I feel like I should know more about home construction than I do. A friend was over the other day and was baffled at how little I know about these things. Only several times in my life have I ever used a tablesaw. I have no idea how to build things in a practical way. I was recently over at b_b's house and he has done a large amount of renovation to his home. It looks fantastic and I could tell he was very proud of his work, as he should be. I would have to hire someone to do that type of work for me, which is fine but when you are in a bind and need to get something done it's really frustrating. I suppose I just don't enjoy that type of thing or I would know how to do it. The same thing exists for any sort of auto repair. I'm horrible at that stuff. Change a tire? Jumpstart a battery? Yeah, I can do those things but ask me to change my own oil and I'll shrug, pull out a $20 bill and pay some business to do it for me. Those are two things I should know how to do by now, home repair, and auto repair.
The thing I've noticed about repairing things, is that whatever is broken or needs replacing is often connected to something else, which is connected to something else and so on, as almost everything exists as part of a system, so what might to the uninformed, look like an easy fix, could quite easily become a big project. If I ever have the means to buy a house and decide to pull the trigger on buying one, I will definitely take some time to learn about home repair.
I bought a house that two guys spent years fixing up. I intentionally bought a house that would, in theory only require routine maintenance.
My parent's house is being worked on right now and the other day a guy doing the floors took off a baseboard and immediately, water starts shooting out. Apparently, whoever put the baseboard on accidentally drove a nail into a pipe, just puncturing it. If the worker hadn't taken the baseboard off, there's a good chance that eventually the nail would have rusted and then water would have leaked between the walls. Right now there's a screw soldered into the hole until the plumber can get back to fix it properly. To do that, he'll have to cut out part of the ceiling in the finished part of the basement and move this unusual pipe assembly higher up in the wall. I'm nowhere near being able to afford my own home, but if/when I am in the market for the house, I'll make sure to try to get as clear a picture as I can of all the systems in the house I might buy to see what might become a problem in the future. From where I sit, being a homeowner seems very stressful.
So far it's okay, the stressful part has not been any catastrophe, but rather the upkeep. I am thinking about putting my home on zillow's "make me move" to see if anyone makes us an offer at a price that would gladly make us get up and go. I'd then rent a larger home at far less than my mortgage and just hire people to mow, clean etc. I want zero home responsibilities if possible. Then, someday I want to build our dream home.
When I was in high school a guy from the university came to talk to us about nanobots. One of the things he mentioned was that nanobots might someday be used to mow lawns. At the time, it struck me as weird to consider using an advanced technology to perform such a mundane task, but in America it particular, mowing and maintaining a lawn can be a very significant time commitment. I have thought about solving the lawn problem in other ways, such as by using a goat or a cow, but then the yard would smell farmy, not to mention poo disposal is less enjoyable than mowing grass. I like the look of a nice lawn, but honestly to me, it seems a bit frivolous and wasteful. Consider how much water is used and all the fertilizers and other chemicals that get sprayed onto lawns and then all of that residue washing into street drains, not to mention the space that is either under utilized or never used, except as a space to mow and maintain. That said, my views may change. If you built your dream home, wouldn't you then have a lot of home responsibilities and also an increased interest in maintaining it?
I'm in the same boat, man. Been in my house about a year and a half, and am overwhelmed with how little I know about doing renovations. I go to friends houses and they've completely gutted and replaced bathrooms, installed new floors, etc. I need some kind of Master/Apprentice relationship with someone to help train me or something. I'm pretty handy with little things, but drywall? Tiling? Any project involving wood I have to cut myself? Simply don't have the tools or know how, and finding this information on the internet is time consuming in extremely lacking in content. Seems most of the handy people are too busy doing things in the real world.
It's good to know that I'm not alone, thanks. Question: I have a couple of decks/porches off of the back of my house. The wood is just raw, it's never been stained or treated. I'm afraid it's going to rot and that I need to stain it to protect it. Can I do this while the boards are all in place or do I need to take the thing apart? If the answer is I don't need to remove the boards, then I'll do it myself. Otherwise, it's beyond my skill level.
They probably used some kind of pressure treated wood to begin with, perhaps not for the planks (it doesn't look as good as other options, cedar for example), but definitely for the structural wood. You can just stain the deck surface. That's what's exposed to the elements most. Every other year, power washing and staining is probably a good idea to extend the life as much as possible (although people who are very particular do it every year up here where the winters can suck balls). Staining a deck is just like painting, which anyone who has the slightest amount of patience should be able to do.
Its funny, there are all those diciplines throughout school that you always ask yourself (to justify not caring) when will I ever use this in the "real world"? Well, for many of them the answer is "not often," but for things like "shop class" and "home-ec" the answer is Often! Good luck with that bookshelf.
And yet (from my perspective) they are driving these classes out of high schools in favor of more academia. I value education a lot, but I don't believe everyone should have a college degree. I do believe everyone needs a certain set of life skills that things like shop class and home-ec help impart. My high school didn't offer either of these. I would have liked the opportunity to take a shop class. I think it's more than just sad that these classes aren't considered core/vital curriculum. I think it sets up future generation for dependence on others and on establishments in order to provide for them services (and even goods) that they should be able to complete/create themselves.
I absolutely agree with you. I think that by the time my daughter is in High School she will wonder what Physical Education (gym class), Shop and Home Economics ever were. But these are the things that she can learn at home from me and her mother (not so much the shop class). A trade is an important thing to know. If the zombie apocalypse comes and we survivors are judged on our abilities, nobody is going to care about the wise-cracking business development manager that can strum a guitar and write a song. -I'm basically zombie bait. A poet? -You may actually be fed to them prior to me ;)
Isn't PE mandated or something? Did you see the article last week about how US schools focus more on sports than many other civilized nations in the world? I found this very interesting. Hey! I have a tool kit! I learned how to take doors off their hinges this weekend. Now I, too, will be able to punish my children using this method at some point in time. But my poetry and my (sigh) knowledge of the federal regulations that govern banks isn't going to do me much good in the apocalypse, I agree. I think you and several others on here (humanodon?) are runners. Every once in a while I pick up running and it's mainly in fear of the zombie apocalypse. Rule Number 1 is cardio after all.