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I don't like to pay people to fix things I can do myself.  Alot of projects are first time experiences.  Have a front load washing machine with worn out bearings.  Decided to replace them because parts cost $100 versus a new machine. 

Holy crap was it a job and a half. Took me 6 hours. Basically had to disassemble and reassemble the whole machine. But was ultimately successful.

Because it is who I am I will probably do it again. Just needed to vent. 

PS. Had some leftover screws. But that always happens. 

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I'm a card carrying member of this club too. I'll attempt anything aside from roofing. Repair wise in the last year, I've replaced an air conditioning capacitor, replaced a leaking water heater expansion tank, painted 80% of the interior of my house, replaced a garage door, and converted all of our exterior Christmas decorations to LED.

Currently, I'm in the middle of building a new fireplace housing (electric) /mantle/built in bookshelves for my living room, then installing hardwood flooring. In the past few years, I've added/redone nearly every window/door casing in my house with 4" craftsman-style molding, done board and batten style wainscoting in the kitchen, installed over 1000 feet of Cat6 network cable to every room (phones and tablets are quite literally the only things on WiFi), laid a short  rustic stone walkway, and built custom cabinetry/enclosure for the laundry room.

A) Saves a crap load of money.

B) There's a satisfaction in doing a job yourself, both in figuring out the problem, and knowing it's (in most cases...lol) done right.

C) Most importantly, gives me leverage to buy new/upgrade power tools. "Of course I can install that flooring, honey. In fact, with that table saw *cough* thatI'vebeenaskingforforthelast3years *cough*, I'd get it done in a lot less time...."

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I applaud you do it yourself folks. My grandfather was one of the first electrical engineers to work on video phone's back in the 60's with Westinghouse (now ATT). My Dad (even though he was a CPA) can rebuild any sort of car in the world. What of those skills did they pass down to me? I know how to drive a car every 4k miles and get the oil changed and I can unplug an outlet with the best of them.

Otherwise I'm screwed in that world. I've tried and tried (very frugal) but ends up costing me more time to fix and repair what I did. So I did the next best thing. Found a handyman who charges cheap and takes cash for discounts. Good luck with projects!

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I will try anything around the house. We bought a house which provided us to deeded lake access in Portage, Michigan and I have spend the last 18 months fixing it up. Complete kitchen reno, new laminate floors, converting the middle bedroom to a massive walk in closet, new lights, complete basement remodel, some electrical updates, new siding, windows, doors and interior trim. I removed the old aluminum siding, removed the brick from the front of the house, house wrapped the outside and installed  horizontal vinyl siding on the walls and reverse board and batton vinyl on the gable ends.
I am now in the process of electrifying the pole barn in the back yard. When the ground thaws I will be running 125 feet of wire underground in conduit to the barn. 
I have done 95% of the work myself. If you take your time, have a good plan, think things through and get the right tools things generally work out. I have screwed many things up and I think I have gotten more right and wrong. LOL

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 3/18/2019 at 8:49 PM, Zlinedavid said:

C) Most importantly, gives me leverage to buy new/upgrade power tools. "Of course I can install that flooring, honey. In fact, with that table saw *cough* thatI'vebeenaskingforforthelast3years *cough*, I'd get it done in a lot less time...."

I was able to find a way to get a lot of my tools for "free."  I have a Discover card and get cash back with it, and then with the cash back you can buy a $100 Lowes gift card for $90.  Then go on Ebay and buy a 10% off at Lowes for a buck or two.  I was able to get a Dewalt table saw, and a Dewalt drill set only using the cash back.

I completely gutted an old house, and added a full basement underneath it, so I've needed all the tools I can get.

As far as my DIY projects, gutted it myself, put up walls, ran all the electrical (64 can lights was a bad choice!), painted, and laid luxury vinyl tile throughout the kitchen, living room, dining room, laundry room, and 2 bathrooms.  Did a lot of other smaller jobs along the way too.

The previous lady who owned it was old and had been in a nursing home for the last few years, and we literally couldn't walk through the back yard because it was so overgrown. I don't really have any grass, so my next big project is to rent a trencher and run irrigation lines in the yard.  Never done it before, but all the videos I've seen look like it would be pretty easy to do.  Completely unnecessary to do, but it was such a piece of crap house and yard that I just want it to be over the top.  The advantages of being a bachelor lol.

