Hi there, Mrs. 1500 today to talk about knowing your limitations.
As you may have gathered, Mr. 1500 is a Do-it-himselfer. He hires very little out, because he believes he can do it all by himself and usually better. This is great, when he can do it, which is most of the time. However, even he finds it just is better to hire some jobs out.
We recently added a second story to our house, and reworked the lower level, all of which required drywall. Mr. 1500 knows how to hang it, he knows how to finish it, he even owns the tools. However, it isn’t something he can just do quickly. The job itself is a massive mess (imagine you allowed a toddler to shake an opened bottle of baby powder over the entire house. Now double it. That is the mess of drywall. On second thought, better let a herd of toddlers open hundreds of bottles…) It takes time to dry, then you must sand and repeat the process. Our skilled drywall guy did this in 3 takes. Our lovely Mr. 1500 would have had to make more attempts.
So last month, we decided to install gutters all by ourselves. (Stop laughing.) We chose the sheet metal gutters, because they have the power to inflict the most damage to skin and other easily sliceable things…
The actual gutter sections sold at the Depot come in 10 foot long pieces. Not one portion of my roofline is only 10 feet long, so gutter installation requires sliding one section into another, increasing the chance of slicing skin open. We put together three pieces of gutter, only cut one finger open (although it was impressively deep) and even managed to rivet it all together. Then we tried to hang it. We should have filmed it – we could have won $1 million on America’s Funniest Home Videos.
We realized it would require about 17 people standing on ladders, lifting simultaneously to attach it properly. And then we counted up how many other sections needed to be hung.
We quietly packed up all supplies and returned them to the Depot. We hired this job out.
Mr. 1500 likes to say, “Don’t be afraid to try.” However, I like to keep in the back of my mind, on particularly difficult jobs, “Don’t be afraid to hire it out.” Life is too short to spend every minute of your life working on your house.
Mr. 1500 take:
“You have to pick your fights.” -Warren Buffett
At the recent Berkshire meeting, someone asked Buffet why he wasn’t more aggressively fighting Coke’s ridiculous management compensation plan. Buffett’s response was that ‘you have to pick your fights.’ He had voiced his opposition to the plan, but decided not to start a war with Coke by voting ‘No’ on the measure (he abstained).
At first, I thought this was a cop out on Buffett’s part. However, now I’m not so sure. Life is full of compromises. If I wanted, I could build a house from the ground up by myself. However, it would take me an extremely long time*. I have a family who needs my attention, so I have to pick and choose.
Luckily, I have the skills for the tasks that require expensive labor (tile, electricity, plumbing). I won’t hire out any of those jobs. It will still take me at least another year to complete everything I have to do. Gutters just aren’t worth my time. I still have a tinge of regret, but it is better this way. (Mrs. 1500 note: I don’t have regrets, tinges or otherwise. These gutter guys came in, and for slightly more than it would cost us in supplies, knocked it out in less than one day. Their gutters look 1000% better than anything we could do, and sliced fingers, at least on gutters, is a thing of the past. Regrets? Nope!)
Anyone know where the band-aids are?
*How much time is left in the universe?
Haha, I love it! I have renovated several of my families houses, but I know my limitations too. I don’t do roofing and I only work with electricity so long as it doesn’t involve the main breaker box. I have also found that large drywall and tile jobs are remarkably cheap to hire out, plus the end product looks much better 🙂
You guys are still heroes in our book. Loved the kitchen remodel
-Bryan
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We do almost everything ourselves. But when it will take much longer, be an enormous inconvenience, or completely look like we did it ourselves, we hire it out.
Side note, one of our friends recently commented on our kitchen. We have a mutual acquaintance who also did their kitchen themselves, and she was telling us how much better our quality of work is than theirs.
When doing it yourself, you have to take your time. Measure, use a level, take it out and redo it if necessary. There is nothing wrong with trying to do it yourself, but if it looks awful, there is nothing wrong with calling in reinforcements.
Yes. Last summer I had to paint the exterior of our house per our HOA. As you know here in CO the exterior paint only lasts around 7 years or so before fading. I watched our neighbor struggle sanding, painting, and then painting the trim on the 2nd story with an extended ladder. I said no thanks as I wouldn’t feel comfortable on an extended ladder plus don’t have the equipment to spray paint vs hand roll. So I decided to shell out the money to get the house painted. I did get two bids, played the one against the other, and haggled for a cash discount.
