DIY

I can't stand those home fix up shows where Bob Vila renovates a kitchen in a half hour or Norm builds a $2,000 cabinet out of leftovers.  But you can save a lot of money by doing things yourself.  It has always amazed me that highly educated, successful individuals with multiple degrees and years of work experience are absolutely scared to death of trying to fix something.  Hey, the guy you call to fix it has a high school degree at best--how hard can it be?  Well, in some cases, pretty hard but often not impossible. 

Case in point.  We are starting the process of building a new house which means fixing up the old one to sell.  Nothing chaffs me more than fixing up something and then moving but it will help the resale so I go along with it.  But I will grab an opportunity when I see one. 

And one opportunity was our beat up old ceiling fans and light fixtures hanging down over the island in the kitchen.  Everything works fine but twenty years of being there has left the fans without much brass and the lights look a bit tarnished. 

So off to Loews and Home Depot and start looking at fans and lights.  In round numbers here is what we figured out. 

Six new fans at, say, $100 a piece.  (There are cheaper ones but they look it.)  Total $600

Accesory Parts                                                                                                                                                  50

Two Hanging lights at $50 a piece                                                                                                      $100

Tax at 8.5%                                                                                                                                                         64

Total                                                                                                                                                                  $814

Not a lot of money but, again, I'm not too happy about spending money on a place I'm going to move out of.  I'm not saying I'm cheap but as Mike Ditka once said about Chicago Bears owner, George Halas, "He tosses around nickels like they were manhole covers."  That's me.

So pretty happy when Sue couldn't find a replacement fan she liked or lights.  Leave it to the next guy.  Then her rhetorical question, "Can you paint brass?"  Beats me so on to the internet and you can.  Clean with mineral spirits, prime, and paint.

So I got the job and I took it because the cost broke down like this--

4 Cans of Primer at $4.39 a can                                                $17.56

4 Cans of Spray Paint at $4.39                                                   $17.56

Masking Tape                                                                                        $1.99

Mineral Spirits                                                                                      $3.99

Total with Tax                                                                                   $44.59

$814 vs. $44.59.  Looking pretty good.

But then I always do some non-monetary analysis before deciding to go forward with any project.  The first question is always--Can I get killed doing this?

Let's see, there is the possibility of electrocution.  Then a fan could land on my head and kill me.  Or I could fall off the ladder.  Electrocution is probably out, not enough juice.  Fan on my head?  Probably not, I still move pretty fast.  Falling off a ladder?  Broken arm at the worst.

So I decide to proceed.  Take the bottom cover plate off the fan.  Mess of wires looking pretty confusing.  Sue notes the electrical connection is probably at the top, near the ceiling, not at the bottom.  After all these years I have no ego so take her suggestion.  She is right.  Remove two screws holding the cover plate on and one screw promptly gets dropped and lost.  Trip to the hardware store.  Made sure the fan was turned off, took off the wire nuts connecting the wires and avoided getting shocked.  Fans are kind of neat because they have a rubber half ball that is screwed to the rod that is attached to the fan.  The rubber ball sits in a little cradle that is attached to the electrical box in the ceiling.  Disconnect the wires, lift up the fan and slide it out of the little cradle.  And drop it.  Well, came close anyway. 

Got the fan down, took it outside, unscrewed the blades, washed everything down with mineral spirits, placed the fan on some sawhorses, primed it and then painted it.  Let it dry and reversed the procedure.  Sprayed some paint in the plastic top of the paint can, got a model brush and touched up the scratches I made putting the stupid back on the ceiling.   

Repeat with the other five fans and the lights over the island.  Everything back in except one light over the island but so far, so good.  Biggest problem was lining up the screws holding the cover plates, dropped three, lost two.

But saved $769.44.  As Benjamin Franklin said, "A penny saved is a penny earned."  Ben knew what he was talking about.  And Home Depot charges $50 to put in a ceiling fan.  If things get tough I can always become a professional installer.

Sue once asked how much we saved doing things ourselves.  Doing a quick analysis, I came up with $300,000 over the years.  I think I may have low balled the number.