Why DIY Doesn’t Always Save
Guy & I started talking in depth with our followers about kitchen renovation costs broken down and the average cost we see most often. You can see the full blog post about it HERE. But a lot of people responded with, “those numbers sound outrageous! Just DIY it” or “I just DIYed a kitchen and it took every bit of that budget to finish. I can’t imagine how much more it would have cost to hire someone to do it for us.”
We allll know DIY saves you money. But what a lot of people don’t share is all the money they don’t save when they do something wrong OR all the TIME they don’t save to get the project done.
We’ve all heard the saying, “time is money” right? Well it’s true. The more time you spend doing the renovation you were never equipped to do takes away from the time spent doing the things that are usually bringing in the $$$. Am I right? Now I’m not saying…don’t DIY things, that is after all how we started this business.
What I am saying is…or rather what I’m asking you is, is your time worth the project in question?
You wouldn’t try and tackle a full engine repair if you’ve never had any experience doing it before just because it might save you money right? You value the mechanic that knows what he’s doing, and you know you need a car to get from point A to point B so you don’t (typically) question the cost. Right?
There are so many faucets of renovations that most people don’t think twice about. I can say this because I was that person 7 years ago.
“Babe, can’t we just knock down that wall today and get ourselves a nice open concept home? It doesn’t look like it would be too hard for the two of us.”
Little questions just like this one are exactly how we ended up with Kindred Homestead! Which I don’t regret one bit but I also don’t advise for everyone either. We found a passion creating spaces with our own two hands. HOWEVER, one thing we’ve constantly asked ourselves is, “was that project worth that amount of our time or would it have been wiser to seek out the help of a professional to get the job done right and more quickly?” And almost every time we say, “we should have just hired it out!”
The best advice I can give to someone that has decided to DIY a project is this: it’s never as cheap as HGTV makes you think it is, there are always more hurdles than you ever planned for, you’re going to most likely screw up one time during the process, & it will most definitely take longer than you anticipated.
And if that doesn’t phase you…GO FOR IT!! I know of plenty of people that love a good DIY project and learning a new skill along the way. And I also know a lot of people that should probably STOP doing DIY projects! :) No matter where you fall, I hope this post sheds some light onto the intricacies of this total hot topic in our culture right now.
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