Taking DIY to the next professional level.

Am I a semi professional decorator? I was wondering the other day about how much I had learnt myself in order to make our house more comfortable and pleasant to live in, but without professional training or qualifications. Getting things done yourself is always a good idea in many instances, but now I am trying to work out the time spent learning all these building, decorating and repairing skills is worth it given I could have been doing something else instead then paying a professional to do the decorating.

Apart from the cost of the cups of tea I would have made for a professional decorator and professional carpenter I have worked out I could maybe have saved some money, if I'd just paid them and done some of my own professional work instead. I'm self-employed so it's easy to work out any difference in cost.

Then again you can't always be sure of where to find and how to rate a professional decorator or carpenter, although you can often be sure after they have done the decorating or carpentry work you paid them to do.

Then there's the cost of all the equipment, tools and clothing I've paid for to do my own decorating and carpentry around the house. I wonder how much that is in total? Possibly a great deal! Though these are assets, and so are worth something to any buyer interested in doing their own decorating or jobs repairing various parts of the house or outbuildings. And many of these power tools and equipment are good quality. I have excellent workbenches, a range of high quality professional tools, and various other bits of equipment often of a high specification.

I could just pack in all the DIY around the house and garden, sell the lot of my equipment, and pay someone else to do all of it. I've worked out it could be cheaper this way especially as I am self employed and can probably earn as much by the hour while the professional decorator or carpenter charges his rate by the hour - including the cost of the cups of tea!

But I enjoy decorating and carpentry. That
Dewalt drill I bought four year ago is still working perfectly and if I sold it I may get significantly less for it than I paid for it. Then there's the satisfaction of getting a job done. This I find especially when I am repairing a part of the house or an outbuilding in the garden. The other day I mended the child's swing, by making the wooden seat safer. It was a lovely warm day and it was good to be outside rather than in the office.

Out of decorating, building, gardening and carpentry I believe I find wood the best material to work with. Now I am starting to wonder if I should just change jobs and become a full time professional carpenter. Now that would be a way to save money.

--
Sarah Maple writes about power tools and loves her hammer drill.