DIY

Moore Family
of Arizona

DIY (aka: Do It Yourself )...

I am usually willing to try to do anything myself at least once!

This includes all manner of projects I have completed on our houses over the years. Our current house has had by far the biggest number and scope of projects completed - mainly because we've lived there the longest (over 20 years now), partly because its much bigger and also because I have become much more adventurous over time.

I have a large collection of tools and am proficient at basic landscaping, masonry, irrigation, framing, finish carpentry, electrics & lighting, electronics & computers, plumbing, pool equipment, tiling, dry-walling, wallpapering, painting, upholstery and more.

Having done some things once I won't be repeating the exercise - landscaping and masonry are just too backbreaking, hot and grimy while outdoor painting in Arizona is no fun either - most of the rest I'd be quite happy tackle again.

For me half the fun is in detailed planning for the work, initial experimentation and in the final completion and contemplation. The actual implementation usually just gets to be a lot of work - except for the very few projects that complete quickly.

I am always looking for new ideas to incorporate into my designs and find good sources in magazines such as Sunset, This Old House and various architectural magazines. I also spend a lot of time thinking about how spaces are actually used, how they could be used and optimizing for those uses. A big element for me is also how things look - either effectively hidden or acting as a bold design statement. My wife helps a lot with color selections and final look.

Examples of big Projects completed at home are our kitchen remodel, formal room bookcase wall, pool slide, entertainment system wall, utility room rework, garage storage, water sensors & leak prevetion, water softener, water filters, office/bedroom set-ups, art framing and art/scrapbooking area for Marlene.

Our preferred style in home furnishing & design is undoubtedly contemporary modern - but not a severe impractical angular style you sometimes see with uncomfortable looking furnishings and impractical stark organization.

Comfortable, stylish, well designed, rugged and above all supremely functional is what we seek.

In the USA contemporary modern is not as well an established design movement as it is in Europe - certainly not below exorbitant prices - so in some ways its easier to just do it yourself to achieve the results you want.

Another advantage of doing it yourself is that you can plan around the actual work for less absolute disruption. Although our kitchen remodel took about 10 months to fully complete, most of it was completed in a few months and we only had 2 days without water and a sink and had all other appliances functional continuously. For all the work we had done we would have had to move out for at least a few weeks with a professional contractor.

For every big DIY project - there are lots of smaller sub-projects as part of the totality - many that are completed over a longer period of time. For every big project I get to do there are also many smaller independent projects: repairs & maintenance, improvements and updates that happen on an almost weekly basis. Yes DIY is more of a lifestyle - that keeps you really busy!

My Home Projects My Tools Smart House