On the other hand last fall I did build a buffet table for our dining room. Got the plans from Anna White’s website. And I’m currently stripping and refinishing our outdoor furniture (stupid CO sun ruins everything ;)).
This is the whole point of today’s post! Know your limitations. Yours, not someone else’s. I am sure there are countless readers who throw up gutters all the time and think nothing of it. Those same people might not touch plumbing or electricity. I am going to paint my house over the course of the summer. Not really looking forward to doing the work, but so excited to have it finished!
Laughing so hard about the drywall. It’s so true–what a mess!
I think the rule of thumb is: when having something done, the bid should be about double the cost of materials. Sounds like you got a deal on having them done.
Personally, some things are a deal at ANY price! When Mr. 1500 told me the quote for the gutters, I couldn’t say “Have them do it!” loud enough or fast enough.
After living in an apartment for the past 6 months with stark white walls and uncomfortable furniture I can’t wait to get home and start working on some DIY projects around the house. I got a small taste of them when a friend helped me replace a water heater in December and reading all the handy things you guys do I am motivated to get started on smaller less skilled projects in the hopes of one knowing what I am doing. I think I will start with refinishing all the dining room furniture….
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Mr. Grump, you are ALWAYS welcome to come over and do some of our projects. Our list is never-ending…
Mr and Mrs 1500,
I have to laugh as I read this – the dynamic between you sounds eerily similar to myself and The Little Lady. I’m stubborn and frugal enough that I don’t want to pay someone else to do what I can do myself. She would rather hire someone and have it done faster (and safer?).
Long ago when we were remodeling our kitchen, I taught myself how to wire it by sitting down and reading like 3 books. I’ll never forget her walking through, looking at me, and saying, “Maybe we should hire someone?!” I got it though, and every time a circuit was complete and worked, a guttural scream of excitement could be heard throughout the BGM house. LOL
Well done – I bet your family is ready to be done with the remodel.
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BGM,
Mr. 1500’s dad is an electrician. Both of them claim electricity is so easy, but I think it is easy to declare something easy when you already know how to do it!
I happily (OK, maybe not happily) tackle many projects, but electricity and plumbing are two I won’t touch. Lucky for me I married Mr. 1500…
Well you married well then 😉
Big Guy Money recently posted…Investing Update 1: Investing At Market Highs
I did!
I am so glad I read this as my gutters need to be replaced as well. I don’t mind the mess of fence building, tile installation, or interior painting, but anything that involves heights I have to pass on. I once climbed a 15 foot ladder to replace an exterior light in my entry way only to find a yellow jacket nest hidden three feet away. Luckily I suffered only one sting and miraculously managed not to fall off the ladder.
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Only one sting from yellow jackets? You ARE lucky. Our biggest little 1500 walked past a nest and got 3 stings, just for doing nothing. Those yellow jackets got dead…
Call around and get seamless gutters. They have this amazing contraption in the back of their truck. It takes a sheet of metal and folds it into the shape of the gutter, then they cut it as long as they need, and throw it up onto the side of the house. See how much gutter you need, and price it out at HD. You will be surprised how little it costs for them to make it look much nicer, and you keep your scar count at its current number, rather than adding significantly to your total…
I was going to suggest seamless gutters! That’s what Mr PoP’s dad did a couple of years ago. So nice and it was ridiculously cheap compared to what it would have taken him in time and sliced fingers. =)
Mrs. Pop @ Planting Our Pennies recently posted…He Said, She Said: A Big Oops
I don’t know why we didn’t get the quotes before we bought the materials… In retrospect, we were rather foolish to only get the one quote, but they came highly recommended by someone who is in the building trades, and I can’t imagine anyone else beating their price significantly, and still doing as good a job.
Seamless gutters are DEFINITELY the way to go, gutter wise.
Gutters is a tough job> i Know I use to be a roofer. When it comes to rough major jobs I find it better to contract them out after 3-4 competing quotes. If I know someone can do a vastly better job than me I find it more efficient to get them to do it right. My time is better spent on generating the income to pay for the grunt work instead of doing it.
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If they can do it better, or significantly faster, absolutely hire it our. When they can do it better, faster, and at almost the same cost, I can’t sign up fast enough.
There is an insulation company in Madison, WI called Rockweiler Insulation. They gave us a quote for installing insulation in our house that was actually less than the cost of us buying the insulation, hauling it home, and installing it ourselves. No brainer…
I’m with Mrs. 1500 on this one, if I had all the free time in the world I still probably wouldn’t be hanging gutters or tiling floor, then why would I attempt to do this myself besides saving a few bucks(mine gets redone so spending a few extra bucks). I’m better at managing and figuring out what is needed and necessary for the cost. I will always give props to those who are able to do the dirty work, so props Mr. 1500. I personally look better in shorts and a polo than jeans, stained t-shirt, hammer, and adhesive stuck to my fingers.
