Martin wanted a new workstation, but what he's getting is a new bathroom. When I decided to do my bit for the economy, my first thought was to replace my 5-year-old workstation. I stopped at my local white-box shop and talked AMD versus Intel quad-core chips and Nvidia versus ATI graphics boards with the proprietor. I came home with an $1,100 system proposal to ponder.I wasn’t to be. There was a horrible smell in the main bathroom at home, which we eventually tracked down to a leak in the 50-year-old toilet. The plumber didn’t think it was worth fixing, and his boss didn’t think we could easily replace it. “You just know there will be a lead waste pipe down there, and new one-piece toilets don’t go onto the same footprint as an old four-piece toilet.” Up came the contaminated rug, off went the water feed, and in came the remodeling contractors. One thing led to another, and soon we were talking about demolition to bare studs, upgraded wiring, bamboo floors, biscuit porcelain, and polished nickel fixtures.The estimates are running in the $35,000 range. Given what’s happened to my retirement account in the econolypse, the only financing option I could see was to borrow against the house. Fortunately, there is still equity left in our house, our credit is good, we have a good relationship with our bankers, and our small local bank is still lending. We closed on the equity line today. Wish us luck. Software Development