As you may or may not know, I love Bulldogs! I am also a Bulldog breeder with years of experience in rearing other people's litters too, including working with rescued litters and bringing them back to full health after being severely neglected.
Over the years, I have always had the litters in my living room with me and slept on the sofa with them to keep a 24 hour watch. This way, I never leave them alone and I can react fast to any situation that arises, for example if a puppy aspirates, or is being crushed by the mother.
One of the issues with rearing other people's litters is that I live in a 3 bedroom Town house, which only has 1 reception room downstairs. I also have 7 dogs (yes 7) of my own, and it becomes an issue taking in other dogs if they are not friendly towards mine and I have to physically divide the room up to keep all of the dogs happy.
I am asked more and more to help out with sick litters and litters that need a little more attention than usual, so I decided that instead of moving house, which is not an option right now; I would have a purpose built cabin at the bottom of the garden so that the litters and their mum would be completely separate from my own dogs.
Inside, there will be a puppy pen/whelping area, a single bed for me, a fridge/freezer/kettle and a seating area. I also need lots of storage putting in to keep all the puppy rearing equipment and vet bedding clean and dust free. There will be security cameras, alarms, security lighting for the outside and electric plug sockets throughout for other things like heat lamps etc.
I looked at buying a ready built cabin and wow was I shocked at the costs! the cheapest suitable option was between £3000 - £4000. So, thinking we could save some money, we looked at buying a basic shed and then boarding it out ourselves.
We went ahead and bought the shed at a cost of £1300; the paint cost £50; boarding and insulation was £600; which all comes to a nice sum total of £1950. So far, so good!
Now we come to the electrics. We 'know a guy' who is an electrician and we have asked him for a quote. It isn't as straight forward as just running a cable down the garden as it also has to be wired into the fuse box etc. I was thinking it would maybe cost £400 ish to do the job, but to my surprise we have so far been quoted £850, with possibly more to go on top! Wowzer!
I totally get that it is a highly specialist job and can go wrong in a million ways so I appreciate the fact that his time and knowledge is to be valued and I am more than happy to pay for his skills.
So why was I so shocked at the price? I have to look at my reaction specifically.
Why was I shocked at the price? Well, it is a third of the total cost and I guess I didn't think that the electrics would be such a huge chunk of the build if I am completely honest with myself.
Could I make it work cheaper? I guess I could run an extension cable from the house and just plug things in, but I wanted it doing properly, hence getting an electrician in. Especially as I will be sleeping in there. I do not fancy being caught in a fire trap!
Could I do the work myself? ABSOLUTELY NOT!!! There is no way that I would mess about with electrics and endanger everybody, for the sake of saving a few £'s. Could my partner do it? He could lay the wiring, but we would still need an electrician to wire the cables into the fuse box properly. So ultimately, I have to pay the price quoted which takes the total price up to £2800.
The kit windows are just cheap plastic squares, so we need to replace them with Toughened glass, which will cost about £200 meaning we are now up to £3000.
There are other things that I have not factored in, like the floor coverings etc, but this is just for a basic workable shell that I could have bought ready made.
I have perhaps saved up to £1000 doing it this way, but will take weeks to finish and my poor parter is working the weekends to get it finished for me. He is an angel :)
So, my question is, was it worth the saving or would it be better to pay out the initial extra cash and not have all the added stress of having to partake in DIY? What do you guys think? False economy or a bargain to be had?
I will update you guys as we go along with any progressions and of course the final project on completion!
Thanks for reading!
Much love, C and the bulldogs xx
I can see why this put a spanner in the works and I wouldn’t have expected to pay a third of my budget for a sparky either. I also can’t believe you have 7 dogs! Hope the project works out in the long run.
Haha yes, people are always shocked when they find out I have 7 dogs :D especially as the house is so small. I am lucky that I enjoy spending time outside, so we are rarely trapped indoors all day, which means when the pooches are inside, they are usually sleeping.
