At what point do you decide it's worth paying vs. DIY?

I'm officially tired of DIY. Sick of spinning my wheels, time and energy doing stuff when I see my neighbors whip out their checkbooks, have it done lickety split, and kick back and live their lives sipping lemon aide...while I scurry around from one project to the next while my kids grow up in the background...


Is $450 too much to pay for mulching? They gonna supply the mulch, and do all the prep (weed pulling, soil turning, etc.). They gonna come with the mulch in the back of their truck, shovel it out from there and keep things clean and tidy.

VS.

Me going to HD & making multiple trips to get enough sacks of mulch to do it myself. It would take about 30bags I believe, and I can get 10 bags into the SUV comfortably without having to take the kiddie seats out and lower the back seats. So that's 3 trips to HD which is gonna kill at LEAST 2 hrs.
Also have the option of delivering it in bulk from a local place, but they just literally dump a pile of loose mulch at the end of your driveway and you do the rest. This is VERY messy and daunting task.....





"Get ready....for your blessing....."

I got some front landscaping that needs to be done...much along the lines of what you are having done. Best believe I'm paying getting several estimates and paying someone. I've got more money than patience (within reason). I need a tree trimmed on the side of my house. I could get the ladder out and snip some branches and shit off...but then I gotta get rid of them, or bundle them up neatly for the yard waste service...NOOOOOPE. They're doing that, too. Might even have them build me a little brick wall type jawn around the flower area...just cuz I'm feeling like that. My off days are for bike riding, eating and watching movies, lol. It depends greatly on what it it. Some things I enjoy doing...like I recently installed new dishwasher. That was mad fun. I put in a water line for the ice-maker on my fridge...installed a couple of new faucets, no sweat. Needed a section of drywall repaird....CALLED THE MAN, lol.

Had a whole list of projects I was gonna knock out ...... (this list was in my head BTW...mistake #1)

Ultimately I ended up spending a bunch of money and only got a fraction of the list done, and i'm not even 100% happy with the results I achieved.

Tilled up front yard and planted grass seed...... I barely got sprouts yet...and I don't think it's even gonna be full plushed out ever....

Hung various shelves throughout the house....these were good..i'm happy with them...

Then I got this bright idea to expand a minor project into a MAJOR project...
Last fall I installed one of them full glass storm doors on the back door. I did it RIGHT when the cold snap hit, so I rushed it. I botched up all the trim molding around the door because I had to fur it out in order to get enough depth for the storm door to mount to, and I just hastely put the trim back up and did the jankiest of caulk jobs around the perimeter of it. It was just too damn cold and I was washed.. I figured i'd just redo the trim in the spring....so that's what the project was SUPOSED to be... Of course I had the bright idea of "Well, I guess this would be a good time to just replace the entire back door, we hate the one that's there now."

Yada yada yada......and probably $500 later....door STILL ain't 100% done. And I really and burnt out dealing with it. I need to paint it and redo ALL the interior trim and moulding, as well as fix some weather stripping....

man....i'm tired just thinking about it all....


"Get ready....for your blessing....."

"It was just too damn cold and I was washed" But, I feel you though. I don't do SHIT out in the cold, man. My brain just won't allow it. I bought a snowblower...way more diesel one than I needed, because...fuck cold.

when i really start making that bread im getting a cleaning lady fuck all the bullshit.

"Get ready....for your blessing....."

while she does her thing. I then begin to feel guilty cuz she's working and I'm chillin'!

My mother really skullfucked me cuz I can't even enjoy the cleaning lady doing her thing without thinking about how we had to get up if we saw Mom cleaning while we watched cartoons and shit on Saturday mornings.

LMAO

Sexist as fuck per the baseline post. LOL

My body is sore as fuck from cutting branches, bagging up leaves, etc.

Wife just texted a minute ago. She wants to replace the ceiling drywall in the kitchen and the bedroom. It's sagging and definitely needs to be replaced but she is acting like it's life or death.

