybe I’ve already addressed a few topics of interest, but you would like to hear more?
• How about Stew?  (No Stew, you can’t answer).  He’s been writing for a month now.  What do you think of him and his articles?  Has he helped make GLBL an even better Christian personal finance resource?  I definitely think he has, but would love to hear your thoughts.

Hopefully those got your creative feedback juices flowing!  Now please take just a few minutes to let me know your thoughts.  I truely want to make Gather Little by Little better and make it of more use for you and to the others that I hope will find it one day.

Thanks in advance for taking the time to respond, I really appreciate it.  Thanks also for continuing to read, comment on my articles and for beings such awesome readers.  I truely appreciate each one of you and always look forward to reading your comments.

- Glblguy/Gibble

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Every so often, I like to write a post that asks a question to you.  You guys are smart and I really appreciate and value your opinions on things.   One of the purchases I’ve been trying to decide on whether or not to make is regarding a few magazine subscriptions.  I really struggle with magazines as I love reading them and love the information in them, but the fact that you have to pay for them and that they use paper bothers me.  I’d rather be able to read the information online for free that’s supported by advertisers.

I do wonder why all magazine subscriptions can’t be free like the free magazines I offer here on Gather Little by Little, especially considering most if not all magazines are chock full of paid advertisements.   I mean here on Gather Little by Little, I run advertisements but I don’t charge a subscription fee.  My content is free and the time I spend writing and researching my articles is compensated for through my advertising.  Am I missing something?  I probably am.

Anyway, here are the one’s I am considering:

• Make Magazine – Features geeky do it yourself at home types of projects.  From what I’ve heard, I think it would give my kids and I some really fun projects to work on together.  Cost is $34.95 for 4-issues.   A little steep, but I understand the magazines are very high quality and more books than magazines.  If you are a subscriber, I’d appreciate any feedback you might have.
• Backwoods Home – I first read about this magazine from Frugal Dad.  My wife and I are very excited about starting our vegetable and herb first garden this year and now that we have about 4 acres of property, we would really like to for opportunities to really utilize it and lean more towards living “off the grid”.  Cost is $24.95 for 6-issues.  Again, a little steep, but from what I’ve read it’s a highly respected and very good magazine.
• Model Railroader – I’ve subscribed off and on to this magazine over the years.  Ever since I can remember, I’ve loved both real and model trains.  My 12 year old son has become very interested as well looking through my old issues of Model Railroader.  Him and I have begun planning a small layout for our downstairs area.  We plan to begin working on it this fall (we’re saving some money into a hobby fund).  Cost: $42.95 for 12 issues.

All together, these three magazines would cost me $102.85/year.  The frugal side of me cringes at that cost, but the more practical side of me seems to think I would get that much value from them.

So my main questions are: What would you do? Do you subscribe to magazines?  How do you determine whether or not the cost is justified?

I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback on the subject.  Please add a comment and let me know what you’re thinking.

If you like magazines, I’d really encourage you to check out my free magazines page as well.  After all, they’re free!

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I received a heartbreaking email the other day from a reader I’ll call Sarah.  Her story is all about debt, lies and marriage and she needs some help:

I am very inspired by your website.  I think I started crying at my desk when I
started reading it.  I am in a extremely large amount of debt.  A lot of it is
stuff in my husband’s name that he does not know about.  I feel like failure and
a thief.  I wonder how I got myself into this mess and how do I manage to get
out without my husband leaving me.  I am scared and worried sick.  I was able to
make the payments before but it is getting harder and harder and there are lies
after lies.  I am scared my husband will leave me.  I pray about this all the
time and I am asking God to help me but I feel like my spiritual relationship is
not strong.  I am looking for help.  I don’t want to lose my family.

What would I do?

Wow, first let me say what a heart breaking story. I can only imagine the torment you must be living with each day and the guilt that must be slowing building up. Thank you for the compliment and while I wish better circumstances would have brought you to Gather Little by Little, I am very glad you’re here.

