Remodeling Our Bathrooms

 When first purchasing a home, there is this innate desire to fix what ever breaks on your own, within reason. I think part of it is being cheap, and part of it is not knowing who to ask to do the job. You hear about your dad or buddies fixing things around their houses, and there is also a "if they can do it I can too" attitude that comes into play as well. This attitude comes despite the fact that I have no experience fixing anything. We grew up in a new house and what few projects my dad tackled on his own didn't involve me. 

With home ownership, we (mostly Sarah) became more comfortable with tasks like replacing lights, ceiling fans, hanging up curtains, etc. Otherwise, for bigger projects that actually require construction or working on appliances, we have turfed out to the experts. The one thing I did do as a kid was mow grass, so I was comfortable with that and basic yard work. However, with home ownership comes extra yard responsibilities such as taking care of trees, taking care of mulch, planting plants, etc. Sarah and I took care of these responsibilities for the first few years of owning a home, but eventually we started turfing this work out as well. I'll still trim a tree every know and then and Sarah will pull weeds periodically, but we no longer spends hours shoveling and moving mulch. 

I bring up all of this based on my observation of our current project. With the Covid-19 pandemic came schedule changes to my job. I currently work 2.5 days at home.  We are in the process of having two of our bathrooms remodeled. Working from home with my new schedule has allowed for observation of how much work it takes to remodel two bathrooms. There are 1-2 guys, sometimes up to 4, working from 8-5 Monday through Friday. I never really thought I could do such a project on my own, and this was confirmed after watching how much work it takes to do such a project. Even if I had the expertise for the project (which I don't) and the correct tools (which I don't), there is no way I would have the time. Even with the expertise and the tools, it is taking these guys 2 months to complete the remodel, and that's working at a full time job duration. When it comes to owning a home, we pick our battles carefully. One thing I've learned as I've aged is that time is quite valuable.