Quote:
Originally Posted by opendoor
I don't know, I think as long as the person actually takes the time to learn what they're doing and it's all permitted and inspected, working on electrical, plumbing, or HVAC is totally doable (though I agree on gas).
I re-wired my entire house and redid the panel when I renovated and it was great. I was pretty slow compared to a pro because I made sure to triple check everything, but I was able to totally bring my 40-year old house up to current electrical standards for a couple thousand dollars (excluding light fixtures).
Same with bathrooms. By doing all the work, I've been able to totally gut bathrooms for $2-3K. It's a lot of work and it absolutely takes way longer than hiring a pro, but I enjoy doing it.
Obviously you need to know your limits though. Anything involving my roof, gutters, or soffits, I call a pro because I know I'd probably end up falling off the roof or ladder and breaking my neck.
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If I didn't have kids, it's no problem. Spend all of the time in the world figuring it out. It's the potential extra down time and then dealing with them on an empty tank of physical and emotional energy I cannot afford.
So even though I think if I had enough time, with the kid factor, I'd rather certain things get done proper with little down time.
I've considered spending a few weeks to a month to redo a basement bathroom no one uses as I can have as much down time I need. Depending on the results of that project, maybe I tackle the refresh of other bathrooms, maybe not.
But at a general level, 4-6 hours a day Friday to Sunday, with a 3 and 5 year old, I'm not sure the money is worth saving. Especially since afterwards, the wife would be like, "OK, now it's your turn" + "Daddy play with me!" immediately after doing what I'd be doing. It's too tiring.
I'd rather pay someone $60-75 an hour for around 10 hours ish ($600-750) to do the refresh a bathroom with the materials I acquire. I'd potentially help 1-2 hours a day + helping with the cleaning, disposal, demo etc. to keep those hours down. I know another guy who knows how but hates doing it. He's offered "lessons" and initial oversight for around $250 so that I'd have the skills and confidence to do it myself. But again, it's not being able to afford that 20-30 hours to do it myself without burning out somewhere else.