She is home all day with the baby so she is going around the house looking for every crack and gap and wants to throw money at it

Real talk, I'm thinking about selling the house and just upgrading because I swear she wants to rebuild this house. New floors, new kitchen, tear down the deck and put in a stamped patio, add privacy bushes to shield us from the neighbors.

Fuuuuck. Lol

We ain't be got no money mayne!!!

She is just like her mother. Every time we go to visit her mom has some new project. They can't sit down and chill, they always see a home improvement project.

>My body is sore as fuck from cutting branches, bagging up
>leaves, etc.

Joint be repeatedly saying to me: "Naw playa. Fall back"

>Wife just texted a minute ago. She wants to replace the
>ceiling drywall in the kitchen and the bedroom. It's sagging
>and definitely needs to be replaced but she is acting like
>it's life or death.
>
>She is home all day with the baby so she is going around the
>house looking for every crack and gap and wants to throw money
>at it
>
>Real talk, I'm thinking about selling the house and just
>upgrading because I swear she wants to rebuild this house. New
>floors, new kitchen, tear down the deck and put in a stamped
>patio, add privacy bushes to shield us from the neighbors.

if you do, just make sure you check off ALL the boxes of wants...or else, you just starting a whole new list of things to get done lol...

>Fuuuuck. Lol
>
>We ain't be got no money mayne!!!

exactly. !!




"Get ready....for your blessing....."

>My body is sore as fuck from cutting branches, bagging up
>leaves, etc.

I have a HUGE maple in my backyard. I did some quick math and realized I'd need like 15-20 leaf bags. NOPE. Raked it all into a big pile, mixed in some fresh-cut green leaves and let it cook. This compost is gonna be mulch-ready in a month or two.

>Real talk, I'm thinking about selling the house and just
>upgrading because I swear she wants to rebuild this house. New
>floors, new kitchen, tear down the deck and put in a stamped
>patio, add privacy bushes to shield us from the neighbors.

while privacy bushes are cool, they require regularly scheduled maintenance. they're also the perfect home for just about everything you don't want on your property (lol). on the flip side, a privacy fence requires much less maintenance, and can really add character to your yard.

>Fuuuuck. Lol
>
>We ain't be got no money mayne!!!
>
>She is just like her mother. Every time we go to visit her mom
>has some new project. They can't sit down and chill, they
>always see a home improvement project.

HGTV will be the death of me.


*skatin' the rings of saturn*


..and miles to go before i sleep...

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

with a project of some sort to finish or start or work on some....

And I don't recall hardly ANY memorable moments I shared with my kids over the past 8 weekends. It's really depressing when I really think about it.

"Get ready....for your blessing....."

do I feel like doing it vs can I afford to somebody.

it really comes back to time & money tho. I might spend more money and take longer if I gotta learn some shit, buy some tools, etc vs. paying the expert to get it done quickly and correctly.

if I break it, I have nobody I can call to come back to fix it lol.

it done. and done.
"Get ready....for your blessing....."

While I generally enjoy yard work I am getting older, which means more stuff to do, less energy and longer recovery times. While I initially put the edging around the yard, that was an exhausting job that I'm not trying to do again. Right now it needs to be replaced in some areas and I'm thinking the cost may be worth it verses ripping the old edging out, using the edging tool to cut a slit in this tough ass clay they call soil out here and install another 80 feet of edging. Not even counting the marble chips I need to replenish

Mulch is a similar decision. I didn't replenish it last year so just about everything has broken down into dirt. Should take about 18 bags of the 3 cu/ft bags from the nursery and maybe 4 runs to the nursery to get it home in my car (2 if my wife and I both drive). Now, I could get a few bags a day when I come home to work, or work the back yard 1/4 at a time, which would annoy me. But it may be cheaper than getting a delivery service, and some of the landscapers I've seen in the area I haven't been super impressed with, so that annoyance may be worth it.

