We're Do-It-Yourselfers

Honestly, I'm not that much of a do-it-yourselfer. But my husband, Rollin, is a huge DIYer. And so I am too, by default. And I've actually learned to enjoy it. Sort of.

We have two rental houses and much of our DIY efforts have gone into them. But recently I started whining about when are we going to do some projects at our own house? My joy wore thin at working on remodels and reflooring and painting our rental houses and then someone else enjoying the fruit of our labor. The only good thing about it was that I didn't have to live in the mess while we worked.

Carpet torn out awaiting new flooring.

So in the last few months, we started doing some of our own projects on our almost fifteen-year-old home. The main project, the one we're still working on, is pulling out all the carpet and replacing it with vinyl planking. If you're not familiar with what that is, it looks like a wood floor, but is really a vinyl product, making it a snap to take care of. We had put it in one of our rentals and loved it. It's also very pet friendly, which is nice.

Kobi and I "helping" Rollin lay
the flooring on our stairs.
Doesn't it look nice?

So far, we've finished the living room, our 19-year-old daughter's two-room living suite (otherwise known as an in-law suite but since our in-laws don't live there...), the stairs, and the upstairs hallway. We still need to install the trim around the edges on the stairs. Besides that, all that's left is the loft and four upstairs bedrooms.

Rollin and I have laid enough of this stuff that we've gotten it down to a science. We can lay a room fairly quickly. It's the prep work like removing the carpet, scraping off the glue that held the carpet padding down, taking off baseboards, repainting baseboards, and sweeping the concrete floor that take a lot of time. But when we get that done and start laying the flooring, it flies. Unless we decide to paint the walls while we're at it, which is what happened in the living room and our daughter's room. But I digress...

For not being much of a DIYer, I think I've done pretty good at adjusting to all these projects. And I've learned a lot of things from my dear husband. But more than that, we've enjoyed working together and seeing the beautiful changes our work produces, not only in our houses, but in our character. There's a certain bonding that happens as we work side-by-side, sharing frustrations, successes, and milk shake rewards for a good day's work. As a certain credit card commercial would say, "Priceless."

Finished floor in our living room.

Are you a DIY type or would you rather pay to have work done? Let me hear from you in the comments. 

Linda