Do it yourself

I have a purchased a rental property. My intent was to have someone quickly and affordably take care of some minor problems so that I could get it rented. You should know that I don't have deep pockets and thus, I am working on a budget as well. I cannot afford to pay the going rates of quality remodelers in this area. What happened is I used a local handyman to help me with some demo work and everything seemed fine. A few weeks later I had him return for the opposite of destruction - it's called construction (just in case you're reading this). I needed to have vinyl flooring installed in two small bathrooms.

He showed up late on the first day. After being there for about half an hour he answered his phone and said that he had to go but would be back in a couple of hours. Four hours later he re-appeared. He measured and cut a piece of luan as a smooth surface to adhere the vinyl to. He miscut and tried to force in his template into the small bathroom and it broke into many pieces. His second attempt was not a pretty sight either - it looked like the aftermath of a Lizzy Borden encounter. He said that he would come by the next morning at 10:00am to fix things up and finish the project. He never showed and never called.

What was I going to do? I decided to the job myself. I measured each measurement three times before I started cutting with the saw. Guess what? - It worked! It looks like a quality job. It's the type of job I would like to have someone do for me.

I learned something: Sometimes in order to get something done the way you want it done - you might just have to do it yourself.