Working For Financial Freedom

Do It Yourself Landscaping: Is it Worth It?

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This week we are embarking on a quest to turn the hill in our backyard into more flat usable space with a retaining wall, grass, and some nice plants. We’ve been planning it (err…putting it
off) for over two years now. Our neighbors have both finished their backyards. If we hope to sell our house quickly and get a good price for it we are going to need to do some work on the yard.

The first part of our landscaping plan is to build a 60 ft wide x 4 ft high retaining wall. Something we’ve struggled with and gone back and forth about is whether or not we should do the job ourselves. There are many pros and cons to DIY landscaping:

Pros:

• Save money

• Ability to work at your own pace

• Satisfaction and pride that comes with completing a project by yourself

Cons:

• Back-breaking work when you are the one to do it.

• Risk. Lack of knowledge & expertise that could cost you money wise and quality wise.

• Labor. You are the one doing it. If you don’t get out and work, the project won’t finish itself.

The deciding factor for us is the cost savings we would see by doing it ourselves. We will put our house up for sale in 2 months. We want our house to sell quickly; and we know that a finished backyard will make that happen. Our cost savings our big enough for us to justify the labor involved; and we feel that the project is something we can do and do right.

Project Plan - Phase 1: 60 Ft Retaining Wall

Professional landscape company quote: $6,700

Our cost: $2,000
(we have budgeted $2,500 to allow for unexpected expenses)

Project Start Date: November 21st, 2007

Estimated End Date: December 13th, 2007

We are spending 1/3rd of what it would cost us to hire a professional landscaping company. We called a few companies for quotes and the one above was the cheapest price quoted.

Over the next few weeks I’ll share the ups and downs of our DIY landscaping project. Hopefully we can give you some tips, a few laughs (as you count your blessings that it us, not you, building the retaining wall), and maybe a little inspiration to save some dough by tackling that next project by yourself.

Next up: Day 1 and the project begins. With a whole lot of of dirt.