{"id":168461,"date":"2014-01-15T04:00:52","date_gmt":"2014-01-15T11:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/getrichslowly.org\/blog\/?p=168461"},"modified":"2019-10-08T22:29:35","modified_gmt":"2019-10-09T05:29:35","slug":"home-remodeling-when-you-cant-or-dont-want-to-diy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/home-remodeling-when-you-cant-or-dont-want-to-diy\/","title":{"rendered":"Home remodeling — when you can’t (or don’t want to) DIY"},"content":{"rendered":"

When my husband and I walked into our last home for the first time, we felt like we were walking right into the ’70s. With disco-era fixtures and old smelly carpet, the four bedroom colonial was quite the sight. Oh, and let’s not forget the orange laminate flooring that graced the kitchen and bathrooms. Except for the master bathroom, of course. It had shag carpet.<\/em><\/p>\n

But, for every problem we saw, we also saw potential.<\/em> Paint can work miracles, after all, and floors are fairly easy to replace. And the kitchen<\/a>? It wasn’t great, but we thought new appliances and flooring would make it workable. Plus, the bones of the house were in great shape. Built in the ’70s, the brick exterior and interior of the home were in impeccable condition. The house also had beautiful dark woodwork all over the place, a feature that was currently overshadowed by all of the ugly going on.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Doing it Ourselves<\/span><\/h2>\n

After closing, we spent the next month scraping up laminate and tearing up carpet, painting, and cleaning. After that, we planned to have a professional install tile floors in the kitchen, sun room, and bathrooms, and then have carpet put in everywhere else. So we headed to the local home improvement store.<\/p>\n

I’ll never forget the day I found out how much it costs to have someone install tile.<\/p>\n

“Excuse me. $5 per square foot for installation?” I wondered how that could be possible. “But the tile is only $1.49 per square foot.” Could that possibly be right?<\/p>\n

After talking to a few people in the industry, I found out that tile installation is rather messy and labor intensive, which is why it was so dang expensive. And since we planned on putting in almost 800 square feet of tile, we decided to do it ourselves. How hard could it be?<\/p>\n

<\/span>Practice Doesn’t Always Make Perfect<\/span><\/h2>\n

Since we had so much tile to install and no experience, we called in reinforcements. We hired a family friend to help us cut and lay the tile for $20 an hour. Together, we laid all of the tile over the course of three days. And when it was all said and done, I was pretty happy with the job.<\/p>\n

Until I wasn’t.<\/em><\/p>\n

After we moved in, I spotted a few uneven and crooked tiles. Even worse was the fact that the grout kept coming up in several places, even after sealing it multiple times. No one else seemed to notice the imperfections, including my husband, so I chalked it up to the fact that I’m slightly OCD. But it still drove me crazy, and I was constantly touching up and adding grout all over the house during the six years we lived in the home. And it was a pain.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/span>What I Learned<\/span><\/h2>\n

In the world of personal finance, it’s often considered a weakness to pay someone to do something you can do yourself. And believe me, I get it.<\/em> We’re all trying to save money any way we can, right? In that respect, paying for labor doesn’t seem all that smart.<\/p>\n

One the other hand, my own lack of skills gave me reason to believe that it’s not always a bad idea. Hell,<\/em> I worked in a mortuary at the time. What did I know about tile floor installation?<\/em> Unfortunately, nothing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The fact is, some people aren’t particularly handy or skilled in construction. Others might not have the time to devote to large projects. Or maybe home remodeling just isn’t your forte, and that’s okay too.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to save when you can’t (or don’t want to) do it yourself. Here’s what I’ve learned:<\/p>\n