I think that was the main reason I was shocked, it just didn't occur to me that it would cost a third of the budget just for the electrics. Perhaps I am a little out of touch with things like that as I have never had to deal with it before. I have no issues with paying an experienced and qualified tradesperson for their time and knowledge and respect that they spent years learning and perfecting their trade.
Once I get over the initial shock, I'm sure I will be much more comfortable with the quote lol
Puppiiiiiieeeeeeeeessss XD
Quick flick through the comments that I can see and as has been mentioned it depends on your time and what you want to do. My father in law would be quite happy to save the 1000 and do it himself because he enjoys that kind of thing. I on the other hand do not and would have just blown the money on the ready made one XD
I think it's just the size but a number of dogs always somehow feels more than the same number of cats.
Yes, more puppies! :D I know you love a good puppy picture post hehe
I guess 7 cats doesn't sound that daunting to some people, but I have to admit I don't think I could cope with that many cats! xD Dogs however come naturally to me I guess, They are just part of my daily routine. Who else would I talk to if there weren't there lol
I had five cats at one stage and it was on the borderline of a lot (sometimes it felt like a lot and other times I felt like I could handle one or two more but not much more than that).
We have two dogs and because one of them is currently small I think I could manage another one but when we had two big dogs I thought any more might be a bit much XD
So I figure it's just a size thing and maybe an activity thing for me than anything else :)
Yes I love all the puppy picture posts aaaahhhhhhh too much cuteness XD
With such things it can depend a lot on how you value your own time. Wouldn't a ready built cabin require the electrics to be added too? We put up a cabin in our garden, but it just has a solar panel and a battery to provide lighting and phone charging. You may need more than that. Everything in life is a compromise, but it does help if you know all the costs in advance.
Hope the dogs love it.
That is a good point about the ready built cabin needing electrics. It would have come with all the fittings , but we would have still had to get someone to connect it to the fuse box. I think its the time aspect too that is making me think it is worth paying someone else to do it. My partner works long hours all week and it would be good for him not to have to spend too much of his free time on the project. Im drawn towards paying the extra and getting it done properly.
You're building a sanctuary!!! The only other thing I can suggest is to see if there's any local dog lover electrician who's willing to help out or give you a good deal. You never know what kind hearted folks i are out there.
Btw, there's Hive Pets community now, you can post there in future for more exposure and support. Communities have become a big part if hive since you been away
Good luck with everything!
Oh wow that is fantastic! How do I find this community for crazy dog lovers like me xD
Do I just add the tag #hivepets ?
Yes, it really is going to be a calming puppy/mummy dog sanctuary. there is nothing better than seeing happy puppies with their mum, thriving in a calm environment. I am even adding philips hue bulbs so that I can change the mood of the lighting lol Yes, still earning the name 'Crazy Dog Lady' xD
I hope you guys are keeping well :)
Here's the community link. You can post from here so it's like ring fenced for community members, but also post to your own blog at the same time so your followers who aren't part of that community can also see it.
https://peakd.com/c/hive-196708/created
Thank you so much! I had no idea about peakd, although I have had it mentioned to me before by @slobberchops, but I couldn't figure out how to access it! 😃 I have joined the community, now I am off to search for photography communities too haha
Here you go. There are others as well, just need to see which one you feel at home, and gets you most support 😉
https://peakd.com/c/hive-181964/created
Amazing! Thank you! :D
I would get another couple of quotes. It's amazing how they can vary
Yes, that is a good idea. I just thought it would be great to support a friend if they needed the work, especially at the moment during lockdown. although I am sure Electricians haven't been too short of work during the pandemic.
Hope you are the fam are all chipper! :D
We are smashing, thank you!!
It's good to support people but always worth while making sure that they aren't taking you for a bit of a ride. We had a friend of a friend who was a plasterer and quoted us a huge amount for our lounge ceiling and when we got some other quotes he was almost 1.5 times the nearest other!!