Daily Home Renovation Tips

Regular visitors to our site have experienced many of our renovation experiences.

One aspect we have not directly addressed has been overall cost.

Did we remain within budget? Regrettably, no.

There, I said it.

Why? Well, some of the reasons can be summarized as follows:

• Scope change (e.g. recessed ceiling lights in the bedrooms and kitchen)
• Time and materials contracts (renovation took longer than estimate)
• In hindsight, unreasonably low cost estimates for materials and products
• Higher prices than I now believe we had to pay on many materials and products we purchased

Typical of home renovation projects, I know.

On the cost side, the more I think about it and look at the size of our line of credit the more angry I get … at myself.

First, we wasted so much time driving around to this store and that to look at different building materials, appliances, etc., etc. 

Time was a resource we did not have much of during the hectic renovations of last summer. We had very tight deadlines. We had 2 months between closing on the purchase of this house and the selling of our former home. We needed to make decisions and move on to the next task.

And, because we were time constrained the more we drove around to different stores the less time we had to make decisions and became rushed. I feel we made product purchasing decisions that cost us money.

And I should have known better; me of all people. Why?

I have been dealing with the Internet in one form or another since a work colleague, Stephan, introduced it to me more than 15 years ago. In fact, I found my first financial software consulting job through the Internet. I also found my current employer through an Internet job posting many years ago.

And for more than a decade I have been designing and delivering software training …. yes, you guessed it … over the Internet.

Geeez!

That stops right now.

We decided to start this new series of articles in the hope of helping you understand that there are Internet web sites and ‘on-line’ Internet stores from quality suppliers who offer the identical brand names or alternative brand names at significantly lower prices that you need to consider.

How can Internet web sites offer prices on the identical or comparable home building, renovation and maintenance products? It is simple economics.

First, Internet sites are accessible by anyone with Internet access every minute of every hour of every day. Shopping malls are typically not open 24 hours a day every day. They can’t be open that long because it costs them too much to pay their staff to be working all that time.

Therefore, you can shop on Internet stores any time you want any time of the day and night … including weekends.

Second, Internet stores do not have to pay to rent a store in a mall or to construct their own store. Building lease costs are expensive. They are in higher priced areas than say warehouses and distribution centers.

Third, we all know about the term economies of scale, right? Internet stores  are, again, accessible by anyone with Internet access from anywhere in the world. Therefore, a single Internet store will attract many more potential shoppers and customers than any individual retail outlet, regardless of the  physical size that retail store. The higher the volume of products that a retailer sells the lower price that they will have to pay for that product in the first place. That’s the primary reason why big box stores have been all the rage the past 5 years or so selling everything from groceries to appliances to garden supplies to tires to building supplies. It really is that simple.

The bottom line? It costs much less for retailers to sell their products over the Internet than in a physical store. And, retailers who sell their products over the Internet attract more visitors so they sell more volume which makes their costs go down; and that is even taking into account that many Internet retailers will ship your purchase to you with no shipping costs (if you purchase sufficient quantity)  or with shipping costs sufficiently low that you still save money on your purchase.

And, think of all the gas in the car you also saved in reducing driving around to all the stores in your area looking for the best deals.

The result? Internet retailers can sell their products for less. Still not convinced? Ask yourself this question: why is it that even the largest retailers in the world have their own Internet stores? The type of retailers runs the full gambit from luxury retailers to liquidation stores and every type of retailer in between.

Sure, there are times when you need to talk to someone. Yes, the local merchants offer advice. We have and continue to use them for small needs. However, don’t forget that most Internet stores have a toll free phone number you can call to speak to someone about the product you are interested in … even if you don’t end up buying anything from them!

As well, in addition to having products for you to purchase, many of the larger Internet retailers provide a ton of product information direct from the manufacturer of the product, product reviews from recent customers, and so on. In fact, the collection of information from on-line retailers can be breath taking.

Concerned about product warranties? Many of the more expensive products, say appliances, have warranties from the manufacturer and not from the store, whether you make our purchase on-line or at a store in the mall.

What about return policy? You need to check this out regardless where you make your purchase. From what I have learned so far most of the time the return policy is similar or the same or better from Internet stores.  

Where does this leave us?

I should have known better. I should have used the Internet to make at least the majority of the purchases for the products used in our home renovation activities. I’m hoping you won’t make the same mistake.

This series of articles will focus on different Internet retailers who we believe are worth at least a few minutes of your time to learn what you can actually purchase on, and how much money you can save on the Internet on home renovation, home improvement, home energy conservation, home appliances and basically anything you need and want for your home. It is truly is amazing.

Some of the Internet retailers we will write about are generally well knows because you see their ads at ball parks, on TV commencials, in printed media and so on such as  Lumber Liquidators  and Home Depot. Others have regional retail stores who sell the top of the line brand name home renovation and appliance products that are branching out to offering Internet sales on their web site such as  AJ Madison. Other times it will be Internet retailers who focus purely on price reduction for major, major cost savings (we are talking in the 30 to 60%+ area!) such as Overstock.com.

We have even placed some of their ads on our site and have started our new Home Store page where we will place selected retailer’s ads for you to view and if interested you can go directly to these retailers web sites so you can find by simply clicking on the retailer’s graphic.

If nothing else, at least you will have an alternative to compare with the retailers in the mall or at that big box store a few miles away from where you live. Perhaps you can even get a better deal at your local retailer if you can show them that you can purchase the same or comparable product on the Internet at less than what they are going to sell it to you. It can happen. And if they won’t reduce their price, then just go back to your computer and buy it from that Internet retailer.

So, next time we will introduce you to our first Internet retailer that we like. Don’t worry. There are still lots of different renovation and energy conservation activities going on at our house so we will continue to write about those activities too!