In my mind you only have one option, to tell the truth. I say this for a few reasons:

• Truth is the only option.  Paul writes in 1 Timothy 1:19 – “Cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked.”  I think you already know your faith has been shipwrecked, it’s time to clear your conscience.
• By not telling the truth this whole situation is boiling and simmering deep down instead.  The guilt and torment is tearing you up from the inside out.  Funny thing about these kinds of things, they have a way of coming out one way or another and the longer you hold it in, the more damage it’s going to do.  The longer you wait, the more difficult it becomes and the harder the impact on your husband as well.

If I was in your shoes and had the choice facing me that you do, there would be only one option: Tell him. Will he leave you?  Maybe. Will you loose you family?  Maybe. In either case, you cannot control what he will do nor can you predict what will happen.  You can only control your actions.  I think the answers to those questions lie in how strong your marriage is.

If my wife told me something like this I’d be livid, but I wouldn’t leave her.  Would I distrust her?  Sure, until that trust was re-established, but I love her and would forgive her.  We all make mistakes Sarah, we all do dumb things we regret and you are not alone.  The bottom line is that telling the truth is the first step in fixing this mess you’ve created and by doing so, you’ll head down the right road.

Your take

I asked her if it would be alright to share her email with my readers so she could not only receive a response from me, but from all of my readers as well. I told her how great you guys are and that she should really get some great responses and perspectives from you.

We exchanged a few emails, and folks: she is scared to death and feels horrible about what she’s done, please take that into consideration.    Remember: Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

Sarah, please let me know what you decide to do and how things turn out for you.  I’ll keep you in my thoughts and prayers and pray that God saves your marriage and gives you the wisdom to make the right decision.

Readers, I ask: If you were in Sarah’s shoes, what would you do?  Help her out by leaving a comment.

Photo by: wheatfieldbrown

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On Friday, I wrote about a foreclosed home we found on the internet and were going to visit over the weekend. The house is on 16.5 acres of land, is approximately 4,200 square foot including the basement, has 5 bedrooms, a huge external shop and a large shed behind the shop. The land is surrounded by horse and cattle farms and is bordered on the back side by a large creek. This house on the surface seems to be exactly what we’ve been looking for. The price is right, it has plenty of room, and our children would love the land. The land is beautiful, the house? Well it’s another story…

The House

As you can see from the photograph, the house isn’t fancy nor would it be featured in Better Homes and Gardens anytime soon, but it looks decent. It is a pre-fabricated home (also called a modular home), built by a reputable builder in the area. It’s a base plan with little to no options. The house has a few cosmetic issues such as siding that has come loose, some decorative rock that has fallen off, rotten railings, etc. Being fairly handy with wood and tools, all of these are things I can easily fix, and to be honest would enjoy doing. Given I’m stuck in an office environment all day, I look forward to being outside and doing things with my hands besides typing. Plus I enjoy having my boys help me. The inside is a different story, and is what concerns me.

For the most part, the house has been stripped. Like most foreclosed homes, the owners decided not to leave much for the mortgage company, and even decided to do a little damage. Someone, either the previous owners or the mortgage company, removed most of the carpet and flooring. The carpet that is left is full of mud and glue. Yes glue. Someone poured glue all over the carpet going up the stairs.

The laminate hardwood floors that were put down have also been partially taken up, there are a few holes in the walls, the vinyl floor in various areas are coming up and it needs a really really good cleaning. Again, this is nothing I couldn’t fix myself. I can fix holes, lay flooring and even install carpet. So no problem right? To the basement Batman!

The Basement

The basement is the problem. It’s damp, not wet, but really damp. For those of you that may not be familiar, the white deposits on the wall are minerals from water seeping through the cinder block wall and as the water evaporates, the minerals remain. The technical term for it is efflorescence. It’s a sure sign that water is entering your basement. The more efflorescence, the more water you have coming in. As you can see, there is a bit of water coming in and not only can you see the efflorescence but the dampness in the wall too. This is just one shot, most of the other walls look similar, although this one is probably the worst.

