Man, not being handy is expensive

[s0me0nesmind1]

I don't. I tried once but my area has decided they won't do an electrical inspection and offer permits if the work is done in such a way to help make space habitable that doesn't meet other non-electrical building code requirements. So basically in a basement without an emergency egress they won't look at electrical additions that help make the space habitable (ie finish\partially finish a basement). Apparently they'd rather let someone die from an electrical fire

And its not dissuading anyone. So many people have unpermitted finished basements around here. When we sold our last house no questions about a permit or my electrical work came up

Unless it's something that can affect others (neighbors, or the overall image of the neighborhood in public view) I simply don't give 2 shits to request permits.

Example: Everyone in my neighborhood has (by default from builders) a simple 5' x 5' or so slab of concrete directly outside of their backdoors in their backyard. It looks horribly stupid and tacky. We got that replaced with a nice curved + dyed stamped concrete pattern that looks much better. I didn't apply for a permit nor do I care to.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I absolutely hate the burocracy involved in what we can/can't do on our own property. It's BS. I don't bother with permits for indoor stuff, and will do everything I can to avoid permits for outside stuff. They usually have exceptions such as size/height of stuff so I'll be sure to stay in those constraints. I'm considering changing my garage into a shop, that probably would need a permit, but I'll just leave the garage door there, even if I close it in, I will make sure that from outside it looks like a garage.

If ever I do build my own house I want to try to find property that's in an unorganized township, as you don't need permits or any BS like that in those places, and taxes are also super low. (couple hundred a year)

 

[feralkid]

If you're taking a whole day off to do any of those (or even all 3) then you're doing it wrong

If you're making a statement like that regarding jobs that involve plumbing...then you are usually in for a real surprise.

 

[highland145]

Tried to change the o2 sensor on the kid's car last night. It's right in front of the engine. 3 bolts on the heat shield, 1 socket to get the sensor unscrewed. 10 minutes, right? Eff me, 2 hrs later and it's still not done. I'll try again tonight.

That's my life.

 

[PingSpike]

• Replaced the radio head unit in my Subaru BRZ with an aftermarket one including satellite radio and backup camera.

I put a new head unit in my aging Elantra maybe 5 years ago. I called around and tried to find somewhere to do it for me but all the stereo places seemed have closed up shop. I had to do it myself. It was kind of a pain in the ass because I had to take apart a lot of the dash. I didn't do that great of a job tbh.

 

[PingSpike]

Anyway, I don't do plumbing. I'm just not doing it. A lot of people here have said they replaced toilets successfully. My buddy replaced a toilet one time and then a couple weeks later he came home and got to replace a toilet again along with a bunch of drywall. I don't know what I'm doing with plumbing and I know it.

I kind of enjoy basic electrical and if the result isn't that important I can do a tolerable job of carpentry.

What's frustrating is my wife works both weekend days (not the whole day) and we have little kids. And I'm slow at these projects. The end result is I literally don't have any good blocks of time to work on something unless I take a day off of work. Like others said you have to weigh the money saved versus the risk of getting yourself into a bad corner. Because of this I've mostly given up unless I can spread the task out into small chunks, which is really inefficient itself.

 

[DietDrThunder]

I also do all repairs on anything, whether it is car, computer, plumbing, appliance, roofing, etc. Now unfortunately for me, my wife found Shanty 2 Chic, and instead of her picking up tools to build furniture, I now build it. Being the perfectionist that I am, and that the furniture styles on this website aren't quite my taste, the furniture I've built is a bit more to my liking. But the website is good for getting the initial ideas and plans. You'd be amazed at how much you can save building furniture yourself, even if you are buying furniture grade hardwoods. It's a lot better than the cheap foreign furniture crap from the big box resellers.

 

[snoopy7548]

Unless it's something that can affect others (neighbors, or the overall image of the neighborhood in public view) I simply don't give 2 shits to request permits.

Example: Everyone in my neighborhood has (by default from builders) a simple 5' x 5' or so slab of concrete directly outside of their backdoors in their backyard. It looks horribly stupid and tacky. We got that replaced with a nice curved + dyed stamped concrete pattern that looks much better. I didn't apply for a permit nor do I care to.

Does your town require you to get a permit to lay out a concrete patio? Permits are usually only required for things that will affect the safety of occupants in your home, and really protect you. If you hire a shoddy electrician he could install something incorrectly, but if he pulled a permit chances are the inspector would call him out on it. Same with building a deck - you may think that having a 1' high railing is OK because hey, you're a safe guy and the man won't tell me how to build my deck. But your nephew trips over it and breaks his neck.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Does your town require you to get a permit to lay out a concrete patio? Permits are usually only required for things that will affect the safety of occupants in your home, and really protect you. If you hire a shoddy electrician he could install something incorrectly, but if he pulled a permit chances are the inspector would call him out on it. Same with building a deck - you may think that having a 1' high railing is OK because hey, you're a safe guy and the man won't tell me how to build my deck. But your nephew trips over it and breaks his neck.

