There are a lot of great DIY, home remodeling and fix up shows on TV today. Somehow I wish that I had all these skill. From framing to painting to electrical and plumbing. The truth is that I can do a lot of these skill, but the other truth is that I don’t like doing many of these items.
With age comes wisdom. Hopefully. What I have learned during the course of trying to tackle many home improvement projects is an understanding and acceptance of what I like and don’t like. I have come up with two themes. I like projects, but not necessarily maintenance. I also like tasks that are more exact rather than vague and artistic.
Further, I have developed some guidelines on whether I take on a project.
- Is it something I care about?
- Is it something I would like to learn?
- Will it be hard to find somebody to good job?
- Will it be a cost effective use of my time?
With these guidelines I have tackled some pretty brave home improvement projects and learned to avoid projects that don’t interest me.
Let’s just start with a simple comparison. Pool maintenance versus yard care. I don’t like yard work, I don’t like maintenance type items in general and I have a brown thumb. Four hours a month for yard work might be a fair estimate of the time required to maintain my home if I were to do it. At $80 a month, this is $20 per hour. Now if I really enjoyed yard work, had some prize roses or a vegetable garden that inspired me, maybe this would make sense. But I hate gardening, and I would resent every Sunday, if it involved mowing and weeding. Pool care, is a completely different thing. My maintenance schedule is less than 30 minutes for the whole month, which translates to $200 per hour. Now we are making some money. I also love the scientific nature of the interplay between, sun, temperature, chlorine, PH and conditioner. I have a test kit and an app on my phone. It’s a fun puzzle. In addition, I don’t think a pool guy can do as good of a job, since he only sees my pool once a week. I see it daily. Add to that I have a private back yard and testing and maintenance is often performed naked with a cup of coffee in hand. The perfect little home project.
Building my home was also a perfect example of pick and choose your battles. While I did have almost 100% input into the floorplans and flow of the home, I did hire and work along side a general contractor, architect and interior designer. I know my strengths and my weaknesses.
In the last two years I installed water solar panels to heat my pool and solar electric panels to heat my home. When I did my pool water solar panels, I had a couple of friends who where quite shocked at how I knew how to do this. I had to remind them I had a mechanical engineering degree. If I couldn’t do this, I should have my degree revoked. My electrical solar panels were a similar puzzle that I found fascinating, plus I was able to learn about these two technologies. In general these two projects required specialized knowledge, which provides a higher value added level of work than something like gardening, so my return on my labor is better. In addition, I could assure it was done correctly. Both were fun one time projects, that now complete I will have the knowledge to look after very easily.
Building my pool on the other hand, this would NOT have been a smart move. The design process was handled by a professional designer that did a better job than I could have ever done and the construction of a pool was not something I understood or wanted to understand. If I were to make a mistake on any level it would entail ripping out $1,000’s in concrete. Projects that entail going down a one way road with no easy chance to recover from a mistake are not a smart idea with doing a tone of research.
They say that variety is the spice of life. Being able to take on different projects, feel the reward of a job well done and save a few Pennys is certainly one of the benefits of home ownership.