My first thought was they didn’t waterproof the outside walls but After further inspection I found they did. The picture below is a close-up of the waterproofing material.

I am used to seeing a spray on, tar like product. For this house though, they used some type of tar product and then placed a plastic material over top of it. So what you have is a plastic barrier stuck to the tar material which is stuck to the cinder block. Anybody know what the black plastic material laying on the ground is?

While I believe their intentions for doing this were good, they unfortunately may have created a problem. The plastic material has pulled loose in some areas of the house as the dirt around it settled. As a result, I’m pretty confident water has become trapped between the plastic and the tar material and is why water is seeping into the basement.

While I am no expert on basements, I think this is a pretty big problem that may require digging around the foundation, removal of the current water barrier, and installation of a new barrier. Sounds expensive to me.

Further assessing the basement, it also looks like somehow water got around the base of the HVAC system which is also located in the basement. You can see signs of water in the picture to the right.

This water caused a significant amount of mildew on the drywall and framing around the HVAC unit. Again, drywall and framing I can fix. Here’s my concern though: if water got into the plenum of the HVAC unit (the plenum is where all the air comes into and the gets separated into different paths into the house) that could mean mold is up in the HVAC system. One potential indicator of this is a rusted air vent we found in the upstairs bathroom. This is the only vent that seems to be rusted, but it’s enough to make me a little nervous. If there is mold in the HVAC system, the whole house would most likely have to be gutted to fix it, along with replacing the whole HVAC system and all of the ducting. Potentially a big (read expensive) problem to fix.

Other problems that may be connected to this moisture problem include:

• The wood laminate floor in the dining room is bowed up. Generally laminate floor doesn’t warp unless exposed to moisture. I’m concerned that moisture from the basement is coming up through the floor and causing the warping. There is insulation under the floor, along with a plastic barrier that I would suspect should keep this from occurring, but I’m not sure.
• The bottom of the cabinets around the dishwasher are dry rotted indicating one of two things: 1) The sink or disk washer sprung a leak and wasn’t probably cleaned up, or 2) again moisture has seeped up from the basement, through the floor, and into the cabinets
• The lower door frame on the front door is rotten. I would suspect through an incorrectly sealed or installed front door, the front door allowed water to leak up under the seal/door frame and has caused the whole lower door frame to rot. The water also caused mildew to form on the particle board flooring next to the door. I don’t think this is linked to the moisture in the basement, but more likely due to the front door being exposed to to rain with no entry way covering or storm door.

Potential Next Steps

My wife and I discussed this a great deal last night. I also discussed the house and showed my Dad the pictures. My Dad has a great deal of experience with homes and home construction. At this point we’ve decided to hire an inspector to go in and inspect the home with a particular focus on the structure, basement, and HVAC system. This will give us an experts opinion on the real shape of the house and the extent of the damage. I called a few inspectors today, and unfortunately the inspection is going to run $350 – $400.

Once we understand the problems, we can then look into estimates for getting the home fixed. This would allow us to make a counter offer to Fannie Mae (the current foreclosure owner) for their current price minus the cost of repairs. Given the asking price is already $50,000 below tax value, this would give us more than enough equity to repair the house. If it turns out the house is so badly damaged it’s beyond repair, we’ll then make an offer on just the land, minus the cost of having the house torn down and hauled away. This would allow us to buy the lot we love so much, and build a house on it.

What would you do?

So that’s the results of our weekend visit. If you were in the same situation, what would you do? Any of you out there experts on repairing homes or buying homes with issues like this that might have some advice for us? Anybody know anything about basements? I’d appreciate any guidance, prayer, support or tips you could provide!

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One of the frequent topics of discussion between my wife and I is whether we should discuss our finances with our children and if so, how much should we discuss. We’ve been having this discussion off and on since our oldest son starting understanding what money was. We both agree that we should discuss our finances with our children but we differ on how much we should disclose. What’s even more interesting is that we both seem to waffle back and forth on the topic.