Permit I also kind of intertwine with HOA approval - which I know are different. To my understanding, the HOA expects me to get approval for any type of permanent change.... Which I will never do.

I'm not 100% if I would be required to get a city permit or not.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Being handy is great when you don't mind the projects. Some people would rather throw money at problems and drink a glass of wine while it's being completed. I'd rather solve the problems and spend my money on a beer afterward.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Permit I also kind of intertwine with HOA approval - which I know are different. To my understanding, the HOA expects me to get approval for any type of permanent change.... Which I will never do.

I'm not 100% if I would be required to get a city permit or not.

Patios and decks are managed by codes divisions of cities and counties for safety concerns, but also setbacks. They want to make sure you aren't infringing on property lines, etc... If the structure is wood, for instance, there are fire concerns (just an example). It always varies on whether or not they notice or make a big deal about it....state auditors often follow up with the city and county residences, but they only know to if you take out a permit. If you do the work yourself, just complete the project before anyone notices.... =P

 

[Exterous]

Being handy is great when you don't mind the projects. Some people would rather throw money at problems and drink a glass of wine while it's being completed. I'd rather solve the problems and spend my money on a beer afterward.

Part of my problem hiring out work is that, apparently, I am more of a perfectionist than a lot of people. Despite good reviews and references there were still things about work we had done that I would have done better. Perhaps if I threw even more money at the job it would be different but it's hard to find good quality contractors

 

[JulesMaximus]

Shit, I spent more than $700 on a new dishwasher alone... and that didn’t even include installation.

 

[PingSpike]

Part of my problem hiring out work is that, apparently, I am more of a perfectionist than a lot of people. Despite good reviews and references there were still things about work we had done that I would have done better. Perhaps if I threw even more money at the job it would be different but it's hard to find good quality contractors

Forget finding quality, I can't find any period most of the time. Even getting some one to show up it almost impossible for some reason around here. My house had this horrendous wall oven and microwave combo and the oven died because it was old. I'll just have Lowes install one right? Wrong, nothing would fit. And just a wall oven cost $700, IIRC combos that didn't even fit the old hole were like $2000 or something insane. A standalone electric range/oven is like $400 or something? So it was a custom job.

I ended up being forced to do the basically whole thing myself because I couldn't find anyone to do it. I took the old one out, measured the hole and bought a wall oven. Measured that and built a shelf and framing around the rough hole to put a replacement microwave on. I ended up having to experiment mixing stains to get the matching right because different types of wood stain differently and nobody had a matching stain. Then I had to build in some supports, have a buddy help me lift the oven in and wire it up followed by building a shelf. I ended up screwing up by punching screws through to far. Wife is all pissed at me, but what do you expect? I'm not a cabinet maker. Its kind of a miracle that was my only mistake now that I look back on it, I actually matched stain perfectly and only dumped one can of stain on the garage floor. That was just for a dead appliance!

 

[highland145]

Wife is all pissed at me, but what do you expect?

Next time, she can help. Amazing how quickly that shuts people up.

 

[Exterous]

Forget finding quality, I can't find any period most of the time. Even getting some one to show up it almost impossible for some reason around here.

I think there is enough work they don't want to do custom or unusual things if they can avoid it. We couldn't find anyone who wanted to install a new chandelier in our entry way once they found out about the 18.5' ceilings. Well, I did finally find a few places but they wanted $500+ for the job. So I found a place to rent scaffolding, rent a truck and did it myself for $150 or so.

 

[nakedfrog]

Forget finding quality, I can't find any period most of the time. Even getting some one to show up it almost impossible for some reason around here.

Same deal when I was trying to get someone to re-do the stairs going down from the street to my back yard a few years back.

 

[DietDrThunder]

I had a fence contractor come out and give me a quote to replace a falling apart wooden privacy fence with a cedar. He had the guy with him that was going to actually do the work. Price quoted for the 12 foot section was $1,150. 30 minutes later the guy that was going to do the work came back without his boss and told me he'd do the job for $800 cash. That kind of made me mad so I told him to go take a hike, and then called his boss and let him know his employee came by and undercut his price by $350. Boy was he pissed. I decided to do the work myself and spent 4 1/2 hours and $235 in materials to do the job. What I replaced is on the left hand side. I think it turned out pretty good.

 

[snoopy7548]

I'm planning on replacing my carpeted stairs with oak treads. If I hired someone it would probably cost somewhere close to $2-3k, but doing it myself I only have to pay for the materials - maybe $600 in total.

