Saturday, September 17, 2005

Today's Shopping

I went to Lowe's today to check out some prices. I'm sort of breaking the "don't count your chickens" rule again, but if I am going to bid on that apartment, my maximum price has to leave me some money to completely renovate the bathroom right away. At first I thought it would be something I could live with for a while, but then it occurred to me that I really should just do it before moving in if I didn't want to be peeing in a bucket and taking all my showers at the gym for a few days. So I very quickly ran through the aisles jotting down prices for tubs, vanities, medicine cabinets, toilets, faucets, wall tile and slate flooring and now I have this very rough total of about $1600 for the materials. I ruled out the $800 whirlpool tub, but didn't limit myself to the rock-bottom cheap stuff either. (What can I say, I've always had a weakness for cool old-fashioned faucets.) Who knows how accurate my estimating is, given I whipped it up in about 15 minutes, but I think I covered all the major items and padded it enough to account for unexpected things. Now I have to see how much the labor would be, hopefully at a discounted rate through a family connection!
I also took a moment to covet barbeques, refrigerators, stoves and plants. I would have coveted patio furniture too, but unfortunately, this section of the store already seemed to have transitioned to Christmas trees.
Total expenditure: $7.50 for an Italian sausage and a coke and $2.70 for a styrofoam cooler.
Why a styrofoam cooler? To put food in while I defrost my freezer, the door of which will no longer close due to a sudden explosion of a minor glacier in there. I will have to attack it with a hairdryer, pots of hot water, ice scraper, etc. This is one thing about my current apartment that I won't miss.

4 comments:

Caitlin said...

Another place to look for prices is http://www.faucetdirect.com

They sell other bathroom (and kitchen) fixtures as well, but that may be impractical for you (or not!) but if nothing else, check faucet prices there.

We used them about 3 years ago for the kitchen sink and faucet and their prices were great, shipping was reasonable, and they seem like a solid, customer oriented company.

Surfing there for prices is not nearly as fun as puttering down aisles at lowe's and having a sausage and a coke of course ;) but you might find better prices for your estimation exercise there AND....you can do it in your PJs.

Anonymous said...

Labor is a problem, find out from the building if you need to hire a union contractor with proper insurance. It's costing me $1800 for a job that I can done for about $500 from some ghetto contractor. There are also lots of time constraints. In my building contractors can only work from 9am -4pm because of noise.

thc said...

So will this new apt. have room for me to come visit? I haven't been to NYC since 1995 when I worked in the World Trade Center, Tower 2.

Anonymous said...

You can get 10% discount with Lowes Movers Program.

http://www.lowesmoving.com/lowesmoving/