1500 Days to Freedom

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The Why Of DIY

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We’re BIG do-it-yourselfers. I love to look at a dated home and imagine the possibilities.

Give me your teal toilets.

Show me your brown bathtubs.

Let me tear out your 1970s decor.

I shall make it beautiful.

The sense of accomplishment I get from doing the work is incredible.

The home we just completed in Colorado was our biggest effort. Here is the before pic:

And here is the after:

That was a LOT of work, most of which we did ourselves (We did not do some of the rough carpentry or drywall. Those tasks are cheap to hire out and not worth my time.).

Along the way, we:

  • plumbed the addition/replumbed the existing part of the home
  • wired the addition
  • built two new bathrooms and remodeled the existing one
  • gutted/rebuilt the kitchen
  • installed new flooring throughout
  • built decks in front and in back
  • built fancy posts for the front of the home
A fancy shower pan that I built
Custom bookcase
Fancy travertine tile in the kitchen

However, 20 years ago, I didn’t know how to do much of anything.

From Zero To DIY Crazy People

My journey as a DIYer started about 20 years ago. When a plumber that I had hired to fix a leaky fixture didn’t show up, I went to the library and checked out a book. (YouTube wasn’t around yet) I studied a bit, bought a kit from the store, and fixed the faucet myself. When the unreliable plumber finally called back, I had the pleasure of telling him that I no longer needed his services.

While intimidating, the job wasn’t that hard. Emboldened, I tried other jobs like setting tile, installing new electric fixtures, hanging cabinets, and carpentry. Before I knew it, Mindy and I were flipping homes for fun and profit.

The Why Of DIY

We just bought another home to remodel. We’ll be taking our time with this one, gradually completing projects over the next 2-4 years and documenting the whole project on our YouTube channel. We’re still in the planning stages, but we’ll be swinging hammers soon. With that in mind, I thought it would be a good time to encourage you to try your own DIY projects. We created a video in which we explain our Why Of DIY:

But wait, that’s not all!

In the video, we also show you some of the interesting artifacts that I found in the suspended ceiling. If you have a delicate constitution, please brace yourself! 🙂

More Videos…

Also see our previous videos including our home tour:

And tips for your next flip:

Do you DIY? If so, tell us about your projects in the comments.

Does DIY terrify you? If so, tell us your fears and we’ll help you get over them.

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Comments

  2. I love this. I’m not current with tax law, but is one still able to live in a house for 2 years and all the profit is tax free for married couple to $500K?

    So not only do you learn valuable life skills, have a roof over your head, but all the money is earned is tax free.

    Reply

      • Thanks for the quick response. That’s one of the ways I made my money. When I sold my first property (which I lived in), my tax lady told me I’d owe a lot of capital gains because of the profit of selling my house. Can you believe she didn’t know about the 2 year exemption?

        I’m an AC/Elec contractor and my wife is an attorney, though both retired. I always thought it would have been a fun hobby to take up. She could buy and sell the property and I could do the fixing up.

        Reply

        • I’m always surprised at how much accountants don’t know! Most of the ones by me didn’t know that solo-401(k)s existed. One of them who did tried to talk me out of it. WTF?!??

          Oooh, HVAC work! Inspired by MMM (and your comment on the post!), I’m thinking about replacing a furnace myself. If you’re ever in Colorado or want an all-expenses-paid trip out here and lodging, I’d love a little bit of help. 🙂

          And yeah, fixing up homes is such a great way to make some extra money if you enjoy the work.

          Reply

  3. Your find in the ceiling is too funny, Carl. How much does that treasure change your tax basis in the property?

    We bought a flipped home so very little DIY is hopefully in our future. Though I do want to tear down the old shed in the back and turn it into an office, for when the second kid comes along and takes my current office. We’ll see how that goes. 🙂
    Done by Forty recently posted…Our Half Baked Slow Travel PlansMy Profile

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  5. Love this! And it’s a double win; since all your findings are related, when you and Mindy are done with them, you can arrange them nicely in a little basket and have a lovely Christmas gift!

    I’m a DIYer at heart. One of my not-so-tangible things on my 100 list is “Try it yourself first.” I haven’t done jobs quite as large as yours but my favorite solo job was changing the timing belt in my old car. May seem simple to some but it took me several hours and some pretty creative jacking to get enough leverage to get the new one on – but when I did, man I was excited!

    This summer, my good friend purchased a new location for her gym and I got to help with all kinds of fun stuff – 4 different kinds of flooring, fancy marketing window sticker thingers (you should check them out for the HQ – you can see out, but they can’t see in!), installing equipment, and normal painting and such. It’s a different level of excitement when you complete a terrifying job that could cost your friend thousands and not only do you not screw it up, but it turns out looking pretty good!
    Financially Fit Mom recently posted…Getting Better at MeMy Profile

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  6. Our duplex needs a ton of work and I’m not looking forward to it. The whole place needs to be updated and I want to finish the basement. It’ll take forever to do this. My wife isn’t a big fan of DIY so I’ll have to do most of it myself. 🙁
    We’ll probably hire more stuff out than you would. We’ll see…

    Reply

    • Ryan! First of all, accept that your fear is normal. After a couple decades of this kind of work, I still get a little nervous before every project.

      Water: This is pretty much all an all-or-nothing endeavor. When you turn your water supply on, it will leak or it won’t. If it leaks, try again. You’ll get it right eventually. No big deal.

      Electricity: Turn the breaker off so there is no chance of getting shocked. Double-check the wires you’ll be working on with a tester like this one.

      Finally, read up (or watch YouTube videos) on the job you’ll be working on. There is nothing like knowledge to build confidence.

      Reply

  9. We are pretty DIY here- cooking, making stuff, fixing a flooded bathroom floor. The house is old, and it’s our extremely long live-in-and-flip. We thought it was going to be our forever home. Until we determined that its proximity to the football field was not, in fact, a very desirable thing if you want peace and quiet on the weekends. The “hard” stuff is mostly my husband- gutted bathroom,, complete new shower instead of an old cast iron and super tiny tub. New ceiling to replace the old cainic ceiling- paint a completely bare wall (it’s wood. took like 6 coats of base paint to even start to cover it all), tore out an upper cabinet, re-finished an old wood floor with only a handheld circular sander WITH a 2 1/2 year old in the house.
    BTW: did you find that the mosaic tile was easier to level and shape for the shower pan? We used 3″ square tile, but even with a professional tiler laying down the custom cement shower pan below, somehow some of the tiles don’t lie just right.

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  10. On principle, I’m a huge fan of DIY, but in practice, I can’t make time for learning enough to venture into doing the work myself yet. I can handle small things! I do love watching people work though, it’s like a small kind of magic. Also, we have a shower floor like your cool shower pan there and I regret all that grout I have to clean 😀

    I especially love your bookshelf! 🙂

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  11. I’m pretty close to that “plumber didn’t show up” stage of building by DIY muscles, but am proud of what I have done so far. A friend (who owns rentals and has experience) helped me install a toilet late last summer, saving be hundreds in installation fees. I later did some minor plumbing related to the toilet on my own. I love the feeling of doing the work myself or with a handy friend. I knew about the cost savings but what I didn’t expect or at least downplayed was the satisfaction of having done the work without professional help. A good feeling indeed!
    BC | FrugalWheels recently posted…The housing hypocrisy: Should you buy a house?My Profile

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