TTMA DIY Home Improvements

[bex15]

What have you done on your own? Basically I'm really hoping H can start doing some things to our house rather than hire someone for now and I hear that learning online is easy but he's very nervous (esp. about changing out ceiling fans, lights, etc. thinking if it's not done right they will fall and kill us).

Should I push him to try or just suck it up and pay someone to do things?

[nuggetrn]

We have done SO much DIY. I am going to guess that a few of the things we have taken on (gutting the whole kitchen) is too much for your H, but changing out lights/fans shouldn't be hateful.

If it is just like for like it will be totally easy. If you are putting a fan in where a light used to be you'll need to make sure there is enough support up there to hold a fan. Dependent upon whether or not there is attic access you should be able to do this easily.

I would watch some videos, read some books or websites and start tackling a couple of small projects one at a time. Maybe as he gets more comfortable he will start looking at some bigger things.

Does he know anyone willing to teach him some basic things?

[britta]

H is pretty handy, so we've done a fair amount.

The biggest projects were the hardwood floors he laid upstairs and now he's tiling the shower in our master bath. The hardwood floors were pretty straight forward I think, but the tile job is a lot more complex. He found the YouTube channel of some master tiler guy and watches that as he works on it. Next time around I'd prefer we hire someone, but only because H just doesn't have the time to dedicate to working on it. It's been a work in progress for 2 years now. *sigh*

[littlelion]

Dh, and most men in my family, are really handy. At the start of our marriage dh would get upset because I'd call my dad for diy projects or issues. What dh doesn't know he gets by with youtubing. I won't let him do any electrical cause that's dangerous and insurance.

As britta said, diy is a pain when it takes forever to finish a project.

[cnf2013]

We do all our own diy. We built a multi level wrap around deck, finished our unfinished basement including electric, plumbing, framing, drywall, flooring. We put in new flooring, vanity, and subway tile halfway up the wall in our main bathroom, put up two different backsplashes in our kitchen now. DIY is not as hard as you think. We learned everything from YouTube videos and problem solving.

[bex15]

Thank you all!! H is just not very handy naturally and I know he questions himself where I think he is fully capable and can do way more than he thinks and I'm hoping starting with small projects will help

[cnf2013]

Also, you should totally jump on help! It's empowering learning how to do a lot of the work on your own house. Hell, H and I tag teamed putting in a marble backsplash together when I was like 30 weeks pregnant. It's not nearly as hard as you'd think

[kayladawn91]

H just put down laminate flooring in 75% of our house over the summer. He had a friend who had done it before who helped him get started but he was easily able to do it.

We'll hopefully be installing our own fence this spring/summer. We currently have an electric fence that we installed our own too.

When we install tile in our bathrooms we'll also be doing that on our own. Hopefully that will happen this year.

I hate paying anyone to do something so we watch YouTube videos, ask others we know who have done something, etc. and if we think we can do it we just make it work.

Eta: I grew up with my dad doing everything on his own so it's just something I'm used to. When H and I moved in together it took a lot to get him on board to even change out a light fixture. He always said things like "I'm not a professional" and "i've never done that before" and "what if I mess up the whole electrical system" but once he saw how easy it was he was open to more and more diy projects to save $$$.

[JustJudy]

We changed out light fixtures and installed laminate flooring in our first home - the flooring I will never do again. So much work. I'd rather pay someone to do things since we've tried to be DIYers but it's not as fun as I thought it would be.

[littlelion]

Feb 7, 2016 17:06:08 GMT -5 JustJudy said:

We changed out light fixtures and installed laminate flooring in our first home - the flooring I will never do again. So much work. I'd rather pay someone to do things since we've tried to be DIYers but it's not as fun as I thought it would be.

Yeah I don't enjoy much of it either. My sisters would light up to visit Home Depot to pick out tiles or cabinet door knobs. Nope, not for me. We do basic stuff like putting up shelfs, fixing holes in the walls, painting and such stuff.

[hydrangea1019]

I grew up with my dad doing all the stuff around the house and DH is really handy.

