Everything I ever learned about life was reaffirmed during my recent home improvement project

The room almost done....

Maybe not everything, but a lot of stuff.

Recently, (ok, way back in June) I started to tear out the ’70s era paneling, carpet and ceiling in the last room of my house that needed to be re-done. I also tore out an old shower stall and while I was at it, tore out all the sheetrock, flooring and plumbing. In short, I had two rooms down to the bare studs.

Construction does not scare me as my dad was a firm believer in a “do it yourself” world view. Make your own electricity, grow your own food, sew your own clothes and build your own furniture. I knew how to do the math on a framing square before I knew how to calculate batting averages for the Minnesota Twins (my mother’s one guilty pleasure was a radio that she refused to let my dad make for her from a kit.) Wood around our house was not scrap, but furniture and Christmas toys.

But, I digress.

Here is what I reaffirmed during my home improvement project.

Tools do not substitute for skill
Learn your craft. You can buy the best tools in the world to help you build or repair something, but if you don’t spend time learning your craft, you are just “that guy with a garage full of tools.” The right tools in the hands of a craftsman are magic. In the hands of someone who hasn’t honed their skills, they are destructive and dangerous.

Most of the tools you see advertised (including software!) try to convince you that they can provide you a shortcut to talent. That is a lie. Learn your craft and only then will tools be truly worth using.

Quality materials matter
A skilled craftsman will sometimes be able to make an inferior product work, but there are limits. Cheap wall studs will make a crooked wall. Cheap flooring will make imperfect seams. Cheap electrical fixtures will burn your house down. Cheap insulation will make you shiver. Don’t cut corners.

If you are a premium brand, anything you make should always be premium (Pergo, Bruce, Kohler, Behr) Let your competitors do the Good and Better while you focus on Best.

Most of the instructional labeling on packaging will be marketing
Go to a local Home Depot or Lowes. With the exception of the staple things like plumbing tubing, lumber, etc, everything is a consumer product that has another competing product next to it. The goal of the packaging is to convince you to buy it over the other. They do this by trying to convince you that it will install as a 1-2-3 easy step process. They are lying. The product will almost never look like the hamburger on the board.

Do it over
If you get it wrong the first time, do it over. Right there and then. Don’t live with “good enough.”

Ask for help
If you don’t know how to do something, ask someone who knows. Share the knowledge forward with someone else when you can.

Most of the advice you receive from your spouse will be wrong
However, having said that, listen to him/her. It is easier to share blame than to forgive arrogance.

All of the advice you get from your friends will probably be wrong.
Most people who don’t have to live with their advice are just showing off (drinking buddies, consultants, social media experts.) Ignore your friends’ advice and stick to what you know. If you don’t know it, hire someone who does. The price of a good contractor is always going to be cheaper than the help of a well-meaning but unskilled friend. Always.

And lastly; measure twice, cut once, always wear eye protection, clamp your work, never start a plumbing project when the hardware store is closed, never shut the water off when there is any female of the species in the house, a strategically-placed shelf hides an imperfect wall, always buy more than you think you’ll need and never use a product in a manner inconsistent with it’s labeling.

And ignore almost everything you see on HGTV. All of it is time-lapsed and most of it is just designed to sell you more crap you don’t need.