So, it all depends on the job at hand. If I were rich, yeah, I'd have a team of contractors on deck. But I'm not and I don't

his work, and it is pretty good.

He does more than I would do for sure. I'm good for just tossing that shit out and spraying some round up. He actually hand pulls the weeds and everything.


"Get ready....for your blessing....."

more expensive but once it's done, it's done.

or else, them rocks gonna end up in your living room floor lol..



"Get ready....for your blessing....."

Even if you put the fabric barrier down the green is going to come back.

I'm planning on putting rubber mulch out in the front at some point. That's about the only area I can afford it

Been a homeowner for seven months now. I estimate the work that I've done so far would have costed me a thousand or two in labor already. Only things I'n *not* planning to DIY are the parts of the roof I can't reach without scaffolding/climbing gear.

You really gonna pay someone to lay down some mulch fam? And why do you need so much mulch anyway? You building a playground? Why not plant some low light, low growing plants to fill in the space instead?

tasks get old real quick lol.

>Been a homeowner for seven months now. I estimate the work
>that I've done so far would have costed me a thousand or two
>in labor already. Only things I'n *not* planning to DIY are
>the parts of the roof I can't reach without
>scaffolding/climbing gear.

I used to go ALL in too.

>You really gonna pay someone to lay down some mulch fam? And
>why do you need so much mulch anyway? You building a
>playground? Why not plant some low light, low growing plants
>to fill in the space instead?

Long story; we recently had full renovations done on the house. Completed at the end of last summer. I'm talking blown roof, 2nd story expansion and small footprint expansion. A LOT of work. But we ran out of loot to really go all in on landscaping. The contractor didn't haul away all of the soil, and instead distributed it across half of the backyard. I redistributed it even further along the perimeter of our property so that I could turn those areas into mulch beds for flowers and shrubs and shit. The front yard was used as a lay down area so all the soil and grass up there was heavily compacted and worn out from all of the construction material. We have two large mulchbeds up front, along with mulch bed along the front elevation of the house. Couple that with a large japanese maple out back and the perimeter mulch beds I created with some of the redistributed soil.....we need a LOT of mulch. I estimate about 4-5 yards easy.

So a lot of the mulch is going to just conceal and amend the fill dirt that I redistributed, with the hopes that it's gonna be nice healthy garden soil in a couple of years. The rest is going to replenish the existing beds in the front.

I've already but a ton of DIY time into resewing the front and back yards. I'm just burnt out man. I hate to spend the money on it, but i'm really just at a point I want to enjoy the spring and summer with the kids and not spend every weekend chasing yard and various other DIY chores.

"Get ready....for your blessing....."

10 years from now I hope to have a list people that I TRUST to pay to get the work done. One of the major reasons I do everything myself is that I just don't trust contractors, and I see a lot of the lazy, terrible work they do. I don't want to pay someone to fix something, only to have to pay someone to fix it again a few years later.

But yeah, I see this DIY home repairlosing its' appeal within 3-5 years (hopefully will coincide with raises so it would be easier emotionally to write the check, lol).

Like stuff I know I can't do like installing new lights, I obviously pay someone.

Painting? Man. When I moved to my new place, so much needed to be painted, I just paid someone. If it was one small room I would have done it myself. But i haven't really picked up a paint brush in a minute so I let the pros do it.
______________________________________________________________________________

cscpov.blogspot.com

"There's a fine line between persistence and foolishness..."
-unknown

"To Each His Reach"

two accent walls in the bedroom, one in the LR, and the entire other bedroom.

We just moved into the new house- yeah, we got pros to paint that.

a few months ago. It had been SO damn long since I painted. I forgot all the little dumb shit you have to have. It wasn't that expensive for the project, but tedious. Paint, brushes, rollers, pans, drop cloth, tape...ugh. It was just one damn room, lol. No way in hell I'd do several...or a house.

>No way in hell I'd do several...or a house.

