Last fall, my husband and I bought a house for our little family. We are generally very happy with it. But since it is new construction, it missing things. Like a front yard and a back yard. So we’ve been getting bids on sprinkler systems and landscaping.

We will actually probably do a great deal of the landscaping ourselves, since it is so expensive. Indeed, one estimate put the whole thing at $20,000. Which is why, the landscaper explained to me, that few people get landscaping done at once unless they have it added to their home mortgage loan to begin with.

Just as we added $12,000 to the price of the home by having the developer finish the basement (good choice on our part), we could have had the landscaping done by adding more to the mortgage. But, since we can do the landscaping ourselves, and we couldn’t finish the basement as nicely as it was done, the cases are different.

But I’m pretty sure we’re not going to be getting a home equity loan to pay for the landscaping…