- My Forums
- Tiger Rant
- LSU Recruiting
- SEC Rant
- Saints Talk
- Pelicans Talk
- More Sports Board
- Fantasy Sports
- Golf Board
- Soccer Board
- O-T Lounge
- Tech Board
- Home/Garden Board
- Outdoor Board
- Health/Fitness Board
- Movie/TV Board
- Book Board
- Music Board
- Political Talk
- Money Talk
- Fark Board
- Gaming Board
- Travel Board
- Food/Drink Board
- Ticket Exchange
- TD Help Board
Customize My Forums- View All Forums
- Show Left Links
- Topic Sort Options
- Trending Topics
- Recent Topics
- Active Topics
Started By
Message
0
Posted on 7/23/25 at 12:14 pm to BabyTac
quote:While you're not entirely wrong, you are wrong. I could build, plumb, wire and finish out a small house on my own no problem if I had the time. I can weld, turn a wrench, operate equipment, back a gooseneck loaded with 35,000 pounds up a driveway at night, but I can also run ArcGIS and CAD modeling after performing data collection in the field with a $35,000 Trimble RTK GPS unit.
I was taught and live by the code of never calling a stranger to come in and fix anything on your home. 9 times out of 10 it won’t be done correctly or even completed. If you can’t fix things and repair them yourself, you shouldn’t own a house.
But all of that takes time to learn, and that "time" factor is very important to me and factoring in opportunity cost, especially with a family. If you're not factoring in opportunity costs then you're not doing it right, or you have far more time on your hands than I do. I just paid a plumber $125 to fix a leaking washer hose valve, and it was worth every penny. I pay $25 more to have someone else change my oil in our vehicles, even though I have a shop outfitted to do the same on 100 horsepower tractors and dozers. I bought a trailer hitch mounted e-bike rack off Amazon for $75, even though I could've spent a few hours using scrap steel to do it myself in my shop, but I had other things I both needed to do, and wanted to do. The cost was worth my time.
It's not always financially and physically beneficial to do everything yourself, and the latter becomes more important the older you get: If you can pay for someone to get up on a ladder for you, do it, because it could be the difference between good physical and financial health, or ruination of one or both of them, or even death. I work hard enough to pay for someone else to go up the ladder and get under the vehicle to change my oil. My kids and I will eat our ice cream and watch and make sure the job is performed to spec, and if he falls from the ladder and finds his tibia at a right angle to proper alignment, better him than me.
Posted on 7/23/25 at 12:36 pm to Mingo Was His NameO
quote:speaking of which, you been creeping around any gyms lately checking out what other dudes are drinking water out of?
You didn’t own a screw driver until you were 30 and want to make homosexual jokes about someone else?
Posted on 7/23/25 at 12:43 pm to CAD703X
I can fix damn near anything but I fix damn near nothing. I worked for a propane company and an AC company so I learned how to do just about everything but there is a very handy dude that lives up the road and will fix anything for $20. He installed my starlink on my roof for $20 yesterday. I always give him some gummies as a tip and it works
Posted on 7/23/25 at 12:46 pm to CAD703X
The sense of relief you have as you get older and move from cars and houses held together with paper clips and tape to ones that function as designed and without constant issues-bordering-on-catastrophe is a rite of passage.
Especially true if you start off with old homes in an urban area.
Especially true if you start off with old homes in an urban area.
Posted on 7/23/25 at 12:51 pm to slidingstop
Your experience and mine sound very similar. Learned a shite ton helping my dad with things. Can do most anything around the house. Now how good it will look is another story. That’s about the only time I call someone is when I need to make sure it looks good.
Posted on 7/23/25 at 1:01 pm to CAD703X
It’s sounds like you were young and dumb and you learned and grew
In that guy also, I could do a lot of the physical things you couldn’t, but we were poor as dirt. We did buy a home, but we still installed have any money
In that guy also, I could do a lot of the physical things you couldn’t, but we were poor as dirt. We did buy a home, but we still installed have any money
Posted on 7/23/25 at 1:03 pm to CAD703X
Owning a house 30 yrs ago is a huge difference than owning one now. You can look up on the internet to fix/install anything these days.
Posted on 7/23/25 at 1:53 pm to CAD703X
quote:
how prepared were you to take care of the first house you bought
Pretty good. I built my first house from ground up myself. With help from my friends. We were 19 years old. It was a very nice house.
Posted on 7/23/25 at 1:56 pm to BabyTac
Man you get dumber and dumber. I applaud your commitment to proving how much of a douche you are on a post by post basis.
Posted on 7/23/25 at 3:23 pm to CAD703X
Very. My husband worked at a hands-on, old-fashioned hardware store from age 14-22. He understood the basics of plumbing, electrical, and HVAC from dealing with their contractor accounts and a lot of old men. He also had a good set of tools accumulated over the years. We had to buy a mower, weed eater, blower, etc, but he knew what to get.
That work experience has proved invaluable. He still builds and installs and fixes most everything around here, but knows when it behooves him to call in a pro.
Being young and poor in the first house was also a factor.
I prepared by marrying him.
That work experience has proved invaluable. He still builds and installs and fixes most everything around here, but knows when it behooves him to call in a pro.
Being young and poor in the first house was also a factor.
I prepared by marrying him.
