Category House and Home

Not Doing It Ourselves

Michael Leave a comment

As homeowners we are quite used to doing things ourselves.  If we didn’t we’d get very little done around our houses.  Our DIY projects save money, recycle material, and usually end up well done and proud to put on display.

We like to think we’re pretty diverse in our projects.  We’ll remodel a room, refinish a floor, decorate a front yard, and hang a sink or two.  Usually we get our ideas from home shows, newspaper articles, or an on-line post.  We’ve been known to lift ideas from advertisements though not necessarily for something we’re looking to buy.  When He of We was looking for inspiration for his very small bathroom he found it in an ad for an air freshener.

But one of our classic go-to sources, the magazine article, might be going away.  Yes, we still read hard copy magazines.  But we might be losing them as inspiration not because the genre is becoming obsolete but because the genre is pricing us out of their market. 

We both saw a great topic in one of our subscriptions this month, how to landscape a sloping yard.  Both of We have back yards that are anything but flat, level, and regular.  Thus most anything we ever read in a gardening magazine or learned at an adult education class is lost on our properties.   But here we thought we had something.  And to make it even more interesting, we each saw the headline separately, read the article separately, considered the information separately, and came to the same conclusion.  Forget about it!

If we were going to follow the advice of the “homeowner” who took this on we’d be the proud owners of back yards that cost more than the houses that front them.  It’s becoming a common problem.  The do it yourself magazines, the home decorating magazines, and the yard and garden magazines have all gone daft.  No more how to extend your deck to add room for outdoor seating and eating.  Now it’s how to turn your backyard into an outdoor kitchen complete with appliances, storage, and fine linen.  What used to be how to’s for a budget are now how to bust a budget.  The particular project we saw would have run about $75,000, without the furniture.  Of course we can only guess at the cost based on our own experiences because the source list listed everything but prices.

We may have to publish our own magazine for real do it yourselfers.  One that has real life do-it-yourself projects for do-it-yourself peoples.  One that prices out material.  One that illustrates varying grades of material.  One that includes time lines and maybe a couple of good drink recipes for the really challenging days.  Stuff a real do-it-yourselfer needs to really do it yourself.

Anybody know where we can learn how to do that ourselves?

Now, that’s what we think.  Really.  How ‘bout you?

 

I went to a home show and all I bought were nacho chips

Michael 1 Comment

We don’t know exactly how big it is, but we know that the home and garden show business across the country is definitely big.  Our town has multiple varieties of the “everything for your home under one roof” extravaganza with more suburban varieties popping up every year in advance of the big one in town.

It’s a spectacle that we’ve been a part of for years.  Every year it seems to get busier with more people crowding the aisles between the wind chimes and the garage door installers.  We’ve gotten lots of stuff over the years from this show of shows. Everything from plants to hot tubs.  From art to hang on our walls to decks to hang on our houses.  We’ve never walked away from a home show empty handed.  Empty walleted, yes.  Empty handed, no.

This year it was almost hard to buy anything.  Although every installer, builder, and artisan has his or her “show special,” it seems that prices at these events are always higher than on the outside.   But there are things you’ll never see on the outside so you don’t really know.

This year we came across the $29 dog brush, a $22 garlic peeler, a $49 hose nozzle, and (our favorite) the essential $100 iron.  It was at the iron display that the pitchman steadfastly refused to reveal the price until the demonstration was over.  It looked like a good deal, and maybe worth a few extra dollars just for the long cord.  When he quoted the “low price of only ninety-nine, ninety-nine” someone (ok, it might have been us – in unison) exclaimed, “That’s a hundred dollars!  For an Iron!” and a couple other observations about it.  “But it’s the last iron you’ll ever buy,” came the seller’s justification.  We compared our iron history.  Between the two of us we’re on our third iron.  It could have been the second except He of We lost his first iron in an appliance custody settlement.  The most expensive of those was $17.

We don’t know why events like this have to inflate prices so much.  Twenty years ago you at least got some entertainment out of it with the classic pitchmen and the cleaners and tools you couldn’t get anywhere else.  On the main stage the local PBS affiliate would have cooking and home improvement demonstrations.  We remember when they would make enough at the cooking demos that everyone in the audience actually got to eat.  Now two hotdogs and a soft drink eat up three quarters of a twenty dollar bill. 

But we’ll still go every year.  Whether we need anything or not we’ll find something or other.  And it’s always an opportunity to re-visit with truly talented artists and craftsmen.  At our last stop we stayed for a while and chatted with an artist whose work graces walls in both of our houses.  He is a very pleasant man who actually makes a living from his paintings.  Someone who has turned his dream into his dream job.  Someone who makes you feel good that you stopped to say hello.

 And a good thing we did or else the only things we would have bought this year would have been three bags of tortilla chips and a newspaper subscription. 

Hey, when it comes to something of other, you can never have too much of it.

Now, that’s what we think.  Really.  How ‘bout you?