The past 2 months have been difficult, but we’ve made it through to the point where things are starting to open up and return to a new normal. You’ve probably learned and accomplished things you never expected you’d have to do: learn elementary school math and science again, become a Zoom pro, give haircuts to the whole family, successfully create sourdough starter. While you were doing all this, you’ve been cooped up at home, staring at the things you wished you had already changed in your home before this all began. (A finished basement would have really come in handy!)
With all these accomplishments, you might be thinking about trying your hand at some DIY home improvements. You may have watched and re-watched a video on how to paint your kitchen cabinets or replace a light fixture. It couldn’t be *that* hard to do yourself, right?
You want your home to be up-to-the-minute fresh, but you have your family’s budget in mind. So, you think you should at least *try* to put a new sink in the powder room yourself. Or replace the floor tile in the kitchen. Or add that gorgeous pendant light fixture above the island. There’s YouTube to show you how, isn’t there? It’ll be fun and easy, they say.
We hope before you go too far, you’ll give us a call. Your bad DIY haircut will grow back, but once something goes wrong and you’ve put a hole in the wall or broken a pipe, those things won’t fix themselves.
A survey by ImproveNet found that 63% of homeowners who attempted DIY home improvement projects regretted at least one of those projects, and 1 in 3 hired a pro to fix what they had started.
Home improvement projects that look small enough to do yourself often have hidden steps and challenges that you didn’t anticipate. You pull out the bathroom tile and find mold on the wall. You get the kitchen faucet halfway out but just can’t seem to loosen that last hose connection to finish removing it. So, the faucet is left there, dangling, on a Saturday night, and you have no water in your kitchen. Then what do you do?
One of the main reasons for “DIY regret” is that a project took longer than expected. And life has a way of interrupting those DIY projects. If you don’t have time to finish in one day, it just has to wait.
Also, many projects are physically or technically harder than homeowners thought they would be. For example, when repairing a ceiling and replacing a light fixture damaged by water leaking from the bathroom above, you’ll quickly realize that dealing with the combination of electricity and water can be tricky and potentially dangerous. And you’re doing it all standing precariously on a ladder.
You don’t need to spend your valuable time researching how to do a project, then spending money on tools and supplies you’ll need for it, only to turn it over to a pro when you’re dissatisfied with the results. You have better things to do.
We respect how valuable your time is. You don’t really want to spend your weekends refinishing hardwood floors, do you? Whatever project you’re planning, we’ve probably done it many times before with beautiful results. Before you start that home improvement project on your own, learn from the regrets of the homeowners in this survey.
We can save you time and money by doing your home improvement project right the first time. Let someone else be the star of the next “DIY Home Improvement Fails” viral video. Let’s talk today.