We recently decided to take on some home
improvement jobs around the house and in order to try and save some money we
thought that we would attempt a lot of the work ourselves as opposed to calling
in expensive professionals. We started off fine by searching for UPVC door hardware online and then
actually going around and looking at UPVC
doors, hardware stores and trying to find any sales being advertised. We
managed to get what we wanted but when it came to the actual renovations I had
had enough and decided that I would rather work extra hours at the office and
pay someone to do the home improvements instead.
There is so much more involved than just
visiting the stores and making selections from showrooms. The fun part is
collecting the shade cards and looking at all the funny names give to various
shades of the same colour. Once the novelty has worn off it is time to do the
actual hard work and this is where I threw in the towel. Against the wishes of
my husband I called a couple of professional people and explained the things
that needed doing to make the house look better.
It was such a relief not to have to worry
about which grain of wood, which UPVC door hardware and which window fasteners were the best. I left it all in
the capable hands of people to whom these decisions are second nature and who
actually enjoy dealing with carpenters, joiners and builders. I left for work
each morning with a light heart and did not feel guilty when I came home and
saw that my husband was stressed out because he kept on interfering with the
work and since he didn’t really know a lot about the trade, he was not being
taken seriously.
The guilt did not kick in because as I saw
it, it was his own choice and I had tried to explain that he would be better
off following my example and going to work. Instead he wanted to be involved
and stay with the contractors as they made all the small decisions and
purchases. I made sure that I was involved in the important things like which
style of curtain fittings and where to place the new wardrobes which we have
had built.
The choice of UPVC doors hardware and windows , I left to my husband as I felt
that he would probably make a better choice since I neither knew much about
these things and neither did I care. As for the things like carpets and
curtains, well this was certainly my domain and I even took a day off work so
that we could go around the various stores and shopping centres to try and see
what was available. The final selections were a joint decision but I admit that
the majority of input in this department was mine regarding styles, colours,
textures and other considerations, not forgetting the prices.
