If you happen to be a woman chances are that home repairs will not be an easy job to accomplish. There aren't any stores like Home Depot to sell you the raw materials at a fixed price. Its frustrating when one get fleeced initially by the foreman and his supplier and when realization dawns and one decides to get the raw material by oneself it can be an exhausting venture especially if you are new in the city

Here are the rates at which I'm getting the raw materials at -

• Big Stones - Initially paid Rs1000 for ten bags but later found a guy who got me tractor full of stones for Rs 400
• Cement - Standard market price- RS 675 for three bags, another six to buy but waiting for the foreman to turn up for the next set of activities that need to be finished.
• Sand- A truckload from Sarjahpur Road for Rs 2800
• Barb Wire- Rs 4000
• Iron Bars For the Barb Wire - Rs 100 each. Bought Six
• Small Stone Chips- I was told Rs 50 per bag by a regular hardware shop; require 25 bags but getting a tractor full of chips for Rs 900
• Foreman Charges -Rs 250 per day
• Foreman's Sidekick-Rs 150 per day

I still require stuff like garden tiles for the sitting area in the garden and stone slabs for the path way. The tile guy was asking for Rs 10 per sq foot as labor charges and Rs 40 per tile. My new found experience tells me to ferret around a little more since these guys saw my car and pulled an inflated number from their ass.

Like i said it isn't easy. The foreman has a nasty habit of demanding stuff in the middle of his work and has me shuttling from the ATM to the raw material shops. Yesterday I was on the road the entire day. Saved a lot of money but became cranky and tired.

Another hurdle that I'm facing is dealing with the shopkeepers. Nice enough people but with a massive language barrier its difficult to bargain which is why by my second round I tagged a local along with me and got some discount.

I'm getting my garden pathway done, repairing part of the driveway and getting tiles in the sitting area. Seems like a small job but there have been a whole lot of hitches and human drama revolving around the work that have completely driven me mad.

After this next on the agenda will be to beautify the garden and that DIY activity would bring another set of experiences.