We've painted, changed ceiling fans bc one actually DID fall, but it came with the house. The longer I live here the more I realize how UNhandy the people before us were. He's replaced a shingle, cleaned out the clogged gutters, changed electrical outlets, etc. little stuff in our eyes. I'd love to change out the flooring, but I'm not sure DH is willing to do it himself.

nuggetrn I'm very interested in gutting your kitchen. That's our next big thing and we aren't quite sure what direction to go in. I want to cut down a full wall to a half to open it up more. I think we'd hire someone for that part.

ETA: as soon as I hit send I could hear DH watching a YouTube DIY right now lol

[mill23]

We've done a lot of DIY here since H is handy and works in construction. Gutted our kitchen, took up and replaced all the floors, took out a few walls to open up living/kitchen spaces.

Definitely t's worth taking on some easy stuff yourself - tiling a backsplash, installing flooring, even replacing lights if you cut the breakers and like PP said, it's a close match and not adding a ton of weight. We built some awesome planter boxes for the backyard last summer which were easy and saved a ton of $$

I would stay away from serious stuff like plumbing, electrical (beyond changing lights), stuff that can seriously cause long term damage to your house or devalue it. I've learned a lot working with H and watching those HGTV shows about what NOT to do - like attaching a deck to your house can shift and mess up your whole home, cutting into beams which are load bearing, plumbing that super water damages your house...scary.

[peaseblossom55]

We've done so much diy around the house. H is so good with that. We did a paver patio and walk way in the backyard, ripped out the kitchen. H has installed backsplash in the kitchen and created a wonderful walk in closet. There is probably quite a bit more I'm forgetting. I ask him not to touch the plumbing or electric.

[ceejay]

Feb 7, 2016 17:15:40 GMT -5 littlelion said:

Feb 7, 2016 17:06:08 GMT -5 JustJudy said:

We changed out light fixtures and installed laminate flooring in our first home - the flooring I will never do again. So much work. I'd rather pay someone to do things since we've tried to be DIYers but it's not as fun as I thought it would be.

Yeah I don't enjoy much of it either. My sisters would light up to visit Home Depot to pick out tiles or cabinet door knobs. Nope, not for me. We do basic stuff like putting up shelfs, fixing holes in the walls, painting and such stuff.

This is us too. H is not very handy but he tries to do simple things like putting together furniture, fixing holes, and changing light fixtures if it's something easy. And I have painted most of our house. But anything more than that, we have paid someone to do it for us. For us, it's not worth the extra time and effort to do an okay job on something, when we could pay someone who specializes in doing that type of project to do a great job.

[Evelyn3]

We have changed light fixtures, took apart our washer, repaired it and reassembled it, done drywall, flooring, installed pocket doors, built our fence, installed our garage door opener... I think that's about it.

It's not that bad if you do some research.

Our next projects are wallpaper, and finishing the basement (semi-done)

[thechickencoop]

We do pretty much everything ourselves; H is incredibly handy and I learn along the way. We've done all of the outlets (Almond to white, H showed me how to do it myself after the first room because I wanted the whole house switched and he didn't care lol), anything electrical (fans, lights, etc), most of the finishing of our basement, built our deck last year, all painting, trim, and so on.

The only thing we hired out was someone to do all of the drywall when we finished our basement. We're not the best at 'delicate' finish work lol so we knew it would look like shit if we tried. Also were going to replace our roof this year and will contract that out.

Start small, I promise you can totally do it.

[joy]

We built a wall to create a bedroom. Then we ripped out the ceiling (mold), treated the joists, insulated, re-drywalled, mudded, primed and painted. That project nearly led to a divorce and we knew what we were doing.

I put in a backsplash in the kitchen. I watched YouTube videos. It needs some repair that I'll do one day.

I stripped a door but it was a hard project in our cramped backyard.

Now we're re-doing out bathroom. After the wall project, we said we'd pay for a contractor. It's hard to upend your home and still live in the mess. It's also hard to have full time jobs and have the energy after work to keep going on the labor-intensive project. So, time sensitive and particularly involved projects go to a contractot now.

My husband also shies away from running electric. Changing a light fixture is eaay, but actually running it through a wall to a newly placed outlet freaked him out. As it should - his boss came to do it and shocked himself. Be careful with electric.

