I just heard back from my handyman with an estimate - $1,800 plus material. (I'll need paint, a sink, and a roll of screen material plus some other miscellaneous stuff.) And he thinks he can get the work done by next Friday. Not bad.
I've been wondering what to do about the trash situation. There is a refrigerator and desk that need to be disposed of, plus other miscellaneous trash. I called around yesterday and a small roll-off dumpster will run about $350. I called a company that will haul away stuff and their price was about the same - mainly due to a $100 charge for the fridge. Since it has coolant, a hazardous material, in it, it cannot go to the city dump as-is and so they charge an extra fee for it. But the plus for these guys is you just pile everything up in the driveway and they will show up with the dumpster and load it up and haul it away.
One thing I have used before is the city's bulk collection service. Once a month, the city will come around and collect any large items. The drawbacks are the items have to be placed within 4 feet of the curb and the pick up day is not specified - they just come sometime during the week. The stuff needs to be set out by the weekend before. The plus is it is free (well, it's included in the city's monthly garbage collection bill). As it happens, next week is the pick up week for this month.
This is obviously the way to go, but I was having problems with the logistics. The city requires the door be taken off the fridge, so I'd need to do that. There is also, for some reason, a huge concrete bump in the driveway - it's about the size of a large, wide speed bump. This will make moving stuff to the curb difficult. In addition, since I need to have the stuff out the weekend before, I'd need to go there this weekend and put it out. My wife is busy this weekend and I was supposed to watch my 1 year old daughter. Hmm. Hard to do all this while keeping an eye on her.
Then my handyman called and said he was planning on starting to work on Friday. I told him about the pickup service and he said he'd move all the stuff out to the curb for me. Yay! Problem solved!
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Handyman Costs and Trash
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4 comments:
Have you ever considered saving money and doing the easy stuff yourself, like painting and replacing screens? It doesn't take a lot of skill or time to do either, nor does it take a large investment in supplies. Similarly, replacing light fixtures and some plumbing fixtures are pretty easy to do, and replacing garbage disposals are practically a no-brainer.
erin
http://frugalgirl.blogspot.com
On a previous project, I did do some stuff, but right now, I am not willing to do that. My daughter is 1 year old and she's only awake about 2 hours each day after I get home, so there's not much time there. That makes weekend time with her precious. The house is at least 45 minutes from my home, so just driving there and back uses 1.5 hours of my weekend. Plus, I have very little mechanical skills. I could probably replace the garbage disposal myself, but since I'm replacing the sink anyway, something I can't do, and the disposal has to be removed for that, I might as well have the handyman do it. Bottom line is I prefer to spend the free time I have with my family rather than working on a property.
I don't know if you considered this but how about donating those older appliances? If the original owners were using them, maybe a Goodwill or a Salvation Army would take it? They might even it haul it away for free.
jim
I have thought about it. Unfortnately, Goodwill in my area no longer picks up. The delivery company that is delivering the new stove and dishwasher hauls away the old ones for free. From dealing with them in the past, I got the impression they refurbish them or use them for parts.
One of the "benefits" of using the city's bulk collection is that once the items are sitting on the curb, people sometimes help themselves to their own "donation," if you know what I mean.
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