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When DIY Becomes BUY

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Over the Memorial Day Weekend, I had big plans of adapting this adorable All You magazine outdoor canopy tutorial for use over our completely unshaded backyard patio.

It has such an effortless and breezy charm about it, don’t you agree?  The instructions were simple, the supplies relatively inexpensive, and I thought it could buy us some time while we save the money for a permanent structure and an extended patio.  Because we live in a very windy area, I knew I’d have to use heavier stakes and we’d have to attach it to our house.

Well, to make a long story short, it was a huge DIY fail.  Tom and I worked on it for almost two days before it all fell down on top of us – literally.  We tried a few different variations and realized that this particular idea was just not going to work.  I didn’t even bother to take any photos, because it was such a big fat fail.

This is the time when you have know when to hold ’em and know when to fold ’em.  Sometimes, it’s just better to BUY (or hire out) than DIY, and knowing that fine line is one of the most valuable skills a DIY’er can have.  Big things that we know we will never do as weekend warriors is any electrical work past the breaker box, anything regarding our home’s foundation, garage door springs, and pretty much anything that requires a permit.  We ended up spending the money to buy a semi-permanent shade solution for our backyard, and we wish we would have gone that route for the get go.  Live and learn!  {I’ll share photos once I finish the space.}

Have you ever tried to DIY and just ended up buying something or hiring out instead?  Share your story!

About Lindsay Ballard

Lindsay Ballard is a former college mascot turned political geek turned roller derby playing, DIY fanatic.

Lindsay chronicles her projects, design ideas, and lifestyle tips here at Makely, where she shares tutorials and inspiration. Her DIY designs are bold and graphic, while her spirit is fun and full of color.

Comments

  1. Bev says

    Good grief, yes! I’ve been known to try to refinish something and end up putting it in Goodwill and heading to the furniture store. My husband loves yard work, but he’s not good at design (think Grandma’s yard – with a little bit of everything that anyone gives him with no thought to what is taller going in the back). Our DIY failures are numerous. However, now that I can research things on the internet prior to plunging in head first, I can make a more educated decision on what I want to tackle myself – or if I’m already neck deep, I can look for help online.

    Reply

  2. Barbara aka Pink Overalls says

    It is so refreshing to hear this kind of honesty on a blog. You’re giving wise advice by saying we all need to recognize that point where skills we don’t have are called for. Or the permit. Or the right tools.

    I’ve seen “homeowner specials,” like carpentry, painting, sewing, gardening, or masonry, that actually de-value a property.

    Thanks for sharing your frustrating story. Hope you can get out of the Texas sun soon. I’m sure it will look beautiful.

    Reply

  3. Brooke @ Inside-Out Design says

    I have to admit your story made me laugh! But I know those kinds of things are so frustrating. I am still questioning a clock that I made over that I very stubbornly refused to give up on, even after breaking the glass front and causing a chemical reaction with two different kinds of paint. I guess we all just have to accept some times that we can’t do EVERYTHING. It’s just tough to admit when something seems like it should be so simple to do!
    I’ll bet your backyard is going to look beautiful; can’t wait to see!

    Reply

  5. Candida says

    Fails too many to document! But on the shade thing, I live in a hugely windy part of Cornwall (UK) – people come here and say “Oh, I didn’t know there were creeping versions of that plant…”. My shade sail (what we call your canopy) is hooked onto two hefty eyes in the house wall and two tall 4×4 fence posts set in concrete – BUT a sail is a sail, and in the wind, a sail will sail. The solution was bungee cord. I bought several metres and the hook ends that fit it to make up my own lengths, and with a bit of trial and error that is what fixes the sail to eyes screwed into the posts. So now in the wind, it moves alright, but the stretch in the bungees takes the strain, not the posts or the sail itself. It works a dream. Mind you, I bought the sail itself, because a few metres each way of well-hemmed rotproof polypropylene with an open mesh was what I needed, and I couldn’t do that cheaper or better than a Coolaroo could be bought, so that was a definite “fold ’em” before even trying.

    Reply

  6. Erin says

    I have to convince my husband of this. I know before a project begins when to throw in the towel and just hire professionals/take a different route…my husband on the other hand thinks he has WAY more time than he actually does. His latest fail was he was going to try and build a shed on the back of the house…he finally listened to me and priced out a stand alone shed…MUCH CHEAPER! Guess which route we are going now?