[PirateCat]

We have gutted and renovated our whole house over the past several years, including the kitchen and bathroom. We started out doing all the drywall ourselves but learned along the way that I will gladly spend the money to pay someone to do it in 1/100th the time it takes us. We have hired a few other things out as well, as we figure out what is worth our time and what isn't. H is very handy though and we both have general knowledge of construction. You could start with smaller projects and build some confidence to move onto bigger projects. I would try to be involved as much as you can, so that you are figuring things out together as a team so that the pressure is not entirely on your husband. 

What sorts of work needs to be done?

[littlelion]

Feb 8, 2016 9:59:24 GMT -5 ugaqueencity said:

Can I high jack this thread for a minute? What would you consider basic tools needed around the house to do some minor handy work? We have a toolbox with a hammer and screwdrivers and all of that and an electric drill, but I'm thinking of building a raised planter in our backyard and don't know what all I would need. Will Home Depot cut the wood to the size/angle I need or do I need a saw? I always want to build the fun furniture in Pinterest, but they always have crazy tools so I just move on

I had shelves cut at Home Depot but we have needed a saw for minor projects around the house. And a, word fail here, Leveler? To make sure that when you put things up (like a shelf) it's level. Wood glue comes in handy. Sanding paper too. We have a stud finder as well. Hmmm I can't think of other tools. 

[PirateCat]

ugaqueencity HD does one cut for free on plywood and charge for additional cuts, but I'm not sure if that's the case with lumber as well. H has a circular saw or he sometimes just uses a hand saw.

littlelion, it's just called a level.

[bex15]

Thank you everyone! This has given me a lot of motivation to at least give some things a try The immediate things I'm thinking of are just light fixtures/ceiling fans but there will be other projects in the future and this gives me a good idea of what will be realistic for us vs. hiring

[samanthasays]

Feb 8, 2016 11:29:31 GMT -5 PirateCat said:

ugaqueencity HD does one cut for free on plywood and charge for additional cuts, but I'm not sure if that's the case with lumber as well. H has a circular saw or he sometimes just uses a hand saw.

littlelion , it's just called a level.

The last time I had wood cut at home depot they just did a rough cut, if you put on the charm with the right person you might be able to get a better cut than I did But saws are not that expensive, and you will probably use it for a project like that. 

[thechickencoop]

Feb 8, 2016 11:23:03 GMT -5 littlelion said:

Feb 8, 2016 9:59:24 GMT -5 ugaqueencity said:

Can I high jack this thread for a minute? What would you consider basic tools needed around the house to do some minor handy work? We have a toolbox with a hammer and screwdrivers and all of that and an electric drill, but I'm thinking of building a raised planter in our backyard and don't know what all I would need. Will Home Depot cut the wood to the size/angle I need or do I need a saw? I always want to build the fun furniture in Pinterest, but they always have crazy tools so I just move on

I had shelves cut at Home Depot but we have needed a saw for minor projects around the house. And a, word fail here, Leveler? To make sure that when you put things up (like a shelf) it's level. Wood glue comes in handy. Sanding paper too. We have a stud finder as well. Hmmm I can't think of other tools. 

OMG you guys are killing me. Basic stuff, I would get a few different sized screwdrivers, hammer, level, electric drill, a variety of drill bits, electric saw.

That's probably the stuff I use most. Maybe some sandpaper, nails, wall anchors, etc to have on hand too.

[thechickencoop]

Feb 8, 2016 13:56:56 GMT -5 thechickencoop said:

Feb 8, 2016 11:23:03 GMT -5 littlelion said:

I had shelves cut at Home Depot but we have needed a saw for minor projects around the house. And a, word fail here, Leveler? To make sure that when you put things up (like a shelf) it's level. Wood glue comes in handy. Sanding paper too. We have a stud finder as well. Hmmm I can't think of other tools. 

OMG you guys are killing me. Basic stuff, I would get a few different sized screwdrivers, hammer, level, electric drill, a variety of drill bits, electric saw.

That's probably the stuff I use most. Maybe some sandpaper, nails, wall anchors, etc to have on hand too.

And, quoting myself, but depending on what projects - and electric sander. I do a lot of refinishing and use the shit out of my sander. The primer, paint, stain, brushes, painter's tape, etc. If you're doing those type of projects.