I’ve bitched here often about the nightmare of a process this all was.
Having been back in my house for two months one thing I was mad about I am now happy about.
I was supposed to get flooring samples. Color ideas. Lighting suggestions. I never got a single suggestion from my contractor. I choose and bought it all down to door knobs. To pat myself on my back, when people learn this and see the house they say I should go into interior design.
Another thing I pushed hard on was the house being energy efficient. Not only is it a “smart” house (contractor fought me here) I wanted the best of the best I could afford with my HVAC. Gas. Insulation. Water heater. When they are all being replaced from scratch, I figured I needed to invest in the house.
I paid a ton of money outside the estimate for what the contractor wanted to put in.
My gosh!
Gotten three bills for power, water, sewer (one bill, all from my city). They range from $95-$98. That is about 75% cheaper than normal. Oh did I mention I live in a five bedroom house.
Gas which I use for heat and stove, under $20/month. That is not an accurate number, since I’ve not really used any heat this year. It has been a low of 35 and then a high into the 60s and 70s most days. I like it cold when I sleep so not even really ran my heat much.
I was sad I couldn’t afford solar. I paid, not from the insurance money, to reroof the house. But solar was just so much darn money. But my house has a 5,000 acre corn field in front of my house. The sun pounds my house into the ground.
Heck I paid a small fortune for “black out” curtains to stop the sun pounding my senses.
If these bills keep coming in at these numbers I will make back everything I paid out-of-pocket in a few years.
When I opened the bill yesterday and saw it was $98.07 and not $175 or $200 I kind of got emotional. I have some financial resources, but I might be looking at saving $100/month. That is really money.