Before I could get the appraisal appointment scheduled, the snow started to melt and the freeze/thaw of all that water caused a leak in my unit. 

Palo alto has always been a melting pot.. when my kids had come to school. 

And to hear or see people who make good on their word even when so many others were doing what they called "strategic defaults" in order to get the most out of the financial melt down while releasing themselves from the responsibilities of their debts, makes me admire you even more.  

You'll love it out here so long as the summer heat doesn't melt you, but you moved here in August (terrible month to move) so you should have gotten a taste of the wonderful summers here lol.

We might still have a quarter left of the large melt-ups that we are seeing now. 

I was asked to upgrade a fuse panel (with old melting fuses) to a modern panel with breakers.

Assuming 6 fixtures in a 2br/1ba apt, $216 more to be sure bulbs/globes/etc don't go missing, fixture doesn't get melted from tenant putting a huge bulb in, not having to take complaints that the bulbs keep burning out, and overall piece of mind.

I noticed water coming through the frame of the patio door (kitchen area) during the winter when snow melted but it was minor and i noticed the wood floors in the kitchen were damaged when we looked at the house and thought it was easy fix to get them restained.

Hope you have not melted up in the HD Lisa!

Drop bids were prevalent in AZ and NV and parts of CA during the high foreclosure times not so much here but 3 to 5 times a year I got a smoking deal.you had such a melt down in PHX and Vegas.. that 600k mortgages on houses that were done 100% financing and the bank knew the house would only sell for 300k if they got it back.. so they just dropped the bids accordingly instead of bringing them on the books.