Tuesday, October 02, 2007
It Feels Good To Say, "I Did That"
My dad had a huge shop in one of the garages that had just about every type of tool, hand held and power, offered. He loved to make things and he really enjoyed DIY, “Do It Yourself” in the home and on our property. It is because of that I learned some of the very basics of home improvement just by watching him make or fix something. I learned how to use a saw, hammer, drill and other equipment that I know what it does but don’t their names. I learned the safety rules behind almost every tool even if I never got to use them. I learned that you measure twice and cut once and I learned all about the importance of leveling and how very important it was to have patience.
Until recently, I had never owned my own place so my home improvements were scrubbing the dirt out of every corner and then placing decorative things all around and lighting a scented candle when all was said and done. Anything that ever had to be fixed was done by the landlord.
I do have my own place now and it does need some things done to it, here and there, but those are relatively easy tasks. Plus, it’s temporary and in about a year or so, I’m going to have something brand spanking new so I’m probably not going to have to be doing any major home improvements any time soon.
Now, the place I just moved from, the landlord was constantly doing home improvements and boy did she mess things up. She failed to take the time, spend the money for the right tools or equipment, be careful, precise, measure, measure, measure, and most of her stuff ended up working well for approximately one week to a month. For example, she built a fence around the back yard, what used to be my yard, but when she got to the gates, she did not measure accurately and she did not take the time to a) level the ground underneath the gates before placing square, decorative stones down, b) get the right latch to keep the gates closed, c) properly secure the braces so that they wouldn’t pop off the gates themselves every single time you opened or closed the gate. After a month or so of fighting to open and close that ridiculous gate every morning and evening, it started to slant, badly and became almost impossible to use.
I advised her what she might consider doing but she was smarter than me and chose to wrap wire around the brace to “secure” them and that was it. That was her solution. That worked for one entire day.
Inside the house she had a kitchen shelf that sagged in the middle because she didn’t do it right, the front, French doors had gaps between the ground and the door that could not be fixed with weather stripping because, again, she failed to measure and level anything, the bath tub was not seated correctly and the toilet was loose. In time, all of these caused problems and ended up costing her more money than if she had spent wisely and done it right in the first place.
Look, I really do understand the desire to do things on your own. Not only do you have a tendency to save some money, if you do it right the first time, you learn along the way and you feel good about your accomplishments. It’s kinda neat to be able to say, “I did this. Yep, I most certainly did, all by my little lonesome.” I get that. But I also know that most of us don’t have the foggiest idea what we are doing when we decide to take on a home improvement project.
The landlord and many others I know would benefit greatly by visiting a Do It Yourself site for instruction and guidance. Now, if you’re anything like me, sometimes you don’t know what is meant by a specific term or label so you’re going to need images to get you there. Nothing wrong with ordering a DVD on how to do something. Kids, knowledge is power and you only benefit yourself by learning how to do things the right way.
Let’s say it’s time to weatherize your home. Do you know how to do that? Do you know the first thing to do? Do you know what to buy, how much and when this should be done? Just because you don’t know the answers to those questions right now doesn’t mean you can’t do it yourself.
DoItYourself.com has thousands of articles to help you get started on your home improvement projects. They provide information from weatherizing your home to electrical repairs. They can tell you how to remodel your kitchen and why people choose certain things as well as educate you on hardware, tools and woodworking. If you need to install a new dishwasher or lay some concrete bricks, they have videos for that. They even give you information on how to do auto repairs, where to buy or sell your next car, and how to safely operate a boat or an RV. They even teach you how to clean properly.
I love this site. It has so much information for all kinds of projects and things we encounter in our lives. As I’ve mentioned many times in the past, I do despise having to learn things the hard way, not having the information that would have come in SO handy beforehand, people not saying a thing helpful before I went through all the drama and came out the other side banged and bruised up so again, I am offering you a site that offers extremely valuable information. I am offering you a site that will save you not only money but hours of your life back, your sanity, and just knowledge. You can never know too much about anything. The more you know, the happier and easier your life is going to be.
And, again, it really does feel good when you were able to accomplish something without having to pay someone else to do it for you. There really is just no better feeling than that.
