We get the whole “to DIY or not to DIY, that is the question” question a lot, so we thought this might be a great way to crack open our brains in a nice rambling and meaty post that hopefully makes sense of our thought process to you guys. And who better to demonstrate than our purty new french doors that lead out to the deck? Surprise! I’ll pause while you burst out into enthusiastic applause.
We’ll be back tomorrow with more before & after photos and details on why we went for a french door, what the screen situation is now, and how they look open/closed/from the outside as soon as we’re done painting them (most doors just come primed and not painted) – but here are the rest of the details on how they came to be. We knew from our home inspection when we bought our house that the sliders that led out to the balcony to nowhere (which we later converted to a deck) would need to be completely replaced.
Not only did they get stuck and have a screen that no longer worked, they didn’t even have a lock (we used one of those bars on the floor along with installing one of our alarm sensors right on the door so it was always armed).
They were also super rotten and waaay past their prime. Ick.
So the good news is that when we put an offer on our house, we accounted for replacement doors being something that we’d have to purchase (and assumed they’d be around 1-2K, just in case there was any rot around the framing or they were a non-standard size that we’d have to special order). And now that the deck is all built and furnished…
… we decided it was the right time to replace them (since we’re actually going in and out of those swear-inducing broken doors all the time). But with so much extra behind the scenes book stuff going on (early promotion, scheduling chats, planning presentations and talks for the road, etc) along with doubling up on extra projects to share while we’re away (and the usual Clara & Burger chaos), it just came down to pricing things out and deciding whether it was smarter for our family to hire it out or DIY it.
First we hit up a bunch of secondhand/thrift/architectural salvage places like the Habitat or Humanity ReStore and a local spot called Caravati’s to see if we could find a secondhand french door that would fit our opening. The only issue is that we didn’t want it to have any mullions, so it would look like the laundry room door that leads to our carport to keep things consistent (although we do have plans to ORB the old brass handle on that guy, we love the clean lines and that giant pane of glass).
But alas, we came up empty since it was such a specific size and style. So next we got three quotes from a few different vendors (they all included both the door and the installation) which came in at:
- $1200 total (from a large window & door chain)
- $3200 total (from a local door & window specialist)
- $730 total (from Home Depot)
- $830 total (from Lowe’s – but they didn’t have the exact door style that we wanted)
Those were all for a pretty comparable door except for the much pricier one (that was sort of the Cadillac of door companies, which doesn’t make sense for our house/neighborhood). Oh and of course each company takes jabs at their competition during their little pitch, but the remaining three companies all had extremely similar ratings, eco benefits (like low-e glass), manufacturing standards, hardware options, consumer feedback, etc – so it was a pretty straight-forward comparison.
And out of those four places, if we wanted to install them ourselves it would have cost:
- This vendor didn’t allow anyone to DIY it for their warranty to work
- This vendor didn’t allow anyone to DIY it for their warranty to work
- It would be around $350 without installation (so we’d save $380)
- It would be around $450 without installation (so we’d save $380, but not have the door style we wanted)
Do you guys see where we’re going? As we learned more about each option, Home Depot slowly inched ahead as the best fit for us. Why?
- The total cost (with delivery and installation) was the most affordable for an extremely comparable product – and actually was a lot lower than we initially estimated that it would cost to remedy the door situation when we bought our house
- The door was exactly the same style (and maker, actually!) as the door that we already have in our laundry room. So we know that we like it and after almost two years of living with that one we don’t have any complaints.
Next we had to decide whether we’d rather save $380 and haul it/install it ourselves or leave it to a pro would could bang it out while we worked away on all the other things on our fat little to-do list (basement stuff, hall bathroom stuff, sunroom stuff, playroom stuff, guest bathroom stuff, carport stuff, etc). It wasn’t an easy decision, but in the end we realized that with all of the extra things on our plates right now, it would probably mean a few days without the door being completely installed/secure if we tried to do it ourselves (since we’d only have a few hours a day in the late evening to work on it). So we concluded that it was just best to use a bit of the budget that we had already counted on spending towards fixing this issue when we bought the house and have it installed.
After lots of jobs that we’ve taken on ourselves, it might sound weird to have someone install a french door (ex: we’ve built our own a deck along with a patio, renovated our entire kitchen, added a built-in desk to our office, rebuilt our entire first house’s bathroom from the studs, etc), but the best way I can explain it is that:
… you just know in your gut what you want to tackle and what’s worth it to you. And that answer is different for everyone.
