I do it all. I started to go into detail, but really I do everything. My dad taught me well and I have some good friends who know their shit. So I do everything from plumbing, to electrical, to auto repairs, to structural and home-finishing.
I repaired some broken sway bar ends on my wife’s car this weekend. I also replaced a headlamp in my car. Last week I did the rear brakes on my wife’s car.
When we put a pool in 2 years ago and I did the electrical work myself, including digging the trench from the house to the pump.
Yeah, I pretty much tackle everything. I need to get the roof re-shingled soon and am seriously considering just doing it myself. None of this stuff is rocket science. It’s just finding the time.
Male. I can do electrical work of any kind, rough and finish carpentry, cabinet making, furniture (about half my furniture was built by me), tile, drywall, painting, door hanging, window installation, plaster work, carpet, sprinkler systems, concrete…
I can fix most of my own appliances and electronics. I can also not only change the oil in my vehicles, I can tear down and rebuild most engines (pre-1980 I can prolly do all of them).
About the only thing I don’t like to do is plumbing. I’ll put in a new faucet or toilet, but when it really comes to running pipe, I prefer to pay a pro.
male here.
I do all the fix-it around the house. The closer I get to final finish work the less skilled I am. I can float a wall-but not well enough to suit me. Electrical work-I won’t mess with the main panel but I can run a line from the subpanel to a new outlet. Though I prefer to hire someone for that. Inspections and all that sort of stuff. I have become quite a plumber-had to replumb an entire house after Katrina. Settling under the almost flooded house broke the water pipes in two places. Took me two weeks of part-time work to rerun enough lines to bypass the breaks. All the local plumbers were too busy to handle a big job. I even paid one plumber $80 to come out and tell me he couldn’t do the work. Ouch. I can tile, but I am not efficient. I used to do car repairs but have lost interest. It is easier to get the shop to do the work.
My wife is definitely not a fix-it person. I keep the house working. Her job is to be comfortable and to provide some color and style sense. If the paint colors were left up to me, the neighbors would file a lawsuit…
I’d say yes, I’m pretty handy. Working on the house is sort of my hobby. I’m not fast, but get it done.
I designed and built a two story addition to our house. Put in in-floor heat in the addition, and moved our mechanical room into the addition. Lots of plumbing work there; the lower level is a utility room. I had to run an additional drain line to the septic tank, rented a track hoe to excavate the addition and so on.
I had the concrete work and electrical work hired out. We had to move the electric meter and main breaker panel. Small electrical work is no problem, but that was too much.
I’ve done a few complete kitchen remodels, down to the studs. I’ve replaced a few roofs. And created a bathroom and computer loft in our master bedroom. I’m in the loft now.
Just built a temporary kitchen counter top (it looks really good for $100 of material, I have a thread about paint for it around here somewhere). That’s where the washer/dryer was. They have since been moved to the addition (one of the main reasons to do the addition was to get the washer dryer out of the kitchen).
Oh, I’m a guy. I have a 4x4 loader that I use to keep the driveway in shape, and a thirty year old plow truck that I have to keep running. I’m a GIS programmer by day, and a jack of all trades on my weekends. My previous building experience (I framed for a few years) and my drafting/computer/CAD experience helped a lot with designing and building the addition. I did an isometric drawing of the whole thing that helped a lot.
Today I will clean out the trap in the Master bedroom sink (hate that job). Fire up the compressor for a low tire on the plow truck. And get things more organized for the electrician coming over on Tuesday.
I was like that until we moved in together and he took one look at my crooked pictures (Stud? What’s that?), curtain rods pulling out from the wall, the duct tape and staples holding things together and the saran wrap that was keeping the leaky faucet from spraying up in my face and politely requested that I never attempt to do anything that required tools more sophisticated than a thumbtack. I’m permanently off the hook for home repairs now.
My dream is to be able to fix my car next. I can check my oil, replace some of my fluids and change a tire and a headlight and a battery, but that’s about it.
Thanks for all the responses - there are a lot of handy men and women around here.
I suppose I could be. My dad was and I am smart enough to learn anything I want.
But I have no patience for that kind of stuff - not like my dad who would spend hours making a part we could buy for a few dollar - and I pretty much hate it. I would rather pay someone to fix it - or, as is not uncommon, ignore it - or as is equally common, go buy a new one.
I think you’re very smart - if you know you have it and can have someone else do it, better to pay to get it done than torture yourself forcing yourself to do it.
A couple of friends of mine equally hate home improvement, but refuse to hire someone else to do it. So about three years ago they ripped up part of their basement and it’s been that way ever since.
