<prompt> Human: Heres the situation:My wife and I have a 30 year fixed mortgage at about 4 interest, and probably have, conservatively, about 50k in equity in the home at this point bought for 260k, could probably sell for at least 250k, owe about 195k currently.I also have about 12k in student loans at 6.8. We havent owed payments because I am a half time grad student, and still will be for another year or two, but I am paying down the accruing interest a bit more in the meantime.Now our home is overdue for some maintenance - we need a new roof 7k, new storm windows 5k, and could really use a new exterior paintjob tbd - Im guessing 2kish - more than that and I may do it myself although Im not an expert. Well probably live in the home for at least 4 more years. Id guess in the 6-7 year range.Currently, we have:-An emergency fund with about 5-6 months living expenses. Id rather not touch that.-Just enough saved up beyond the emergency fund that we could pay for at least most of the home expenses 12-15k without dipping into that emergency portion.The question:I was about to pay for all the home repairs out of pocket and keep paying down my student loans gradually. However, with the equity in the house, it occurs to me I could take out a home equity loan for the full repair amount and use the money we saved for that to pay off my loans entirely. Is that the better solution? It seems so on paper, but Im new to the idea of playing around with our home equity and dont want to overlook something I may be missing.Other info: -Annual combined income now about 95k. -Wife is a full time funded grad student. Biggest expense besides house is a new baby with pretty pricey daycare think second mortgage!. -Putting about 15,500 away for retirement per year currently.Thanks for any advice!  <response>: A conservative person would tell you that you should not take out debt that could be used to take your house to pay off debt that could never be used to take your house. 