How handy are your neighbors?

[Exterous]

While I was attaching some new downspout straps to my brick exterior a neighbor was walking by and stopped to ask what I was doing. Seemed genuinely surprised I was replacing the broken straps myself. It wasn't that hard and the materials wouldn't be that expensive even if you need the masonry bit, tapcoms etc. But then again I see most of my neighbors hire everything out - even painting - so I guess it makes sense

 

[darkswordsman17]

Wait, so did the neighbor give you a hand job or not?

 

[zinfamous]

mine are quite handy.

To the point that, with a very violent storm that came through about 10 months ago and knocked over their gigantic oak tree, somehow away from their house, we all spent some days pruning back the branches and cutting it down to the stump.

hiring it out (didn't damage anything, so insurance wouldn't pay for any of it, hah!) would have been about $10k. They sealed the ends while making a plan to deal with the primary trunk and root ball (thing left about 7 foot deep hole in their hard), in order to also start pulling lumber from it.

City got pissed though, and demanded they finally deal with it, so did have to hire a crew to come and drag it out. Shame. I think the city thought they were trying to run an unlicensed mill.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Farm country, so basically everyone is handy. I probably call people out for more than anyone else (I know my limits and what I need to learn by watching first).

 

[pcgeek11]

While I was attaching some new downspout straps to my brick exterior a neighbor was walking by and stopped to ask what I was doing. Seemed genuinely surprised I was replacing the broken straps myself. It wasn't that hard and the materials wouldn't be that expensive even if you need the masonry bit, tapcoms etc. But then again I see most of my neighbors hire everything out - even painting - so I guess it makes sense

I have noticed the same thing myself that the more people would rather pay to have someone than learn to do it themselves. My son even does this ??? I'm working on him though and making some progress.

Me I'd rather do it myself. Just yesterday I reworked my front door trim work. No the wife gets to paint it.

 

[lxskllr]

My right hand neighbors can do a lot of stuff. Not sure about the left. The guy across the street built, maintains, and races a dragster, so I assume he's handy. I do stuff myself, though mechanical work is only out of necessity. I don't enjoy wrenching on motors, and though I'm functional, I'm not that great at it, so I usually opt to pay someone else to deal with that stuff. That's why I have a job. To pay people to do stuff I don't want to do.

 

[NutBucket]

Nowadays I guess people value time more than money. I mean that's fair. But I think there's still a big part of the population that enjoys getting their hands dirty and the satisfaction of a job well done.

 

[Exterous]

Wait, so did the neighbor give you a hand job or not?

Not this time

 

[skyking]

We all helped roof each other's houses.
East neighbor is a remodeling foreman for a company that works in retail and grocery.
South neighbor is a structural steel fabricator/welder.
East and south on south neighbor's roof.

West neighbor that moved away showed us how to do the roofing, and we did his house because he is really getting too old to get up on the roof.
The chimney structure was rotten and made up a whole lot of this dump truck load, besides the comp roof tear off.


Pete's was a pain in the ass with 4 valleys and a couple of skylights.



He has all the big woodworking stuff that I used to build my bathroom and kitchen cabs with, and has a few welders and other sundry tools.


I've been tearing it up over at Pete's for the last week, taking out stumps and some cut and fill slicking off.

I brought a used two post lift for South neighbor and he builds and restores old cars over there.

 

[Motostu]

^^ Man, I wish you were MY neighbor!

Ours on one side is pretty handy, and we've helped each other out on various projects (I DIY almost everything at our house). The one on the other side was pretty handy too, but ended up with MD late in life and ended up in a wheelchair

 

[MrSquished]

Well when you have a condo, you just need to be handy inside.

I can change a thermostat, a faucet, hang shit, mount a tv, wire and cable management, do the tech stuff, and that's about all I need to do. I did work on my fridge once. Not enough room to work on my dryer. And fixed the fridge for 6 months, changed a few parts on it. And then it flummoxed a repairman.

HVAC stuff I'll leave to the pros.

Not much else to worry about in 720 square feet. Nice and easy. Any building repairs are shared with the other owners.

 

[Lee_Bo]

I’m the neighbor who gets called. I’ve done HVAC and apartment maintenance for many years so usually when my phone rings, something needs to be fixed.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Fenixgoon]

I have noticed the same thing myself that the more people would rather pay to have someone than learn to do it themselves. My son even does this ??? I'm working on him though and making some progress.

Me I'd rather do it myself. Just yesterday I reworked my front door trim work. No the wife gets to paint it.

You pay either with money or time. Take your pick.
If your son would rather do other things with his time, then he may find it worthwhile to pay someone. Not everyone has the time or desire to learn new skills, especially technical ones.

I can paint a basic room, but I will 100% pay for a pro to repaint my vaulted ceilings when that day comes.
I refinished a standard 10x10 bathroom, but some work I will probably have a pro do when I refinish the main bathroom.

 

[brianmanahan]

my whole family is great at building and fixing things... except for me. i'm absolutely horrible at it.

my memory is ok for abstract things like music or code (or pomes), but terrible at real-world things.

if i take something apart, within minutes i have no memory of how to put it back together unless i took a lot of pictures. i'm like my grandpa when he was in his 80s.

so i end up getting someone to do almost everything.

that is, provided i remember that something needs done. if i don't write it down then i can't remember that half the time either.

 

[skyking]

@Fenixgoon
^ that is well and good if you make ~$90 per hour at work. I don't quite get that, so I can pay myself rather than a qualified ( insert trade here).

 

[Greenman]

All the homes here are new, so I haven't seen my neighbors do anything. None have complained about the noise coming out of my garage yet, so I'm guessing they at least understand that changes make noise.