I'm planning on doing one room every few weeks, so I might be done by the fall.

But yeah, just prepping the walls in my living room took a week.

the stupidest thing I ever did. We had moved in and a bunch of shit ate at our back up fund. AC issues, the seller changing their mind on paying for closing last minute, water heater needed to be replaced. We already knew we had to paint and we wanted to do it before we moved in and had furniture inside. But damn this shit was so horrible. For 1 week I was down everyday just painting by myself while my wife was at work. Then when she got off she would help until about 9pm. Her parents would drive down everyday as well. This went from Monday through Friday. We knocked out the main rooms we needed to have shit in to at least live a normal life until we finished. That Saturday renforcements came in. My brothers and both parents along with her brother and his wife all came and started knocking it out. 80% of the house was finished and we moved in Sunday. Spent another 2 months slowly knocking out the last 20%. We were quoted $3500 and we got it done for a little under 2k but damn I never want to paint anything again for the rest of my life.

and we still haven't finished. One more section left. We have a little one so we can only paint at night but who wants to paint at night after a long day of work?

We had paint samples on the wall for half a year.

but honestly there was no more money. We went down to the last $100 in our savings within 2 months of buying our house. The big killer was when we submitted our offer the sellers agreed on paying closing. Our house was a short sale and it took 16 months from offer until we got our keys. In that 16 months the house appreciated in value quite a bit, almost 100k. So we were worried they would back out and try to get up the price. But they said well you guys are gaining a shit load of equity so you have to pay closing now. So that was an extra 7k we werent expecting to pay. Throw in fixing 2 AC units because they sat unused for almost 2 years and a water heater. Almost 12k was gone. So it was paint ourselves or move into this house with HIDEOUS paint. Now i wont even water color with my son. I see paint and I break out in cold sweats and shit. Never again

.

unless its something I have absolutely no knowledge about I am doing it my damn self. we laid sod in our front yard last spring and fixed our planter boxes. Took about 20 bags of mulch. Had to dig the planters up then lay down that weed barrier mesh whatever its called. Plus fix all like 30 of our sprinklers. But the entire project between sod and planters cost us less than $500. We were quoted $1500 minimum. Only thing I would have done different would have been to hire day laborers while tilling the yard. 950 sq ft between 2 guys was a bitch.

been asking me every weekend is "Daddy, do you have work today?"

I'll say "No, it's Saturday" and she'll say, "I know, i'm talking about work around HERE and clients!" (I do my side work on the weekends too)


"Get ready....for your blessing....."

that is why I didnt want a daughter. I would be putty in her hands. My son comes at me like that im like shut up boy and grab a shovel! To do our front yard it took us a week. The planter boxes were a couple of 4 hour days on the weekend. But yard stuff she might enjoy. My son loved helping with that. Got him his own tool set. Let him play around in the dirt and dig holes with us. The other stuff he hates.

Throw it in the air and watch is burn.

We moved into our place and shortly after I got pregnant. We were in the middle of a remodel and thought we could save on painting. NOPE. I was 5 months pregnant and painting the hallway when I gave up.

..tasks you can do on your own

vs

tasks that require a professional


what's funny is that its not just a question of ability/skill, but time management and liability as well. i simply weigh the pros & cons of each and roll with the most efficient strategy. admittedly, there are a few projects i'm targeting on my own (or with minimal help) specifically for the experience.

i can handle most odd jobs around a home (basic maintenance, repairs, carpentry, etc), but there are days when help is necessary.

*i just finished cleaning the gutters an hour ago, and now i'm about to prep the yard for the spring rains. won't get to most of the landscaping 'til i'm certain the temps won't dip below freezing.




*skatin' the rings of saturn*


..and miles to go before i sleep...

>..tasks you can do on your own

Aside from things that require major costly tools....and plumbing....I'm competent at the majority of things required to keep a home going in good condition. Architectural Engineering is my education, and i've worked in the design/construction industry for the past 17 years....so I'm good with the knowhow.....

