On August 27th, 2003, France and I took possession of our new house. Built in 1968, it's a structural marvel (back when Minto still built good houses) but a cosmetic nightmare. There's the pink bathroom, the blue bathroom, the green room, the yellow room, the blood-red room...

• Basement Window: September 2003
• Master Bedroom: September 2003 and ???
• Kitchen: October 2003 to November 2004
• Mudroom: May 2004 to November 2004

The choice whether to do things yourself or have them done by a professional is a tough one. A professional has more experience, makes fewer mistakes, has better / more appropriate tools, and will get the job done in less time. It also has a lot less stress. These benefits are obvious. The reason's to do work yourself are perhaps, for the large part, less intuitive:

• Less Expensive: Okay, this one is intuitive. Your hourly rate is presumably less than that of a professional so you save money by doing much of the labor yourself. Don't ever forget, though, that your time is worth something and if that rate multiplied by the amount of time a job will take is higher than something else that is important to you (wife, kids, reading, etc.) then perhaps it isn't cheaper do to it yourself.
• No Misunderstandings: When something is entirely your creation, you have an in-depth understanding of the final product at every decision point along the way. A professional has only a limited knowledge and thus may make choices based on incomplete information that will make the desired final product difficult if not impossible to achieve. For this reason, when hiring work out, always be present to answer questions and point out things to ensure you get exactly what you want. Also, it allows you to make sure that person doing the work is actually doing good work and not cutting corners.
• Good For Mind And Body: The physical exercise of doing renovations has become obvious to me. I lost some 10-15 lbs over the course of changing our kitchen. The reason isn't complicated: I was active every evening/weekend instead of being physically inactive in front of a computer, book, or TV. It's also great for the mind. I learned a tremendous amount while building walls, wiring electrical outlets, and doing drywall! It's really quite addictive. The ego benefits, too. Here is something I can look at and say, "I did this." It's not perfect, but I know I'm capable of things I had not thought so before and I have more confidence in myself.
• Never overestimate the impossible.

I encountered one unexpected drawback to doing renovations yourself: pride. If you pay someone $1000 to do a job and then something unexpected happens so you have to pay someone another $200 to repair it, you get upset and maybe utter a few choice words. After putting everything you have in to a job for weeks only to have something bad happen (bad, unexpected things always happen from time to time) and ruin part of it is enough to break your heart. You have been warned!

Back to Home Page