We bought our home a few years back, and we knew we wanted to do some upgrades on it, but we had the daunting task of paying off all our debt first.
After we became debt-free, we set aside money for other things. When it finally came time to look at the various home updates we wanted to do, I was so excited! I knew small changes would make a big different in our house.
How we saved 65% on flooring & installation
We had someone come out and quote us on several home projects, one of which being the floor in our kitchen and dining room. The flooring was original to the home, which was built in 1996. Though the contractor, (who is also a friend!), quoted us an extremely reasonable price on the floor project, we thought we might be able to save more by tackling the project ourselves. So we did!
Choice #1: We decided to install the flooring ourselves.
We took off a week of work to tackle our flooring project, and it took every single day, 12 hours a day, to finish it. If we had known what we were doing, it probably wouldn’t have taken us so long. It was a daunting task.
The hardest part was cutting thin boards to fit just so in tight spaces and corners and using a rubber mallet to hammer them into place. My arm and hands hurt for a least a week after! There were many times we were so tired we didn’t know what to do next. But, at the end of the week, we were able to finish.
Tool rental and other supplies such as moulding cost us around $200 or so, and we were able to borrow some tools from a friend.
Choice #2. We bought our flooring from Costco.
When we decided to buy the flooring, we lucked out, because Costco was offering an additional $5 off savings for each package of flooring we purchased. It cost us $460 for the flooring in its entirety from Costco, while similar flooring would have cost us over $700 from another home improvement store!
So, we ended up saving around $300 or so just by buying the flooring at Costco.
Total savings
Though we worked long hours to complete the project, we saved roughly $1,200, but we spent a bunch of our time to complete the project. So, was it worth it in the end? I think so. We learned a new skill and we’re pleased with the results.
Check out the before and afters below, and let us know what you think! Have you attempted a similar project?
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