Home Improvement
Every time I get involved in something like that, I think of the Malcolm in the Middle episode where Hal starts to fix a light bulb and by the time he's done he has the car apart because everything breaks along the way. Lois walks in and he comes unglued when she asks about the light bulb.
I have to fix the tools I use to fix the tools that fix the thing.
I know exactly what episode you're talking about, and yes! That's both my fear and my experience.
As for motivation to tackle that sort of thing, my Grandpa would say "Starting the job is half the job". It's kinda stuck with me so the only thing I think about is just grabbing something to start with.
You know by the time you're done you're going to have every tool you own on the ground beside you, so you might as well just grab something vaguely related and begin walking. You can make the rest up as you go.
That’s called persistent starting, and it can be a valid strategy for overcoming things like executive dysfunction.
Oftentimes, the hardest part of a task is simply starting it. So persistent starting basically says “tell yourself it’s okay to quit after [x]”. Have a sink full of dishes to wash? It’s okay to stop after you only wash two cups. The whole sink may be daunting, but two cups is much more manageable. So starting becomes easier. And chances are good that you’ll go “eh, my hands are already wet. Might as well wash the rest while I’m here.” Now the dishes are done, even though you only set out to wash two cups.
Thank you kind person. This is annenormous issue for me, and it was extremely helpful having you spell this strategy out so simply.
I think it's also important that sometimes the 2 dishes is just the 2 dishes, otherwise your brain starts to say "sure you say 2 dishes, but that really means the whole thing!"
I always think of it as like an old point n click adventure game. By the time youre like 6 puzzles deep you forget entirely what you started out trying to do.
I'm like that with plumbing. If a toilet needs fixing I will turn the entire house water off rather than touch a toilet cutoff valve.
"What if it won't turn off?"
"What if it won't turn back on?"
"What if the valve just snaps off and sprays everywhere?"
Yep, I understand completely.
Yeah I have messed with cut off valves and they won't stop dripping after I turn them.
No. I'm the guy people call when they need stuff fixed.
I'm way more worried about messing with things that aren't broken. If it's already busted, I usually don't have to stress about making it worse - and even if I do, I just fix that too. It's actually pretty hard to cause irreversible damage.
Yup.
This Old House makes everything look easy.
Every five minute job is just a broken bolt away from being a ruined week.
I don't know this old house, but one of the first home improvement shows in the Netherlands had a guy who looked the typical bearded handyman, think Bob Vila or Al Borland. At a certain time they added an item to the show where he would "spontaniously" ring someone's doorbell and ask if they had some small repairs needed so he could show how it's done, things like a leaky faucet. Easy stuff. The problem was, it was found the directors didn't do a good job of keeping clocks out of frame. So if you looked carefully you'd see that he started at ten in the morning on a five minute job, and was done with it at three in the afternoon.
Anyway, it was later revealed that he would come in for some shots, then have the real handy people come in to do the work, and after he would take over for some finishing shots. Going on a tangent here: Eventually he was fired because he was accused of sexual harrasment. He sued the network, and they revealed there was a code of conduct specially developed for him which stated he shouldn't bother the women on set, he shouldn't tell jokes with sexual undertones, he had to keep working when the camera's weren't running and he wasn't allowed to drink alcohol on set.
Sounds just like "Äntligen hemma" with Martin Timell from Swedish TV4. ~~Sexual harrassment~~ Rape lawsuit and all.
Whoever comes up with these shows love to sell the concept to a lot of networks.
Speaking from recent experience, the smaller thing can, and often does, turn into a larger thing all on its own and always at the worst time.
For the last 3 years, I knew my water heater was on its last legs. I kept putting it off until two Saturdays ago I had a wet basement and no hot water. The kick in the ass was that it wasn't that hard to replace the unit: 2 hours of labor to install and 2 hours to drain, remove, and clean around the old one. Cost me just under $650 including same day delivery which was awesome because I would have had to rent a truck and drafted someone to help me load/unload it otherwise.
So my advice is when you allocate time to address the small problem, give yourself double that in case it turns into a bigger project. It's always easier to deal with big stuff when it's not a surprise.
In the "hire someone" vein, setting an artificial deadline can sometimes help. "If I don't build the X by Y myself, then we just go buy it."
As with anything, momentum builds too. If it's not something that has a lot of constraints, just looking for one little step is easier to accept than Starting The Project. Like, I'm not necessarily going to frame the new opening today, just cut a hole in the wall in the back of the closet. May depend on housemates' tolerance. But often just getting into the workshop is enough to overcome activation energy for me.
Setting a DIY deadline is a really good suggestion, at least as far as "might actually work for me" goes. Thanks!
Yes. Especially with an older house. Touch one thing, you find everything else attached to it is rotted or held together with caulk and a dream.
I really wish i had house skills instead of car and computer skills. Those are useless compared to how important housing/construction is.
Touch one thing, you find everything else attached to it is rotted or held together with caulk and a dream.
Oh, god, literally that.
I can do the repairs pretty confidently, but I suck at the planning and get completely overwhelmed going to Lowes/Home Depot and dread the multiple trips I always have to make because I forgot something, find something else that needs replaced, or bought the wrong size/style.
I’ve watched the pros. The foreman’s job is basically running to the supply house before the team need the thing, so they can keep working. They try to show up with everything and to varying degrees they do but every job is slightly different.
Well, I clearly need a foreman then lol. That's the part where my projects usually fall apart or struggle.
car and computer skills
Look at Mr TwoSkills over here, puttin' on airs like he's better than the rest of us. ;-)
I get this. Recently we had a wet spot on our ceiling. It was about 1/2" diameter spot. Needed time to get it fixed. I planned for about 3 hours, cut into the spot, find where the wetness came from, fix wetness issue, fix hole, texture and paint. 2 weeks is what it took.
When I opened the hole, rat dropping fell and the wetness was from the rats pulling insulation off my from condenser line which was sweating. Root cause of the issue is find where the rats are getting in, seal that, catch the rats that remain, then fix all the stuff id originally set out to do.
My wife complained the whole time I only needed to fix the drywall everything else was just to delay
One rule of thumb I've heard for estimating repairs as a homeowner is to take however long you think it should take, double the number and increase the time unit
So that’swhy kitchen isn’t finished yet, I estimated about 3-4 months… guess my kid(s) will get to enjoy it or become labor!
Just assume there are no small projects, and changing a light bulb will take 5 trips to the hardware store, lol.
But mostly I just blunder in with blind optimism and then remember this fact
100%. I usually try to start something saturday morning so I know I have time if it expands. If I will need to buy some stuff before I start then do that friday night. Be as prepared as possible to get started saturday morning (or however your weekend type thing might work)
When I had my auto body shop, I got access to some estimating software for a short bit. I quickly spotted a pattern where if I looked at a job and honestly estimated, back of the napkin style, how long the job would take for each step, the software estimated 3 times that amount, but it took the long way around to arrive at the same baseline. The supplies were always doubled. This is how I look at every task now. Give it your best estimates and triple that time. assuming you understand the scope of the work, you'll encompass around 90% of work tasks with the rest going over or under.
Absolutely. I am not that good at home improvement (that night already be overstating my capabilities) and I am always worried that touching something will break it even worse. At best I end up researching the problem for ages, then reporting to my partner until they feel confident enough to do it, while I play support (and feel like a self-inflicted idiot)
If you don't fix it, it's still broken. So might as well make it a hobby. Buy nice tools and learn cool techniques. That way when something breaks you'll see it as a time investment in a thing that takes your mind out of work and "real" problems.