Money Pit

So we have a little bit of money from our tax return that we'll do something with. We got an estimate on landscaping the backyard. Some light landscaping plus a patio and brick path to the garage would run about $11,000. Hmmm...maybe we'll do something else this year.

We decided to look into replacing the windows in the front of our house. There are 10 of them, and they are narrow little windows. 6 in the front, 1 on the side facing the door, 3 on the side facing our neighbors. And it will cost anywhere between $7,000 and $14,000 to replace them. So I'm thinking about covering up the windows on the sides (the 1 facing the door, the 3 facing our neighbors) and making it just plain wall. Advantages of this are: less air leakage I think, more wall space to put a piece of furniture or art. Disadvantages of this are: less sunlight from the sides, no more being an exhibitionist for neighbors (who will I show my new underwear to?). I don't even know if this would save money (savings of $2800-5600, but what is spent on new wallboard, stucco, etc?--it might be a wash).

Golly it's expensive to fix up a house.