Mar
19
Mmm, Patio Stone
March 19, 2007 |
I drove out to Brooks Stone Ranch today to shop around for some patio stone and limestone blocks, as I’d pretty much decided to go ahead and put in a patio and stone front walk at the 1002 S Main St. house, and needed some for our main house as well. It’s kind of sad that I geek out over rocks these days, but it was fun, as they had a ton of options and weren’t anal about letting you nose around on your own.
I ended up dropping a goodly chunk of change but most of it is for our house. I’d guesstimate that probably $600 of it will go into the 1002 S. Main St. house, as far as building up flower beds around the entire house with the limestone, and putting a circular patio in back with the Silvermist patio stone I picked out, as well as putting the same down on the front sidewalk. Definitely not a necessary expense but I think I can get a lot of bang for my buck, coupled with a lot of sweat equity lugging rocks around.
I feel a little bad, though, as they didn’t charge me correctly, and I realized it at the time but kept my mouth shut. I bought 4 tons of the limestone blocks but the guy ringing it up just rang it up as one ton, despite the invoice pretty clearly showing 4 tons ordered. I think I’m getting soft in my old age (well, 32), but I’d have been gleeful just five years ago in the same spot, whereas now it nags at me all day and I’m tempted to call them back. Given how much money I was spending, I managed to justify keeping mum, but it’s kind of a crappy thing to do, methinks.
In other money spending news, I broke down and bought a Huskee riding lawn mower today. Our house is on a half acre lot and this is the first spring/summer we’ve lived here, and the thought of mowing it with my old tiny push mower wasn’t a pleasant one. I kind of feel like a dilletante buying it, as I could mow it just fine with the push mower, but as they say, time is money, especially with multiple yards to mow. It definitely was nice, careening around the yard atop the lawn mower, so I’m pretty happy with the purchase.
I do need to avoid the trap of saying “Well, crap, why not spend some more money, since I’m sinking so much into the house flip project”, though, as I can see the danger there. It’s one thing to resign myself to spending a lot of cash and not recouping it for at least 3-4 months, but there’s no reason to let that thinking spill over into other areas where it doesn’t necessarily apply.
Comments
1 Comment so far
Enjoying your blogs. I just bought my first house to flip. Got it for 10k under tax assessment and it has a fantastic view of a lake. Close is March 27th and can’t wait to get started. I put offers on 4 other houses before I landed this one. A divorce and trouble selling the house due to major update needed and a cash sale helped seal the deal. I found the tax maps for all the counties about here (Lynchburg, Va) to be so helpfull. Gives you current tax assessment, if a bank owns it, etc.
Tom