subject: Must You Really Do Home Improvement Tasks Yourself? [print this page] Must You Really Do Home Improvement Tasks Yourself?
OK, you've got that great big project in your home you've been putting off. You've got some time coming up, and maybe you can get started. Maybe you're going to build a space saving closet in your master bedroom closet. Maybe you are going to build a loft for storage in the garage. It seems easy enough, but you've got a nagging question in the back of your mind. Should you do it yourself, and lay claim to fame, or should you simply hire somebody else to do it? Of course, it would be ideal for you do it yourself. Take one, perhaps two trips to the home center to buy all your supplies. Spend one, maybe two weekends hammering and sawing away, and then be done with it. Then all your buddies would congratulate you, and you'd feel like that handyman on TV with that show that everybody loves. Of course, there's also the possibility your project could turn into a horrible mess, and you'd have to admit failure to your friends and family. So in order to decide which path to take, the do it yourself angle, or the hired gun method, ask yourself a couple of questions. Be honest, and you may save yourself some time, money, and embarrassment. Of you could give yourself the confidence that you need to start your project and finish it up in a couple of weekends. Who knows? The biggest question you'll need to answer is if you really know what you're doing. And this means do you know all the small details and problems that may come up, and different ways to handle them. If you've done a job like this before, and you've successfully completed it without any problems, then you're probably good to go. But if you are planning on figuring things out along the way, then it may be a good idea to call in some backup, and get some professional assistance. If you are still on the fence about hiring some other people to do the job, then you can do a couple things to help make up your mind. One is to get a couple of estimates. If the price is significantly cheaper than you'd imagined, then you may just go ahead and outsource the job. You could also ask some friends who have done similar jobs. If they say it was OK, and it wasn't as hard as they thought, then you may be OK. If, on the other hand, they say they wished they'd hired professionals instead, then maybe you should to. Even thought it feels good to look at your work and boast to your friends how easy it was, there's no sense in feeling guilty if you hire somebody else. On the other hand, if you have done some research, and feel pretty confident that you can do it on your own, then you probably can. All you need to do now is get started.
