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DIY and Why

Do it yourself, this will not only stroke the ego, but it will keep your life in balance. Oh and, by the way, it'll save you a bunch of scratch! While this will be a quick tangent, it is the purpose of this particular post so I'll get right to it.

Hire or DIY?

Example: (real life)

Tile the bathroom floor, my particular project was very small, only about 25 sq ft. Which if you simply look at materials you are looking for about 50 cents sq ft for the backer board, add 50 cents for the thin set and 50 cents for screws gives you about $1.5 for the sub floor. Add tile (which you can find on Craigslist and other places) I got mine for 75 cents a tile 12x12. 25 cents for grout lets call it $2.50 sq ft all in materials. Therefore, call the whole job $62.50. A quote for the same job was about $400.00. You have to weight your options here, but a tile saw rental is around $50, or in my case I knew I was going to be doing a few jobs so my ego forced me to buy the biggest baddest tile saw I could find! At the time, I told myself I was making up for the cost just in this one job! (don't let your ego get a hold of you like I did) Rent the damn saw!

Any way long story short
Job Materials $62.50
Job Quote $400
Time (for me) 10 hours
I paid myself $337.50 for 10 hours by doing it myself.

Pretty good gig if you ask me, however, if I just played the games that all the self-help books tell you, I'm worth more than $37/hr, and, therefore, I wasted my time. Time vs. Money right ... wrong!

First off, let us look at it this way; this is not a straight up calculation, $37 is TAX-FREE. So let's look at effective tax rates before we decide how much we are worth. As an example, I figure, (I'll have to come back and give real numbers) but just off of memory I think after ALL taxes I am taxed at about 48% therefore truly I made nearly $60 bucks an hour!

There's more, and this is recent, you need to stroke your ego now and then, and as I have conquered job after job in my home, I realize how fantastic it is to look around my home and realize it is MINE. I have done the majority of the work. This phenomenon is helpful in many ways, first, your home becomes more your home, second, you feel more valuable, thus feel more secure, and finally you take yourself out of your comfort zone and expand your "comfort zone" thus long term affecting many other aspects of your life.

I have begun to look at things in a completely new light, instead of wouldn't that be nice ... it's what do I need to do to make that happen. With the essentially unlimited resources the internet offers, the world is your playground, and it starts with a little confidence and no easier way to build your confidence than getting your hands a little dirty!

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