Wrestling With DIY Or Hiring Pros

My neighbor recently had some minor work done to his house this past week. He had a company come in to power wash, replace the garage roof, and fix some of his siding along with a new paint job. As I heard the hammer banging in nails, ladders going up and down, and noticed the amount of work being done in just a matter of days, it had me thinking about the comparison between paying someone to do home repairs, or figuring it out myself.

Although most of the renovations or repairs on my house have been done by my partner and me, I've hired someone once to do minor repairs to my roof and siding. I'll have to admit, I really enjoyed staying in the house while someone else did the work. What I didn't like, was the bill that came with it. On top of the price of materials, labor has to be factored in. Even though the person that worked on my house was reasonably priced, I still had that thought in the back of my mind that I could've saved X amount of money if I had just done it myself.

I've come to the conclusion that DIY house projects, either large or small can be a great way to pick up on new skills and save money. There is also a sense of pride once the job is complete. My partner and I have done some really interesting things to our house. We put up gutters, installed a storm door, did tons of painting, tore down this ugly built in TV stand, added two accent walls, and completed other small renovations around the house.

Unfortunately, the longer I live in this house, laziness seeps in when it's too hot or I'm too "busy" to spend several hours on something that at times isn't all that fun. I'm also never fully sure I did the repairs correctly or that my wood cuts might be a little off. Something that would take the pros a few hours to accomplish, it takes me 10X longer. I'm somewhat of a perfectionist, and if it doesn't go on right or look right, I have to redo it or retrace my steps to fix my errors.

If you've got projects for your home or something cool that you want to make, it's a good idea to weigh the pros and cons of either DIY or hiring someone. It's a great learning experience to fix things yourself, and very rewarding to see the project completed. On the other hand, it's nice to stay inside in the AC and watch someone else do the repairs for you