Building A House Is Expensive

Uggggh.  I just got the bill for the sheet rock.  It was over $2000.  That’s just for materials, delivery and staging of the sheetrock.  I’ll also be having to pay upwards of $2000 to have it all hung and mud/tape/textured.  I was hoping to get through sheetrock with less than $3000 in total cost.  Needless to say, the wallet is feeling rather light these days.  I considered doing the sheetrock myself but I was turned off at the idea of hauling all of it, lifting all of it, screwing all of it, and then doing an amateur job of mudding and taping etc.  Since I will have to look at these walls every time I’m there, I’d rather just suck it up and pay the cost now.  It may be time to see about that paper route for my wife……

So, it’s safe to say I’m in money hemmorhaging mode.  It’s funny how you alter your behavior when faced with large bills.  I’ve found myself eating at home much more and spending less on just about everything.  I guess I’m subconsciously trying to make up for the crazy building materials cost.  While this doesn’t make up for the large sheetrock expense, it does help.  By just avoiding a couple dinners out with the family and making sure I take my lunch to work etc, I’m easily saving between $100 and $200 per month.  That’s 10% of the cost of the sheet rock by just altering my behavior a bit.  (Yes, it could be easily argued that I should permanently change my behavior to save the money.  I am making improvements in this area)

On another note, we were given a nice table, chairs and hutch for the cabin.  This furniture is a couple years old and is still “in style” so it should go nicely in the cabin.  That helps us save on the costs of the furniture once the place is done.  It was very nice of my wife’s sister to offer them to us!  This continues the trend we’ve had forever on furniture.  Well over 60% of our furniture was given to us.  While that may make it sound like we are using old sweaty college couches, I can assure you we aren’t.  We have only taken very nice pieces over the years that look good and are in “like new” condition.  Sure, our home doesn’t look like Pottery Barn inside, but it doesn’t look like Sanford and Son either.