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Old 02-04-2015, 03:17 PM   #121
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Aha, that's the ticket! And here I thought I was just being lazy. Instead I'm contributing to a stable society.

I admit I am lazy now, as that is why I wanted to retire. But I have found I do get enjoyment out of fixing and repairing some things. It is more enjoyable to me than learning some new hobby. I recently put a new wood plank flooring in my small downstairs bathroom, and can do minor plumbing, electrical, and deck repair. But I really want to try something like install wood flooring in my LV or spruce up my gas fireplace with a mantel and or marble tile around it, but I know the results would be disastrous.


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Old 02-04-2015, 03:34 PM   #122
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But I really want to try something like install wood flooring in my LV or spruce up my gas fireplace with a mantel and or marble tile around it, but I know the results would be disastrous.
I know what you mean. One BIL can do beautiful brick and tile work but if I tried something like that not only would it be ugly but probably dangerous to others as well.
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Old 02-04-2015, 05:19 PM   #123
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I do tile work and DH put in our hardwood floors. They aren't pro quality, of course, but as I remind myself all the time: good enough is a perfectly reasonable goal in just about everything but surgery.


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Old 02-04-2015, 06:28 PM   #124
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I do tile work and DH put in our hardwood floors. They aren't pro quality, of course, but as I remind myself all the time: good enough is a perfectly reasonable goal in just about everything but surgery.

That's what real estate agents call character!
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Old 02-05-2015, 08:38 AM   #125
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I do tile work and DH put in our hardwood floors. They aren't pro quality, of course, but as I remind myself all the time: good enough is a perfectly reasonable goal in just about everything but surgery.


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Unfortunately, many folks use handymen to do "good enough" work for a cheap price. What DW and I have found in our house are numerous instances where a handyman did a quick fix, only to have it unravel and need to be fixed professionally. For example, we have instances of tile, electrical and plumbing work where the handyman used parts that were not designed for a particular environment (e.g., electrical piping used in plumbing!) or were not done to Code, thereby creating a hazard.

I'm all for using a "handyman in a can" (that aerosol latex/vinyl spray advertised on infomercials) to fix a leaky [fill in the blank], but sometimes you need to do it right.
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Old 02-05-2015, 09:06 AM   #126
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Oh that's totally different. Although we wired our house ourselves, it was all done to code and inspected and all that.

Actually, the only work on our house that proved substandard was the trusses, which were spec'd and ordered by the lumber yard, and installed by the professional framing crew. Spacing was done wrong, resulting in some bowing in a long span that we had to fix with some additional support under the house.

I figure if we are paying for work, it ought to be up to code and substantially better than what we can DIY. Otherwise, why pay for it?
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Old 02-08-2015, 10:06 AM   #127
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What's interesting about article is that the percentages and "closeness to the edge" hasn't changed much in the last 30+ years.

Sometimes it seems like this "living hand to mouth" is a recent consequence of great depression and loss of good middle class jobs - but the concept of perpetually living nearly broke is not new.....
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Old 02-08-2015, 10:54 AM   #128
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What's interesting about article is that the percentages and "closeness to the edge" hasn't changed much in the last 30+ years.

Sometimes it seems like this "living hand to mouth" is a recent consequence of great depression and loss of good middle class jobs - but the concept of perpetually living nearly broke is not new.....
I think the primary cause of this is our own doing, our own culture. We often want the nicest things. hopefully we value our family more, but nice things are nice. The only way to get the nicest things as soon as possible is to live on credit. I'm proud of my lbym lifestyle and my hopes of living much of my life in leisurely grace, but it is reasonable for a young family to desire proper furniture and a reliable car. And if this family has only modest income, then this sets them up for years of interest obligations. Tough, but that's life: decisions, choices, sacrifices, and consequences.

I think another reason is money policy. It's discouraging to save money when the interest rates are so low.
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