It's just the TIME and the fact that I know how shit SHOULD be done, and when I do it myself and have to cut corners because of time, I get disappointed.


>vs
>
>tasks that require a professional
>
>
>what's funny is that its not just a question of ability/skill,
>but time management and liability as well. i simply weigh the
>pros & cons of each and roll with the most efficient strategy.
>admittedly, there are a few projects i'm targeting on my own
>(or with minimal help) specifically for the experience.

BINGO... spot on here.


>i can handle most odd jobs around a home (basic maintenance,
>repairs, carpentry, etc), but there are days when help is
>necessary.
>
>*i just finished cleaning the gutters an hour ago, and now i'm
>about to prep the yard for the spring rains. won't get to most
>of the landscaping 'til i'm certain the temps won't dip below
>freezing.

Gutter cleaning is oddly satisfying to me.

"Get ready....for your blessing....."

Outside of small things, there's no way that I can take on some of the stuff you guys have talked about. I care way too much about stuff being done right to give things a try.

have the time or energy to REALLY do it right.



"Get ready....for your blessing....."

>have the time or energy to REALLY do it right.

how to even get started..."

I'm clueless when it come to that stuff. I'm the dude who damned near failed industrial arts because it wasn't fun once I got there. LOL

I took the class in middle school because my boys did. We cut up but I wasn't paying attention and basically had no interest.

jk

I hired movers because I dont want to wait all day for niggas to come help me move.

Folks ask me for moving help and I say "Sure, here's a GREAT company you can call."

Moving yourself should be against the law


"Get ready....for your blessing....."

Hate moving.

Used movers for the first time years ago and NEVER looking back.

Matter of fact, I referred a few people to my company so I know I got the good hookup there.
______________________________________________________________________________

cscpov.blogspot.com

"There's a fine line between persistence and foolishness..."
-unknown

"To Each His Reach"

.

There were a few things that saved us when we moved into our house 9 years ago. First, my wive worked less than 2 minutes away from where the townhouse was being built, and the job had plenty of storage space. So, in the months preceding the move we packed up boxes and she would shuttle them to her job where she could stash them free of charge. The second thing was I had a buddy that was working at a shipping company at the time. We here heavy into R/C racing and I have gave him one of my backup mod motors I wasn't using. He was so thankful he told me I didn't have to worry about any supplies. So we had boxes, tape, packing paper, the works. Come the day of the move he pull sup in a 26' truck that opened on the side. We got everything out of the apartment in one shot. Meanwhile, hew co-workers had taken off and were shuttling the boxes from her job to the house. We had everything moved in 3 hours.

There is zero chance that would ever happen again, and even with that it was a PITA. If we move, we're selling damn near everything in the house.

When I relocated I shipped a lot of unnecessary stuff. Now, I'm trying to get rid of it all. Trashing and donating everything..

Mad trips back and forth, moving the heavy stuff to the new place, cleaning the old place, and all of this around a work schedule.

Not doing that shit anymore. I feel you with this one.

can I die trying to save a few bucks? if yes, pay somebody.

Occasionally I'll get a load of arborist wood chips dumped in the driveway to spread, but by and large I reuse all my yard waste with the exception of summer grass clippings.

Leaves and pine needles from the front yard get collected, run through my chipper, and put back down as mulch every fall. I mow the back yard with my bagger in late fall and/or spring and put all that debris in the compost pile (along with kitchen waste from throughout the year and chicken coop waste).

I've done all the planting and mulching. I paid a guy to mow for five weeks several year back when I had a herniated disc.

Guess the real reason is that I like my garden the way I designed it - as soon as I hand that control off to someone else, here comes the colored mulch, the plastic edgers, the alternating colors of ground cover plants, the azaleas pruned into osomewhat spherical shapes. I mean, my neighbors bought a house with a beautiful garden and their lawn guys have done a terrible job of maintaining it - they've lost a lot of plants/flowers, and the invasive lesser celendine is taking over beds like crazy.

