Under the Microscope

[illusiongrl]

We're refinancing, which means that the Bank is sending over an appraiser Friday to make sure we haven't let the house go to shit and that it's still worth enough to keep us within the desired ratio despite the downward spiral of home values (which thankfully isn't hitting our neighborhood near as bad thanks to it being undesirable). Of course everything's taken apart so we can paint the dining room, so there's no way the house will look like anything other than a disaster. And part of the reason we're refinancing is to free up some liquid cash to do some improvements on places where the house isn't doing so well, like the soffits and the gutters and a flashing leak on the roof and the condition of the garage, etc. So now I'm worried: will we ironically get turned down for a refi for the exact things we're trying to refi to fix?

Commence hand wringing.