An Estimate is Just That...An Estimate

So we finally broke down and bought a fifth wheel camper.  It is something we have wanted to do for a couple of years but let's face it....Diva camping isn't cheap. Our kids love camping and honestly so do my husband and I. We spend lots of time together and get to see so many great New Hampshire sites.

We pick it up this Saturday.  The problem was we needed to have a place to put it before we picked it up.  In comes the local excavation company with a look and their estimate. Being we are not dummies we got more than one estimate and they were pretty much in the same ballpark.

David went with company that had originally done extensive work on the yard long before I even knew him. The estimate gave me a heart attack but it was pretty much what he had expected to basically grade in a large driveway burying stumps and rocks in the process, fill in a well and add crushed stone to the new driveway.

So this week they got started.  Guess what? added costs!  Apparently they thought they would have to truck soil out...Not so much.  Truck after truck of fill started coming and did so for the last two days. Every truck that came added to the price tag.

As if the trucks coming wasn't bad enough, we made the mistake of telling my seven-year-old how much each load was costing.  With each truck that arrived he took great pleasure in using his math skills to give us the growing tally! 

Then of course the area off of the existing driveway could not have mulch as my husband originally planned because it would just be washed away, so we had to get special erosion stone and have it put in so that our drive way would not essentially wash away. Up goes the price tag. 

The well top ended up being well over a foot below the grade of where the driveway would be so David had them bring a special riser to raise up the level of the well cap. You guessed it, inflating price tag.  we still have one more day with the excavator and the bulldozer. Our original estimate has already gone up a couple of thousand dollars in two days, one can only hope tomorrow is a "free" day!