DIY or hire out, please share! - Page 2

[velochic]

Dh is a university professor of computer science... need I say more?

We don't hire out the small things like the gardening, landscaping, lawn mowing, leaf raking, clogs in the drains. I cook from scratch and do a lot of putting food by. I can't stand how others clean my house... I'm too much of a neat freak. Dh does most of the minor electrical stuff. We're fine with painting and staining. Things we don't do: furniture refurbishment, drywall (we have plaster, anyway), cement, major plumbing, remodeling, gutters (too high - we don't have a tall enough ladder), roofing, car maintenance (except for things like changing taillights, replacing an antennae, etc.), cabinetry, flooring, chimney sweep & inspection (woodburning stove). So most things we do hire out, but not the things that don't take skill, just time. Time we have.

We get Oberweis dairy delivery. Not sure if that's where you get yours, but we get milk delivery at home in glass bottles. Yum-o!

[Irishmommy]

Dh hires out very little. Blacktopping the driveway, yes, it's cheaper to hire it out. He wouldn't reroof (apart from the hassle, neither of us are good with heights). He is, at this second, drywalling the basement. I did the demo. He won't hire out to do that, but he won't do any electrical (we will change bulbs, and he can rewire sockets, but he has a morbid fear of electricity, and is colour blind to boot).

I would hire out cooking and cleaning if I could!

[MamaMelis]

We hire out all of our car maintenance.

I get my groceries delivered frequently lately ~ DH travels a lot and I am home, 6 months pregnant, and have 2 toddlers. Much easier, and the delivery is always free. Well worth it!

We hire out any large projects, like finishing a basement or whatever. We are not construction oriented.

We do all of our own interior house painting, hanging fixtures, lawnmowing/landscaping and I cook from scratch most every meal.

I do have a house cleaning service (its two people) every other week. Lifesaver

[Tizzy]

I'm dying to hire some things out. It means they may just get done in a more timely manner. But alas! We hire nothing out.

Okay no, we did hire someone to fabricate/install the new kitchen cupboards, but DH made and installed the doors. And we did everything else from demo to drywall to flooring.
Same with our barn construction, we are doing everything.
Okay no, I *might* have convinced DH that it would be better to hire a concrete contractor to set forms and pour the concrete foundations and floor.

It's great that we can do so many things ourselves, but it seems a lot more stressful.
But then again, paying the bill might be just as stressful?

[Amys1st]

Wow, what replies!! All the usual suspects too LOL

Construction wise, our kitchen we put in 2 years ago, started one week after we moved in. It would have been 75-100K to put in. DIY, we did in for about 20K including the higher end appliances.

we have gutted out and re done 2 bathrooms in this house and 2 in our previous house. We still have one more to do in our current home. We call it the "no brainer" one and its still a full bath!

Eventually we will finish our full basement. DH will put up drywall and the studs behind it, etc. But we will have someone come in to do the taping and mudding.

We are thinking long range to add off the back of our house. I think our size it fine, but as the kids get older things might change, who knows. If we do, we will hire a contractor to pour a foundation, build the base etc and we will finish the insides, do wiring, plumbing, laying hardwood, trim, drywall, etc.
It helps we have done so much of this and somehow, we really enjoy it!

Gardening I love and even landscaping although it is hard hard hard work. The dirt and earth somehow energize me.

I agree w a pp about how when people see you house, you have a great pride because you did it yourself!

[sunnysandiegan]

We hire out some things and DIY some things. It is always a balance of time versus money with skill assessment thrown in for good measure.

Examples:

~ When we first purchased this fixer-upper, we were both working really long hours. We hired out the new interior door and new carpet. Neither could wait due to the condition of the existing carpet and my ever-expanding condition (pregnant; doors to powder room were ridiculously tiny).

~ There was a hideous tree in the backyard that dropped horrible things year-round (different things at different times), but didn't provide any shade (which we desperately needed). We cut that down ourselves after checking with neighbors and the HOA.

~ We traded labor with neighbors. We helped them put in a small patch of artificial lawn for their small dog. They helped us install a motorized, retractable awning.

~ We share jobs with professionals. We hired out the scraping of our old popcorn ceiling and new hand-texture at $1/square foot, including removal of all old materials. We caulked and primed and painted the ceilings ourselves.

~ We install things ourselves, like the Reverse Osmosis system and programmable thermostat and new gas stove.

