Craigslist works wonders

We're on our way to a new bathroom with the room gutted down to the studs and the fixtures removed. We now decided we might as well replace the old bath tub with a new one since it would be the only old thing in the room. Plus this is the only opportunity EVER to do it. More shopping tonight to get a new tub and then tomorrow replace it in the bathroom.

One of the unpleasant tasks of remodeling is getting rid of the old construction debris from the teardown. First we thought about the FREE way to deal with it was to bring it to the dump, but that involves more handling and time and getting a friend who lives in unincorporated county to come along for the proof of the tax payment. Even though it would be cheap, it would be a hassle. We told our neighbor about all our junk and he offered his truck to have us load the truck and dump it at his works dumpster, but that too would be a hassle. We already have a lot of errands, clean out tasks, tear down and other jobs associated with the project. So, we took a picture of the junk and put it out there on Craigslist for our town and placed a WANTED ad to haul away our construction debris for fifty bucks. Man o man, I feel like I was too generous. I had 7 calls within an hour, and finally pulled the ad. I also put an ad out there for a FREE Bathtub, and got 3 calls within a couple minutes. I pulled that ad too shortly thereafter.

 

So after work today, a guy is coming to pick up the trash for fifty bucks and another guy is coming in the morning to get the tub. Problem solved.

Remodel

Last week we finally met with the contractor that a friend referred to do our bathroom remodel project. We live in a very old house built in 1955, and the bathroom needs some updating. Everything is functional, but aged, and its not that big of a room just five by seven We wanted to gut it and put in new tile in the tub, on the floor and get new fixtures and cabinets. One quote we got to do this on both bathrooms was $6500 each for a total of $13000. I was like, how much? For two weeks of work, you want $13K? NOT.

 

We decided we wanted to minimize the costs by doing the tear down and disposal of scrap ourselves. We also wanted someone who would be willing to work with us and let us do the simple stuff like hook up the sinks, nail the cabinets to the wall, paint, etc. It was important to us that the contractor agree to work by the hour too. So we met with the guy and he looked at our bathroom and we discussed us doing tear down, and him do the buildup. So it looks like it will cost us less than $1000 in labor for one bathroom.

 

So on the weekend, he lent us his rotary hammer to tear out the old wall tiles and concrete. What a job! Its dusty and a work out for the arms and shoulders. We're both achy this morning and sore and tired. We still have more to do.

 

So that is the priority in our frugal life these days, meaning cut backs to extracurricular work like concerts. Bare minimum of couponing, and focus on eating out of the stockpile.