I love do it yourself projects. I grew up in a house where DIY was important. My dad is one of those people who wants to try everything himself first, before hiring someone to do it. Before moving, he asked my husband Jo to give him a hand with some of his projects. One of the projects involved replacing the siding on his house. The house was built in the 80’s and the contractor used masonite, which isn’t so great to start with. Well, the guys installed the siding wrong, putting the nails in the wrong place and that damaged the skin of the siding. So when it would rain, the moisture would seep down into it and cause the siding to swell up and in most places, mold.

So after putting it off for a couple of months, he finally hired my husband to help. Now neither of them had replaced siding, though my husband worked in construction for years. My dad and Jo made several mistakes during the process. For instance, they somehow managed to put up one piece backwards. By that I mean, the outside of the siding was inside. Overall, it turned OK. I hope my dad doesn’t read this, but I think they could have done a better job by taking the time to learn and understand what they were doing.

When Jo and I decide where we plan to be permanently, we plan to
buy fixer upper house, so we will definitely be doing a lot of do it yourself projects. I actually prefer it this way because I enjoy putting my personal touches into a place, and style.

Doityourself.com is a community with over thousands of articles and over 100 active forums on man do it yourself, home improvement topics. This will help people like us, that enjoy doing those DIY projects. You know what they say, “knowledge is power”.