When I initially bought a house, I was cheap and relatively poor, so I figured I would do most home improvement work myself.  Plus, I watched my parents gut and refinish my childhood home, so I figured they were onto something.  For some projects, this makes a ton of sense.  It's probably not worth it to pay someone to paint your walls or replace a door, so I (we) did that.  I've even had the (mis)fortune of doing quite a bit of minor plumbing work and the occasional electric switch repair. 

But recently I've been paying people to fix my house for two simple reasons:  (1) Having money saved up for things like this, and (2) repeatedly failing to complete projects or do them well.  The last few plumbing projects I attempted involved replacing leaky pipes and valves.  It usually happened in the winter, so I would have to kneel on the cold cement floor of my crawlspace, cut pipes open and have them spray cold water all over me, and try for hours to solder a piece of cold metal onto a wet pipe (complete with at least two trips to the hardware store) before finally admitting failure and calling a plumber. 

The idea came to me to simply skip the do-it-yourself phase and call a professional, and that's what I've done the past few times.  I've yet to be disappointed by professional work.  The people I've dealt with are nice, they're quick, and they really don't change a lot of money.  Plus, the mental health savings are huge.  I'd rather pay someone to do something well than to do it poorly myself. #lifestyle