Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Stepping Over Pounds To Get Pennies

Ugh. I mean, we are trying to be careful with cash.  But my attempts to save some money sometimes backfires.

Like on the lawn.  We decided to go forward with getting sod (turf) laid by the gardeners.  I asked for the cost of supplies and called around to get a better price.  I found another grass supplier that would deliver for £50 less than what our gardener could find.

So, we went with the supplier I found.  Bad choice.  Last Friday I was told they could deliver on Tuesday.  On Monday (a bank holiday) I was told they couldn't deliver on Tuesday.  The gardeners rescheduled, and when the delivery arrived today it wasn't complete.  We had to buy more turf layer (it's like compost to help with the soil nutrients and make the ground more level) and get it delivered tomorrow.  Anyway, to save £50 it is going to cost us £170.   And maybe even more because of extra labor costs.  So, uh, not great.



Also, to get the stairs sanded, we got a quote for £300.  I thought we could do it ourselves for less.  So far we've spent £200 (£160 on two days labor, £40 for a paint gun).  And the stairs still need a lot of work.  Seriously, stepping over dollars to get dimes.  Or pounds to get pennies.

Anyway...even with my failed attempts at saving money on the lawn, I do think the backyard (garden) is going to look very nice.  The gardeners did get to lay some grass today.




And overall the house is really coming along.  The granite cutter was able to find an extra piece of granite for the 600 mm cupboard (the one right behind the range cooker in the picture) and upstands (the smaller pieces of granite against the walls) and fit the rest of the granite.


A joiner has started boxing in the extractor hood vent.  I'm guessing this will be a work in progress for a while.


And guess what?  The plumbers came!  And the radiators are mostly installed.


We even got new toilet seats installed.  (Another cost saving measure?  We bought trade toilets and then upgraded the seats.  To ones that have built-in training seats for the kids.)


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