Apocalyptic Hoarding Diary

Chapter 543 Building Materials Market

Upon seeing this reply, Xu Xiaoyan perked up immediately, sat up straight, and typed rapidly on the screen:

"Thank you so much! Could you please give me your contact information? Also, I'd like to ask, is the 2100 yuan package price including both materials and labor, or just labor? Do I need to buy the materials myself?"

The other party quickly replied: "It's a package deal, including both labor and materials. Old Zhou has his own supply channels, and the materials are cheaper than those sold in other shops. The price he quoted includes the cost of the materials."

Don't worry, the materials he used may not be from big brands, but they are all qualified products. I've checked the quality of the water and electricity pipes, and there are no problems.

If you want to save even more money, you can buy the materials yourself; he only charges for labor, which might save you three or four hundred yuan.

However, buying materials yourself requires going to several places and figuring out the models and specifications, which is quite troublesome.

Xu Xiaoyan read the passage twice and had a general idea of ​​what it meant.

The total cost is 1,100 yuan including labor and materials. If you buy the materials yourself and only pay for labor, you can save 300 to 400 yuan, which would be around 700 to 800 yuan.

She quickly replied to the netizen: "Thank you so much, this information is very useful to me. Would it be convenient for you to give me Lao Zhou's phone number? I'll contact him later to ask about the situation."

The other party quickly sent a string of numbers, adding at the end: "Just say that you were introduced by Old Li from the D07 plot in the East District. He'll give you a discount if he finds out."

Xu Xiaoyan saved the number in her contacts, noting "Old Zhou's Renovation Team," and then sent the other party a thank-you message.

The other person replied with a "you're welcome" emoji and then fell silent.

After saving the number, she didn't rush to call it.

The house will take another eight days to build. She is only calling Lao Zhou now to ask about the price. Construction will not actually begin until the main structure of the house is completed.

With only 1,398 yuan left in her account, she had nothing left, and every penny had to be spent wisely.

If she can save three or four hundred yuan by buying the materials herself, plus doing some simple tasks that don't require any skills herself.

For example, tasks like painting walls and cleaning up construction waste should save some labor costs.

All things considered, this amount of money should be barely enough, provided that nothing goes wrong along the way.

She browsed through other people's replies in that thread and gradually found some useful information.

Some people mentioned that the building materials shops are located in the western part of the satellite city, concentrated on a street called "Jianshe Road".

There are more than a dozen shops selling cement, sand, tiles, paint, and plumbing supplies over there, and you can compare and bargain.

Some people also mentioned that several people could pool their money to buy building materials, as bulk purchases would get a discount, making it much cheaper than buying individually.

She wrote down all this information in her phone's notes app, noting the source so she could easily find it later.

After browsing through the posts, she opened the local map of the satellite city and typed "building materials market" into the search box.

Sure enough, the map showed a location in the Xiqu Jianshe Road area, about a 40-minute walk from the guesthouse where she was currently staying.

She decided to make a trip there in the afternoon to take a look, familiarize herself with the place, ask about prices, and get a feel for the market conditions for building materials.

If you do your research beforehand, you can start working on the house as soon as it's built, instead of running around frantically later.

After making up her mind, she checked the time; it was only a little past nine in the morning, still plenty of time.

She simply changed into comfortable shoes, locked the door, and went downstairs.

There were far fewer people in the lobby of the guesthouse than yesterday evening.

The crowd that had been packed tightly at the entrance was gone, presumably most of the third batch of people had already registered and dispersed.

The receptionist was busy organizing documents when she saw Xu Xiaoyan come downstairs. She looked up and smiled at her as a greeting.

Xu Xiaoyan returned her smile, then pushed open the glass door and walked out.

The weather outside is pretty good. Although it's sunny, the clouds are quite thick, blocking out the harshest sunlight, so you won't sweat too much while walking.

She walked west along the main road for a while, then turned south at an intersection and headed towards Jianshe Road following the route marked on the map.

After walking for about twenty minutes, the street scene returned to its familiar empty state, with vacant shops along the roadside displaying "For Rent" signs.

Occasionally you can see one or two workers repairing the paving stones on the sidewalk, or someone sticking little GG stickers on the utility poles by the roadside.

Little GG's content is incredibly diverse, ranging from job postings to selling secondhand furniture.

Several other contact information was left by the renovation team, with words like "professional plumbing and electrical work," "discounted prices," and "excellent craftsmanship" printed on it, along with a contact number below.

Xu Xiaoyan took a picture of each of these little guys and saved it to her phone.

Although she already had Lao Zhou's contact information, it's always good to have more options. If Lao Zhou couldn't get her a spot or they couldn't agree on a price, she would have other alternatives to contact.

After walking for another ten minutes or so, she finally saw the "Jianshe Road" sign on the street corner.

This road is narrower than the main road, but there are significantly more shops on both sides than elsewhere, and most of them are open.

Hardware stores, plumbing stores, lighting stores, tile stores, paint stores... one after another, the storefronts are not big, but the signs are colorful and hanging in a row, making it look quite lively.

Several shops had samples displayed outside, with stainless steel faucets gleaming in the sunlight, and tiles in a variety of patterns from pure white to wood grain.

Xu Xiaoyan slowed her pace, looking at each shop one by one. She first checked the samples and prices at the entrance, and then went in to ask a few questions if she found anything that interested her.

She didn't rush to buy; she just asked about prices, checked quality, compared price differences between different stores, and wrote down each store's quote in her memo.

After running around, she had a general understanding of the prices of building materials and had also identified a few shops that seemed reliable.

By the time she emerged from the last tile shop, the sun was already setting.

She glanced down at the time on her phone: 2:40 PM.

This walk took nearly five hours, and my legs were a little sore, but I felt much more at ease.

She stood at the street corner of Jianshe Road, took a few sips of the water she had brought with her, and let out a long breath.

Today was quite fruitful. I contacted a reliable renovation team, figured out the distribution and prices of building materials markets, and also took pictures of the contact information for several backup renovation teams.

The remaining issue is money. After she and Lao Zhou finalize the price, she'll think of other ways to earn more money and try to get the renovation done better.

She turned and walked back the way she came, her steps much more relaxed than when she arrived.