Then there's the veggie beds. Just rebuilt 5 of my ten 8'x4' frames for this season, and all ten of them are already full (lettuce, mixed greens, kale, chard, carrots, radishes, green beans, garlic, and some wintered-over arugula). Guess I need to do a bunch more; my seeds for summer crops just came in the mail yesterday.
Anyhow, typical first year garden frame gets filled to the top with compost that's been aged for two years (that chicken poop can't go on fresh). Then it gets turned into the dirt for season #2. Most years i add a fresh layer of compost in the spring before turning.

My wife would like it if I relinquished a bit of control over the garden, but then again, she loves the flowers.

Interior, I love to paint, don't mind refinishing floors or patching drywall, won't touch electric or plumbing if I can avoid it. Have actually had better success with youtube than with paid professionals when battling uncooperative appliances like washers and dryers.

G for Gardener!

You typing like I feel about my yard, but I know I don't have the time or energy to get it popping like that. Props!!

I feel like if I could just get somebody to lay the foundation for a proper yard and stuff...then I could take it from there and run with it. But there's just so much that I KNOW needs to happen for it to be right.

If the cost of paying to have someone do it form me isn't grater than the pain of staying with what we already have, then I don't need it to be done.

Also, I'd rather have a couple projects a year done by someone else with me paying for it than me trying to do them myself, thinking Im saving money, but actually losing money and time.

I have a handyman in the neighborhood who does the basic stuff for me. Swapping out faucets, painting, basic electrical work like changing out a circuit, ceiling fan installation, had him install a new mailbox for me, etc. That's all simple stuff, but he doesn't charge much at all for his time and it's done way quicker than I could. Then for more complicated stuff I call professionals - installing new lighting, plumbing issues, roof work, etc.

I have a landscaping company cut my lawn and maintain the flower beds and such.

Do it right or not at all.

but the lack of time and the consistent, water-torture like pressure by DW means I'll likely be consistently seeking quotes from contractors for everything.

The lack of time isn't even really a good excuse... a friend of mine is a lawyer with a wife and young kid and he did 65% of the work on a 1000 sq ft addition by himself in the evenings and weekends. It took him over a year and I can't picture working on something like that, in my free time, that consistently for that long.

Actually, I'm not even pretending like I want to maintain this new yard on my own. I'm not trying to be like "Sorry, I can't go to HH, I've gotta edge these shrubs up" so I've already got a yard service coming by the first week we're in the house.

everything costs, but not necessarily $$$$

just look at all the angles.

I'll say this: I'm 43 and most of my friends are older and they're 'cresting' - you basically reach a tipping point where you just not fucking with WHATEVER it is because you work for the privilege of having the $$$ to PAY SOMEONE ELSE.


automotive: SOME parts repl., basic tune-up oil change cool. there was a time when I woulda been down for a timing belt. - those days are gone.



Yardwork: if I got the tools, time, energy (YES), can I involve the kid(s) (YES), will it be a learning experience (YES)

but if you at the level of gettin shit dumped in your driveway...pay somebody and take your kid to the park.

case in point:

after seeing several heating service trucks in my driveway my neighbor fussed me out talking about he knows people and he could've saved me money blah blah blah

that service had my new furnace installed same day. if i had waited on the people my neighbor knows i'd probably still be cold.

http://s557.photobucket.com/user/spenzalii/Home%20Stuff/story

This was a few years ago in late May before my brother's wedding. I've got to trim back the spray roses, move my asiatic lillys (I installed a smoker last fall so I need to plant those bulbs somewhere as they're already sprouting in the planter I put them in for the time being), drop 15 bags of mulch and replace some of the marble. I put down some Greenview fertilizer that the local nursery recommended already, but will probably spread some Leafgro on the lawn next month.

Out front is almost a cakewalk in comparison.