Shawn Henfling believes anyone can be a successful DIY’er.
—
Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Yoda may as well have been teaching Luke the finer points of home improvement on Dagobah. There really are only four things a person needs to transform themselves into a DIY guru. I call them the four T’s: Time, Tools, Tenacity, and Confidence. From basic plumbing to electrical, and carpentry to cars, there are a great many things you really can do yourself. All you have to do is TRY.
Growing up, my dad was a DIY’er before there was a term for it. There were essentially three primary drivers behind his motivation. First, he was retired and there was time for it. Second, we were broke. Finally, he had the experience and the confidence to know that he could. I was the constant annoying companion. For a good long time I was the “gopher.” Since I had no appreciable skills and could barely hold a hammer without hurting myself, I’d go fer this and go fer that. Mostly though, I watched and asked questions.
Living in a farmhouse well over a century old, there was plenty to do. There wasn’t a square wall in the house, it was wired with lampcords (yes, really), the plumbing was shoddy and insulation was whatever newspaper happened to be around when that particular wall went up. Room by room the house was improved and modernized. The vast majority of the work was done by my dad and later by the two of us.
I became a DIY kinda guy for a couple of reasons. Obviously, growing up that way helped. Necessity helped too. My wife and I bought a house that needed work beyond measure. Every time we turned around, something else went wrong. I once had a friend put his foot through the floor when trying to use the toilet. Neither of us make the kind of money it would take to pay a contractor to gut this house and redo it all. Little by little, stud by stud, we worked it out. It’s for sale now, and I’m pretty proud of how far it has come. Those four T’s? They came in awfully handy.
Tools became my toys. I’ve spent the better part of two decades collecting them. Beginning in my teens when fiddling with cars was something we could do together, my father and I both bought tools by the bucket load. Take a look in either of our garages now and you’ll see what I mean. Full toolboxes and stacks of powertool cases line the walls. Cordless and corded, hand and powered. None of it goes to waste. I’ve even got a Dewalt handheld power planer. I’ve never used it, but it was on sale for next to nothing and it MAY come in handy someday. Why buy when you can rent? Nope. Why rent when you can buy.
Time is pretty obvious. Time and safety are the only things that will keep me from trying a job. Things like windows and roofing I don’t do. Because I can’t? Nope. They need to be done in a timely manner and between my jobs and family, I rarely get the kind of time required to do a sizeable job all at once. I’m pretty sure my marriage would end in divorce if I started the roof in June and got around to finishing it in May. Safety is an obvious. Big electrical jobs I avoid at all costs because I don’t have the required training, but the small stuff doesn’t scare me at all.
Failure will happen. As in life, it is inevitable. Whether you are fixing a 1973 F250 or tiling a bathroom, you will screw up. It’s OK. Any mistake you make can be fixed and used as a learning experience. Keep at it. If I’d stopped at the first or thousandth mistake, I’d have gone broke paying contractors for work I can do myself. A tenacious DIY’er is a beautiful thing to witness.
Be confident. In this day and age, where YouTube and Google make tutorials just a click away, there is little reason to fear jumping in with both feet. Educate yourself before you start a project. Study it. Make sure you have a pretty good understanding of what it will take before you tear into it. There really isn’t anything to fear. Once the fear sets in, anger will soon follow. Once anger comes along, you’ll begin to compound your mistakes and probably do something stupid. Don’t worry though, a little cathartic outburst may cost you a little more money but it can be fixed.
You’ll doubt yourself sometimes. Occasionally, you’ll notice a mistake long after the job is finished and you’ll be required to see it day after day. That’s OK too. It’s a reminder of your fallibility and of the need to improve. Hell, I’m guilty of avoiding a bathroom at all costs because I’m not happy with a tile job. DIY improvement really is life. Be fearless, take chances, save money and best of all take pride in a job well done. As a wise old sage once said, “Do or do not. There is no try.”
Featured Photo: Dave Morris
End photos courtesy of the author.