Thursday, November 11, 2010

The dangers of too much DIY Network...

Just a quick warning.  If you ever are house-shopping and you see a house that you think you could really like after "just a little bit of work", be warned.... a little bit of work turns into a lot of work.  Oh, and if you like to lay in bed and watch DIY network and dream up all the possibilities of things you could do to your home yourself and think of all the $$$ you'd save by not paying anybody to do the labor, just remember this...

1) The people in those shows often use their vacation time from work to tackle these tasks.
2) They don't have 3 kids running around in the meantime.
3) Thanks to TV magic, their projects only take 30 minutes to complete. 

So, having been warned, if you still choose to proceed.  You just might:


have a 18 foot ladder in your living room indefinately...
your toaster might live on your living room floor for awhile...
your kitchen island might move to your family room...
your couches may be stacked on top of each other where your dining room table should be, and you may spend over a week with boxes upon boxes of hardwood flooring stacked in your kitchen.
But someday... someday your husband will get down to the last row of flooring to be laid.  Your walls will be painted, your new dishwasher will be ordered, your fireplace will be re-tiled, and all of the other projects that popped up unexpectedly around the way will be done.  Your husband might have bloody knuckles and sore knees, but you will feel a great sense of satisfaction at all of the $$ you saved.  And if you are like me, you will realize that you should probably wait until after the holidays until you gently remind your husband about the other (much smaller) projects that were already agreed upon. :)

1 comment:

Tanya Smith said...

Oh, man we are finishing our basement right now and it is a PAIN! Wish we'd just bought a house already finished. Of course my parents said they would help us do the work and then when it came down to it one left the country and the other suddenly decided she was too busy having a career...If we ever get to the hardwood flooring and fireplace tiling upstairs (not to mention built in media cabinet and storage shelves in the laundry room) it will be a miracle! I so feel your pain.