Home Improvement
August 27th, 2007 Subscribe To Our Feed
Beware the Home Improvement Show Television Tempts us With
There’s always something that needs doing around the home - especially if you live in a house as old as mine. It was built in 1905, and although the construction is sturdy enough, I always feel a rush of anxiety when I start any small job in the knowledge that I might uncover a multitude of sins that would require a total rennovation project. I have friends that say the best home improvement project I could start would involve visiting the local real estate agent and asking for a new house. Well, fortunately I’m made of sterner stuff… most of the time. The usual line taken by the typical home improvement show on television is to make it all look easy so we’ll rush out in a fit of inspiration and buy, buy, buy. This is actually not the best way. Owning an old house has taught me the importance of approaching everything on the home improvement agenda with a realistic plan.
Getting the Budget Right
The most important issue to decided upon before you even think about home improvement is your budget. And by budget, I mean a realistic budget. It doesn’t pay to be over-optimistic. This is the realm of Murphy’s law - things will go wrong. Components get damaged in transit, you screw half the materials on upsidedown because your team is playing while you work and you’re trying to follow the game on the radio. You might even cause more harm than good. I have a friend who proudly picked up a drill for the first time in her life, after I’d convinced her that she could do it, and promptly drilled through a copper waterpipe in her kitchen wall. She only wanted to hang a painting.
On the plus side, if you plan carefully so that you know exactly what materials you’ll need and the exact quantities, you’ll be able to shop around for the best prices, and even buy in bulk at a vast discount if your project is big enough. However low cost and good quality don’t often sit well together. That tempting discount might lead to a construction that fails or needs repairing soon after you’ve finished. And those kinds of repairs are the most costly in terms of time and morale, not to mention money. Personally, I take the view that my house has stood up to the elements for 102 years, so I need to maintain the same standards if it is to continue unsullied for another 100+ years.
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Go it Alone, or Get the Professionals in?
Very often, with the right planning and advice, home improvement can be successfully carried out by yourself. The time you put in should be in making sure you are well-prepared. Make sure you have all the tools lined up for the job in hand, and also make sure they are all in working condition. However, there are some specific jobs that are best left to the professionals because they require specialized tools or skills. Neither of these, of course, come cheap. I once calculated that it would be cheaper to get a small professional firm in to sand and polish the wooden floors throughout the house. Again, a friend of mine had done his floors himself. He hired a set of machines and used nearly two months of his life wearing a facemask and the next three months dusting off his furniture. The team I hired finished the job in two days, and they left my home without the slightest trace of sawdust. I paid less than half the price my friend ended up paying, and I couldn’t put a price on the vast amount of time I saved.
Word of mouth is the best indicator of a contractor’s quality. I always act on other people’s recommendations if only out of curiosity. It’s always free to make enquiries. If people are happy with a contractor’s work they will be more than happy to give a recommendation. Ask friends who have had work done in their homes in the past that they used and if they were happy with the work. In fact, it’s a good idea to have a close look at the work that was done on your friend’s home.
Getting the Timing Right
Emplying professionals brings other complications. For one thing, you’ll have strangers trapesing in and out of your house in heavy boots. They can cause quite a disruption to the point where it can get quite stressful. it might be a good idea to organize a holiday somewhere if the project is going to take a while, or is going to make a lot of mess.
Home improvement should be just that - an improvement. If you find yourself getting stressed out about the whole thing, you haven’t improved anything. Remember, there is always something that needs doing, so it will make up a large part of your life. You might as well try and enjoy it, and do that you have to plan when the jobs should take place, and how they are going to work alongside your family’s daily life. The last thing you want to do is find your project has overrun, as it surely will, into the revision period of your daughter’s important public examinations. That is something that you would never be allowed to forget. It never looks so hard on TV, so beware the home improvement show that television has mesmerized us with.
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