Posted on 7/23/25 at 3:46 pm to CAD703X
10/10 I was 24 and my wife and I bought a house that was about 60% finished. I had worked as a plumber, electrician and carpenter for my dad from the time I was about 10 years old. I finished that house myself while my wife was pregnant for our first. Eight years later, at 32, I generaled a new home construction and did the electrical, plumbing, painting and alarm system myself.
Posted on 7/23/25 at 3:48 pm to slidingstop
quote:
I"m more of a demolition expert
A man who knows his limits.
Posted on 7/23/25 at 3:51 pm to CAD703X
Got married, bought my first house. It was a new home just constructed by an older friend. I did just about everything. Later on I built and flipped houses. My Dad was an Electrician by trade.
I went on to build and design homes. A few of my houses were in the Baton Rouge newspaper.
I went on to build and design homes. A few of my houses were in the Baton Rouge newspaper.
This post was edited on 7/23/25 at 3:52 pm
Posted on 7/23/25 at 5:07 pm to CAD703X
I was a 0/10. Now I'm at a 4/10.
Not only did I have to self teach basic trouble shooting (ex: a NEST thermostat is SUPPOSED to self charge using energy from your A/C unit, unless its American Standard, then you need a C wire, etc..) but every house I've owned has different quirks (if the guest bath loses power the GFC to reset is downstairs in the far corner of garage). In my current kitchen the damn contractor drywalled over every single driver for the under counter lights and hid a fourth one behind the fridge. He also put a driver for shelf lights behind my fireplace so if I used the fireplace it would get too hot and blow out the driver. Had to learn what a P trap is, how to do basic fixes in the toilet tank, how to install a new light fixture. Not because I can't afford to pay someone but because I am pretty hardcore introverted and 1) hate using phone 2) hate playing pantomime with a Mexican stranger in my home at 8 am.
I'm a woman, and my dad didn't teach me these things. My husband comes from money, so his father couldn't do anything and didn't teach him anything either.
ChatGPT is very useful though. My pool heater kept turning off before hitting temp and ChatGPT showed me where specifically to locate and clear the airflow intake.
Not only did I have to self teach basic trouble shooting (ex: a NEST thermostat is SUPPOSED to self charge using energy from your A/C unit, unless its American Standard, then you need a C wire, etc..) but every house I've owned has different quirks (if the guest bath loses power the GFC to reset is downstairs in the far corner of garage). In my current kitchen the damn contractor drywalled over every single driver for the under counter lights and hid a fourth one behind the fridge. He also put a driver for shelf lights behind my fireplace so if I used the fireplace it would get too hot and blow out the driver. Had to learn what a P trap is, how to do basic fixes in the toilet tank, how to install a new light fixture. Not because I can't afford to pay someone but because I am pretty hardcore introverted and 1) hate using phone 2) hate playing pantomime with a Mexican stranger in my home at 8 am.
I'm a woman, and my dad didn't teach me these things. My husband comes from money, so his father couldn't do anything and didn't teach him anything either.
ChatGPT is very useful though. My pool heater kept turning off before hitting temp and ChatGPT showed me where specifically to locate and clear the airflow intake.
This post was edited on 7/23/25 at 5:08 pm
Posted on 7/23/25 at 5:30 pm to BabyTac
quote:
I was taught and live by the code of never calling a stranger to come in and fix anything on your home. 9 times out of 10 it won’t be done correctly or even completed. If you can’t fix things and repair them yourself, you shouldn’t own a house.
You consistently say the stupidest shite on this website.
Posted on 7/23/25 at 6:35 pm to CAD703X
I was approaching my mid 20's when I bought my first house. It was an old shotgun and definitely a fixer-upper and I got to work doing the repairs needed.
I've said it before on here that I'm a firm believer in "Sweat Equity" and have no problem getting my hands dirty to fix things around the house. I've done just about all the maintenance and repairs in all 3 of the houses I've bought over the years.
However, age has caught up with me and I recently had a roofing company replace my 24 year old, 29 square roof on my old 2 story house because that has gotten beyond my scope of physical ability at age 72 with sketchy knee and ankle joints that I now have.
It killed me to have to do that, but it was much the lesser of two evils because if I tried it, I would have bitten off more than I could chew and it likely wouldn't have wound up nice. Sometimes it's just better to write the check...................
I've said it before on here that I'm a firm believer in "Sweat Equity" and have no problem getting my hands dirty to fix things around the house. I've done just about all the maintenance and repairs in all 3 of the houses I've bought over the years.
However, age has caught up with me and I recently had a roofing company replace my 24 year old, 29 square roof on my old 2 story house because that has gotten beyond my scope of physical ability at age 72 with sketchy knee and ankle joints that I now have.
It killed me to have to do that, but it was much the lesser of two evils because if I tried it, I would have bitten off more than I could chew and it likely wouldn't have wound up nice. Sometimes it's just better to write the check...................
Posted on 7/23/25 at 7:20 pm to TigerBaitOohHaHa
Good on you! I haven’t done anything house-related bc I have friends who can do most things. If simple I’ll ask them, if convoluted I have a contractor who does things for me so if things go south, no uncomfortable moment. One changed my air capacitor last year. I did figure out why my car suddenly died after googling endlessly for 2 days, following it dying after an oil change and battery placement not helping. Forget what it was, but it was a darn fuse! It blew and put my car in safe mode. Friend came and changed it and when my blinker quit working, yep, fuse. Never knew my car had so many fuses lol.
Page 3 of 3
Popular
Back to top
Follow TigerDroppings for LSU Football News