Do you do your own diy and decorating?

[PollyPelargonium52]

Has anybody learned to do the above because although I have bee n raising my boy alone since d's waa five months and he is now 15, I have thusfar always paid for help. Now he is much older I am intending to take on the more simple di y and decorating tasks. The reason being it will save me a packet. I work part time on health grounds and believe this will be very empowering. Does anybody have any comments or di y breakthroughs they have learned alone? I am so tired of an unfinished home and May to September are the ideal months daylight wise.Am going to start with a bit of bathroom touching up today then paint my garden fencing shed and gate in green. Then do the five radiators in the home. Start small then go from there.Any thoughts?

Is it possible to do your own decorating with a toddler. I am actually quite capable when it comes to decorating but I worry about paint fumes with my little one and keeping him safe.

yes on decorating -- but I do a bad job. I don't mind this at all. I have no enthusiasm so it's slapdash & probably looks terrible by most people standards. I stop the place falling down or looking truly awful.

I wouldn't be able to appreciate a beautiful professional job, much less feel like I got value for money by paying so much for it.

I'm the same at sewing, cooking or singing & probably dozens of other things: my very best effort is absolutely terrible by other people's standards. It's ok. I don't need to share anything I sew, cook or sing with them.

Except with electricity and plumbing

Depends on the job, really. I would never try to rewrite my house but I can change fittings and fuses. I wouldn't try and install a boiler or a whole bathroom suite but I can fix a leaky tap or plumb in a washing machine or whatever. Of course their are limitations. I would Always pay for serious/complicated work to be done, but there are little things within most people's capability.

Single mum to a 13 year old. My son can take a door of and rehang it for me to paint. He can lay laminate flooring and has in 2 rooms since lock down started. He's built a duck house all in lock down. He's really shown some skills.. Let him help. In fact encourage it. My son cannot paint.. I've learnt this the hard way. He could not paint the fence or help roller a wall. Unless it comes naturally I don't have the patience to teach this stuff since I'm learning myself. My decorating skills are getting good and I'm starting to enjoy seeing my talents with my home.. But it's a slow process learning. The first time I decorated my home it wasn't as good as now.

I do my own decorating OP. Here’s a picture of my lockdown refurb (vardo by farrow & ball) I need to finish the coving and ceiling and have included the smudges so you can see. I’ll put frog tape below the coving edge so I get a straight line and remove it when the paint is fully dry, then I’ll touch up any odd spots using an artists paint brush. I’ve only just discovered f&b paint and it’s a game changer. I only needed one 2.5 litre pot for 2 coats of a largish room and it goes on really nicely. I also use small mini rollers to paint instead of large rollers, there is less splash with smaller rollers. Other tip is to make sure surfaces are clean and fill holes with polyfilla and sand it down before painting. I’m same age bracket as you. You can do it. Take your time, put on some good tunes and don’t attempt too much at once, go room by room.

I've wallpapered a couple rooms, including a fiddly bathroom, lined and painted many a wall, even with paint effects (80s), put up shelves etc. I did the gardening and so on. When I got married I could afford to hire someone, though did furniture assembling myself (though admitted defeat with the 46 pages of instructions for an IKEA pull out bed). My husband could just about change a bulb but had no interest in doing anything else - he knew what his skillset was!
Now widowed for the last ten years and I still hire someone to do it - I'm just not prepared for the backbreaking painting of 11ft high ceilings or have the patience to do the woodwork. My son can do heavy lifting but I would not trust him with something like the power washer (he really can't walk from A to B without knocking something, and just now excelled himself by breaking a spice jar WHILE STANDING STILL). My daughter shows no interest. But needs must and when I was on my own and financially unable to hire some one I did it myself (before YouTube even)! Results were pretty good generally.

Growing up my mum was a single parent and we just had a go at most things.
Now I watch loads of tutorials over and over and just crack on with decorating and basic diy,
It's so satisfying when it's done.
You can do this op

Whist I was married to my ex he did the decorating and DIY. I wanted to learn to wallpaper but he always told me it would be too hard for me. Stupidly I believed him. After we split up I decided to redecorate the whole house. I started with gloss painting. This is not hard. Buy good quality paint and non drip. Just put a little on your brush at one time and brush up and down. Spread paint out don't blob it on. Before you paint sand down any bumps or rough bits to get a good finish. Wallpapering, buy a paper without a pattern to match up to begin with. Take your time. You can't rush wallpapering. Start with a plumb line to get straight edge. Then put up paper do you get three or four inches above the wall. Match up to vertical line on edge of first strip. Use a clean tea towel to rub in place and ensure no bubbles. Crease where top needs cutting then cut on top edge of crease. Same for bottom. Just continue around room. You should paint before papering.

Any idiot can paint a shed or fence. Use a very large brush. Wait until one coat properly dry before you do second coat.

Tiling is easy. It tells you on box how many square metres a box will cover. Same with tile adhesive/grout. Make sure you use tile spacers to get even spacing.

I painted and wallpapered my entire house after divorce. When my ex saw it he thought I had got tradesmen in and could not believe I did it myself.

I will now do most things myself but not tried plumbing and would not attempt electrics except changing a plug and putting in a new fuse.

These skills have come in very handy as I have bought several house, done them up and sold them on for more money.

Pressed too soon. Use YouTube tutorial. Make sure you have the correct tools for the job. Take your time. Start with smaller jobs then work up to harder ones.

In last house I bought, it had a dreadful kitchen. I bought s second hand kitchen off eBay, ripped out old kitchen, got a skip to put it in. Smashed off old tiles. Plastered wall to give a smooth solid wall. Put in kitchen base units and wall units. Got current DH to plumb in sink, washing machine and dishwasher, and cut worksurfaces using jig. Got gas Safe person to do range cooker.

I plumbed in my own washing machine, wasn't spending £40 on top of paying for the machine. A nd yes it is possible to do diy with a toddler, I have 4 children, youngest is a toddler . Paint fumes aren't like what they use to be it's perfectly fine to paint with them in the house