~ We hired out the demo work on our kitchen/laundry/foyer tile that had the hardest mortar install EVER. Took a lot of manpower and power tools to get that stuff OFF. We installed all the new flooring ourselves. Professionals also removed the carpet and vinyl, but that was due to emergency flood services. We would have removed everything ourselves, if the circumstances had been different. When we ran into trouble with the tile, we would have hired that out due to the equipment required. It still took the professionals 2-1/2 days to get less than 200 square feet out of here.

Lots of other examples, but my bed is calling.... Equipment required, skill level required, and financial costs all play a part in our decisions to DIY or hire out. I'm pretty happy with our mix.

[lisalulu]

We're probably more DIY than not. We've painted, put new trim in, drywalled, put in a patio, built 2 fences, etc. DH just fixed our dryer last week which was a lifesaver on a tight budget month. We do minimal car repair but my dad is a mechanic and will do anything that isn't super labor intensive. Eventually when my dad is too old, we'll start doing our oil though because I'm too cheap to take it to someone. We would defnintely hire out plumbing, overhauling the electric, refinishing the hardwood floors, roofing, etc.

That being said, I can see getting to a point where we are both working full time, the kids are older and have busier schedules and needing to hire some of that stuff out for the convenience. Right now some of the motivation is money.

[enkmom]

I'm sure everyone knows we pay to have our lawn mowed each week. We also hire out anything to do with our cars - including paying our son to take them to the car wash.

My husband can do patching jobs on the plaster, we do our own painting and small plumbing jobs, he put down vinyl flooring in different parts of our house, and can fix many appliance problems. We paid our son to paint our house/garage, clean our gutters and do some heavy/dirty cleaning in our basement and garage. We could have done those jobs ourselves, but he needed cash and we could use the time to do something else.

We paid someone to put on our roof, put up new interior ceilings that collapsed before we had the new roof, and put in new cabinets in our kitchen. We also paid someone to put in the new laminate floor, but kicked ourselves when we saw how easy it was. Our hardwood floors need to be re-finished, and I am sure that we will call a professional.

We always try the "dad" route first for somewhat complicated things. If we can't fix it, my dad often can. He is retired and loves to come over to help us with projects. He put up our gutters, fixed our washer and dryer, built us a shower in our basement, and lots of other things. We always offer him money, and he always refuses. We take my parents out to dinner often, and my husband (an attorney) does any of their legal work for free. My BIL is an electrician, and he is always happy to come over to make a quick $20 -$50 doing any electrical work we need done.

[crunchy_mommy]

We almost never hire out... The only things we hire out are things that involve tall ladders. I'm PETRIFIED of heights -- so bad that I won't even let DH be on a tall ladder (haha sounds horrible, I'd rather have a stranger fall off a ladder than DH!!) So we had someone wrap our kitchen window & fix the vinyl siding around it. We also have been meaning to have someone install gutters in the back of the house. OH and the one thing that didn't involve a ladder is having our driveway dug out & paved. We do pretty much everything else ourselves -- putting up studs, drywalling, flooring & subfloor, plumbing, electrical, lawn care, oil changes, hair cuts...

What I would LOVE to hire out if we could afford it: HOUSECLEANING!!! Except I feel our house is so bad that I would be embarrassed to let someone else clean it!!

[newbymom05]

I always look at it as what would *I* want to do the job. If the pro's will do it for less, that's who I use. The exception is mowing the yard. My DH prefers to do it himself, but it was taking up a whole morning or afternoon of his two days off, and I didn't think it was truly cost effective--I needed the childcare break, lol. I used a cleaning service once, wasn't worth it to me, I'd clean the house for less.

Childcare drives our decisions since we don't have anyone else but us to watch the littles--anything that can't be done w/ the help of a 5 and 2 y/o--think painting, anything w/ a ladder...we pay someone else. Or we don't do it.

[Tizzy]

See, I think the lack of childcare thing really makes it more stressful for us too.
Although we have sent the kids to the grandparents...twice.
Once we were installing a permanent fence for 8 acres. We had rented the post pounder and intended to get it done in two days. So I kept the baby home and DS1 went to the in-laws for 1.5 days. He had fun and we didn't have to worry about him getting in the way or being bored to death. DS2 as an infant just hung out in the sling or MT or slept in his bucket seat that we toted around in the wheelbarrow
The other time was when we went to pick up some farm equipment, it was going to take both DH and I to rip it out and load it on the truck. So they went to the neighbors for the morning.

Otherwise, they "help" with everything! It can be challenging, but I think it's also setting a good example for work ethics.

Once again, I really don't know which is worse - keeping two little children content and getting them to nap in a playpen in the back 50acres, or paying the bill to have someone else deliver 10 cords of firewood.