# What 'Leave it to the professionals!' advice did you ignore? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 8, 2013, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-leave-it-to-the-professionals-advice-did-you-ignore/646523 "2013-01-08T19:37:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-leave-it-to-the-professionals-advice-did-you-ignore/646523/41 "2013-01-11T02:49:24Z")
> [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](#): > > Dude, you’re a Canadian. Aren’t you required, by law, to come down here and visit? > > I’ll invite you for the occasionally talked about SoFlaDopeFest. > But then you’ll have to treat me to a beer next time work flies me to YYZ. > -D/a Well, YOW would be closer. But there’s no possible way I would ever decline a beer (or 12) if the logistics could be worked out. ---
**Author:** ![Marlonius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Marlonius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlonius)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-leave-it-to-the-professionals-advice-did-you-ignore/646523/42 "2013-01-11T02:52:38Z")
I changed the timing belt on a friend’s V6 Hyndai without the benefit of any manuals. I’d done lots of belts before, was feeling a little cocky, figured I’d figure it out with my experience and ability. It turned out to be an order of magnitude harder than any I’d ever touched up to that point. It ended up taking me about 8 hours, and I was sweating it a few times there. The result was fine, but the word “hubris” came to mind several times that day. ---
**Author:** ![Blackberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@Blackberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackberry)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-leave-it-to-the-professionals-advice-did-you-ignore/646523/43 "2013-01-11T03:04:44Z")
Okay, I’ll sound really gross here, but I picked off a couple moles myself 😮 Turned out fine. It bled a lot but didn’t hurt much. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-leave-it-to-the-professionals-advice-did-you-ignore/646523/44 "2013-01-11T03:58:57Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Well, YOW would be closer. But there’s no possible way I would ever decline a beer (or 12) if the logistics could be worked out. I’m actually surprised I haven’t been sent to YOW yet. If the business environment gets a little better, then I might request a trip there once it warms up a bit. I have quite a number of co-workers in that area that I really should have a face to face with sometime. Normally, I go to YKF..but you can’t fly there from here very easily. Um..on topic.. I’d never pilot the plane myself. I’ll leave that to the professionals! -D/a ---
**Author:** ![stui\_magpie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stui_magpie/32/11010_2.png) [@stui\_magpie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stui_magpie)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-leave-it-to-the-professionals-advice-did-you-ignore/646523/45 "2013-01-11T04:03:24Z")
Laid 46 square metres of floating floor in the house extension. Without removing the furniture in the room. Just dragged the furniture away from where I started and as I moved along, shove the furniture back. Never tried or even watched anyone lay the stuff before and was really happy It came up really well. Cost me $1600 for the flooring and tools. Another bloke I know had a small lounge room around 1/3 of the size of my room done professionally a few months later, cost him $3000. Really happy with how mine turned out.😃 ---
**Author:** ![Palo\_Verde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@Palo\_Verde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palo_Verde)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-leave-it-to-the-professionals-advice-did-you-ignore/646523/46 "2013-01-11T04:44:42Z")
I remodeled the bathroom by myself with no experience. I learned to lay tile, use a wet saw, put in sheet rock, install new fixtures, etc. It turned out surprisingly well. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-leave-it-to-the-professionals-advice-did-you-ignore/646523/47 "2013-01-11T06:00:07Z")
Wrought. &%#$@!ing. Iron. rails. I have a porch the width of the house with four tall wrought pillars and a shitload of curlyques and ‘flourishes’. They were in bad shape when I bought the place and got an estimate of $4000 as I recall. I waffled and wavered and put it off. My GF at the time and my father conspired against me to get started on the wrought iron that I was certain I couldn’t do properly myself. Dad came by on a Saturday with some tools such as a belt sander and spray paint. He put in a couple hours so thanks for that. I slaved for weeks after getting home from work and weekends in the heat of the fading days of summer scraping and later painting. The scraping is half assed and amateurish and the painting is half assed and amateurish. I never should have tried to take it on myself and the job is already starting to fail. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2013, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-leave-it-to-the-professionals-advice-did-you-ignore/646523/48 "2013-01-12T20:54:43Z")
I built my own apartment in a basement of one of my brother’s rental duplexes. The hardest job, that I _wish_ we had left to professionals, was digging the new stairs. The ground in this area is clay, and a bitch to dig. Me and two other guys with shovels. I was using a post-digger, cutting up the clay, because I have the strongest legs. The second guy was shoveling up the broken soil and tossing it out of the pit. The third guy was shoveling that into the truck. The whole mess was 12 feet long and up to 12 feet deep, and we did this in one very long day. Then I designed the concrete forms, and me and a friend who did concrete poured the stairs the next day. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2013, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-leave-it-to-the-professionals-advice-did-you-ignore/646523/49 "2013-01-12T22:20:42Z")
> [@Mr.Accident](#): > > As for me, I haven’t ran across anything I won’t do myself, aside from medical stuff. Great user name/post combination. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2013, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-leave-it-to-the-professionals-advice-did-you-ignore/646523/50 "2013-01-12T22:40:23Z")
My wife bought three tables and a couple desks at the 3M office she was working out of; think ancient, heavy, solid wood tables and desks. Indestructible, good wood, just with really badly scratched varnish on them. And, generations of people taping things down with masking tape. I stripped down the three tables and refinished them, and they came out beautifully–the non-toxic, quick-acting stripper we used also took off the masking tape. A year later I tried disassembling one of the desks and stripping it without checking to see whether or not the non-toxic, quick-acting stripper was still in production. After using the last gallon left over from the previous year’s job, I found out that it wasn’t. That desk is still sitting there in our basement, half-stripped and disassembled. It’ll make a great bonfire some day. ---
**Author:** ![Namkcalb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2013, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-leave-it-to-the-professionals-advice-did-you-ignore/646523/51 "2013-01-12T23:10:24Z")
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