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Thursday, September 29, 2016

Hostage Situation

I'd like the non-haunted version, thanks
So, as already mentioned, Larry and I decided that we could try doing what normal people do when they need household renovations - that is, hire a professional. I know! It sounds so radical! But my neighbor recommended the guy who is currently redoing her kitchen, so he came by and measured our two decrepit bathrooms and talked about tile and vanities and lighting and such. By the time he left, I was feeling optimistic that FINALLY we would have all working bathrooms in our home - complete with toilets that don't mysteriously flush themselves in the middle of the night - AND that the work would be completed in a timely fashion.

Really, I should have known better, right?

We got the quote yesterday, and it was, well, quite a bit higher than I thought it would be. Larry, seeing the total, shook his head. "I can do the tear-out myself," he said. "No way I'm paying someone $1200 per bathroom to do that!"

"We could get our handyman to do the new drywall," I suggested. "And the painting. Look! They want $700 to paint that teeny-tiny room!"

"I can buy this tile for WAY cheaper than $2000," Larry said. "That's highway robbery. And I bet I can find someone to put it in."

What scares me, people, is that I found myself agreeing with him. Me! Encouraging Larry to take on yet another DIY project, this time involving major amounts of plumbing! What is happening here? 

Is it temporary insanity, brought on by the stress of sharing my one working shower with a husband, 2 hygiene-obsessed teens, and a tween? Perhaps it's a weird DIY variant of Stockholm syndrome, wherein a captive spouse empathizes with her husband's renovation plans, no matter how much havoc they wreak on her sense of well-being.

Or maybe it was the $2500 worth of sticker shock we just experienced at the orthodontist - that could definitely be a factor here, too, come to think of it...



[Toilet image: Clipartix]

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7 comments:

  1. Karen (formerly kcinnova)September 30, 2016

    I'm going with sticker shock. Your orthodontist bill matches the low-ball bid for taking out our 100-foot tree. (At $700 for painting a little bathroom, I'd be offering to do it myself!)

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  2. Korinthia KleinSeptember 30, 2016

    I'm just impressed you guys can do that kind of stuff yourselves. Without kitchen remodel we gutted the room down to the studs and it was way beyond our abilities so it had to be other people, but yikes, the sticker shock! I asked a friend who remodeled her kitchen last year if she had any advice, and all she would say is "Have lots of money."

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  3. Julie HSeptember 30, 2016

    LOL money is what drives us to do all our own shit too.

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  4. GigiSeptember 30, 2016

    This literally just happened - I mentioned to my husband that we needed to have someone out to give us a quote and he stuck his head in the sand - because he doesn't want to even know how much it will cost.

    Oh and $700 to paint a small bathroom?! Ridiculous. I realize there's a lot of cutting in, but still! Feed me and provide me with wine and I'll come paint it.

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  5. HarryOctober 01, 2016

    Not the first time I have heard Stockholm Syndrome mentioned in relation to a home improvement project - and the other mention was by a fellow alumnus of ours who definitely was not going to care about saving money by the DIY route.

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  6. Common Household MomOctober 02, 2016

    I am astonished that you got a quote without having to pick out every last thing that would go into your new bathroom. That's the way we had to do it, and by the time we were finished picking all that (expletive deleted) stuff we were too tired to object to the price tag. They definitely had us hostage because we have no clue on how to install any of it ourselves. They did do a great job...

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  7. AnonymousOctober 22, 2016

    You're sunk. Though I hear you, it does seem like a lot of mark-up.

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