Doing Your Own Remodeling

Five years ago, my husband inherited his parents house. Let me first set the stage. My in laws had my husband when they were on in their years. My in laws had already raised their children and what a surprise to them when he came along. My mother in law always said that he was her "gift from God". Which in retrospect he was.

My in laws bought their house brand new in 1963. During their 40 some years of living here, they never did any upgrades or updating anything. Like I had mentioned they were up in their years. So, the house needed all kinds of updating and fixing.

Let me set the stage again, my husband is very particular about the work he does and did not want anyone else doing the work for him. Also, there are too many horror stories from friends who had hired a contractor to do the job. He did not want any hassles or problems like that.

My husband is a "jack of all trades" and can do just about anything. He does take longer than others, because it has to be "perfect". So, today I sit in a half finished house. All work has stopped because my husband is "burned out". We have materials sitting around to use for our projects. Every room is incomplete and I do not have my carpet in. We actually bought remnants to put down until we get the flooring in.

I actually have a beautiful custom kitchen that just needs the real granite put in and some of the moulding on the cabinets and a paint color and the backsplash needs a piece or 2 in it still. I am very meticulous, and this is driving me batty. Recently my husband agreed to let someone come in and finish the work. So he says. But I will see when I look to hire someone, because they won't meet his "standards".

I have a half finished walk in shower in the master bath. It is not completely tiled and the glass block is still not done. I do have 3 shower heads in it..including the rain shower head. We have new toliets and sinks. He did install those. One thing, I have 3 rooms that are half dry walled. You can see the wiring, and the insulation etc. Thank God our kids are grown and the grandkids aren't babies!

We have a empty pool that we haven't used in 4 years. It was built in 1973 and needs repair and replastered. That of course though a contractor would have to do. But still, nothing is getting done. In my opinion, unless your going to finish what you take on, then don't take it on. You really need a long thought process when it comes to taking on a major project.

I was good at tearing things down and I put the insulation in the walls, painting. There are some things that I can do as well. But there is alot that I can't do and would do if I could. I thought about taking those classes at your local building chain that they offer for "do it yourselfers".

Unfortunately, I can complain and whine and nothing has changed. So , I guess it is time to hire the professionals and get it done!