<p>Skills:</p>
<p>There is Skills/No skills</p>
<p>Then there is the difference between MY version of Good Enough and my HUSBAND’S version of the same.</p>
<p>His version includes several areas of the house torn up simultaneously with no clear plan, and abundant use of caulk to ameliorate lack of measuring/planning (that is my my take).</p>
<p>I have figured that professional carpentry intervention was better than marriage counseling and/or divorce. :)</p>
<p>Notrichenough, we remember the first episode of This Old House !
We have done lots of major DIY - decks, basements, painting, furniture re-finishing, furniture building, bookcase building, tile, wallboard,etc.
Right now DH has no time due to work schedule and we are paying to have our kitchen re-done. It’s killing me because lots of it isn’t how we would have done things.</p>
<p>^ The first episode I saw of This Old House was basically Bob Vila talking to the camera. He picked up a sledgehammer and started tearing out a wall. After he hit live wires and the sparks were flying, then he says, maybe we should have turned the power off first.</p>
<p>I got bored with it when the projects got so big and expensive, it was no longer relevant to the DIY’er.</p>
<p>
We contracted out the big projects on our house in large part because of time. You can’t redo a kitchen as a weekend job when you are living in the house.</p>
<p>We have been making do with DIY but this summer had some major projects done that required professionals. That’s why we’re so broke. Can’t even afford to do DIY stuff.</p>
<p>After a nice fathers’ day dinner, DH is installing a ceiling fan in the master bedroom (by the sound of it, it does not sound good). I’m off to paint the wall where our infamous mirror will finally go tomorrow (even though it was white, I decided to paint it with Kilz first - that was smart). Next, I shall be hunting down some micro tiles. In a couple of years, our master bath will finally look like a “spa bath” everyone was crazy about back in 2011 :)</p>
<p>I’ve noticed a few lines drawn, even mention a few myself…things I wont attempt or tackle. For me its anything involving electric or plumbing. I am leary (afraid actually) of electricity and fear that any mistakes in the water/plumbing line would be more costly to fix then the labor if I had the professionals do it in the first place. And large powerful saws, well you can figure that out…What lines do you draw? What projects wont you tackle and why?</p>
<p>Wish I could have pressed the like button on VeryHappy’s post. I’m with you although I love to garden (we do all yard work) and we will prep and paint interior house. I must admit that I have never painted a ceiling but I do enjoy doing panaled doors and triple moldings. Come to think of it there are a few rooms that could use a painting.</p>
<p>painting a ceiling? Even “I” can pull that off! One must be systematic, I am sure there are online instructions, but lacking that, send a PM and I will try to help.</p>
<p>^ You can get ceiling paint that goes on pink and dries white, so you don’t have to figure out what part you already painted.</p>
<p>BF and I are huge DIY’ers. You name it, we DIY it. 
He can do electric, plumming, etc. I’ve built houses from the bottom up as far as framing and roofing is concerned.</p>
<p>mafool…lol! There are on-line instructions but I just that the thought of doing that so I leave that job to hubby. I really do like to paint dental moldings.</p>
<p>How easy is it to touch up hardwood floor? Here and there the finish on my floow wood floor is worn off. I can’t locate my great floor guy. It is a beautiful floor, random width with wooden pegs. I hate to hire someone I don’t know for it. Little room for error. It’s not a big area, abour 6 square feet. Is this something I can do myself?</p>
<p>^ That size area could easily be sanded by hand, the problem is getting it match the rest of the floor. If the floor is stained it will be very hard to get a good match.</p>
<p>Around here the floor guys charge around $200/room, it might be better to get the whole room refinished.</p>
<p>I can’t get it sanded again. It’s been done already once. It was stained last time, golden oak. Isn’t there a way just clean up a bit and apply polyeurethen or something?</p>
<p>Igloo, a real hardwood floor can be sanded and refinished 3-4 times. You cannot simply apply polyurethane over the existing coating, it has to come off for the new stuff to stick. It sounds to me that since this small area gets so much wear and tear, you would be better off with a different type of flooring in there.</p>
<p>I got to enjoy our new ceiling fan last night. First day of summer brought sunshine and temperatures in mid-seventies. By the time I got home, the master bedroom was like a greenhouse. I turned on the fan, opened the windows… Voil</p>
<p>I don’t have much expertise with this, but the couple times I tried it, it didn’t work that well. If you sand it it removes some of the stain, so that color will no longer match. If you re-stain it is nearly impossible to match.</p>
<p>And I’ve found that it is very noticeable where the new polyurethane overlaps the old. Polyurethane alters the color as well, so an extra layer is very obvious. Plus, the polyurethane itself has some color to it, unless you use the exact same stuff it won’t match either. Plus I think polyurethane changes color over time as it ages, so there’s another mismatch.</p>
<p>A pro may have a way to handle this well, but I’ve never been happy with the results.</p>
<p>How about DIY injuries? Like the time I foolishly spray painted the heat outlets in a small bathroom, no mask, no ventilation… took a deep breath and my nostrils stuck! Smart move! Learned from that lesson!</p>
<p>Or when my home made scaffolding didnt perform well and I fell off. A sprain, several awful long lasting deep bruises…but the worse was the 15 feet of wallpaper border that I pulled off when I fell. </p>
<p>Any stories out there??</p>
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<p>Now I shouldn’t have laughed at that, but I did! Sounds like a scene from I Love Lucy!</p>
<p>Injuries? Oh yes, many. I think the worst was the “tennis elbow” I developed when I was rushing to sand, prime, sand, paint, sand, paint and then caulk a room with new woodwork (6 doors and 2 windows!) before the workers came to lay tile. I had to have cortisone shots, physical therapy and I don’t remember what else.</p>
<p>If I need to rough-cut a small piece of wood, I will hold it in one hand and the circular saw in the other, and make the cut.</p>
<p>Well, once I got my finger a little too close to the blade, and got a nice gash in the tip of my finger. I was probably lucky I didn’t take the whole tip off. I have a nice scar to remind me to be careful around the power tools.</p>
<p>I’ve cut myself with a knife numerous times, and bashed fingers here and there, but nothing bad. Never fallen off a ladder (knock on wood…)</p>
<p>Any stories? Well how about when I broke my toe when I got up from watching TV and jammed it into the drill case I had left in the hallway… The best part of the story is that I noticed the toe was at a weird angle, so I pulled it into place. Having played with power tools that day, I guess I was feeling pretty bold!</p>
<p>I love DIY; part of the fun is doing things that nobody expects me to do (I’m in a very cerebral profession). I’m best at design and shopping. (Bunsen, I made really cool Shoji style doors after shopping at TAP Plastics and Pacific Ironworks :). I do a lot of home dec sewing and slipcovers and painting, but I’m proud that I taught myself how to tile a floor, install a toilet, patch drywall, make a light fixture. It’s far more satisfying than my day job!</p>