Our Out Building Money Pit

Not long ago Pete presented me with a little yellow sticky note in the car when he picked me up from work ( we commute together). On it was the total we've spent on the garage so far.

I gagged a bit.

When you're building something big (like a garage) you know it is going to cost money (ok, a lot of money). We had no delusions that this was going to be a cheap project. The wallet was going to have to be opened, even with all the DIY jobs that we were planning on. Mentally preping yourself to spend thousands of dollars only helps so much though. Actually spending the cash and watching your savings account dwindle down lower and lower can be a harsh reality check.

I likend it to planning our wedding. We knew (thanks to our budget) what it was going to cost us overall. Every day those numbers ran through our head while planning. However when it came time to actually write those checks out as the wedding date drew closer and closer...yowch. And then the reality of the bank account the day after the wedding...

Hopefully when it is all said and done I know we'll love the garage and it will have been a really worthwhile investment in our home. When we sit back during water breaks and just look over the construction zone it is so fun to talk about how we'll use it in the future and what will go where. You have to maintain a positive attitude about a big slow job like this, focusing on the end result. Dwelling on the hard middle part can be a big killjoy.

Even though the sticky note number provided a reality check and a reminder that we need to keep tight reigns on the rest of the budget for this project. It was still nice to see how much we've gotten done for that amount. Maybe its because my best friend Google has provided us with some rough estimates for building a four car garage in NJ and so far we're coming in about 50-80% LOWER than those various quotes. One site even had the range for a four car garage at 108,000. Um. I'd stroke out if we spent that. For real.

I'm not trying to be coy about the price spent, I just don't feel comfortable yet giving out the budget until we have something that really shows off our investment. Eventually when it is all done, I post a budget breakdown.