Hahahaha, forget all that crap. I totally misses the obvious:
Phenol + reimer-tiemann + DMS methylation. Man, thats a lot simpler.
Phenol is cheap, CHCl3 is cheap, KOH is cheap. DMS can be made from cheap MeOH and H2SO4. Cheap cheap cheap! A lot cheaper and easier than the prior post of mine.
Yeah the reimer tiemann yield isnt so hot from phenol, and some of it will be the wrong isomer, but the ingedients are so cheap, easy to get, and its such an easy reaction, that one shouldnt be stopped by this imperfection. Just my opinion.
PrimoPyro