My wife and I both grew up in households where our parents talked about their money situation and taught us the basics of finance, but didn’t disclose any information about how much they made, their savings, their debt, or their overall expenses. I fully understand the reasoning for this, as sometimes letting your children know how much you make can result in responses like “Why can’t you buy me the new Xbox 360, you make $70,000 a year!“. It can even result in your whole neighborhood knowing how much you make and how much debt you have.

On the other side of the fence are those that believe you should disclose everything to your children, in particular your older ones. They should be fully involved in the family finances, knowing how much comes in, how it gets allocated, saved, etc. The benefit here of course is that you child knows the details and can understand why, even though you make $70,000 a year,  you can’t afford that Xbox 360. I’ve even read of others that allow their children to have input into the budgeting process.

We both waffle back and forth on these two perspectives and right now we’ve settled somewhere in between. Our children know we have debt, but don’t know the amount. They know I make pretty decent money, but don’t know how much. Our older boys pretty much know the details of our monthly expenses, such as the cable bill, phone bill, utility bills, etc. We’ve shared this with them to help them appreciate things a little more.

This whole issue is a huge struggle for us, as we want to teach our children about money and help them to grow up knowing how much things cost and understanding that just because you make $70,000 a year you don’t have $70,000 to just go blow on whatever you want. On the other hand though, I don’t want them to worry about our finances. I want them to be able to be kids, after all they have their whole adult life to deal with money issues.

What really got me thinking about this is, yesterday my 13 year old was researching being a pilot in the Air Force on the internet for a school project. He loves planes, and right now that is what he wants to be when he grows up. He was very excited when he learned how much pilots can make. He came running into the room and said something like “Dad, pilots make around $75,000 a year. Man, that’s a lot of money, way more than you make huh?” I wanted to answer him honestly, but at this point he has no clue how much I make.  I wanted to tell him. I wanted to help him understand. I ended up somehow dodging the question.  But I’ve been thinking about his question and on what I should do frequently.

Where do you stand on this issue? Do you have kids? If so, how much do you share? If you don’t have kids, but may someday how will you handle it? Do you have a really great or really bad childhood experience as a result of your parents sharing or not?

I’d love to hear your thoughts and perspective as I’m sure it would help my wife and I further consider how we need to handle money with our 6 kids. Your perspective will also help me figure out whether I should follow back up with my son or not.

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A reader and friend of mine, Rob, pointed me to an excellent segment that was done by 60-minutes discussing the American penny. The segment asks the questions: How do you view the humble penny? A small part of bigger things? A useless drag on your pocket or purse?

According to 60-minutes:

• It now costs the U.S. Mint almost two cents to make a penny and almost a dime to make a nickel.
• Coins last about 30 years in circulation before they wear out.
• The penny was 95 percent copper and 5 percent zinc until 1982 when it became 97.5 percent zinc and 2.5 percent copper.
• The U.S. Mint produces and distributes coins, while the Bureau of Engraving and Printing produces paper currency.

To be honest, I used to view pennies as an inconvenience, but I’ve come to realize that saving these little guys can really add up to a good chunk of change over time. With that being said though given it costs 2 cents to make a penny, that alone makes me think they need to go away. I really don’t think I’d miss them too much, and they would free up some space in our house and in my desk!

So maybe it’s time to do away with the penny. What do you think? Should we get rid of the penny?

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Gina, a reader of Gather Little by Little, wrote to me at the end of January and asked “When did you have your Epiphany about your finances?” She shared a little about her epiphany and then said it would be interesting to read about mine and others. I thought this was a great idea, and asked if she would be interested in writing her’s up as a guest post. I love the opportunity to allow my readers to guest post and I think Gina did a fantastic job (Thanks Gina!).

