I’m guessing that the average doper is more capable of doing things for him/her self than the average person. So how capable are you? Can you change your oil, cook your own dinner, build your own house and kidnap your own woman? Also what do you think it says about people who want to do things for themselves?
WHAT??!! Do it MYSELF???
“Beulah, peel me a grape…”
99% of the time. I fix my own plumbing. I wire my own faulty electical switches. I frame my own doors. I’ve even built a bar and a craps table.
Tripler
Yes, I am an engineer.
I just finished making new covers for the throw pillows on my couch. I like to DIY, and I get a lot of satisfaction out of figuring something out on my own.
I can cook, change my oil, flush a radiator, change spark plugs, do simple carpentry projects, sew almost anything, refinish and reupholster furniture, install a car stereo, wire lighting for my reef aquarium, grow vegetables and uhh, dye my own hair. I’d like to get better at carpentry stuff, but that will have to wait until I get a house.
Yeah, I think I DIY more than the average 25 year old American female.
I love you. Marry me. . .
Tripler
Please?
I’ll DIY damn near anything, but I do have my limits. If a screw-up is gonna cost significantly more than the original problem, I’ll back off.
For example, major engine work. I won’t do major engine work on my truck, especially if I’m not sure I have the right tools, because it’ll cost me an extra $80 to tow it to the shop.
And working on the furnace isn’t out of my league, but I can’t afford a day and a half without heat. The professional heating repair guys here have 24-hour access to the parts they need.
25 year old female. I’ve moved myself and all my possessions from Boston to Minneapolis and back three times in the last three years, just me and a U-Haul. I refinish and reupholster old furniture, too. Taught myself to cook (well) and sew (easy stuff, learning as I go). Hung my own curtain rods and mirrors in my apartment and my landlord freaked out, until he saw that I’d done it properly. I know how to hang wallpaper.
And in one of my greatest DIY moments, when I smashed my big toenail this past summer, I managed to drain much of the blood myself from under the nail by following the instructions on WebMD for burning a hole through the nail with a candle and an uncurled paper clip. The doctors at the ER said that if I’d been their run-of-the-mill toenail injury, that would’ve saved me the $500 visit to see them (uninsured at the time, lucky me), but since I buggered my toe up worse than any other they’d seen before, I required more holes than my little paper clip could drill. That, and they had the Novocaine and the Vicodin I so desperately needed at that point. But those doctors (it took three of them to fix my toe) were pretty impressed by my handiwork, and one offered to let me take home one of their disposable cautery tools in case I needed to drill some more holes later, on my own.
I’m a professional computer nerd… so when it comes to anything computer-related (or even electronic-gadget-related), I’ll do it myself.
Grease and oil change the car? Forget it. That’s why mechanics get paid the big bucks. Ditto anything involving 240V electricity.
I’ll attempt most small carpentry jobs and have repaired walls with holes in them. Sometime in the near future I’ll be recaulking the bathtub. Does that qualify? LOL
I guess for the most part, I leave the hard stuff to the professionals.
Max 
I can cook pretty well. Will sew up small rips in clothing (if the rip is on the seam), or replace a button; anything worse than that that happens to a piece of clothing, I take as a sign from God that I’m not supposed to wear that anymore.
The electric/plumbing stuff, I’d probably be capable of learning to do myself (have changed a tire in a pinch), but, hey, I can’t do all the work. . .gotta save some for hubby.
I’m a computer programmer, but have done a lot of carpentry in the past.
I’m putting a 2 story addition on my house.
My brother and I rented a Cat D4 dozer to regrade the driveway. Got the damn thing stuck. But that’s another story.
I do not paint cars.
I do everything else. Last week I tuckpointed some loose bricks in the garage, set up an additional printer on the home network, helped my friend hang some drywall, rebuilt the front end of the transmission in the tractor, rewired some badly-grounded outlets in the house, spackled some cracks in the plaster in the bathroom, refinished and reupholstered the chair I’m sitting in, changed the oil and trans fluid in all three vehicles, fixed two broken hammers and one worn wippen in a piano that was given to me, and baked some bread. Can’t imagine anyting I won’t do, can’t do, or haven’t done.
