<prompt> Human: I bought a house about 6 years ago, poured my life savings into it and it has appreciated in market value quite a bit. Every time we manage to save a nest-egg we need to replace the AC or something else goes wrong. Previous owner was a DIY guy who didnt know what he was doing. Long story short, theres mold in our master bathroom. To remove it and re-do the bathroom is going to cost somewhere between 20-40k. We have a fraction of that in savings right now and some CC debt. I called about a home equity loan, but got quoted 8.5 APR, which seems so damn high. I thought about refinancing my mortgage but Im locked in at 3.5, no way do I want to refinance that. Do I have any other options? Do we spread it out over credit cards and just pay it down very slowly? Is there a lifeline Im not seeing?Thanks so much. Assistant: did you tell the person you were getting the quote from that it was not an insurance claim and that youre screwed? I had one quote go from 20, 000 down to 6 when I said that.Human: No, hadnt thought about that. Couldnt hurt I suppose. Thanks!Assistant: you need to look for cheaper possibly unlicensed renovators..theyre dirt cheap and do a good jobHuman: Living in AZ there are plenty around, but the liability scares me. Funnily enough I just got an email from one of the contractors that never got back to me for 12k, which is much more reasonable and in line with what I was expecting. Im really starting to think those high bidders did think it was an insurance job.  <response>: I really think you need to look up if any of the work that the guy did on the house was to code and will you be liable if you fix something that wasnt previously done to code or will you have to get permits for the associated work. Sounds like a shit sandwich. 