One person might hire out an entire bathroom reno and it’s completely the right choice for their family, while someone else might literally build their own house (seriously, we know people who have even poured the foundation themselves). In the end, I think our general percentage is that we prefer to DIY around 90% of the home projects that we tackle, but we still love hiring a pro for things like knocking out load bearing walls, major electrical or plumbing upgrades, and even smaller things like installing an exterior slider if:
- it’s a planned expense that we’ve already built into the budget or saved up for
- it’s something we have zero interest/excitement about tackling ourselves (which is usually pretty rare)
- life is just too crazy for us to take it on ourselves, even if we wanted to give it a go
And if we’re being honest it probably comes down to that middle bullet. If we’re psyched to tackle it ourselves we usually do (saving our pennies until we can, and making time for it if we’re psyched about it). And if there are a million other ways we’d rather spend our time and the money is sitting there at the ready since it’s a long-planned expense, we might just hire a pro to get ‘er done. Sort of like how we were happy to hire someone to re-roof our first house, especially after hearing from a bunch of our buddies who told horror stories and said they would never re-roof a house again for as long as they lived.
In the end it took the door installation guy, who originally said it would be “two hours tops” a total of five hours and a trip back and forth to the hardware store thanks to some unforeseen complications once he got in there and saw what he was working with. Thank goodness for the flat installation fee!
And thank goodness it wasn’t us trying to make things work, because we’re pretty sure if the big strong guy who installs about twenty doors a week has a bunch of hiccups and it ends up taking more than twice as long as he thought, it might have just been the job that killed us. And then our headstone would look like this:
In the end… the new doors are 100% worth it and we’re so happy they’re here.
Update: Due to a few folks asking how the whole Home Depot door ordering process worked, here’s a little rundown: you do a rough measurement, go to the store with that and look at options, then you pay $35 for them to come out and measure again and make sure what you want will work, and that $35 goes towards the installation fee (so it’s not extra). They called a few days after coming out to measure things to install, so it was all pretty simple.
What about you guys? What percentage of things do you like to DIY? Is there anything you just won’t do yourself? We know super savvy contractors who still refuse certain jobs (one hates mudding and sanding drywall since it’s so messy, so he’s happy to hire that out while another hates all things electrical and always pays someone else to do it). It’s so funny what certain people love and loathe…
Tamara says
They new door is beautiful!
TNIB says
We ran into this when planning our bathroom remodel. We had never done a large scale DIY project like this but I’d we’re pretty happy with how things are turning out!
http://bit.ly/VqoGRm
YoungHouseLove says
Awesome!
xo
s
Janelle says
What a surprise! I really like their simplicity and the big panes of glass. I’m sure they let your new deck be the focus.
Kristen | Popcorn on the Stove says
The new doors look great – and I don’t blame you two for hiring the job out. My dad replaced the door to the deck and it took FOREVER (it didn’t help that his assistants were his 80 year old dad and his 19 year old daughter haha).
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, that’s nice to hear. Haha!
xo
s
Vidya @ Whats Ur home Story says
Love how the new doors open up the space. I prefer french doors over sliding one any day.
I just finished up my fall mantle. Saw the raven on your precious fall decor posts and fell in love. Thank you !
http://whatsurhomestory.com/fall-mantle/
YoungHouseLove says
Love it!!
xo
s
Ellen says
My husband will DIY lots, including building gates, installing windows, drywall, trim, crown molding… BUT… we didn’t DIY our carpet installation in the den. There are somethings that just would take us more time and tears than are necessary.
http://www.kellyandellen.org/house/2012/08/the-carpet-installation/
We just needed to get that room done, because the baby started crawling and pulling up (and falling… on a lovely lush carpet!) a few weeks later!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, it looks great!
xo
s
Brenda says
I didn’t even realize it was your house in the first pic. Love the new doors! I grew up with french doors to our backyard, and I like them so much more than sliding doors (I’m always afraid I’ll slide them too hard and break them).
julie g. says
Wow, what a difference. We are just about to replace two sliders ourselves and I was looking at a 15 lite french door from Lowes because we have oriole style windows with grids in the top but those big open panes with the chunky trim looks fantastic! Would you moind sharing which style/model you selected from Home Depot?
P.S. I was lamenting to my husband that you were in D.C. and didn’t even stop by. He interrupted me and said, “you do know you don’t really KNOW that couple right?!” Does that man understand nothing about blogging!
Thanks!!!
YoungHouseLove says
The company is Masonite and the model was just the simplest one-pane-o-glass model. Hope it helps! And that’s hilarious about your hubby and us in DC. You totally do know us! Haha.
xo
s
Ashley says
Wow it makes a huge difference!
