The Perils of DIY

When I have googled sufficient or sufficiency, I often get self-sufficient or self-sufficiency or self-reliance in response. It is understandable. The concepts share something linguistically. But they are not the same. Sufficiency means having enough. Self-sufficiency means having enough and providing it yourself. Self-reliance means being able to get things done by yourself.

Now that I've clarified that with simplistic definitions, it's the practical that has hit me in the face. Last night we (mostly) finished the bathroom project. I like do-it-yourself projects. I save a little money, sometimes doing a project for a quarter of the professional cost. Sometimes things turn out alright. The plumbing, including the disappearance of the pedestal sink, turned out just fine. I needed to drill a couple of holes in the vanity to allow for the wall connections for the water supply and the drain was a little stretched because the feet on the vanity put it 3/4" out further than it should have been (I could have fixed that, but didn't). But, it works and it looks nice.

The wallpaper on the other hand is less than perfect. It is probably acceptable, but wallpaper is tricky to get down perfectly. And there is a difference between being perfect and it being good enough, which is to say, sufficient for our need. I think I hit the sufficiency level for the wallpaper. What makes plumbing different is that for it to be sufficient, it has to be perfect. So, I was self-reliant (I did it myself), I wasn't self-sufficient (other people around the globe produced everything that went into the project, I just assembled it), and we have something that is quite sufficient for our need.

Recently there have been other things about which I was not about to try to be self-reliant. Some shingles blew off our roof and I discovered a small leak in the roof between two skylights that I had installed several years ago. Roofs are not something you take on as a do-it-yourselfer unless you want a lot of expense and pain. There was an ad in the local paper for a roof tune-up. The price said, "bait and switch" but I also thought that even with that in the offing, it would be better to forgo self-reliance and fork over some cash and let the other guy take the risk. We needed repairs.

It turned out of course, that the repairs needed were even greater than we anticipated, mostly I installed the skylights without enough shingles around them. Evidently, shingles should need to go up all the way over the flashing. A small mistake that added $800 to the cost.

There are perils to do-it-yourself. I like being self-reliant as much as possible. I love projects and building things. And, as I discussed with Kathy as a means of lessening the guilt and dissonance, the overall cost of the attic build out, instead of being 25% of the professional cost, is now 30%. I gained skill and knowledge. It just took 3 years to complete.