I was somewhat surprised on one of my web surfing jaunts to see a blog dedicated to ways of saving money weigh in against the notion of doing odd jobs and building projects yourself. Because for my homestead – and very likely yours as well – if we didn’t do our own odd jobs and building projects, then no needful jobs or building projects would ever get done. So I’ll take the opportunity presented to offer a rebuttal to some of the objections logged in the Money Bucket blog.

The article is Saving Money – Or Not – With DIY Projects, and it’s worth a read if you’re genuinely unsure of whether or not you’ve got the ability to tackle a project on your own. Of course for big projects it’s very important to understand going in exactly what will be necessary – time, tools, materials and a certain degree of skill. Homesteaders already know about budgeting their time toward the “work in progress” that describes our way of life, as there are always a dozen or more projects and repairs that need doing. Most of us, if we’ve been living this way for some years, have amassed more tools than many city-folk even know exist. In fact, for most projects the primary concern is coming up with the money to purchase the materials, and making sure we’ve got every little nut, bolt, pipe, sealant and extraneous parts before we start.

Perhaps the author is speaking more to urbanites than those of us who live out in the boonies on purpose and strive continually to be ever more self-sufficient. When the faucet washers wear out and start wasting our precious water supply (and driving us crazy with drips), or the drain clogs or cracks, or the windows break or the door needs replacing, we aren’t usually inclined to call a plumber or contractor. Heck, many of us would laugh at the very idea of paying some stranger extra to drive from town to our property and repair or replace what we could repair or replace, for ten times more than we could do the job for. But even urbanites with some tools, patience and an ability to turn screws/wenches could fix a leaky sink or hang a door without breaking the budget.

DIY disasters can cost big money to fix. Before starting any home improvement project you will need to understand each step from start to finish. Research potential pitfalls and problems you may encounter along the way to determine if the project is over your head. Be honest with yourself because your enthusiasm will quickly wear thin if something goes wrong – and if you don’t know what you’re doing, things can head south quickly.

That paragraph in the Money Bucket article made me chuckle. Sure, the author is talking about ‘home improvement’ more than simple repairs, but we homesteaders are quite used to those type of projects. We remodeled our kitchen last summer, which included replacing a window and door, re-siding the exterior wall, re-plumbing so we could move the sink, re-wiring, installing new cabinets and countertops, removing a bar to make room for the dining table we inherited, drywall installation, re-framing, flooring and insulating the attic space, and even reinforcing the main load bearing beam. It cost a pretty penny for all the materials, and we did have to replace the drill twice (old chestnut and locust beams are literally hard as rock). And of course things discovered along the way once we got into the walls and attic weren’t planned for but had to be dealt with anyway. Such is life.

Hiring a reputable contractor to complete an upgrade at your home generally gives you the peace of mind that the job is done right the first time. You will pay dearly for that peace of mind, but in some situations it can be worth every penny.

Heh. That’s kind of a surprising bit of advice to give to people described in the first paragraph of the article as “…planning to sell and need to update your home to make it more attractive to potential buyers…” I mean, if you have to pay dearly to upgrade your home in order to sell it to somebody else, then your improvements aren’t likely to cover the costs in this awful real estate environment. If you’re already underwater on that mortgage, digging yourself in deeper isn’t going to help.

It’s a little different if your home is where you plan to live for the rest of your life, but not much different when money’s tight. I had no kitchen all summer (it wasn’t officially finished until Thanksgiving), had to cook on the grill out back while a big sheet of plastic served as a front wall to my house. We all worked very hard, this is not the kind of project that allows much time for other things, and it involves everyone. It even upset the dogs and cats. But if we could have found a contractor to do that much structural damage to a hundred year old chestnut cabin with a crew of a dozen, it would have cost more than we paid for our entire homestead. Literally. And no, that would NOT have been “worth every penny.”

Sure, those kind of huge projects – new roof and/or installation of solar panels/wind or hydro generators, reworking the entire water supply (my next big project), tearing out walls or floors to get to wiring or plumbing, building a barn, etc. aren’t things one undertakes lightly. Or often, if you can help it. And it certainly helps to build up your confidence in the meantime by tackling small repair and replace projects first, learning to handle all the tools, and such. And exercising your mind about how to plan clever ways of getting around serious issues that may be encountered.

