ABODE: DiY

The DOWNSIDE of DiY

Last year in the our Abode Series, I wrote about the Psychology of DIY. I was riding high on the idea of home improvement, rolling up one’s own sleeves and fi guring things out. With the help of a friend, I’d installed a brand new toilet (with dual fl ush, fancy!) for about ¼ the price that it would have cost to have it professionally installed, and I’m happy to report that it is working quite nicely to this day.

Around that time I had just ripped apart my shower as well. It started with one loose tile, which in short order became many loose tiles. It turned out the whole thing was crumbling because the tile was mortared to backing board that was - wait for it - drywall. So not a huge surprise that it didn’t last.

I’m a little embarrassed to say that I am still not taking showers in my shower. I am in the process of putting the tiles on as I write this.

What’s going on? Why is it taking so long? Th ere are a number of psychological points I’ve learned along the way that come up with DIY, along with some unexpected things (yep, including the C word we’re all tired of hearing at this point).

Old mistakes and oddities

One of the things a DIYer often encounters goes something like this. Watch fi ve YouTube videos on how to do a thing. Start doing a thing, and you quickly realize that what you have in front of you looks nothing like it did in any of the YouTube videos.

If that sounds a little obtuse, I encountered this phenomenon with our toilet install. When we got down to the fl ange, it had been installed incorrectly, and instead of using the sliding bolt holes that allow you to easily replace them with fresh bolts, they used singular bolt holes and we couldn’t get the old bolts out (and the new ones in) without taking the fl ange off and/or rotating it to the right spot. Neither of us had confi dence in dealing with the fl ange and so we used the old bolts instead, which wasn’t ideal.

I’ve been fi nding this with my shower install too. I got stuck at numerous points in the process because something was done oddly and didn’t match up with any reference material I watched. It usually meant I needed to rethink my approach, and that takes time.

The job is bigger/different than initially thought

Which is often related to the above point. I started initially thinking I could just do a patch - I had extra tiles in the basement from whenever the last job was done. Th en I quickly realized the rot on the walls extended much farther out than I initially thought.

Th e job changed several times as I either learned something had been done a certain way in the past so I needed to retool, or work my way around a hindrance. I initially had thought to double panel the walls to match the initial drywall above what I cut out, but it turns out one panel is too thin, two panels is too thick. So I went with a single wall, and have a tile plan to overcome the odd off -level between the two walls.

Fear of failure

Th e tear down wasn’t terrible fun (and changed in accordance to the above point several times). Building up is a lot more fun. But, there also is more room for error. I put off tiling for a while, because it seemed like the moment of truth. Th is part in particular I wanted to make sure I did right. Just picking out the right tile took me quite a bit of indecision. (But funny enough, the day off I set aside to start tiling was the morning I actually chose my tiles and I’m very happy with my choice.) I had to get over the idea that I would do this perfectly and embrace imperfections. Th e Japanese have a philosophy behind this. I think it’s a good one.

I just need some space

I’ve spoken with a few people about this: I feel like I need a good long open space of time in order to tackle DIY projects, even if they don’t take that long. A few others mentioned they felt the same. And my life unfortunately doesn’t lend itself to long, open blocks of time. I’m working on this (both in freeing up long, unscheduled blocks of time and of not needing them to work on DIY projects).

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▲ It’s getting there! No it’s not perfect and no I don’t care.

A new hope

Getting the fi rst tiles on the wall have provided a huge sense of relief for me. It’s not as hard as I thought it might be. It’s actually been the most fun part so far. Tiling (I went with 4x16-inch tiles, and cutting them when needed has been pretty easy.) It’s kind of like adult legos, or like putting together a very easy, but large puzzle that needs to be mortared.

Tricky parts are on their way through. I’m not looking forward to drilling the holes in the tile - I bought the proper drill bit but kind of wonder how that’s going to work in practice.

Hopefully by this time next year I won’t have anything more to write on the topic because I will be happily showering in my beautiful new shower, imperfections and all.

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