A Word About Do It Yourselfers

I make my living looking at houses… well, not exactly. People pay me, not to look at the house, but to highlight the problems with the house. On a daily basis I see the end results of the hapless handyman’s weekend endeavors. I’m sure there are competent DIYers out there – their work goes unnoticed because it was done properly. The stuff I get to report on is usually the work of the iDIYots among us. Time and again I have said that it is admirable to be a do it yourselfer, provided you are competent.

A while back I was asked to write a brief article on the subject. Here it is:

Renovation Without Explanation:
Can You Really Learn to Fix Your House by Watching TV?

I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve received “divine renovation inspiration” on a Saturday morning with my backside firmly planted on the sofa. It always happens the same way: coffee cup in hand, flipping through the channels when I come across a home improvement show. I immediately scoff at the host, mumbling something along the lines of “What does that knucklehead know?” But home improvement shows, for me at least, are like Celine Dion music – as much as I won’t admit it, when I am by myself I can’t turn them off.

So there I sit, feigning superiority while watching the hired contractors make the host look good. By the end of the show, I am inspired to take on a similar project. How hard can it be, right? They did it, and they are mere television personalities. I am a full fledged do it yourselfer. I can certainly finish a basement, or landscape a yard, or renovate a kitchen…. just like they did. The whole job should take me about a half an hour. Less if I work through the commercials.

If only it were that simple. Unfortunately, the truth is that it isn’t as easy as they make it look on TV. Sure some things they lead you to believe on television are as simple as they seem. The truth, however, is that it is one thing to make pesto in one of those magic blender things, it is quite another to fix a house. You should also note that making pesto can turn out bad (I learned the hard way) and fixing a house can turn out even worse (I should have stopped at the pesto…) if you don’t know what you are doing. The thirty minutes they spend on TV executing the job from start to finish is only the highlights of the highlights. Just for fun, next time you are watching one of those shows, count how many nails get driven when they are building the (whatever it is they’re building). If you are lucky, you’ll see three or four nails go in. More likely it will be something to the effect of: “OK now let’s nail this thing together” *quick shot of a nail gun firing* “Great, now that it’s nailed together, let’s paint it…”

What they don’t actually show on these “How To” shows is “How To” do anything. The shows are more for inspiration, you have to learn on your own. This is where it is important not to let your enthusiasm overwhelm your judgment. It is all too easy to watch one of these programs and think to yourself “I’m going to gut and remodel the bathroom” and get well into the “gut” part before you realize that you don’t really have the “remodel” skills.  At this point you have a few options, you can call a friend or someone with some experience in the matter, you can start exploring different resources for actual “How To” instructions, or you can go sit in front of the TV in hopes that they will soon air the parts of the project that weren’t included in the episode you watched. I suggest you take option one or two.

With a bit of planning, and some forethought you’ll be able to take the inspiration you received while on the couch and combine it with some knowledge you’ve learned elsewhere and be able to turn out some pretty nice projects. If after the project is completed, and you still have a little time, take a handful of basil, some pine nuts, a little garlic and some olive oil. Toss it all in your little blender and presto, you’ve got pesto! OK, I apologize – that won’t happen again.

As always, thanks for reading.

-Brad (YOUR Windsor Ontario Home Inspector)