Home Improvement Vampires: 4 Tasks That Will Suck Your Time Dry

| May 20, 2013

treetrimSome home improvement projects barely take any time at all. Others suck your time dry, leaving you exhausted and wondering why you didn’t hire a professional. If at all possible, avoid these home improvement vampires.

Removing Trees

You obviously need a tree professional when you want to remove 50-year-old oaks that tower over your home. But several small trees look like the kind of project you can do on your own. Yeah, give it a shot and see how easy it is.

Removing trees takes much more than cutting them off at the trunk. You also have to clip off the limbs, which can take hours. Plus, you need a way to get rid of the debris. That means you need to rent a dumpster.

Oh, you’re not done yet. You still have stumps sticking out of the ground. That means you’ll need to rent a stump grinder and spend a couple of days slowly grinding them below ground level.

Tiling the Floor

What’s so hard about putting some tile on the floor? You buy the tile, lay down some adhesive, and attach the tile. If only the world were so easy.

The perfectly shaped room and the perfectly sized tile would make this project a breeze. But nothing is ever perfect when it comes to home improvement. That means you’ll need to cut the tile to fit your floor just right.

Cutting tile makes a huge mess. Be sure you have a heavily ventilated mask and good eye cover, because cutting tile creates a dense fog of ceramic. Even if you manage to stay healthy, you still have to clean up all of the dust. That alone will take hours.

Installing a Pool

Before you start to seriously consider putting a pool in your backyard, think about what it entails.

Let’s assume you choose an above ground pool, which is easier than an in-ground pool. To set it up, you will need to:

  • Dig a couple feet into the ground
  • Put down a layer of sand
  • Make sure the sand is perfectly even
  • Erect the pool’s structure
  • Put in the lining
  • Fill it with water

If you manage to get this done in one weekend, then you got a lot of help from your friends.

If you want an in-ground pool, then you’ll have to create a hole about ten feet deep. Let’s not even discuss the horrors of building concrete walls. Plus, you’ll need extra LifeShield wireless security to make sure no one wanders into your backyard and gets hurt.

Adding Cabinets to Your Kitchen

English: Kitchen cabinet knobs, pulls, handles...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Building your own kitchen cabinets requires a well-stocked workshop and plenty of skill. Even installing pre-made cabinets can take a lot of work.

First, you have to remove any existing cabinets to make room for your new ones. Now to the installation – have you ever tried to pick up cabinets? They’re cumbersome and difficult to keep level. That means you’ll need several people to help you. Then comes sanding, painting, and praying that they don’t fall.

What home improvement projects do you wish you’d never tried?

 

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