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12 minutes ago, Leathernecks said:

I was able to find a way to get a lot of my tools for "free."  I have a Discover card and get cash back with it, and then with the cash back you can buy a $100 Lowes gift card for $90.  Then go on Ebay and buy a 10% off at Lowes for a buck or two.  I was able to get a Dewalt table saw, and a Dewalt drill set only using the cash back.

I completely gutted an old house, and added a full basement underneath it, so I've needed all the tools I can get.

As far as my DIY projects, gutted it myself, put up walls, ran all the electrical (64 can lights was a bad choice!), painted, and laid luxury vinyl tile throughout the kitchen, living room, dining room, laundry room, and 2 bathrooms.  Did a lot of other smaller jobs along the way too.

The previous lady who owned it was old and had been in a nursing home for the last few years, and we literally couldn't walk through the back yard because it was so overgrown. I don't really have any grass, so my next big project is to rent a trencher and run irrigation lines in the yard.  Never done it before, but all the videos I've seen look like it would be pretty easy to do.  Completely unnecessary to do, but it was such a piece of crap house and yard that I just want it to be over the top.  The advantages of being a bachelor lol.

Did the trencher/irrigation thing a few years ago. Was tired of the gutter runoff eroding my yard away. I did pay for the backyard to be filled/levelled before, but did the trenching and designed/placed the irrigation myself. Have all the gutter downspouts integrated, 4 additional drains in the yard at low points, all running to the neighborhood's drainage ditch.

One piece of advice, put access points in for cleaning. I only put two in, and wish I had about 6.

And our credit card cash back is already allocated. I run all our normal monthly expenses through one card, transfer the cash back into a high yield savings monthly, and once a year, that becomes our vacation "fun" money.

Edit: and yeah, 64 can lights....you're out of your mind lol.

Edited by Zlinedavid
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On 3/30/2019 at 7:56 PM, Leathernecks said:

I was able to find a way to get a lot of my tools for "free."  I have a Discover card and get cash back with it, and then with the cash back you can buy a $100 Lowes gift card for $90.  Then go on Ebay and buy a 10% off at Lowes for a buck or two.  I was able to get a Dewalt table saw, and a Dewalt drill set only using the cash back.

I completely gutted an old house, and added a full basement underneath it, so I've needed all the tools I can get.

As far as my DIY projects, gutted it myself, put up walls, ran all the electrical (64 can lights was a bad choice!), painted, and laid luxury vinyl tile throughout the kitchen, living room, dining room, laundry room, and 2 bathrooms.  Did a lot of other smaller jobs along the way too.

The previous lady who owned it was old and had been in a nursing home for the last few years, and we literally couldn't walk through the back yard because it was so overgrown. I don't really have any grass, so my next big project is to rent a trencher and run irrigation lines in the yard.  Never done it before, but all the videos I've seen look like it would be pretty easy to do.  Completely unnecessary to do, but it was such a piece of crap house and yard that I just want it to be over the top.  The advantages of being a bachelor lol.

just a heads up...you don't need to buy Lowes coupon codes...just google lowes coupon code generator and some free sites that generate them should pop up! Congrats on finishing up the house by the way!

Edited by FritzIam4IU
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  • 2 weeks later...

I enjoy some DIY and did a lot of the finish electrical, internet, TV and phone wiring when we built a few years ago. Same thing on a barn renovation. Simply don't have the extra time to do all the DIY I'd like to, so today, I mostly pay the man.

I've been forced into some pop machine DIY and I've learned a ton, but man...those can be complex. I've got one machine right now that's giving me fits and no amount of Googling and YouTubing has been able to resolve. I'd have given up long ago and paid the man if I could find a man to pay.

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  • 11 months later...

figured we might at well bring this back to life.  There may be another one but I searched projects and found this.  

I'm burning my tax return quickly.  Already had $2000 of painting done a few weeks ago.  I built my own house a few years ago and never finished things up.  Such as caulking and painting all the trim.  My wife painted all the window trim before we moved in.  Then with last years tax return we had the doors and door casings done.  The base boards got a professional touch as well as some main area walls and the stairwells.  

I got a cheap headboard at At Home store to make the master look a little more masterful.  We have been searching everywhere for a new comforter before stores starting closing.  Not a ton of luck. 

Put a quick wall of shiplap up in a bathroom as a backsplash.  

The last few days I have been building floating shelves in my built ins.  Should wrap up tomorrow then just going to put satin poly on.  I'll get some pics up in the next few days.  

