How in the heck does the average person do any improvements w/o going in debt big time? Please let me in on your secret!

We had an estimate to put in hardwood (laminate) & tile flooring in our home..over $6K for 4 rooms, and these are not huge sq ft rooms either!

Yes, I'm pissy But, dang we both work and still can't afford to put out the cash. We would have to put on a card, and I absolutely refuse to pay interest on that amount of $$$$ over the time period it would take us to pay that off.

There's several improvements I would like to make in our home, but feel we just can't

Do you think Home Depot's and/or Lowe's hardwood (laminate) flooring is cheaply made, low grade? According to this guy who gave us the estimate, he claims it isn't nearly as good flooring as say Flooring America or Floor To Ceiling get from their suppliers.

__________________

We do a lot of home improvements ourselves. Im lucky my husband is good with a hammer. We often seek the help of friends and vice versa. We also ask a ton of questions at Lowe's or HD. That's why they there, right?

We are getting ready to put hardwood in our dining/kitchen (about 300 sq ft). It will cost about $1000 for us to do it ourselves. Not bad. We will get the wood at Lowe's. We have used them in the past and have no complaints. They just installed carpet throughout the entire house. It looks great, feels good, and the price was right.

Good luck!

__________________
SassyMama
Kristen
Morgan (4)
Molly (1)


See what we're up to....
http://lifeinchinawiththefausts.blogspot.com

Our dilemma is finding the time

I may have to research Lowe's/Home Depot some more. I realize these other businesses are going to shoot them down to get more business themselves

Thanks for the feedback

__________________

Lowe's and HD have good quality flooring. My neighbor just re-did her ENTIRE house (minus 3 bedrooms) for about 2-3 thousand. She bought the flooring when it was on sale (hardwood floor btw). And her husband laid the floor himself.

Right now I'm currently doing a TON of landscaping to my yard. The family who lived here before had my yard looking like a nightmare. She just planted random stuff all over the yard and it looked tacky! Trees growing out of the porch, wild flowers all over the yard, etc. I contact a few companies to get a quote to see how much it would cost to have all her disasters removed and they told me anywhere between $1500-$2000! YEAH RIGHT!!! Me and a few neighbors got some gloves and shovels and did it for FREE LOL. Now I'm working on building a retaining wall. She did have some pretty rocks in the backyard (don't know why, nobody could see them under all the crap she had in the yard) and I just started moving everything around. So far, I've bought a ton of NICE things to plant and I did have to buy some materials for the retaining wall, but I've only spent MAYBE $200 on the whole yard!

I know how time can be an issue. I've just been working on my yard every saturday for a few hours a day over the last few weeks and I'm almost done. Hope things work out for you

__________________

Improving a home takes so much time, but the finished product is the best.. It does cost a lot of $$ We have a local freebie paper, and I always watch for free stuff in there... Last week someone had rocks that were free....

__________________
InternetDetectives