Vidya @ Whats Ur home Story says
Great to see your thought process on how you decide whether to tackle on a project or not.
Ashley @ sunnysideshlee.com says
The look beautiful and well worth the time saving since you have so much going on!
Krissy says
What a beautiful update! At our house, everything is DIY… 100%. The goal for our future house is to build it from the ground up!
Anne says
Yesterday when our dishwasher overflowed ALL OVER OUR KITCHEN FLOOR, I was (for like the only time, ever) thankful that we are renters and that we could just call our maintenance guys to take care of it so we didn’t have to hire it out or try to DIY!
John @ Our Home from Scratch says
Good topic. I think it depends on the DIYer.
For me it’s about time away from family, time spent in the basement working vs cost savings. Since I’m an engineer, I’m a little more comfortable doing some “contractor only” work that most DIYers won’t touch. But at the end of the day, I’d rather spend time with my wife and daughter. So, I CAN drywall and spackle my basement when we finish it, but it’s going to take like 40 hours, maybe I’ll contract out the mudding portion, etc.
julianne says
This is what my husband has to do now too. He grow up in construction but now it’s more important to spend time with his little girl (sometimes me too). It’s tough on him, he knows we could save money but kids grow up quickly and you only get one shot with them.
Jess @ Little House. Big Heart. says
Those doors look 100% better!
Right now, we’re not really in a position to have much hired out. The budget’s tight, so if we want it done, we have to study up and do it ourselves.
That being said, we will have the intense plumbing and electrical done by pros when we gut the bathroom this winter. Not taking any chances there!
Kate @ zMOMbie says
This is how my husband feels about anything plumbing related. He’s very handy in many things, including electricity. But, plumbing involved? Call someone.
annabelvita says
Oh, those French doors are gorgeous!
My family is totally DIY (my mum has limits but my engineer stepdad likes to do everything himself even if it takes years and never gets finished!), but my brother and I have both ended up with partners from families who are much more likely to hire it out (for various reasons). It’s funny to see how coming from different backgrounds really changes your attitude to things!
I think my brother and I assume we’ll do stuff ourselves (with the help of family) unless it’s too, too hard – even if it takes forever, whereas our partners just want to get stuff done professionally and quickly. I think in the end it’s all about balance, and it’s good to have the two viewpoints represented!
April says
When we took our living room down to the studs we knew we were going to hire out the drywall installation. It’s messy and you need certain tools and it was just easier to have someone else come in and get it hung and mudded and sanded. Then we did all the trimwork ourselves and painting of course. It was money well spent!
Karma says
I DIY’d my butt of last weekend!
Re-grouted and sealed the shower stall and fixed a broken toilet. I’m pretty sure I saved at least $400 by doing it myself.
If I can find all of the right information and tools/supplies to do a job and I’m reasonably confident that I can do a decent job I always choose the DIY option.
erin says
they look amazing! imagine on those nice breezy cool, warm spring, summer mornings, you can open the doors, and just loll around the house, enjoying the weather!
bekah says
beautiful! We dont DIY anything electrical (I mean, Im fine with replacing light fixtures on my own, but anything more than that is out).
I really love the look of that new door, great choice!
Richard says
Wow, the change is a.maz.ing. Who knew a door could do that? I used to do MUCH more DIY stuff, mostly because I had no money and was brave enough to have a go at it. Now that I am older and have a teensy bit more money to spend, it is soooooooeasy to make a call and have someone come and do things. I do still like to paint walls myself, and I will be sad when the day comes when I am no longer able/interested to go at it on my own. I am already getting yelled at by family members to get the heck off of my ladder!
Gretchen says
French doors (and a wall around them–we want to divide our master bedroom into two spaces for a nursery short term/office or sitting room or whatever long term) is the very thing we just decided not to tackle ourselves, too. I wonder if Home Depot will put up a wall along with installing doors…we’re having trouble getting our contractor of choice to fit us into his schedule, and we have a baby-imposed time limit restricting us here….your doors look great!
Melissa Sharp says
I’m glad you guys hired this one out for the reasons you listed, rather than let some crazy DIY pride get in the way of what was a reasonable decision to just get the project completed. The doors look great!
Ariana says
Preach!! Sometimes you gotta just ask for help! Thanks for the honesty. I will DIY anything, but I always hire movers because I hate moving so much. I call it a sanity tax. I was thinking- now that you are going on tour it seems like a good time to get your floors refinished. Have you thought about that at all or are those still a ways off?