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I cannot WAIT until the day I can throw away all those stained shirts and jeans, with their spray-foam chunks and rips. And Mr. 1500 has quite the collection…
I’m with Mrs 1500 on the gutters – we had ours done at the same time we had the exterior painted – totally worth it!
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Thanks, Mom! Honestly, I don’t know why Home Depot even sells gutter supplies. The price difference, coupled with the time difference, added to the difference in end result between seamless and pieced together makes do-it-yourself gutters obsolete. Or it should make them obsolete…
I’ve hung gutters, and they are awful! When you say it takes about 17 people to hang them, you are not exaggerating! Hope all those cuts feel better!
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And the kicker is, the company that came out had two guys! One on the roof, and one on a ladder. The ladder guy held it in place while the roof guy got the first screw in, then they both tackled the rest together. Never, in a million years, would Mr. 1500 and I have been able to do that with the pieced together kind. Those pieces bend at the joints!
I can tell by the detailed description of the joys of drywall dust that you will miss its presence. 😉 That stuff really does go everywhere no matter how hard you try to contain it.
I’m like Mr. 1500, I’ll do as much as possible myself but know there are limits to my abilities as well as my desires. It’s always better to lose a battle in favor of winning the war.
Hope the finger heals quickly.
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You know it! We are still cleaning up drywall dust months later. Ugggh.
Sometimes it’s tough to know your limits before starting a project (I remember years ago Mr PoP being convinced he could repair our AC system himself… that didn’t go so well and we ended up with a new system and a month’s delay because of the time he spent messing with it). But you don’t know until you try… and luckily Home Depot and Lowes tend to have pretty forgiving return policies. =)
Mrs. Pop @ Planting Our Pennies recently posted…He Said, She Said: A Big Oops
Exactly! I have read a lot of posts lately about doing it yourself to save money. And when you can do it and save money, that is great. But when it is going to cost you so much more time, and not significantly more money, hire it out!
Kudos for trying!!
If you want to get your diy on you could install gutter guards yourself.
OK, so I talked to the gutter installer and he said that whenever people have them installed, they call back to have them removed later. I don’t get this, because cleaning out the gutters is a disgusting task, and our gutter guards in the past have worked very well.
I can install guards myself. Good tip!
Live and learn, right?
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Exactly, SFL!
There are many out there (and I am married to one) who will stubbornly refuse to give up. Most of the time, that is a good thing. In the gutter world, it is not.
There’s no shame in letting others do the job. My dad is DIYer, but he will never do the roof. He has done gutters, but not if they are a few stories high. Sometimes you need to set a danger threshold.
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That is a good thought, as well. The danger threshold. Mr. 1500 routinely sheds blood during projects. I do too, come to think of it. You bang your hand on this, scrape your knuckles on that. But these gutters are made of razor-sharp, razor-thin sheet metal, and you have to slide the sections together. So many opportunities for severe blood-letting…
You have to love the DIY effort by Mr. 1500. I wish I was a little more handy around the house. Too often I resort to the dreaded phone to make the call to have someone else fix any issues that arise around the home. But I have to agree with this saying, “Don’t be afraid to try.” I wholly agree with that sentiment. There is also a saying that hiring a professional is expensive but doing something yourself or cheaply can be even more expensive.
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When it costs $XX for someone else to do, but only $X for you to do, of course give it whirl. But when it costs you $XX and them $XX, let them do it.
1500’s,
I upgraded our gutters about 1 1/2 years ago because the old ones couldn’t handle the volume of big storms. I hired it out too, and it was mostly done in a day. That is something I wouldn’t consider myself. At a minimum it would take a second person, preferably one that knew what they were doing. The gutters were custom cut six inch sized. But watching the guys who did it, I could tell that was tough work. Luckily they had a nice day to do it. The expense was large, but now I don’t worry about foundation problems from overflow.
-RBD
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That is a great point. “At a minimum it would take a second person, preferably one that knew what they were doing.” Neither of us knew what we were doing. And it showed. I think the neighbors had a great laugh. Oh sure, it LOOKS easy, but looks can be deceiving.
How much did the professionally installed gutters end up costing per linear foot?
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experience with us.
Glad I popped by your blog.