Monday my LP smartside trim is being delivered.  I'm redoing some of my exterior trim that I unsuccessfully tried to metal break and wrap.  It looks like crap and I want top dollar when I go to sell this thing, which may happen very very soon, corona pending.  

So what's your story?  I'm trying to remember who is doing the bathroom job?  

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I built my house 3 years ago and like many, got it to 90% before the attention span ran out. I've come back around to finish the master bath recently. I was working in the floor pan for the stand up shower. While sipping some Bourbon as the mud cured, my baby Dachshund decided to try her hand at DIY. She's a helper like that. 

 

 

 

shower.jpg

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13 hours ago, NotIThatLives said:

figured we might at well bring this back to life.  There may be another one but I searched projects and found this.  

I'm burning my tax return quickly.  Already had $2000 of painting done a few weeks ago.  I built my own house a few years ago and never finished things up.  Such as caulking and painting all the trim.  My wife painted all the window trim before we moved in.  Then with last years tax return we had the doors and door casings done.  The base boards got a professional touch as well as some main area walls and the stairwells.  

I got a cheap headboard at At Home store to make the master look a little more masterful.  We have been searching everywhere for a new comforter before stores starting closing.  Not a ton of luck. 

Put a quick wall of shiplap up in a bathroom as a backsplash.  

The last few days I have been building floating shelves in my built ins.  Should wrap up tomorrow then just going to put satin poly on.  I'll get some pics up in the next few days.  

Monday my LP smartside trim is being delivered.  I'm redoing some of my exterior trim that I unsuccessfully tried to metal break and wrap.  It looks like crap and I want top dollar when I go to sell this thing, which may happen very very soon, corona pending.  

So what's your story?  I'm trying to remember who is doing the bathroom job?  

Thanks for reminding me that I have unfinished work to complete! :coffee:

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The lady and I had 4 projects lined up for 2020.

1)  Redo the wooden seats in my 12' v-bottom boat.

2)  Put a new roof on the front porch.

3)  Remodel the upstairs.

4)  Build a small pole barn.

I don't think we are going to get #4 started due to money concerns.  #3 is underway.  Material for #1 is here.  Waiting for the weather to break for #2.

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14 minutes ago, rico said:

The lady and I had 4 projects lined up for 2020.

1)  Redo the wooden seats in my 12' v-bottom boat.

2)  Put a new roof on the front porch.

3)  Remodel the upstairs.

4)  Build a small pole barn.

I don't think we are going to get #4 started due to money concerns.  #3 is underway.  Material for #1 is here.  Waiting for the weather to break for #2.

I can see you checking this forum while your gf is staining your boat seats. 

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I just finish a complete bathroom remodel. The only thing that is original is a couple of walls of drywall. New lights, floor, ceiling, faucets, door and all trim, bath fan, complete tiled shower,  vanity, floating shelving and towel and paper holder, robe hook and towel ring. We also put in two pantries and bench seating in the kitchen which allowed us to tear out a built in pantry that extended into the bathroom . Doing this allowed us to increase our vanity size from 42" to 60".

It was much tougher than I thought and my patience was totally shot. Hopefully no more waking up in the middle of the night and thinking about what I have to do and how to do it. 

This is my last major project. I am too old (66) and Susan and I have done everything to this house. New windows, doors, cabinets, doors, trim, lights siding, garage door, floors and carpet. All this was done is less than 3 years

Mission Accomplished!

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2 hours ago, jefftheref said:

I just finish a complete bathroom remodel. The only thing that is original is a couple of walls of drywall. New lights, floor, ceiling, faucets, door and all trim, bath fan, complete tiled shower,  vanity, floating shelving and towel and paper holder, robe hook and towel ring. We also put in two pantries and bench seating in the kitchen which allowed us to tear out a built in pantry that extended into the bathroom . Doing this allowed us to increase our vanity size from 42" to 60".

It was much tougher than I thought and my patience was totally shot. Hopefully no more waking up in the middle of the night and thinking about what I have to do and how to do it. 

This is my last major project. I am too old (66) and Susan and I have done everything to this house. New windows, doors, cabinets, doors, trim, lights siding, garage door, floors and carpet. All this was done is less than 3 years

Mission Accomplished!

That is awesome.  I know the stress, thinking through how to do something.  It's very rewarding in the end but very stressful.  

Here's my little shiplap wall.  Just got the lights and mirror back on the wall and cleaned up.   

20200322_180237.jpg

Edited by NotIThatLives
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