What you didn't think cost a lot ...

[TheHaitian]

Until you had to pay for it?

We wanted to install a patio + fire pit. 4 quotes later and everyone was averaging 10k for the size I wanted

I never thought a patio would cost so much. I have seen backyards twice as big with patios 3 times the size o wanted. So we did the only thing we could.... Got it half the size (or a little less) for 4k since that is all we saved for it.

At first we were budgeting 1-3k, God we were wrong. Same for the fence, we thought 5k but all 3 quotes came at at about ~10k.



So what did you think was cheap at first only to be proven wrong?

[Deleted]

I had a lady call me about a fireplace the other week. She wanted a ventless gas one. I gave our regular spiel about safety issues, but pointed her to a company she could call who does them. She was curious, then what type of fireplaces did we do... Custom made, wood burning, generally stone... Etc. Well, how much are they? Well, it's really not possible to price till we see the space, talk design... Uhm, how much were you looking to spend? ... Oh, maybe 300-500$ dollars? ...   

[msventoux]

I quickly learned there's really nothing cheap when you become a homeowner and start involving trades people.  I now know more about DIY than I ever really wanted to know and it didn't take long for my list of "must haves" to shrink rapidly.  I weigh my desire against the cost and how much time and effort it would take me to do a project to a satisfactory standard.  Not much makes the cut that I don't do myself. 

[Deleted]

Tree cutting and stump grinding. Ye Gods. $700-800 for almost a dozen stumps and they cut some of the smaller trees as well. Should have bought the chainsaw. Afraid to do the grinding myself though as I'm the moron that would run over my own leg or something.

[bobosensei]

Can you put the patio furniture and fire pit on the ground then wait until you get more saved up to do the patio?  Because if you don't already have the furniture and fire pit that will be the next thing you have to save up for.

[marvholly]

Oct 7, 2014 0:27:52 GMT -5 @empressspunkles said:

Tree cutting and stump grinding. Ye Gods. $700-800 for almost a dozen stumps and they cut some of the smaller trees as well. Should have bought the chainsaw. Afraid to do the grinding myself though as I'm the moron that would run over my own leg or something.

I had 1 tree cut down & the stump removed last fall. ONE cost me $850.

Just about every home project done here cost about 50% MORE than we planned and often 10-25% ABOVE the estimates.

[xia]

Definitely the tree removal.

We had several mature trees in really bad shape. Our original budget was 5K for the whole job (cutting them down, getting rid of trash, grinding stumps and re-leveling the areas). In the end we paid 10K. it was the medium bid, the guy with the cheapest bid (7K) just rubbed us wrong for reason we couldn’t explain so decided to not use him. The guy who did the job did really great work, nothing to complain about except the sticker shock.

[trippypea]

A tiny little dent in the car door. $650! My nephew, who does car detailing, got paint to match our car, pulled out the dent and repainted it so you can barely tell the difference. Did it for free and we gave him 50 bucks...

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Our counters and back splash.  TD estimated $10,000 and the quote for the quartz came in at a little under $6000.  Back splash added another $1800 so we are at $7800.  New sink was $600, finish carpenter came in at $300, new faucet, disposal and hot water heater was $600 and the plumber to put them all in was $500.  When all said and done, $9800.

[Deleted]

Fixing a popcorn ceiling.  Chunks were falling down on our heads.

To be honest, it is a great room with an A-frame.  But I spent about $4000 on that ceiling.  

[busymom]

Replacing the kitchen floor. If I don't want the cheap flooring, it's going to run me AT LEAST $4000 with labor.   (No, I haven't had this project done yet...)

[ArchietheDragon]

Redoing the basement.   I had budgeted $4k (just a number I picked out of thin air).    For everything we wanted it would have been $12k-$15k.  W ended not doing all that and coming in at $8k. 

[ponomo]

DS (14) fell off his bike and snapped both bones in his forearm, $2500. Cat's broken tooth, $600. Crown on my molar, $500. It's been an expensive year .

[Deleted]

Oct 7, 2014 7:51:51 GMT -5 ponomo said:

DS (14) fell off his bike and snapped both bones in his forearm, $2500. Cat's broken tooth, $600. Crown on my molar, $500. It's been an expensive year .

my DS did the same thing....luckily they could set it using external manipulation and not surgery.  then a few weeks later broke the wrist on the other arm. fun times!

[gooddecisions]

Redoing the master bathroom, quotes are coming in at 25K. We did 3 other bathrooms and built a really nice shed for less than that. I guess this will be another DIY with the help from a qualified friend or brother because 10k is my price.

I drove through a new construction neighborhood and was shocked to see how few homes added decks and patios during construction. They had second floor doors with boards that were meant to go to an elevated deck, but there was nothing to open the door out to. The neighborhood has a spectacular furnished model home so people were likely over-sold and are now house poor. Buying new is expensive and buying used is too unless you find the unicorn homeowners.