There does come a time when it’s fiscally more practical to have someone else do things, but if I have the time, I’d still rather do it myself.
b.
I pretty much do it all myself until it gets too expensive, too big or too time consuming (in other words, not worth my time) to do.
80% of work on the house? - Me
Re-roofing? - call a contractor (I did roofing as a kid. That was enough.)
Replacing fan belts, air filters, adjusting brakes, etc on the Jeep? - Me
Transmission work? - mechanic
Oil changes - Jiffy Lube or equivilant. This is one where it’s just not worth my time, the mess, the disposal of the oil, etc.
The motorcycle’s all mine until I get to something that simply needs the $5,000 computer doohicky at the dealership. (or a front fork oil change - I hate doing that.)
So yeah, unless it’s something that could cause an insurance claim, I pretty much tackle it.
I am considered a very good cook. I can build just about everything form a small shelf to a addition to a house. I use to be a state licensed electrician. I know how to use a sewing maching and serger, I am teaching myselt to do abroidery now. I can weld most metals. I know how to lay up fiberglass, I worked for a boat manufacturer for a while. Even fixed a cracked fender on a Corvette. I built the computer I an currently using. Need a custom built exhaust system for your car? I can do that. The only part of a car that I can’t repair is automatic transmissions or transfer cases. I have painted cars, I still own a couple of spray guns. I have taken a number of cars completely apart and put them back together. I can make dovetail joints just like Norm Abrams. I have sold graphics that I made on my computer. I have painted signs professionally. And because of my current occupation, if given enough time, I could probably build a Boeing 737 all by myself.
I’m a DIY kind of guy. I have put in recessed lighting in my family room, wired in speakers for surround sound, built a 10’X25’ pond in my back yard, landscaped and installed six zones of irrigation in the front yard and built a patio. Tiled the entry, family room and halls with stone, and remodeled the master bath. Awhile back, I replaced the rear main seal in my Stude, and just replaced the front brakes, bearings and rotors on my truck.
I’m getting to old for all this shit.
Most car stuff I can do, oil, transmission fluid, motor mounts, brake pads, rotors, shocks, stabilizer bars, the only thing that prevents me from doing more is that I don’t have a garage with a car lift and some of the specialized tools. I’ve worked on cars and motorcycles. I can repair some electronic equipment, I’m farily good with a soldering iron. All the computers I have I’ve assembled myself, except for the laptop that I’m using to compose this message. I’m a programmer by trade and have written numerous applications to meet my own and others special needs.
negative numbers on the DIY scale,once hung a round mirror crooked 
My, /fanning self Tripler this is all so sudden. Why, I don’t even know the size of your, umm, cordless drill…
I am so do-it-yourself that I make MacGyver look like Tim Taylor.
**Tripler ** I think you have overlooked **Q.N. Jones’ ** possiblities. She soldered her own toe, fercryinoutloud and moves heavy furniture.
If I were a lesbian, I’d ask both to marry me.
That said, around this house there isn’t anything Mr. Ujest cannot fix. He built the place. He can fix it. The only thing in nearly ten years that has needed work has been…uh…replacing lightbulbs and installing new appliances. He’s had it pretty easy. But he gets overtime in car repair, which, as we speak, he is in a Target Parking lot figuring out if it is the starter or the battery that has gone union on my van. My money is on the starter.
My talents: landscaping, gardening ( oh, you should see my garden, oy! Veggies, my flowers, well, we got issues.) diagnosing children’s illnesses, basic to better than average mechanical diagnosis, jump start anything ( lots of practice), use a generator properly ( there is a wrong way to do it.) oil changes, change a tire, start a fire with just one match, and, most critical, put a horn on a child’s bike.
Oh, don’t worry. The chuck on my lathe is full-size baby.
Tripler
Q.N. Jones,, how you doin? 