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- sanity tax = hilarious! As for the floors, we’re probably a ways off on that (we remember how crazy it was to displace all the furniture) but we are considering trying to do it in phases (move everything into one side of the house and do one side, and vice versa). Maybe next year though!
xo
s
Sarah says
They look great! I’m glad you ended up going with your gut–such a good decision maker, that gut.
Jenni Bailey says
We are getting ready to buy a house that pretty much needs to have everything torn out and replaced. Everything. Ceilings, floors, kitchens, bathrooms, doors and windows and at least one wall (which has a weird, unfunctional pocket door situation at the moment). We’re planning to do most of it ourselves but will most likely hire someone to texture the new ceiling and possibly to refinish the fireplace . Basically it’s going to come down to time. Like with you and this door – we don’t want to spend a week on something that would probably take a professional less than a day. Because the longer we take on the new house, the longer we spend in my mother in law’s guest room. And as much as I love her, I’m just not down with that.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha! Good luck Jenni!
xo
s
Kelly says
I just LOLed at that headstone– right as my boss walked by! Thanks for the chuckle. The doors look great!
Cristina says
I’m glad you guys wrote this post. With all the projects we’ve been tackling on our new house and plan to tackle in the future, I find myself asking, ‘What would Young House Love do?” Haha yup WWYHLD! My justification sometimes is, “Well if Sherry and John can do it themselves…” But as you pointed out it’s different for everyone, and sometimes it’s easier to just hire it out. Great post!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Cristina!
xo
s
Jessica says
WWYHLD? Sounds like some bracelets are in order! Lol!
Amanda @ Our Humble A{Bowe}d says
At our first house, my hubs and I did almost everything. The two things we hired out were cutting larger holes in the concrete foundation to make egress windows and drilling a well. Mostly because equipment/tools would have cost more than hiring it. Otherwise, we renovated a kitchen, finished a basement, installing a geothermal heating and cooling unit and everything else.
At our new house, we’ve hired out installing a geothermal, new garage doors, and cutting concrete to lower a door. All because the installed prices were so close to what we could do it for ourselves. And we’ve got about one miiiillion projects in the works. My hubby did install a new roof: http://ourhumbleabowedblog.com/2012/08/08/a-new-roof-over-our-heads/ which was a total pain in the butt. I thought his headstone would be similar to your fake one. :)
YoungHouseLove says
Haha! So glad he survived!
xo
s
Morgen says
I would DIY a lot more around our house. However, my hubby is of the mind that our time and sanity are worth more than the money we would spend having someone else do it. So we compromise, mostly. Ex: paid someone to paint the outside of the house, while we paint the inside. Since both estimates were about the same it feels like we are kind of breaking even.
YoungHouseLove says
Really smart way of looking at it!
xo
s
chris says
Great job and good choice on getting it installed! If the professional had that many hiccups, you know it would have been a mess. The DIY’s that we attempt tend to be more cosmetic. We just had granite installed and a new cooktop, sink and backsplash. Was thinking the backsplash might be something I could attempt (simple diamond travertine) but they quote me a price I couldn’t refuse. It turned out to be a lot more work than they anticipated. The guy kept muttering “too many cuts”. I am going to paint the cabinets the same color as the island I’ve lived with for 6 months… Benjamin Moore ‘Red Rock’. We got a bid for $1000. I can do this…
jana says
Messing with a wonky bathroom ceiling and having the same thoughts about DIY vs. Hiring out. You definitely made the right choice. Heavy, cumbersome doors requiring perfect fit-leave that one to the pros. Looks great!
Emma (Broke Ass Home) says
We DIY anything decorating or even normal home stuff. We do hire out if we want an outlet moved, or if we find a light doesn’t have a ground wire (something about burning down my 107 year old house while trying to move my microwave doesn’t seem worth it to me)and we’ve had gas guys come to the house a few times to move lines and whatever. We also have full plans of hiring out the installation of a metal roof because our peaks are so steep I’m worried Nate might fall and die.
Things that compromise our safety or the integrity of the house usually get hired out. I like her too much for me to mess her up beyond repair.
PS: Totally jealous of the frenchies. I want some real bad…maybe once we move OUR deck. Yuck.
Amy says
My husband is a contractor by trade and installing door is one of his least favorite tasks. I love the look of French doors but would miss the screen and the ability to leave them open w/o bugs. Curious to hear your take.
Ginny @ goofymonkeys says
The door looks great and the price sounds so reasonable! We have a slider that needs replacing, so maybe I’ll mosey on over to HD to see what the options are and get an estimate.