    Reply

  8. Gala Van Eaton says

    Time: 7 years ago. Place: the home I was cosmetically updating in order to sell.
    Project: Installing a new snazzy looking kitchen faucet. Rationale: I have two advanced degrees and the guy at the hardware store says it is not hard to do. Surely, by going slowly, step by step through the instructions, I can do this.
    Reality: Old faucet water shut off valves under sink were SO old they had fused together. I finally decided all it needed was a little tap from a hammer.
    Result: Most of the lake that supplies our city’s water fountaining from under the sink to the new cook top. Me: soaking wet, not finding the outside cut off key, on the phone with any plumber who could come right away. Picture: 2 plumbers trying hard not to laugh or comment, charging me over $200 just to shut the water off on a Saturday. Me: paying another $200 for another plumber to install the new one before my husband got home from his business trip.
    Moral: I will never, never try to plumb again.

    Reply

  9. Ashley Ez says

    aww man!

    I went to a wedding this weekend and the band was playing under something VERY similar to this, but larger and sloped down in the back.

    Seeing it made me wonder how your project was going. So sorry to hear that it didn’t work out like you thought! Can’t wait to see the new solution.

    Reply

  11. Jami says

    Oh I know the frustration! We’re just about there now. We have a chair we’ve blogged about a couple of times, a wingback. Of course I’ve never reupholstered anything and I don’t belong anywhere near a sewing machine so we’re trying. Our last attempt literally resulting in many tears from me and my husband curled up on the couch in the fetal position. We’ve agreed to try one more time when we are in a good mindset but literally once we get everything out and ready to go we’re already ticked off at the chair. It’s basically thrown away I just am having a hard time accepting it.

    Reply

  12. Stephanie says

    YES! Rather than recovering our couch I opted to buy new, plus I wanted leather and I am much happier. Somethings are better new in my honest opinion.

    Reply

  13. Joselyn@The DIY Spot says

    This was a great post and some of the comments are hysterical because anyone who engages in DIY knows this scenario all to well. I have had many. One of them caused me to tear a ligament in my thumb which I write about here: http://www.thediyspot.com/2010/07/the-challenge-continues/
    The experiences of Gala Van Eaton, is worthy of a sitcom episode, don’t you think?

    Recently, one of my toilets wouldn’t stop running. Although, I did manage to replace the inside mechanism and fix it, it took 2 days and a couple of trips to Home Depot. You have to ask yourself, Is DIY really worth the time you are going to invest in it? Now, another toilet in my home just started leaking and I know the wax seal needs to be replaced which means disconnecting everything and lifting up the toilet to replace it. Should I, or should I not? Not!! I don’t have 4 days to waste:)

    Reply

  14. Karen U says

    Hi Lindsay, I would like to know what caused this project to “fail”. I am trying to do something similar in my yard and have the canvas and poles ready to go. However, when I tried the support the poles using my ingenious (not!) idea, the poles wouldn’t stand up straight and the whole thing fell over. So what went wrong with your project? Thanks!

    Reply

    • Lindsay says

      My thinking is that the canvas is too heavy for the poles that aren’t cemented to the ground. We thought putting 80 lbs of cement and a pole in a 5 gallon bucket would make it plenty stable, but like you said, it just fell over. What are you using to keep the poles in/on the ground?

      Reply

  15. Karen U says

    I was trying to avoid the whole cement thing just in case the project failed and I would be stuck with cement buckets. I was using single cell cinder blocks, 2 high, with the poles inside the cell and filled with pea gravel. I am using tree stake poles which are 8 feet tall and 2″ in circumference. Way too top heavy for the narrow base. I was thinking how our christmas tree stands work and still think that there has to be some kind of ratio of height vs. width of the base in order for the pole to be stable, but I have no idea what that is. I was going to have my daughter ask her engineering major boyfriend what that might be, but I also wanted this project to be a bit easier than it’s turning out to be.

    A friend was over last night and we’ve come to the conclusion that the canvas that is to be next to the house needs to be attached to the house (under the eaves and attached to the exposed joists). She suggested the cement bucket with the pole inserted in the cement (although I will do the pvc pipe stand first and put the pole in the pvc – I want to be able to dismantle this thing in the winter) and then putting the cement bucket in a half barrel and fill with dirt/gravel. This should provide a broad enough base and weight to keep everything stable. I read one of the comments on your post about someone using bungee cords to absorb some of the strain from wind, etc. and think that that is a definite addition to whatever design I come up with.

    Suggestions besides a professional install?

    Thanks
    Karen

    Reply

    • Lindsay says

      That’s exactly what we did – attached it to the house, under the eaves, at 2 points and then used 2 poles in cement buckets. My husband is an engineer, too, and we spent 3 days trying to figure it out. I’m sorry to say that we never got it to work – and now we’re stuck with two cement buckets! If your daughter’s boyfriend comes up with a great idea that works, PLEASE let me know!

      We ended up buying a highly-rated gazebo with a cloth covering that is standing up with absolutely no problems to the wind we have. We are so pleased, and will be able to take it down in the winter.

      Let me know if you figure out something that works! I love the idea of the canvas and poles.

      Reply

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