I have to laugh when I get an email or a comment saying, “you are so lucky to be married to such a handy guy” or “We’re just not handy around the house~we could never do these kinds of things.”
When we were married, we knew nothing about diy or home repair. NOTHING.
our first apartment: what in the heck is wrong with this shower head?
In fact, when my husband and I were getting serious, it was a bit of a concern for me because my dad is the ultimate handy guy. My dad was wisely told me that my future husband already had the most important traits:he was honest, a hard worker, and loved me and the Lord. Everything else could be learned and come with time. If he wanted to. But I couldn’t expect to change him or make him be what I though he should be. It was advice that came back to me when I would see what other husbands were building and repairing and creating. I would try to remember why I married him and what I loved about him…and it had nothing to do with his carpentry skills.
We have learned slowly together over the past 13 years, thanks to patient neighbors and friends, my dad, and the ultimate diy tool: youtube how-to videos. It’s crazy what you can learn when you don’t have money to hire someone. My husband amazes me with what he does now and his willingness to save money by trying to do it himself. A lot of things we try to tackle ourselves. Some things we get into and look at each other and wish we would have hired someone. We’ve even had to hire out to fix our mistakes!
Saturday afternoons are precious now with 5 kids in multiple activities and we really have to determine what is diy worthy and what is worth hiring someone for. Sometimes that is the only time we have all together and so we don’t want to always fill it with projects. My neighbor was doing a kitchen re-model and I noticed an electrician’s van in her driveway. I went over and asked the guys if they could come over at lunch for an estimate and ran home and scribbled down every electrical project I could think of that we’d been wanting to get done.
They told me I’d have to wait for a rainy day since they were so busy, but if I could be flexible, they would call me if they had a cancellation or an opening for a couple of hours. I got the call today and they got everything done on my list in an hour and a half. It would have taken us a whole Saturday, if not more. Worth every penny of that $100. And they got a chuckle out of my hot-glued corbels, but they were easy off for them to hardwire the lights and then I hot-glued them right back up.
Sometimes I can look at the diy world and feel a bit guilty if I don’t try to tackle it myself.
Or get a bit envious when I look at these Ty Pennington husbands that can build a dream house out of scrap 2X4’s in a week.
But it always feels soooo good just to get some long-awaited things done around here when we hire someone.
What about you? When do you hire out or how do you decide when to diy?
It's good to know those things can be learned. :) I was also slightly worried about it when we got married too, because my dad is an electrician and has worked in pretty much every construction trade, so he's seriously the ultimate handy man. And my brother is the same way, he did most of the work in their new house and by the time he was done they had around $250,000 in equity. It's crazy, but my husband and I are slowly picking it up, and if all else fails those two are only a phone call away. :)
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