But as to your question….Yes, there are things we don’t DIY. The only thing we’ve hired out routinely is plumbing. I am nervous when my husband has a blow torch, so I figure it’s a job best left to the pros who are licensed and insured to do that sort of thing.
T-La says
LOVE the new doors! They looks amazing. Can’t wait for a new pendant light in front of them now :)
Lindsay says
What a huge difference the french doors make. Looking good!
Theresa says
Out of the park home run. Sorry for the baseball analogy but I live in between Washington and Baltimore so I’m surrounded by it right now. Not sure hubby is going to make it through the series. We always hire out drywall issues. We can never seem to get it looking perfect and decided years ago to let the professionals handle it. 32 years of marriage teaches you when to compromise.
Kate says
Love, love, love the look! Totally worth the pro install!
We piddled around trying to do some DIY tree removal at our house (reciprocating saw with a wood blade for the win!) …in the end we had to call in the pros because the project was simply TOO BIG! We did have them leave us behind a bunch of mulch from grinding up trees so we could DIY a front garden bed. I felt like that appeased the DIY gods.
http://1500sqft.wordpress.com/2012/10/01/tree-killingthe-ultimate-edition/
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- looks like quite a project!
xo
s
Lindsay Butler says
I love it, it looks fantastic! It has to feel a little nice seeing an amazing upgrade in your home, that you did not have to break your backs doing. Even the best DIYers (you guys) deserve treats like this!
Enjoy!
P.S. You cannot place a price on saving your sanity!
Leigh says
I love the French doors! They look like they really open up the space and let in tons of light. Perfect choice! We had French doors in our home growing up and one day, I hope to have them in my home too.
I grew up in a family that DIY’s everything. We’re the people who pour their own foundation. Even though we are hard core about things around the home, it’s always best to hire out things you aren’t comfortable with. Like paying electrician uncle to help with wiring so we don’t hurt ourselves!
Bethany says
Surprise door post, love it. We have installed cabinets, flooring, done our own plumbing and electrical but we also hired out on having our front door replaced. Just not something you can afford to be without for more than a few hours!
Patricia says
My fiancé isn’t into DIY anything so I know when we buy a house next year we’ll be hiring people to do things that I can’t do myself. But I’ll be trying to do easy things myself. Like painting and I want to try to tackle laying down some sort of flooring. But it’ll all depend on how our future house looks. I’m not “allowed” to get a complete fixer upper. Lol
Ashley@AttemptsAtDomestication says
The new doors look great and I definitely can’t blame you for hiring something like this out. There are a ton more fun things you can do ;)
Liz E. says
Seriously in love with this door! Can’t wait to see more details. And I totally agree–sometimes it’s just worth it to let someone else install. We love to DIY things, but have our limits. Like drywall: we will hang it ourselves and I love to paint way too much to hire out for that. But by golly that middle step (taping, mudding, sanding, repeating) just isn’t for us!
CJ says
We learned that hard way that doors are much harder to install than you think. We installed a pre-hung interior door and it’s not quite plumb and thus sticks pretty badly. We hired out the rest of the doors after that!!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy CJ. Thanks! Haha.
xo
s
Rebecca @ the lil house that could says
Thank you guys for this, and such excellent timing for me! I think sometimes the world of blogs makes you feel guilty when you don’t want to DIY something. But the truth is, you don’t love to do everything and sometimes there just isn’t enough time. This weekend we had someone re-edge our landscaping and trim all of our plants for winter. It cost us $150 and gave us entire weekend to spend together and work on more fun projects. Worth every potentially back-breaking penny.
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, that sounds awesome!
xo
s
Amy @ PaintWineRepeat says
Looks great!!
For our bathroom reno we hired out the tiling job since its the only full bathroom in our house and we’d have to spend MONTHS without a shower (because we’d only work on it sporadically) rather than a few weeks. I would still like to attempt to tile one day, but that wasn’t the job for me. :) It’s exactly what you said – it’s about what feels right for you.
Emily says
After refinishing about 700 square feet of hardwood floor in our last house, we have decided that we hate it and will never do the sanding again!!! I will gladly pay someone to come in, give me a nice clean sanding, and then I will stain and/or poly the floor myself. Live and learn!
YoungHouseLove says
So good to know! We wondered if that step was the worst- certainly looks ominous!
xo
s
Tracie@MiddleClassMod says
Heh. I don’t mind the sanding but absolutely hate staining/polying.
Last year we re-drywalled our front room. Including the ceiling. Drywall isn’t my favorite thing anyway, but I will never, ever, ever do drywall work on a ceiling again. At one point I literally thought I was going to die, or at least permanently dislocate a shoulder.