The thing is, I ripped out the carpet about three years ago and never got around to finishing it. Still have the old plywood treads on there... I'll get to it someday.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

I had a fence contractor come out and give me a quote to replace a falling apart wooden privacy fence with a cedar. He had the guy with him that was going to actually do the work. Price quoted for the 12 foot section was $1,150. 30 minutes later the guy that was going to do the work came back without his boss and told me he'd do the job for $800 cash. That kind of made me mad so I told him to go take a hike, and then called his boss and let him know his employee came by and undercut his price by $350. Boy was he pissed. I decided to do the work myself and spent 4 1/2 hours and $235 in materials to do the job. What I replaced is on the left hand side. I think it turned out pretty good.

Hahahaha that gave me quite a good laugh. Not surprised in the least.

Overall your work looks pretty good, is it uneven over there with that hill? Or is it fairly level back there?[/QUOTE]

 

[spacejamz]

I'm planning on replacing my carpeted stairs with oak treads. If I hired someone it would probably cost somewhere close to $2-3k, but doing it myself I only have to pay for the materials - maybe $600 in total.

The thing is, I ripped out the carpet about three years ago and never got around to finishing it. Still have the old plywood treads on there... I'll get to it someday.

I had fun doing mine...I used the Cap a Treads from Home Depot...little pricey per step but it was very simple install...around $1100 for materials (there were another 4 steps from the landing to the 2nd floor you can't see in the picture)...

For the risers, I actually used the same 5" baseboard I used throughout the house...I added a little molding strip but I think it came out pretty nice...The Cap a Treads on Home Depot were pretty expensive...

 

[snoopy7548]

I had fun doing mine...I used the Cap a Treads from Home Depot...little pricey per step but it was very simple install...around $1100 for materials (there were another 4 steps from the landing to the 2nd floor you can't see in the picture)...

For the risers, I actually used the same 5" baseboard I used throughout the house...I added a little molding strip but I think it came out pretty nice...The Cap a Treads on Home Depot were pretty expensive...
View attachment 2532

Looks nice. The problem with mine is the builder didn't make all the risers the same height - the floor to the top of the first tread is 7", with the next 11 being 7.5-8", and the final step to the top of the landing being 8.75". My current thinking is just to cut the bullnose off the plywood and install treads directly on top. This would even out the first and last steps, but I may need to shim a couple of steps in between. If I were to remove the plywood and install new treads on the stringers, I would need to raise/shim the first and last steps quite a bit.

 

[PingSpike]

Man, I forgot another one. The fan died in the hood over the cooktop. Its 30 years old or whatever, never going to find parts for it. IIRC every hood I looked at was its own hood and fan combo, mine is made out of its own cabinetry, looks like it might have been custom or something. I ended up having to buy this "hood liner" off of amazon and a separate fan module that seemed like it was close and then fabricate a shim with metal covers to get it to fit. Looks mostly decent when I'm done but its not really the right color which I'm OK with since it was the ONLY ONE I could find to buy.

I open it up expecting to have to rig up the ducting, not a big deal. You know, I'm not handy but I watched youtube videos so I had some ideas what I might encounter. No ducting at all. There's a just a 6"x6" hole in the ceiling drywall. Nobody put in any ducts, it just vents straight into the ceiling space! Put your grease and smoke into your walls where they belong I guess. Bunch a damn mice have been falling down this hole and rotting away on top of the fan over the cooktop. Disgusting! What am I suppose to do with this? Knock out all the drywall and try to put in a duct? I didn't sign up for that, no time. I tacked some tight metal wiring fence over the "vent hole" to stop the mouse disaster, button it up and told the wife to open a window from now on. Its for show only.

I remember I wrote a meticulous amazon review with exact measurements afterwards to try and save other poor souls the blind purchase problem.

 

[dainthomas]

I put a new head unit in my aging Elantra maybe 5 years ago. I called around and tried to find somewhere to do it for me but all the stereo places seemed have closed up shop. I had to do it myself. It was kind of a pain in the ass because I had to take apart a lot of the dash. I didn't do that great of a job tbh.

Fortunately my brother works at one, so he was able to get me a deal on a nice Android Auto unit and had a buddy of his install it at the shop. Also he ordered a tailgate latch with backup camera for my Tundra and wired it to the unit for a little extra. I'd never be able to do all that myself (without screwing it up or breaking something).

 

[DietDrThunder]

Hahahaha that gave me quite a good laugh. Not surprised in the least.

Overall your work looks pretty good, is it uneven over there with that hill? Or is it fairly level back there?

[/QUOTE]
The tops of the fence/gates are level, but the ground isn't level. It slopes down to the left, and then there is a 2 ft drop which you can't see because the fence is hiding the retaining wall (also hiding the 2 natural gas meters, 2 electric meters, four AC units, and 4 trash and recycling bins of both me and my next door neighbor). I didn't have a good photo of my work and was surprised to find a really recent photo on google maps.