 

[Fenixgoon]

@Fenixgoon
^ that is well and good if you make ~$90 per hour at work. I don't quite get that, so I can pay myself rather than a qualified ( insert trade here).

Even if you don't make $90/hr, it's still part of the calculus.
If you make $20/hr, you're still making that assessment. "I can spend X amount of my time, or I can pay Y dollars which takes me Z time to earn. Which one do I want to do?"

Part of what you're paying a professional for is also experience. Doing something for the first time on your own with no experience is probably going to yield a much different result than someone who's been doing that for work day in and day out for years on end.

My refinished bathroom came out as well as it did only because I had an experienced friend help. If I truly solo'd it, it would have taken me even longer and looked way worse, because it was the first time I ever did a bathroom renovation.

I'm a huge proponent of DIY, but there also needs to be recognition of the time opportunity cost and the difference in experience of DIY vs. professional.

 

[Exterous]

@Fenixgoon
^ that is well and good if you make ~$90 per hour at work. I don't quite get that, so I can pay myself rather than a qualified ( insert trade here).

To be honest I wonder a little bit if people are also trading money they don't have (or is already a bit tight) for some of this work. I've heard that a few times around my neighborhood that contractors are too expensive to do a thing and suggestions to learn how to do it yourself are rebuffed. And we're not talking about something like roofing but installing a new light switch or replacing a sump pump

 

[DigDog]

my "neighbour" doesnt understand the concept of emptying the trash can, you can imagine the rest.

 

[Muse]

One side the guy moved out maybe 25-30 years ago and rents it to "kids," i.e. folks who can't afford their own place or prefer to live with a handful of others. He does some of the maintenance on the place, I see him from time to time. He asked me if we could go 50-50 in replacing our mutual fence and I had a look at what he was suggesting and said yeah, just send me the bill and I'd write him a check. That was over 2 years ago and nothing... Less than a year ago he volunteered to strimmer my going to seed lawn one day for 5 minutes and I asked him about that, showed me his 56volt Ego string trimmer and I shopped one off ebay, a "refurb" that was just a cheap newly outdated model. That's saving me a lot of work, I used to do all that with non-electric tools.

The other side is an apartment building and they are worse than useless to me. Their trees are literally hanging over and brushing my 2 story's roof. I need to do something about that. I did some trimming a few weeks ago with a hand shears standing on the roof slope. I figure to get some arborists over here for estimates, I almost never call anybody to do anything. I have a lot of tools and tons of DIY fortitude. However, I know that some stuff is just tough if you aren't a pro. I for the first time in my life a year+ ago paid a plumber. Even my acquaintance just retired indy plumber couldn't fix my pipe problem that had me with no hot water for ~2 months.

My fridge was close to non-functional around 15 months ago and I surmised that the thermostat had stopped working. I shopped new ones and did the replacement myself and it's doing fine now. Bought that a few days after escrow closed on the house with my last $1000 cash, an open box bottom freezer Amana sans ice maker. It's hard to find anything comparable nowadays it seems, so I'm glad it's working.

I have paid nobody to do any yard work my whole life, but my yard looks it! I did a lot over the weekend, the bitch winter's finally just about behind us now.

The guy behind my property has tools and told me I can ask him anytime but I have most and I don't feel comfortable asking him for any kind of help out of the blue, so haven't. Did complain about his bright offensive yard light, and he fixed that.

 

[skyking]

Even if you don't make $90/hr, it's still part of the calculus.
If you make $20/hr, you're still making that assessment. "I can spend X amount of my time, or I can pay Y dollars which takes me Z time to earn. Which one do I want to do?"

Part of what you're paying a professional for is also experience. Doing something for the first time on your own with no experience is probably going to yield a much different result than someone who's been doing that for work day in and day out for years on end.

My refinished bathroom came out as well as it did only because I had an experienced friend help. If I truly solo'd it, it would have taken me even longer and looked way worse, because it was the first time I ever did a bathroom renovation.

I'm a huge proponent of DIY, but there also needs to be recognition of the time opportunity cost and the difference in experience of DIY vs. professional.

I've done a lot of these jobs over the years. I'm kind of an old man now.
My building a house from scratch. How's that calculus?

 

[nakedfrog]

When I first moved out here and was looking at home builders, one of the models I was looking at they were charging $213k for (which didn't include site work or flatwork). Now, 2.5 years later, the same model is priced at $364k. Even just in the first few months I was out here they ratcheted prices up $20k, and that's not counting the $10k "additional surcharge" for lumber that was being tacked on due to higher lumber prices associated with the pandemic.

 

[sdifox]

 

[Captante]

The only times I draw the line with a home-project are when my safety is at too much risk for the time, $-savings and (most importantly IMO) SATISFACTION of doing a job right with my own two hands to be "worth it".

A few examples would include roof-work on anything higher than about two stories without a flat roof, high-power electrical work or any tree work requiring use of an extension-ladder.

 

[skyking]

The only times I draw the line with a home-project are when my safety is at too much risk for the time, $-savings and (most importantly IMO) SATISFACTION of doing a job right with my own two hands to be "worth it".

A few examples would include roof-work on anything higher than about two stories without a flat roof, high-power electrical work or any tree work requiring use of an extension-ladder.

I am all about that. I went down to local scaffold outfit and priced enough scaffold to go up to the edge of the roof on the two-story section on both sides for a month. It came out to $900.
It'll take two days to get that scaffold up, with one other helper.
Having a secure guard rail at the edge of the roof? That's priceless.
We will work The roof sheeting and the metal roof from the highest level.
Then I will peel it down one level and start working the soffits and siding. I can leave it about a foot away from the wall so I can get the siding in there with the scaffolding in place.