As Christians we hear a lot about Epiphany and Transfiguration at the beginning of the calendar year. Most of us set goals or resolutions to change a part of our lives for the better. Two years ago I experienced an epiphany of what I would call biblical proportions.

My epiphany came when I was pregnant with my daughter. My husband and I had been married for six years and bought our first house for cheap. I got more involved in church, began volunteering for three non-profit organizations and my husband started a new job working from home. Life was good.

We began planning updates to the bathrooms/kitchen and then SURPRISE we are pregnant. As you can imagine, we realized quickly that being responsible for another person would take time AND money. We had been putting money away for retirement but using credit cards to take vacations (how backwards is that?). Our priorities though would definitely have to change. Updates to the house would have to wait and no more using credit cards. Who wants to live with the idea of your kid having to pay off debt if something happened to you?

Luckily I found Dave Ramsey, Gather Little By Little, and an amazing world of underground consignment sales for children. Today we follow a written budget, use most of GLBL’s ideas on saving money and have eliminated our credit card use. I guess we really needed a goal to get our finances in order.

When did you have an epiphany about your debt or your finances? How did you react to that epiphany? Are you still maintaining your progress to make a change for the better? Add a comment below and share your financial epiphany!

From Glblguy: While not a formal meme, I would like to invite other bloggers to share their stories and link to Gina’s article. I’ll add links to this article as I see the trackbacks come in or receive emails from you that you’ve shared you Epiphany moment. I’ll be sharing my epiphany on Thursday.

Other bloggers sharing their Epiphany moments:

• When I Woke Up and Smelled the Coffee From Being Frugal
• The Epiphany From Paid Twice
• Waking Up Is Hard To Do From Are You Going To Be This Way The Rest of The Time I Know You?
• When did you have your Epiphany about your finances? From Bible Money Matters
• My Financial Epiphany From Debt Beater
• My Epiphany From Make Money Journal
• My Financial Epiphany From Antishay Ventenne
• Getting Real About Personal Finance From Millionaire Money Habits
• Being debt free means I can live for today at Remodeling This Life
• My Financial Epiphany at If I Were Debt Free
• My Financial Epiphany at Iowa Hippie Chick

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I would suspect many of you have a similar problem. We have a bonus room above our garage. It has two air vents but for some reason the builder decided to place them next to each other in the ceiling, on the far side of the room, right next to two large windows. To make matters worse, one vent is connected to our downstairs heating and AC unit, the other to the upstairs heating and AC unit.

This all adds up to two major problems: 1) In the winter the room is cold 2) In the summer the room is hot. Most people use their bonus room as a spare/extra room. Given we have 6 children, ours is a bedroom for 3 of them. Throughout the year I consistently hear either “Dad, we’re freezing” or “Dad, we’re hot“.

Given the room is above the garage, that’s problem enough and I’ve read the two issues I have are quit common for rooms above garages or any uninsulated or partially uninsulated space. With the vents both being on the far side of the room AND being coupled to different HVAC units it’s really only getting heat or AC from one vent at any one time. See, I have electronic thermostats that adjust my heat and AC depending on where we are in the house. In the evenings, the downstairs unit gets turned way down so it doesn’t run, and the opposite occurs during the day. Doing this has really cut by heating and AC bills each month.

During the winter, we use a ceramic heater which really does the trick and keeps the room toasty. I don’t like to run it all the time though, as it’s a little expensive. Not to mention, it dries the room out along with the rest of the house. We use a portable humidifier to offset this some, but it seems like a losing battle.

Anyway, where am I going with all of this? I’d like to find a way to boost the airflow to the bonus room. I’ve seen a couple of air vent boost fans at the local hardware store, but not sure if they really work. I’ve talked with our preferred HVAC company, and getting the vent moved would be an expensive ordeal.  Considering we are thinking about moving in the next year or two, I really don’t want to put that kind of investment into the house.

I would appreciate any ideas or suggestions you might have. I’ll keep you posted on my progress as I experiment with various solutions and products.

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