How handy are your neighbors?

[Muse]

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.

Friend of mine is a licensed handyman. More than anything I think he's painted houses, probably a lot more interiors than exteriors but he does whatever is asked of him if he cares to take on a job. Of course, what's asked of him factors into whether he'll take on a job. He's not a contractor but he has done home renovation stuff for decades. He bought and fixed up a house and sold it making quite a lot in the process, lived in it meantime. Now he's got a house in the country, doing the same kind of thing but he hates it there, the people around him are ugly, lazy, meth freaks, stupid...

He always says read the labels. That's his secret sauce. Read the f-ing labels on the cans and jars.

 

[herm0016]

a couple former engineers, a master woodworker, a metalsmith, a chief building official for a nearby town, an electrician and former engineer in the oilfields (me) and some farmers. We only really leave the valley for materials.

 

[Exterous]

a couple former engineers, a master woodworker, a metalsmith, a chief building official for a nearby town, an electrician and former engineer in the oilfields (me) and some farmers. We only really leave the valley for materials.

Thinking about it I think I qualify as suburban handy. My in laws live in rural MI and include a tool and die guy turned woodworker, high voltage line electrician, a chemical engineer/farmer, welder and a heavy equipment operator.

 

[Muse]

Thinking about it I think I qualify as suburban handy. My in laws live in rural MI and include a tool and die guy turned woodworker, high voltage line electrician, a chemical engineer/farmer, welder and a heavy equipment operator.

Impressive. Well, a neice's husband is a project manager kind of fellow for last I heard the Navy in San Diego. They send him places sometimes on construction jobs, so I figure he knows the ropes of getting projects done right. I gave him (them) a Dewalt 9.6 volt cordless drill kit for a wedding present (around 25 years ago, I guess) and his (paraphrased) response was "this will get far more use than the manufacturer's published duty cycle allows." I had one at the time (Nicad or Nimh) and loved it. I think their quality went downhill because I bought another and it seemed shitty in comparison.

Other than that guy, AFAIK, most of my family are yuppies but not so young now and I don't know that they are particularly handy at all. I'm really different, I figure, from any of them, have lots of tools, am a DIY fixit kind of guy, have done projects most people would never tackle or even dream of. I hate on planned obsolescence.

 

[Exterous]

Impressive.

Makes things interesting at times. They'll talk about the newest Cat or John Deere and what farmer to follow on Instagram. All I've got is "Sooo about the challenges of data storage and networking for high resolution imaging devices..."