Stuart wrote:
Where did I mention tradespeople ...??

No..I was actually meaning people that pay that sort of dosh for a bog

But its all relative.
I've owned this flat for 21 years, not that I planned to: moving's
expensive so at least three, five maybe seven. But then, either it was
the wrong time to be selling, or my life was too uncertain to sell. So I
am still here, and nothing's been done to it for 15 years as I was
always considering a move. So now it needs doing even to sell, and I
might be here for the next twenty years.
The mortgage rate is less than half what I was paying 20 years ago, and
the property worth five times as much. Whether I view it as payment for
20 years wear and tear, or an investment in the next twenty spending 20k
over the past 2 years on refurbishment does not seem that excessive.
Now I could have done it cheaper it is true, but. The DIY kitchen took
months of evenings and weekends and the modestly speced bill of
materials still came to a couple of thousand. Its not difficult to
manage without a kitchen for months, not so easy to be without a
bathroom even for a week. Cheaper to get someone in than find
alternative accommodation for the months DIY would take.
Now the cost of getting the work done, to a standard I find acceptable
is much the same whatever the cost of the materials. If the job with the
cheapest materials costs 8k and it costs another 2, or even 4k for
something I may be living with for the rest of my life (if I'm still
here in 20 years, I will be here till I'm carried out in a box.) then
that seems reasonable to me.
In the end its only money, The car can run another year, a new bathroom
will last a lot longer that a new computer I do not really need to buy,
if I buy fewer books I can save on bookshelves.


--
David Clark
http://www.publishing.ucl.ac.uk
$replyto = 'an.rnser.is.reqird'