Bathroom renovation in a DIY world

Every dollar counts these days. Heck, every penny counts. As a result, we've become the "Do it yourself," or "DIY" generation. Anything we can fix on our own, without the outside expenses of contractors, professionals or what-have-you, we attempt. The internet has obviously had a big effect on this, as most home projects - from changing your oil to adding an extra room onto the house - can be found online. Everyting down to where to hammer the final nail is there, described in stark detail.

Of course, there's plenty of stuff to work on in between changing your oil and adding an extra room. Bathroom renovation, for example, is a popular do-it-yourself project, and there are tons of websites dedicated to the process.

Obviously the motivation for bathroom renovation is severalfold. First, you'd obviously like your bathoom to have a different look or feel. I know that my parents' bathroom looked very different in the 1980s than it does today. As they got older, my dad renovated it to have a more classic, timeless look than the "Modern" look it sported 30 years ago. Of course that modern look is now a terribly dated look, while the classic look is now perfectly modern. Time paradox!

Secondly, maybe your bathroom isn't up to snuff in terms of functionality. Perhaps you need a toilet with bigger pipes, or the showerhead doesn't provide enough water pressure, or the sink drips. All of these are bathroom renovation projects that people throughout the country take on daily, and all of these have detailed project specs online and at your fingertips. All it takes is a quick google search, and you're there.

And of course, when doing something like bathroom renovation, the goal is to save money. Sure you could get a professional in, but they're going to charge you an arm and a leg. Doing it yourself means your only overhead is the cost of materials and whatever value you place on your time and labor. Me, I can hardly open a jar of pickles, let alone replace a toilet, so I'd probably just have a plumber come in. It's not worth the time or the effort to me to work on something that I'll probably get wrong in the end, anyway.

But if you're a little more adept in teh manly arts, you might want to give it a shot and see if you can't save yourself a few hundred bucks. In the end, that's more money you can spend on beer to celebrate your domestic triumphs.

Which, of course, is the final reason that most people take on bathroom renovation. A man's home is his castle, and you can't be king if you've not fully conquered your castle. Enjoy that victory, men.