It’s all good for you, and just puts that much more of yourself into the overall Being we lovingly call “Homestead.” Good planning works too, so that several projects can be tied into one – the solar panels at the same time the new roof goes up. Replacing the old water-guzzler toilet with a low-flow at the same time you replace the sink and shower. Going ahead with the better insulation when any section of wall comes out. Things like that deserve the time it takes to plan ahead.

Money Bucket is correct in their bottom line that doing things yourself doesn’t always save you money, especially if you’ve got more money than time, skills and tools. But for those of us who have dedicated ourselves to a broader, more expansive and involved way of life that highly values self-sufficiency, doing things yourself is simply another aspect of the life we’ve chosen for ourselves. And we’ve usually got way more time, skills and tools than money to spend. Plus at least one friend with enough time, skills and tools to help us out if we need it.

In an economy like this one, sometimes a friend will help just for the nightly cook-outs, fresh garden veggies and fruit, refreshing cool-down at the swimming hole after swinging a hammer and wielding a circular saw all day, and maybe some iced beer and story-telling around the fire while the fireflies rise.

Money, after all, isn’t everything.

When our son and daughter were children barely starting school (and long before MTV or cable, VCRs or DVDs), I tossed our television down the basement stairs one evening in total disgust.

It had been some adult-like (English speaking) company for me when they were in diapers and my husband was often out at sea, I’d somehow become addicted to it to the point where it was turned on first thing in the morning and stayed on until bedtime. No matter what the actual quality of programming might be.

Back in those days there was a dinnertime contestant program called “The Gong Show” that was a forerunner to current terminally awful “American Idol” audition segments. I’d prepared a nice dinner and sat down with the children to ingest when I suddenly realized the television ‘background noise’ accompanying our meal was an obese, middle-aged woman burping the national anthem.

Talk about totally disgusted! So I unplugged that sucker and tossed it. It smashed satisfyingly on the concrete at the bottom of the stairs and I wasn’t even the slightest bit rueful that I’d have to clean up the mess after the kids went to bed. It felt really good. And apart from a few short months over the years since, we have never had broadcast or cable television in our home since.

You’d be amazed at how many people in checkout lines, in grocery aisles, at informal and formal gatherings, and in workplace water cooler enclaves can think of nothing else to talk about than what’s on television. Who’s getting kicked off “Survivor,” how funny the last “Friends” episode was, who’s slated to become the new “American Idol.” It’s like they live their shallow, couch-potato lives vicariously through hypnotic programming that gets electron-beamed straight into their empty heads, and they think that’s somehow “normal.”

Even worse, they will scrimp on food, clothing and shelter in order to afford $100 a month cable packages – 400 channels of nothing worth watching. They pay dearly for the dubious ‘privilege’ of having their tastes and desires manipulated by advertising that comprises half of what they see. They have children who end up being raised by television, watching an average of 100 gun murders a week in prime time from the time they’re 2, and their parents can’t seem to figure out why junior is a discipline problem at school. I firmly believe television is directly responsible for at least 20 points off anyone’s IQ.

People are shocked when we tell them we don’t have television. “What in the world does your family DO in the evening,” they inevitably ask, as though everybody knows that without television people will die of immediate isolation and boredom. It always makes me laugh. We listen to music, we read books out loud to each other, we talk about what’s going on in the world, and we develop our creative skills by writing, doing art and craft projects, taking nice hikes in the woods, putting on plays and concerts, building a warm campfire in the back yard, playing frisbee golf, real golf, softball, world-ball, chess or other games… all those things people can do if they weren’t glued to the electron beam all the time.

We did get a VCR 15 years ago, and now have a DVD player too. So we rent movies, or watch some of the many classics and other fine programming we’ve collected over the years. So it’s not like we don’t keep up. We’ve got internet too, so can even keep up with the news in a more timely fashion than television allows.

Advice for my readers who are planning or trying to make a go of homesteading: drop television (broadcast or cable) immediately. Keep the unit and its VCR/DVD accessories for watching occasional movies, put strict limits on video gaming time. Don’t waste your money paying to be brainwashed and manipulated. You’ll be too busy living your life anyway to have time for keeping up with this terminally dumb TV show or other, and you’ll quickly find that you don’t care anymore WHAT happens to those fake people! You won’t miss them at all, and you won’t end up having missed your children’s childhoods and the best years of your own life.

You’ll never get the time back if you waste it, believe me. Best not to waste it in the first place!

Useful Links:

Kill Your Television

We All Know That TV Is Bad For Us

Things To Do Instead Of Watching TV

Your Child: Television