I just like home improvement - certain parts, anyway - and it usually implies a few minutes to myself doing something I don’t have to think too much about once I’ve got a good plan.
I’ve built some of our furniture, did most of the electrical work, did the wall paper removal and replacement, rebuilt the door frame when we had a break in so you cannot see the damage, took the door knob apart and carefully reconditioned it, build computers rather than buy, repair toys, small electronics, 1975 pinball machine, shop vaccs install and repair programmable thermostats and even do most of the sewing.
However, I let pros install our windows, garage door springs and solar and I will let pros replace our doors. I also don’t work on cars anymore. Not since I went to new cars instead of cars made in the 70s.
Someone upthread mentioned only being able to do fluid changes and flat tires but wanted to be able to do more. IME as cars get newer, more stuff becomes electronic and more or less off limits to the shade tree mechanic. A perfect example, the timing on our old 72 LTD went to hell, I replaced the points (and rotor and dist cap and spark plug wires and plugs while I was at it) and it was fine. If my 2006 Civic started missing, I wouldn’t even know where to start. overlyverbose, if you feel handy and can change a tire, the next thing to learn would be replacing disk brakes and rotors, it’s not that much more difficult if you have a book (or someone who’s done it before) and the right tools. Drums are more difficult but still doable by the DIYer.
That sums it up perfectly. I would rebuild carbs, do valve jobs, body work, swap out radios, rebuild my alternators, swap starters, timing and tune-ups and really anything short of trannies I guess. Oh, I was always afraid of doing my own brakes.* Now I let someone else do my oil changes.
Anything else I did if I did screw it up the car didn’t run well, I always figured screwing up brakes could lead to an accident.
My user name was given to me by co-workers. I helped rebuild the plane I now fly and I’ve built up sport cars. I built a garage by accident after trying to add 12 feet to an existing one. Ended up replacing the roof and all the walls due to structural problems. I even made the windows from scratch. Just replaced all the drain lines in the upstairs bathroom and all the water lines to the kitchen. I’ve replaced the blower motor on the furnace along with switching parts. There isn’t a whole lot I won’t tackle if it’s worth my time. Usually it’s a function of me wanting it done right. I usually save the small stuff for “fix it” day. last time I replaced a floor lamp switch, an outside porch light, and repaired a DVD player.
If I learned anything it’s to help other people on their projects when they know what their doing. It’s a free education that provides labor dividends when I need help.
I did full-time assembly work for Wal*Mart (putting together bicycles, grills and furniture), have changed tires, spark plugs and oil on my older cars and know how to tape and bed, just to name a few. I’m terrified of anything electric though and I defer to the Other Half on anything that would require crawling under the house. Overall, I try to make up for any deficancies by offering to pull my weight in the heat, despite long hours or heavier lifting and then not complaining. But I still need lots of work in plenty of areas.
You know, wanting to be able to be deal like ‘just one of the guys’ is a strong motivator for me. Otherwise, there’d be too much razzing involved.
I’m very handy. I can do electrical, a good bit of plumbing, painting, and a lot of carpentry.
But when it came time to remodel our kitchen, I hired a guy. That was a mistake. I know more than he does about how things should be done and he’s getting angry because I keep telling him what he has done wrong and how to do it right. We hired him because he has a great reputation in town and everyone who used him raves about him, but he just sucks. It’s going to kill me to live with a $50,000 kitchen that I could have done twice as well for half as much money if I had done it myself.
Fairly handy. I’ve replaced outside light fixtures, fixed my heat pump a few times (bad electrical connection), replaced the kitchen and bathroom faucets. Painting, fixing mowers, etc. I haven’t done any construction or building from the ground up though. I’ve helped put up drywall and things like that.
I’m not very handy, but I can always call my brother-in-law. He can fix or build anything, owns every tool known to Western science, and is really, really good at describing how to do stuff.
If it’s simple or logical, I can do it. Plumbing is like that, so I can tackle stuff if I have the tools for it. I’ve replaced light fixtures, installed garage door openers, and simple car repairs.
When I was young, I had lots of time and no money. Now it is the opposite, so I tend to call in professionals more.
Mr. Neville and I are both about as handy as you’d expect an astrophysicist to be.
My dad is very handy. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the handy gene, or didn’t pick up on it from him. I don’t even know what a lot of the stuff in this thread is (float a wall? Does that involve a large tub of water?). I tend to run the other way when someone who is not a professional electrician is doing electrical work. I don’t do crafts, either.
