The Triing Lizard

Thursday, August 31, 2006

I come from a do it yourself family. When I was living with my parents when I was little we never called in contractors, painters, plumbers, or electricians - my parents did it all! My dad would fix plumbing and electrical problems and my mom would paint and help my dad with all kinds of household projects. My mom learned how to do all the plumbing and electrical stuff along the way and now she is as good as my dad is! So when I bought my new house I knew I was going to need to learn alot. My parents were 360 miles away and I was going to have to deal with the problems MYSELF as they came up - this was scary! I didn't even consider that I could HIRE someone to help me with problems.

So a couple years into owning my house (and after many phone calls to my parents for assistance with problems) my mom decided that I needed to renovate my kitchen. I think it was mainly an excuse to spend more time with me but I think another big reason was that she really wanted to teach me how to be self reliant and teach me that I could fix stuff around the house myself without needing anyone else's help. So she and my dad came out every other weekend to work on the kitchen. She drew up elaborate project plans, drawings, timelines, and slowly the kitchen evolved. And along the way I learned a ton.

Since then I've been tackling plumbing problems, small electrical projects, and cabinet installation ALL by myself!! So far I've been pretty successful. I almost feel like I don't have the option to hire a professional. BUT this self reliance and the fact that I have a full time job and lots of other things going on I put off projects knowing that I can do them myself and that I don't NEED to hire someone to do it.

My house has needed to be painted for a while. The paint had started to peel and it was an ugly dingy white. I kept thinking, I just need to rent a sprayer from home depot, rent a really long ladder, and then get up there and DO IT. Time went by. More time went by. It still wasn't done. The house was still dingy white. I had to come home to a dingy white house. I didn't like this. One day I decide to get a quote from a contractor, it's expensive but really not that bad. And I had the money. So I decided to go through with it. This was a BIG STEP for me because it meant that I was not going to do it myself and there was some potential that my parents would find out and be disappointed in me. A few months later the painting company calls me and say they'll be there tomorrow to do the job. They arrived on Tuesday morning at 8:00, just when they said they would and painted my house a bright and shiny white! I came home from work, and it was DONE!!!!!! It was almost like MAGIC (except that I know how much work it really is, that is hard work)!! I didn't have to lift a finger, except long enough to write out the check. Every day I come home from work I appreciate my bright white house and how pretty it looks and I am glad that I finally hired someone to do it. It was worth every penny! And I'm not even feeling guilty about not doing it myself! I'm just so glad that it's done.

3 Comments:

  • where's the picture????

    By Blogger Claudia , at 8:12 PM  

  • Boy, we were raised differently. My mom would ask me why I didn't hire a professional. Of course, I'm still renting so I haven't had to worry about it yet.

    By Blogger Unknown, at 6:04 AM  

  • yeah, I grew up with mom having the handyman do most things! She was really surprised when I was able to put up the closet rod by myself!!

    By Blogger Claudia , at 8:08 AM  

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