We have a 3 and 1 year old. We moved into our house 2 years ago and have been settling in ever since. It just takes a while when all of our free time is spent parenting and doing everyday upkeep and stuff. So maybe 4 months ago my husband had the idea to build a sauna in the backyard. He already built a shed and we renovated our basement to be a rental apartment and those were both somewhat cheap (less than $1k for each project). But this sauna is driving me insane. After we put the kids to bed at 7pm, he goes right outside and works on it til 9 or 10pm. He’s around $2k in at this point and it seems like every day we get more packages of things like hinges, roof brackets or something, we’ve gotten 2 huge lumber deliveries, he leaves his equipment like screws and nails and saws all over the place in the backyard so it’s impossible for me to take the kids outside during the day (I’m a SAHM).
His dad built a sauna when he was my husbands age, it’s like some kind of coming of age thing I think for their culture (Russian). So I don’t really want to touch that bc it seems to fulfill him.
I just feel like an idiot bc I’m pinching pennies, putting off buying our kids new shoes and not planning any weekend trips bc I was under the impression we were saving money and trying to pay off our house.
I agreed to the sauna in the beginning bc I thought it was going to be maybe $1,500 total. If I bring this up to him, he’ll get defensive and get mad and say that I agreed to it and it’s for our family. He’s very into the health benefits of a sauna and thinks we’re all going to use it multiple times per week. It’s powered by a wood burning stove that I can’t use myself. He’s making it as big as possible (I think it’s 8×10) bc he has visions of us going in it with our kids and his parents. I never want to do that with his parents. I told him our kids aren’t going to want to be in it with their girlfriends and us at the same time when they’re older like he’s suggesting and he was surprised.
I’m just so tired of this project, I’m upset that it’s cost so much money, and I don’t think I’ll even want to use it when it’s done.