I learned in grade school that chasing perfection usually ends in a caffeine-and-panic meltdown, à la Jesse Spano (yes, Saved By The Bell taught me more than one life lesson). Since then I’ve adopted a “do your best, perfection isn’t realistic” mindset.
So it’s always a little strange when people tell us they imagine our life as perfectly polished — no messes, no fights, just an endless stream of Pinterest-worthy moments. Sharing Clara’s birth story helped dispel some of that myth (that day was far from a fairytale). Beyond dramatic, scary moments, we deal with everyday frustrations just like everyone else: arguments, messy rooms, going over budget, projects that take forever, and random mishaps like the moving truck getting stuck in the snow. We joke that we’re shockingly normal, so if you experience dust bunnies, burned dinners, spilled milk, or broken ceramic décor at home, you’ll likely find the same kind of chaos here.
Our blog is primarily a diary of home projects and the process of making a house feel like home, so we don’t spend a post on every missed nap or stray dust bunny. Still, when things go wrong with a project we try to share those setbacks alongside our successes — the good, the bad, and the ugly all have a place here. We’ve written about mistakes we hope not to repeat, failed craft attempts, and middling DIYs. We’ve posted candid everyday videos with clutter everywhere and I’ve confessed my own little secrets. Our house is not a showroom.
Even though we pride ourselves on being bargain hunters who research every option, we still blow the budget from time to time. Case in point: the patio we’re building. I was naively optimistic at the start — “this will be a two-day, under-$500 project.” Famous last words. We originally planned on cheap 12 x 12″ concrete pavers from the big box stores, which are about a dollar each, so I figured costs would be minimal. Then we decided to match the cobblestone pavers in our driveway for a more cohesive look, and the price jumped to roughly $2.67 per square foot at Home Depot and over $3 at Lowe’s. For a 300-square-foot patio, that’s a big difference.
We looked locally and found a nearby supplier offering higher-quality cobblestone that matched our driveway for $2 per square foot — a much better deal. It was also helpful to see sample patios laid out so we could visualize the finished look.
Feeling optimistic, we started digging in the side yard before placing the stone order to make sure we’d have a level bed and wouldn’t hit unexpected obstacles that could make a non-refundable stone purchase a bad idea. John had already cleared some plants, and at first the brick path we were removing came up easily…
…until we discovered that half the path sat on a huge, thick slab of concrete.
Breaking through that slab required serious sledgehammering and made it clear this was far from a two-day job. We were already into day two without a single paver laid.
But John powered through and got the path out. It took longer and left him sore, but it was a satisfying victory — we avoided renting a demolition hammer and managed with elbow grease and a sledgehammer.
After the hard work, we returned to the stone yard to place our order and were shocked when the final quote came in at $1,565. I nearly fainted. How could an expected $600 for stone balloon into that total? We negotiated — I did the talking since John hates haggling — and managed to trim costs by reducing the gravel amount, arranging a single delivery to cut fees, negotiating a discount on stone, and switching from premium sand to regular sand.
We brought the total down substantially, but it still landed at $1,260 for stone, gravel, sand, border edging, and stakes (we’ll get an $80 deposit back for returned bags, which reduces the effective cost a bit). That figure doesn’t include tamping tools, landscape fabric, and a few other supplies to buy or rent. Add a 6-foot privacy fence we’re considering and the project could end up between $1,500 and $2,000 — a far cry from my original $500 estimate.
There’s no point in dwelling on it. I complained all the way home from the stone yard, even after we negotiated, but airing budget blowouts isn’t going to change the numbers. We wanted to share this experience to show that unexpected expenses are common in home improvement — not always, but often enough to expect them.
Despite the sticker shock, we’re glad we’re doing the work ourselves. Hiring someone to install a 300-square-foot patio with the same materials would cost around $5,000, so we’re still saving a lot by DIYing. We’re excited about the end result: a space where Clara can play with chalk and a baby pool, and where we’ll get plenty of use. We keep plugging away even when curveballs show up, because momentum matters in any DIY project. If you stop, it’s hard to pick the hammer back up.
In short: we’re generally upbeat, but real life happens. Sharing our triumphs and failures is part of why we started this blog — to vent, to keep family updated, and to find folks who can commiserate and offer advice. Publicly airing your home-improvement missteps can be therapeutic; for us it’s free therapy, and you all are part of that support system. So thanks for following along — we’ll keep hunting for deals and tackling the next challenge one step at a time.
Psst — Mother’s Day is coming. I wrote about last year and how I think we might spend this one (hopefully laying some pavers) in this week’s BabyCenter post.