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"As I mentioned in a recent blog post, my husband and I are working two hours a night, three nights a week to create a playroom for our toddler out of an unfinished basement. Even with both of us being mechanical engineers, the project has posed some real challenges. For instance, we tore down the framing but then had nothing with which to anchor electrical wires and support brackets for the water line. Plus, the air conditioning duct that ran along that wall was no longer attached to the vent so all the cool air was staying in the basement. How can you, as an aspiring do-it-yourselfer, know if you&amp;#039;re up to the task of tackling a home renovation job? Here are 4 questions to ask yourself: 1. Are you handy with tools? So far we&amp;#039;ve used a hammer (to knock down the existing studs), a handsaw (to cut the studs down to a size that the sanitation workers will pick up) and a drill with a masonry bit (to drill support brackets into the concrete for the water line coming into the house). If you don&amp;#039;t have any experience with these, there is going to be a substantial learning curve. You can find lot of How-To videos and advice on the Web and How-To Books to walk you through tasks. But essentially there will be a lot of OJT (on-the-job training). 2. Do you really have enough time? How comfortable you are using the tools and how knowledgeable you are about the work will determine how much time the project will take. Be realistic when calculating the hour, days, and weeks it will take to prep for the job, shop for the essentials, and do the work. If you rush it may show in the final product. 3. Do you and your spouse work well together as a team? Remember The Money Pit? I recommend putting your individual strengths to work during the renovation. As I&amp;#039;m a better planner, I lay out our plan of attack, while my husband, who&amp;#039;s more detail-oriented, gets us around the roadblocks. 4. Will doing the work yourself really save you money? If you don&amp;#039;t already own the tools you&amp;#039;ll need, you have to include the cost of buying these items into the budget for the job. The other advice I&amp;#039;d give you is to overestimate for certain things. For example, when laying out the framing for the walls it&amp;#039;s easy to calculate how many 2&amp;quot; x 4&amp;quot;s you&amp;#039;ll need but not so easy to know how much waterproofing sealant will be required. For items like that, double your estimate. But have some fun with the project and let yourself think about what you&amp;#039;ll do with the space once you&amp;#039;re done. Like how will you light it, use the space for storage, and how you will decorate it. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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