Your Home Improvement Project Doesnt Need a Contractor, You Can Remodel by Yourself!

Planning an addition for your home can be a daunting task, when factoring in all the labor costs, materials costs, zoning ordinances, and neighborhood covenants that must be considered. Fortunately, however, designing and building an attractive addition to your home is possibly the most satisfying thing that a person can do with their hands. Tradesmen make a living every day in this highly specialized field, from architects who design the structures to carpenters who make the plans a reality. When asked, many will say that they did not go to school to learn how to make wood fit together, (although that type of education is becoming increasingly popular) but that they learned the basics from their father or grandfather, or an uncle. It’s unfortunate that in our society, this type of learning is quickly becoming a lost art.

Although working in the field of construction will of course require licensing and formal education, the home do-it-yourselfer has no reason to fear giving it a try. Try your hand at small projects to begin with or trying to take on small repair projects. Despite what some may believe, it is exceptionally difficult to actually destroy wood framing completely beyond repair. If you build your skills slowly by taking on small projects first, it won’t be long before you understand enough to take on larger projects.

Redecorating is possibly one of the easiest remodeling projects one can take on- paint, stain, wallpaper, and frills. The easy part is planting the idea of a project in the head of your significant other. On a quiet night, a phrase as simple as “do you like the color of the walls?” can spark your woman’s interest in redecorating an entire room. Chances are, there’s probably a room in your home right now that she can barely stand to be in, and she’s just itching to change something about it. Once you get her talking about it, that’s the time to suggest that the two of you do it together, as a couple’s project.

One word of warning, however, once you start down that road, there’s no turning back. In all likelihood, there’ll be more arguing and fighting going on between the two of you. If you’re strong enough, though, (and you have a comfortable couch to sleep on) the project could be successful enough to actually garner praise from that most unlikely of sources, her mother (understand that this is still highly unlikely, and possibly the best you can hope for will be a half-satisfied grunt.) The best part of this whole project, however, will be the knowledge that you didn’t have to hire someone to do it for you, that you did, in fact, do it yourself.