By the way, we got 3 quotes for a fence last year and got one at 5K- to the specification the HOA requires, which is 6' wooden across the back, curved top and pickets along the sides and we have a big back yard. I remember getting a quote several years ago to put up a gate and connect the back fence 20' in my tiny townhouse yard and it was $1000. Ridiculous. Another DIY for $100. I built the patio at that house too for $800 or so in materials. Digging is hard work.

[Deleted]

Oct 7, 2014 9:26:02 GMT -5 @tbird said:

Oct 7, 2014 0:27:52 GMT -5 @empressspunkles said:

Tree cutting and stump grinding. Ye Gods. $700-800 for almost a dozen stumps and they cut some of the smaller trees as well. Should have bought the chainsaw. Afraid to do the grinding myself though as I'm the moron that would run over my own leg or something.

I bought a chainsaw a few years back and took out some small trees. Now - every year it seems, there is some accidental chainsaw death or injury....now - although I used it without problem and it was rather fun, I'm too scared to try again.  Going to call a tree service.

Yeah, but look at the stats on those deaths and injuries.  All men. 

Taking out small trees and pruning branches while following the safety precautions you're probably fine.  I see men (and yes I'm going to pick on just men) doing really idiotic things with a chainsaw so the accidents and injuries don't surprise me. 

[swasat]

Having a baby at the hospital

I have an awesome insurance and it paid most of the costs. But I was appalled when I saw the statement. Normal vaginal delivery with no complications whatsoever for me or the baby, only 2 nights of nursery and hosptal stay and the bill was $14K!!

Talk about markup! Thank God I only had to pay $800 out of pocket.




 

[Cookies Galore]

Buy a chiminea.

[lynnerself]

Dental work.
Everytime I need something more than a cleaning, I am out of pocket hundred to thousands of dollars, even with good dental insurance.

[TheHaitian]

Oct 7, 2014 7:45:30 GMT -5 ArchietheDragon said:

Redoing the basement.   I had budgeted $4k (just a number I picked out of thin air).    For everything we wanted it would have been $12k-$15k.  W ended not doing all that and coming in at $8k. 

I don' even want to think about the basement... I think like you , as was the case with the patio, we will have an idea of what we want to do and will bulk when we get the price and change for something less costly.

So far my wife is thinking 15k and I am thinking 24k, we will see: full bathroom, full basement, heating/cooling, bar.

[Bonny]

Oct 6, 2014 22:53:21 GMT -5 TheHaitian said:

Until you had to pay for it?

We wanted to install a patio + fire pit. 4 quotes later and everyone was averaging 10k for the size I wanted

I never thought a patio would cost so much. I have seen backyards twice as big with patios 3 times the size o wanted. So we did the only thing we could.... Got it half the size (or a little less) for 4k since that is all we saved for it.

At first we were budgeting 1-3k, God we were wrong. Same for the fence, we thought 5k but all 3 quotes came at at about ~10k.



So what did you think was cheap at first only to be proven wrong?

Welcome to home ownership!

We budgeted about $100k to move back in and fix up the house. It's probably going to cost more like $200k...if we're lucky.

[HoneyBBQ]

I got a quote to remove carpet in 2 bedrooms and install oak and stain to match the rest of the hardwood in the house. 5k!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[HoneyBBQ]

I just took my 3 yr old to the dentist. They charged $58 to brush her teeth so they could do fluoride. (another $47!)

[Abby Normal]

DS's heart surgery.  Done when he was 5.  Expected it to be about 40k but came in at a whopping 85k-  for one night in the hospital.  


Every project my husband has ever done around the house.  For some reason- he always seems to need a new tool to complete the job. 

[lexxy703]

I'm with the folks who said hardwood flooring. That is why I still have crappy carpet.

[murphath]

We looked at doing hardwood floors.  Here in NorCal, that would have been @ $40,000 for a 2,200 sq ft home.  They charge for everything: ripping up the carpet, padding, baseboards: separate charge; getting rid of all that: separate charge.  The actual flooring: separate charge (as expected), floor prep: separate charge, baseboards painted: separate charge; baseboards installed: separate charge.  It was insane!  So, we ended up doing a high quality laminate that truly, truly looks like wood.  We did all the demo/removal work ourselves--actually, I did most of it.  I painted the baseboards and installed.  We did pay for the floor installation.  Home Depot did the downstairs and with all the floor prep, it came to $1,500.  Not bad and they did a fantastic job.  They changed companies by the time we were ready for upstairs and they were horrendous.  Cancelled them and hired the guy down the street that we've known for years.  He did upstairs (including stairs) for $3,200.  Again, not bad since he is meticulous in his craftsmanship.  All told, labor and materials, we spent @ $12,000.

