The Do-It-Yourselfer
Just Dive In and Do It
I never lived in a real house until I was in my 40s. Before that, I lived my adult life in various apartments around town. When a problem would arise, I’d simply stop by the office, explain the issue, and they would send someone to fix it. When I was a child, my dad took care of whatever needed attention. I never had to be handy around the house.
After I became a house dweller, I knew I could not be calling someone for every little thing that came up. I had to learn at least some handyman stuff. I did not want to be calling a plumber to change the little flapper thing in the toilet tank. For someone of my generation, that would be an affront to my manliness. Couldn’t have that.
I find it difficult to ask for help, for any reason. I would rather balance myself on a tippy ladder than ask someone to hold it for me. I have spent $40 on an Uber, rather than ask someone for a ride when my car was in the shop. When I get a load of gravel for the yard, I prefer to use a shovel and a wheelbarrow and a rake to spread it around myself.
My wife and I have successfully worked together on some of our home improvement projects, however, I believe I do my best work when I’m working solo. I’m just not a good teammate, I guess. I like doing things my way. I like working at my own pace. I like not having to explain myself to anyone. I like not having an audience when I mess up. I like not having to share the credit if what I have done turns out well. I like figuring out stuff by myself.
Given my general handyman inexperience, I do not know where I got the confidence to even try some of the stuff we’ve done. In many instances, it was a matter of not knowing what I didn’t know. Sometimes, you just have to dive in and and figure it out.
As a child, I watched the adults in my extended family do for themselves. If they needed a shed, or to put up fencing, they did not call a contractor, they did it. If some trees had to be cleared, they did it. If their cars required repairs, they did it. If they needed a new water heater or some remodeling done in their homes, they did it.
Of course, being in a large family, there was always someone around to help with the big projects. The times were rare that anyone in my family hired professionals to do anything. They were do-it-yourselfers. I inherited some of that. I am not afraid of trying to be handy. However, now I live far away from that familial support system. Consequently, we have called in contractors to do things my father and uncles did themselves, like, replacing our windows, remodeling our bathrooms and kitchen, or building a new patio.
We have done a few big projects ourselves, though. Early on, we decided the carpeting in the house had to be replaced. We had several pets, and knew we would always have pets, and, as any pet owner knows, once a carpet has been fouled in some way, it is dang near impossible to get it totally clean. So, we decided to put in nice, easy to clean, porcelain tile. I did not have any experience with tile, but I told my wife, “I can do it. How hard can it be?” Despite my display of bravado, I was apprehensive about tackling such a large project on my own, but we really did not want to pay someone to do it.
So, I did it. And, with all due modesty, I say it looks prettay, prettay, prettay good. It was hard, physical labor, harder and more physical than I had anticipated, and I made a few mistakes, too, but, overall I am happy with the way our floors look.
I had a full time job at the time, so I had to do my tiling on the weekends, vacation days, and occasionally in the evenings. As a result, the tiling of our living room, dining room, kitchen, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and the laundry room, took months and months to complete.
There was one aspect of the tiling project I would never do again. Somehow, I got the idea to do a three or four inch wide rock border around the perimeter of the rooms. And, I must say, it turned out well. It looks interesting and unique. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. So, what’s the problem? Why would I not do it again? Well, it was a ridiculous amount of work. I used I don’t know how many tubs of adhesive to secure what turned out to be thousands of rocks creating the border. One miserable misshapen little rock at a time. Getting them to fit together properly was like working on a puzzle. It was crazy. But, once something like that is started, it must be finished. It would look terrible if it was left half done. I did a border around the living room, dining room, and kitchen. In the other rooms, I said the heck with it. I was burned out.
Want to know what the absolute worst part of the rock border was? A while after I finished the project, I learned that I could have used rocks that were glued on to sheets of mesh that I could have cut to size to create the border around my new tiles. In other words, I did not have to glue each rock individually to the floor. Shit.
The rocks are difficult to clean, too. I grouted all around them, but it is still an uneven surface, which means to really clean the rock border thoroughly, the use of a scrub brush while on one’s hands and knees is required. That was an unanticipated negative, but it’s too late now. It does look really nice, though.
After we pulled up the carpet, we discovered an issue that was going to need solving. There was a large uneven crack in the cement slab. If it was simply a crack in a flat surface, that would not have been a problem. But, one side of the crack was higher than the other. Meaning I could not lay a tile across it because the surface would not be level. One side of the tile would stick up, which would be a tripping hazard, and it would look ugly, too.
My solution to this unexpected issue was to lay tiles all around the cracked part, temporarily leaving that area blank. Even my inexperienced brain knew I could not lay 18” tiles across the uneven chasm, but I figured I could finesse the cracked area by making a simple mosaic using the small tile pieces leftover from the process of cutting tiles to fit certain spots. I added some red and green pieces for a bit of color, from a pile of sample tiles we had. I placed the small pieces over the chasm in such a way as to minimize the uneven nature of the chasm area. Just like most of my projects around the house, it turned into something much more complicated and involved than I thought it would be. However, I did it and guess what? It worked!
A professional tile installer would have handled the situation much differently, I’m sure. However, my solution to the problem was a really cool, one-of-a-kind mosaic in our floor that no one else in the world has, and I did it. It is probably the best, most creative thing I have ever done as a handy guy around the house.
Now that I’m in my golden years, I have less desire to be a do-it-yourselfer. Oh, I still will change the little flapper thing in the toilet tank when necessary. I don’t mind doing small, simple jobs, however my days of tackling any really large projects are over.
Every once in a while, though, I will look at the mosaic in our floor and think, “That is so cool. And, I did it.” I must say, that feels mighty fine.
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Looks amazing!
It’s absolutely gorgeous, nicely done!