Charming.

Do you need to do this to feel good about yourself? Mebbe after seeing the same
color latex slathered all over your house, ceiling, walls, and moulding? Or
something like that?

If you're so super-skilled (or, alternatively, your family has acquiesced to
amateurish repairs and work), great. You're set.

So - here's the question - why are you here berating everyone? What are you
getting out of it?? You shoudln't have enough time, what with planning your
vacations and all...

My theory - the one who has the skills to DIY *well*, is just the guy or gal to
appreciate a good professional job. But he does it himself, for the reasons I
listed in my other post, like, he likes to do it. And knows the effort and
planning and problem-solving that goes into it. Painting's my thing.
Tradespeople I know who see my house assume it's been done professionally; and I
do it for friends. But there's still been a job or too I hired out. Why?
Because I appreciate the time and skill it takes to do it right, and I didn't
have time for doing it right.

Based on my theory, a guy who lambasts everyone who *doesn't* DIY and people in
the trades, would have as characteristics, by comparison....
..the rest to be left as an exercise for the reader.

Cheers,
Banty


All I am saying is that you will generally pay too much for someone else
to do the job for you because you pay for everyone from the low paid
laborer to the secretary, all the supplies, all the petty licenses,
insurance, "extra costs just so the head guy can sip cock tails",
"experience costs", etc. Call someone to do some work and you are
helping to put someones kid through college. It's all business and
there is nothing wrong with it if that's what you want to do. All I am
saying is that you can do a lot of that work yourself and you can
probably do it as well or better if you research and plan accordingly.
For some people this is easy to do. For some it is hard. If it is
hard, then I guess you just have to pay someone to do it. That's tough.
But if you are at all handy you can figure out most of the stuff if you
want. Sure, there are times it's easier to just hire someone, and
sometimes I do. But that is not what I was getting at. What I was
bitching and moaning about is when someone needs to replace a sink
faucet or something else and people on here tell them to hire a good
plumber to do it. Well, you don't need a plumber to replace a faucet
unless you are an idiot. You can take the $100 you saved an go out to
dinner and a movie and whatever. That's just being smart. It takes
less time to do it yourself than to hire someone then wait for them to
come while you have to take off work and then call them back because
they put it on crooked or whatever. I am berating those that choose to
hire someone. I am berating the people on here that imply that it can't
be done yourself if you just take the time to try. But screw it, I am
done trying to convince people they can save money if they want. Let
them waste it along with the money they throw away on gas in their Ford
Expedition.