To have someone remove the popcorn from our ceilings was going to cost $3,700.  That was just to remove it.  I said, h... no, I can do it.  Messy job but I just kept at it, doing a room or half a room each day.  A guy that used to work for my husband knew a guy that does the taping etc. once ceilings are de-popcorned.  He did ours for $2400.  Since I'd saved $3,700 on the front end, I was comfortable with the $2,400--he told me he was doing this as a side job.  That if he was doing it with his company, it would have cost at least $3,500.

The estimate to remove wallpaper in two bedrooms was $700!  Needless to say, we did it ourselves.  I will never put wallpaper up again.  That was a long, tedious job.  Now I know why it would have cost $700.

To paint the inside of the house was going to cost $11,000!.  I did it myself for the cost of materials: paint, etc..

I'm not the handiest person by nature and I do know my limitations.  But YouTube videos are sure helpful when doing DIY projects at home.

Houses are expensive, for sure!

[emma1420]

Oct 7, 2014 7:43:41 GMT -5 busymom said:

Replacing the kitchen floor. If I don't want the cheap flooring, it's going to run me AT LEAST $4000 with labor.   (No, I haven't had this project done yet...)

When I got a quote for my 5 x 7 bathroom for sheet vinyl with labor the cost was going to be more than $1000.   And it was almost all labor.  I ended up redoing the floor myself in tile for $150.   I find flooring quotes, in general, to be really high.

I do have to have my trees professional trimmed every 3-4 years, and that typically costs me at least $1200.

Everything house related seems like it costs 10 times as much as I had hoped it would.

[souldoubt]

Everything house related costs more than you expect unless you can do it yourself or with the help of a friend who knows what they're doing.  For our kitchen we wanted to spruce up the cabinets as they were old and faded.  I originally looked into refinishing them and by the time we had someone out here to quote we were looking at refacing them and spending about 5x more than I had expected.  We could have probably bought brand new cabinets for about the same price but because we had new granite put in some months before that wasn't an option.  To re-do a bathroom I got quotes in the 5-10K range depending on what we wanted to do and by having someone else do the floors, me and a friend put in the vanity, me install the toilet, baseboards, etc I spent ~$1,500.  

[Bonny]

Oct 7, 2014 11:37:52 GMT -5 murphath said:

We looked at doing hardwood floors.  Here in NorCal, that would have been @ $40,000 for a 2,200 sq ft home.  They charge for everything: ripping up the carpet, padding, baseboards: separate charge; getting rid of all that: separate charge.  The actual flooring: separate charge (as expected), floor prep: separate charge, baseboards painted: separate charge; baseboards installed: separate charge.  It was insane!  So, we ended up doing a high quality laminate that truly, truly looks like wood.  We did all the demo/removal work ourselves--actually, I did most of it.  I painted the baseboards and installed.  We did pay for the floor installation.  Home Depot did the downstairs and with all the floor prep, it came to $1,500.  Not bad and they did a fantastic job.  They changed companies by the time we were ready for upstairs and they were horrendous.  Cancelled them and hired the guy down the street that we've known for years.  He did upstairs (including stairs) for $3,200.  Again, not bad since he is meticulous in his craftsmanship.  All told, labor and materials, we spent @ $12,000.

To have someone remove the popcorn from our ceilings was going to cost $3,700.  That was just to remove it.  I said, h... no, I can do it.  Messy job but I just kept at it, doing a room or half a room each day.  A guy that used to work for my husband knew a guy that does the taping etc. once ceilings are de-popcorned.  He did ours for $2400.  Since I'd saved $3,700 on the front end, I was comfortable with the $2,400--he told me he was doing this as a side job.  That if he was doing it with his company, it would have cost at least $3,500.

The estimate to remove wallpaper in two bedrooms was $700!  Needless to say, we did it ourselves.  I will never put wallpaper up again.  That was a long, tedious job.  Now I know why it would have cost $700.

To paint the inside of the house was going to cost $11,000!.  I did it myself for the cost of materials: paint, etc..

I'm not the handiest person by nature and I do know my limitations.  But YouTube videos are sure helpful when doing DIY projects at home.

Houses are expensive, for sure!

Your prices scare me!

We paid $8,400 to get our top floor (about 1500 sq.ft.) installed and our 400 sq.ft. dining room refinished earlier this year. Oddly enough I compared the per square foot price from the invoice I paid for the dining room in 2001 and the rates were cheaper today!

I've always done my own painting and staining but after DH's snarky remarks about the deck staining this last go around I told him he's in charge for 2016. That was 40+ hours of hard work which wasn't appreciated.

[Abby Normal]

Oct 7, 2014 12:08:25 GMT -5 @dayjawho said:

Oh I forgot that one.  My mom and I just took in my grandmothers rocking chair.  Gma bought it in the 70's so it's avocado green.  1k.  But my mom wants to keep it and the think is F'in ugly as is.