> When “doing your own work”, be mindful of the opportunity cost of your time. What’s your rate versus the handyman’s rate? If you fix the porch, are you less able to pick up that overtime shift?
There's more to it than just the money though, although that's certainly a big factor[0].
There's having control over your environment, being self-reliant, shaping it the way you want it shaped. I don't know about other people but that's really good for my mental health - particularly at the moment.
Other benefits:
- You don't have to go into it with a fully realised vision upfront. I can't do that for interior design - I have to iterate towards something decent.
- Inevitably along the way you encounter unanticipated problems and complexities (much like software development). If you've paid someone a shit-ton of money to sort out your house your only options are to throw more money at the problem or compromise in a way you may not like. If you're doing the work you are generally able to consider more options.
- You don't have to compromise in the way you would if you got somebody to do it for you. If I get somebody to design my bathroom for me then, because I don't and can't know the answers to all the questions up-front, at the very least I'm going to have to live with some of their answers. Those answers might start to wear on me after I've lived with the new room for a time.
- If I screw something up myself or decide I'd prefer it to be different I have zero qualms about undoing my own work, partly because I know I can redo it in the way I want, but also because there's less risk of sunk cost fallacy clouding my thinking.
- On the odd piece of work for which I will need a tradesperson they're not going to be able to take me for a ride.
Working on your own house is a real confidence building exercise that I'd recommend to anyone, and especially those who feel like they have no practical skills, for reasons that go far beyond the financial.
[0] In theory I could afford contractors; in practice I'd have to make sacrifices in other areas where I'd rather not make sacrifices to do it.
There's more to it than just the money though, although that's certainly a big factor[0].
There's having control over your environment, being self-reliant, shaping it the way you want it shaped. I don't know about other people but that's really good for my mental health - particularly at the moment.
Other benefits:
- You don't have to go into it with a fully realised vision upfront. I can't do that for interior design - I have to iterate towards something decent.
- Inevitably along the way you encounter unanticipated problems and complexities (much like software development). If you've paid someone a shit-ton of money to sort out your house your only options are to throw more money at the problem or compromise in a way you may not like. If you're doing the work you are generally able to consider more options.
- You don't have to compromise in the way you would if you got somebody to do it for you. If I get somebody to design my bathroom for me then, because I don't and can't know the answers to all the questions up-front, at the very least I'm going to have to live with some of their answers. Those answers might start to wear on me after I've lived with the new room for a time.
- If I screw something up myself or decide I'd prefer it to be different I have zero qualms about undoing my own work, partly because I know I can redo it in the way I want, but also because there's less risk of sunk cost fallacy clouding my thinking.
- On the odd piece of work for which I will need a tradesperson they're not going to be able to take me for a ride.
Working on your own house is a real confidence building exercise that I'd recommend to anyone, and especially those who feel like they have no practical skills, for reasons that go far beyond the financial.
[0] In theory I could afford contractors; in practice I'd have to make sacrifices in other areas where I'd rather not make sacrifices to do it.