As Luck Would Have It

2011 has been a stellar year for me and home ownership. First we started bathroom renovation on January 4, 2011, and it is not done yet. We had to fire our first contractor, seek out a new one, wait for him to get started and now we have to do the finish work like painting and putting our house back together. While bathroom updates were being done, there were many weeks that Wonder Boy and I were showering at the YMCA or in the utility sink in our basement with a hose. Yes, in the utility sink.

Last week our washer blew up. Not literally but it wouldn’t finish a load of wash and when we researched it we found out that our model washer was so renegade and cheap that it wasn’t worth repairing. We went out to buy a new washer and when it was delivered found out it wouldn’t fit through our basement door. So we sent it back and selected a new one that was delivered today.

All in all, I’m exhausted and thinking that renting sounds pretty darn nice. Or maybe living in a brand new condo. Owning a 110-year-old house? I’m over it.

There is one highlight to all of this housing cr@p. When we purchased our first washer, the one that wouldn’t fit through the hobbit-sized door to our basement, I noticed a sign at Home Depot that said they would match any competitor’s advertised price and take another 10% off. I’m cheap so that was etched into my brain. When we went back to Home Depot to buy our pint-sized washer, I brought print-outs of that washer for sale on other websites. These were pretty jank websites but they were selling the exact same washer for a lot less money. I was concerned that the salesperson would point out how jank the sites were so I brought several competitive prices and knew that at a minimum we would save $50.

Guess what? It doesn’t matter how jank the site is! We saved $250!!!

So here is the lesson I know now and wish I had learned a little earlier into our home renovations: Online comparison shopping before going into a store is worth it. When you find your item, do a Google Shopping search and print out the cheapest options for the item you want. And voila! You can buy from a store you trust but at quite a savings!

Here is our dainty little washer. Cute, right?

And in case you thought bathing in a utility sink didn’t sound too bad, here it is. Horrible.

Random postscript:

When my new washer was delivered, part of the deal was that the delivery guys would haul away the old one. Wonder Boy and I were blessed to have inherited an old random washer in the basement so we paid $15 to have that taken upstairs. (Well worth the money since it has 1/2 inch to spare getting through the doorway and they sweated their behinds off getting that thing up our steep flight of stairs!) I asked the guys to put it on the tree lawn in the hopes that a scrap metal collector would pick it up tonight since tomorrow is trash day. It lasted five minutes before someone picked it up. Beautiful.