DIY Home Repairs: Becoming Mr. Fix-It

Believe it or not, but there was a time when I wasn’t much of a Mr. Fix-it in the home. Sure, I learned a lot from my dad, but there were things that I had to learn on my own as a grown up. I could change a light bulb and do a little painting, but everything else was pretty much trial and error.

One of the easiest things for a new do-it-yourselfer to feel is a sense of failure. You spend hours working on a project only to have it either not work or end up worse than before. A leaky faucet keeps leaking or a whole in the wall…well, stays a whole in the wall.

You call a plumber or you call a carpenter and spend your hard-earned money to have it fixed. But why not take the time to watch him as he fixes it? You’ll learn the proper way to do it and you can keep an eye on the plumber or carpenter to make sure you don’t get fleeced. That’s the worst part of the whole professional fixer; getting hit with a big bill.

That isn’t to say that every professional is going to use you or fleece you out of your money, but their goal is to make as much money as possible. So a job that may take an hour, suddenly takes two hours or something that doesn’t necessarily have to be replaced gets replaced anyway.

Sometimes they are just slow that day or feel that it’s best to replace it then let it break down a month or two from then, but many times they just want the extra coin. And that’s the reason why I became a Mr. Fix-it. There is a certain amount of pride in working on your own home and saving money.

In a few years, the money you saved could go to a vacation or a major appliance, or even a home remodel project. It’s definitely good to be the fixer, but it doesn’t happen over night. Don’t give up, and let the world of home improvement open to you over the span of many years.

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