AT Survey: What's Your D.I.Y. Threshold

My husband and I are D.I.Y. enthusiasts: We have tools, reference books, and materials for executing home improvement projects ourselves around the house. Part of it is our thrifty nature and part of it is both of our inability to relinquish control.

We realize, though, that this is a fuzzy, grey realm. The "Do" of D.I.Y. can mean different things to different people...

From pencil-on-paper to realization, some D.I.Y.'ers are in deep. Others think of a design themselves and have someone else implement it. Maybe they're simply not interested in building, or they don't have the tools or know-how to do so. Image: Zohar Lazar

Comments (13)

I have all of the tools and none of the ability. I'm from a long line of people who hire others to do things for them.

i like little baby DIY tasks, eg painting, hanging things and i have done some tiling...ripping stuff out and bit scale DIY kinda scares me.

my fav DIY blog is door sixteen. check it out if you haven't already - amazing DIY before n afters on there.

http://www.doorsixteen.com/

We have all these cool power tools, but no where to set them up. Without a workroom, well, they are just useless, (frown) I would love to get better acquainted with them
Otherwise, I keep myself busy painting stuff, making artwork, and keeping within the limits of what a drill or jigsaw can do.

I can do all kinds of things, but my one inviolable rule is: only one project at a time. Period. Otherwise, you end up in a house full of half-finished mess.

I once wired a loft/warehouse space myself, having never done electricity before. I was SUPER careful and went way beyond code - doing it all, literally, from a book. Usually though, I keep my DIY to things that aren't supposed to be inspected.

Once upon a time ago, I bought a fixit-upper house. Every thing that got done was done by me. Over the course of a couple of years, I realized, I hated it. I hate DIY stuff! I hate painting. I hate stripping wallpaper. I even hate gardening. There. I said it.

Anyway, I sold the house and bought a condo that was in move in condition. I vowed never to do anything more complex than hang a picture and I have not done so. I've never been happier.

Well, my husband and I built our own redwood deck for our first house; it took a year. It was backbreaking work. I will never do that again. We also put in Ethernet and did a bunch of stuff like that, and we won't do it again -- too much time spent and when we sold our house, we had to fix it all up with new paint, etc.

I love doing everything myself. I'm certainly not the quickest, nor do I know it all, but I really enjoy it. Also, I really adore learning new skills. With the help of a handy friend, I was able to completely re-do my [rented] kitchen, from replacing the subfloor to building a rock maple-topped peninsula, for only $2,000. ...hmm, maybe I like D.I.Y. so much because I'm so cheap/poor. (Kudos to "home body" for the wiring job!)

@RoseCampion: Hilarious! Glad you realized the truth and lived to tell the tale. I rent so I'm not ripping out walls but I've done major painting and other things...As I write this I realize that I'm a writer and I only do projects when I'm supposed to be writing! Does that count as a rule ?

Oh dear, mskk, you've nailed it (no pun intended, well...not really). I'm a writer too and now that my novel's in revision (blech!) those lovely DIY home projects beckon. Make new curtains for the living room? Why not? Re-tile the bathroom? Yes! Make and hang a new lighting fixture? Yeehaw! In grad school, cleaning the apartment served as a great procrastination activity (the tub was so clean you could have eaten out of it), but now that we own an old house (that is--beautiful money pit), there's always something to distract from the work I'm supposed to be doing. Oh well!

We've done it all in the past, but that was before having children.

Sure, we underwent extensive renovations-from-hell when our children were born (daughter: new house -- floors, walls, doors, trim, a few windows and a kitchen which required walls moved, etc.; and son -- two new bathrooms, 4 skylights, a new roof), but we did less of it ourselves than in the past.

Now that we have young children, we recognize that the time we lose with them is irreplaceable. It's just not worth it -- it is better to pay someone else to do the work, or not have it done at all.

It's hard to find someone who is as much of a perfectionist as my husband, and who is reasonably-priced. We found someone, but he works alone, and so our bathrooms took MONTHS. Ditto the kitchen.

But at least we have our weekends and evenings free for our kids, and the energy to do stuff with them.

Whatever I can persuade my husband to do.

I am not handy but my husband is very handy, and so is his father! so we never pay anyone to do our work from finishing our basement to redoing the roof! And when MIL gets scared of them doing electrical she pays for BIL to fly across the country to do it for us! (he is the electrician!)

Now, to convince them to do things is a complete different ball game!