Is DIY the best choice?

Good afternoon, it’s been a couple actually a few days since I’ve posted anything here. Sorry, I’ve been busy remodeling things. I’m taking out a bathroom, I’ve put a lot in, but this is the first one I’ve ever removed. More on that in a later post.

What I’d like to talk about today is the “Do It Yourselfer”. Before you say, Hey he’s talking about me! read a little further.

I am posting a picture of a do it yourselfer that shouldn’t be doing it himself. If for no other reason than his own safety.

Here’s the story – I was driving home from a remodel I’m working on and saw a refrigerator in the bed of a pickup truck. No big deal, you can probably see this almost everywhere, everyday. The difference and the reason I felt I needed to include it in my blog is because when I started to pass the truck I saw a guy standing in the back holding the refrigerator! Do you see the potential problems here??

I passed him, parked and readied my camera because I thought you may never believe me if I just told you about this.
There he is, no straps or anything, just holding on to the fridge. (Straps would only cost another $15.00 and he could ride in the front of the truck)

Ok, so what does this have to do with Remodeling your home yourself?

Well, when I saw this guy it reminded me of a few do it yourself projects I’ve seen, all done by people like the guy in the picture.

They had good intentions and saw that they could save money by doing it themselves.

Their downfall was not knowing their own limitations. In this guys case, he thinks he’s stronger than he is. If the truck has to turn quick this is likely his last ride ever!

Now while remodeling incorrectly could potentially cause a fire and/or be fatal it will most likely just cost a lot of money to fix the mess.

You can save money by remodeling your house yourself, however if you do it wrong and someone has to come in and fix it you’d better prepare to write big checks and just count the money spent when you did the project as money you will not recoup. It is always cheaper to pay to have it done the first time.

The moral of this story is to know your limitations, if you are good at carpentry but not good at electrical and plumbing hire those things out and just do the carpentry, it will wind up saving you money in the long run. If you need to hire the entire project out, just realize that you are saving money by getting it done right the first time, even when a general contractor is involved.

General Contractors also work with electricians, plumbers and all kinds of other tradespeople everyday and they know who is good and who isn’t. Just that knowledge can be well worth the expense of hiring a general contractor.

So if you decide to do your remodel yourself my advice would be to “buy the straps” and make sure you have the knowledge and material to do a good remodeling job.