What is it with working on your own house?

[M&S]

A question to any of the other tradesman/contractors out there. Do you have problems working on your own home? Motivation? Coordination? Frustration?

I get so sick of the old analogies that an auto mechanic always drives a clunker, electricians house is never trimmed out, plumbers house never finished, carpenters house the same, on an on. However as much as I am sick of them they always seem to be true.

I am sure it is no different for us than others where your tools are perpetually on a job or jobs, never have the time, last thing you want to do when you get home is what you did all day, on and on. I thought it may be an interesting thread to hear others thoughts on it all. Perhaps some input from some who may have been able to break off jobs for a period (weeks/months) to get their own house done. Or perhaps you just had the mindset to work all day in the trade then come home and put in 3 hrs each night and two 8 hr days on the weekends to get your own home done.

This makes about 20 years we have been doing this and about 20 years we have lived in 3 homes in states of perpetual incompletion heheeh. Somehow we manage to schedule and complete countless jobs for ecstatic customers throughout the year yet our own is never there.

Mark

[mjb920]

If it's any consolation to you, I work with computers all day, and my computers at home are sorely out-of-date with security updates, AND all my home improvement projects are unfinished.

All of the tradesmen I've had in our home - cabinets, tile, counters, describe their homes just like yours.

Jim

[DanG]

Slowly holds up hand, head down.

God, please don't tell my wife what I do in other people's places. Also Lord, please don't let her sell my tools when I die for what I told her they cost. ______________________________ Keep the whole world singing . . . . DanG (remove the sevens) [e-mail]

[Steve Barker]

I'm a certified master mechanic. This works well for home improvement. Anything to avoid working on the car. LMAO!

I even quit doing my own oil changes. And I work where there's a drive on lift and everything.

[Mark and Kim Smith]

[Michael Bulatovich]

You forgot years.

In my case I can visualize how it's gonna look when I'm done, so as I walk through the house, I just keep visualizing......real hard. Eventually it becomes a life-style.

[DAC]

I am building our house after 8 hours of the day job, in at 5 out at

130 at the house til 9 or so. I REALLY like doing the house work since I work on data bases all day, I can't see what I've done at the end of the day. All I have to go on is the stink'n task list.

I had a neighbor just like you...he worked for a small home construction company, and it pained him beyond belief to lift a hammer at home. BTW--I SELDOM turn on a computer at home.

Don't let it bother ya...it's just the way it is. Take pride in what you do...and do it well...the rest will be all right.

DanG -- I'm with ya brotha! I've been saying that same prayer for YEARS

Good luck...

DAC

[Barold]

Several friends and I call it the 95% Club. We do the job to 95% and then it sits unfinished. One friend spent $12,000 on a kitchen remodel and after 5 years still has a wall switch without a cover plate and a 2 feet piece of missing baseboard.

[Lou]

Man, do you guys make me feel good. I thought it was just me. Lou

[NuWaveDave]

"The cobbler's children have no shoes."

[M&S]

See, whats awful is my wife and I BOTH work full time in the trade. She is as bad a tool hound as I am and yet we both joke about this stuff (joke is a relative term) daily.

Its funny to read the replies but yours was the funniest by far with the "head down" line. That and the 12k kitchen with one missing switch plate and 2' of base board.

Mark

[marson]

Then there's the factor that you can get to used to ANYTHING if you give it six months. Who needs trim on those windows...in six months you won't even notice it's missing!

[david]

Like my uncle used to say... Anything less than five years is temporary!