Post by Velar Fricative on Nov 20, 2018 14:56:03 GMT -5
Lately I've had the DIY bug where I started one minor house project (in this case, replacing light switch plates that I meant to do, oh, two years ago) and then it spiraled into replacing all our doorknobs, painting our front door, replacing our kitchen lighting (that one we outsourced), etc. I always felt like I was not handy at all; like, in the past I would have either made DH replace the doorknobs or just paid someone to do it not to save time but because I didn't think I could use a drill. Now I shudder to think of what a waste of money that is. Now I am fantasizing about everything I could do by myself, including renovating our small half-bath on our main floor, which just seems nuts. DH is somewhat handy, but I don't think even he'd be brave enough to tackle a reno project.
Anyway, tell me all about the house projects you've tackled all by yourself, large or tiny. I need any kind of inspiration to 1) not put off tiny projects for years, and 2) realize I can handle projects I didn't think I could.
Are there any projects you absolutely won't tackle unless you've been specifically trained? I'm thinking of something like electrical work. I freak out at the thought of electrical work being done by anyone except an electrician so we hired someone to replace the one ceiling light in our kitchen and when I watched him do it, all I could think was that it's something I *should* be able to do myself to save money.
We pretty much do everything ourselves. We are both pretty handy, my H more-so than me. We've been in this house for a little over 3 years and the only thing that we've outsourced was the installation of our above ground pool. We did the electric work, the trenching, the leveling of the ground, all that stuff, but we left the assembly of the pool to the professionals.
Since we've been here we also replaced our electric panel and put a sub panel in the garage for my H's workshop, ran electric to the shed, all new lighting in the kitchen, replaced the plumbing "guts" in our main, bathroom after the discovering a leak, new outlets in random places, built-ins in the garage, and other random things here and there.
Prior to this house, I've reno'd a bathroom just hiring out for the actual plumbing because I didn't know how, it really wasn't too bad, but now I'm married to someone that knows how to plumb, so yay!
I love DIY, though admittedly, the demo is my favorite part.
We do a lot ourselves, but anything involving a gas line or major plumbing is beyond us. We've done some minor electrical work, but hired out anything major. We also hire out anything that absolutely must be done in a tight timespan, like when we gut-reno'ed our only full bath.
Some of our biggest DIYs have been our half bath gut reno, cosmetic updates in the kitchen, and a total redo of the living room/dining room/foyer, all of which got new DIY crown molding + chair rail in the foyer. In the LR/DR, we demo'ed the old flooring ourselves so we could DIY paint the baseboards while it was up, but had the new carpet professionally installed. When this carpet wears out, we'll redo the LR/DR with HW floors, but that was not in the budget at the time. We've also done a ton of DIY landscaping, but I don't have any good pics handy.
A few pics of the interior projects...
Half bath gut reno
Before:
Low point of "during":
After:
Since the afters, we've also replaced the door (to solid pine 6 panel, painted white to match), and painted the walls a darker teal, but you get the idea.
Kitchen: painted cabinets, new appliances, and replaced accent tiles in backsplash (all DIY except a new 220v line for the dual fuel range):
H and I with some manual labor assistance from friends did everything except the electrical, major plumbing, drywall and HVAC in a full gut of 1/2 our house. The drywall we could have done (and did do in one bathroom) but it was so much faster to hire it out.
Plumbing we took from rough in to final install ourselves. Electrical we installed all the fixtures ourselves. I ran a lot of the lines, but was just working as a helper.
As for little old me personally....I do drywall mud, plumbing fixtures install and tile. If H died I could figure out a ceiling fan but I hate doing shit overhead. I do not feel comfortable framing stuff out myself, but I'm capable of it. I don't do things that involve insulation except under duress because fuck those fiberglass itchies.
I will take on small projects and I seem to be handier than DH. The biggest ones I’ve done were removing the fluorescent light boxes/frames from 2 of our 3 bathrooms. These things were kind of open at the top and framed in with heavy lumber on the front and plastic lenses on the bottom and 5’ tube lights, a la 1979. I then retextured, centered the vanity light wiring, painted, put in a new vanity light. I’ve also replaced sink fixtures. I wouldn’t do anything much more complicated electric wise than replacing fixtures. Same with plumbing. I think I could do most of a room remodel, but time is my biggest constraint. I somehow thought when the kids got older I would have more time, I seem to have less.