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…
jeannette says
this is you all at your best, adbusting through rational psychiatric counselling all the crack-smoking box store/shelter porn ads about being able to do it all. thank you.
Karen F says
pretty pretty door! such a difference! It’s the perfect frame for your beautiful deck!
we pretty much hire out everything, unless it’s something my dad has experience with (he’s good with basic plumbing and electrical). my husband has no confidence! My dad, my husband and I did replace florescent lights in my old kitchen with recessed lights. that’s probably our biggest DIY undertaking, besides painting rooms!
cc says
Beautiful! I’m too thrifty to say I won’t try almost anything once, but I know of a guy who when building a new house in the country even took it upon himself to dig the long, long trench needed to put in the waterline, all in order to save about $10 a month on his mortgage payment. I think my thriftiness ends somewhere before that!
YoungHouseLove says
Woah- that’s heavy duty!
xo
s
Carolyn says
It’s funny what people decide to DIY and hire out sometimes … my husband loves doing all things electrical (scary!) and plumbing (ugh) but wanted to hire out installing baseboards, haha. So my father-in-law and I teamed up to get the job done. Love the doors!
YoungHouseLove says
So funny! John loves trim work and baseboards for the most part. He has a love affair with his miter saw…
xo
s
Ashley says
Wow! Your doors look amazing. I understand why you hired out. Especially, being a door that leads right into your house – I’d want to make sure that it was secure that day!
For me, I’m still new to DIY but I find that I am liking the smaller projects up front. I thought I would love painting my house but since it is old and the walls are plaster with many dents and waves, it’s pretty hard to get the tape straight and have a clean finish. I’m over it. But I’m in the middle of staining a counter top and it’s pretty fun!
Brittney says
The biggest DIY that we’ve undertaken was widening our closets…
Before- http://babyrenneberg.blogspot.com/2012/02/closet-reno-part-one.html
After- http://babyrenneberg.blogspot.com/2012/03/closets-complete.html
It did take MUCH longer than we anticipated (2 full weekends) but it cost us a grand total of $370 instead of the $2500 we were quoted by two contractors!
We have hired out our upcoming bathroom remodel to a contractor friend even though we could have followed your first house’s remodel since our space is a cookie-cutter clone of what you guys started with there! In the end, we just couldn’t be out our only full bathroom for more than a few days tops since we have a busy toddler scurrying around and a Minnesota winter is quickly approaching.
LOVE the new doors! :)
YoungHouseLove says
Such a great project to widen those closets!
xo
s
Stefanie says
Looks sooo nice! I don’t blame you for not DIYing – anything that could leave a large open hole in the house for a day (or longer with hiccups) is worth having done by a pro for a shorter amount of time.
Annegirrl says
I would say we’re 95% DIYers. We try to do pretty much everything ourselves with a few exceptions. Roofing, HVAC, and major electrical (replacing the entire electrical box). Everything else is open to be DIY’d. The other thing we’ve never done is flooring, but we are planning to remedy that with our current project that is in progress.
We’ve remodeled a full bathroom (except for the cultured marble wall install that the company would not let us do ourselves), replaced electrical, finished a basement, insulated, rewired, and pimped out a pole building to be the ultimate man-cave, ran new plumbing, and installed just about every fixture imaginable.
Lindsey says
We have a crappy old slider on the front of our house (weird I know, but we live in the mountains and the front has the best view). Think “bent frame, constantly stuck screen, lots of cussing” and you’re almost there. You JUST SOLD ME on French doors. I have wanted them since we moved here about a year ago but thought it would be CRAZY expensive. Under $1K to buy and have installed? Sold. Just as soon as the guys re-staining our house are done. Because I won’t DIY anything that involves height of more than a basic step ladder! :)
Becca Bermingham says
Are you going to keep the curtains up over the french doors? Or take them down?
YoungHouseLove says
We’ll cover that in tomorrow’s post!
xo
s
Bethindc says
Are you considering replacing other sliders?
YoungHouseLove says
We definitely have debated upgrading them over time, although they’re completely functional (no rot, they lock, the screens work, etc) so it’s less of a no-brainer… we’ll have to see where we end up!
xo
s
Jen says
It never hurts to get a quote. We were going to rent a stump grinder to get rid of some hemlock roots.
Rental: $150-200, plus we’d have to borrow a truck to haul the thing and spend hours from pick up, process and return.
Hire a pro who was there in 15 min and done just as fast: $75.
YoungHouseLove says
Love that! Such a smart thing to price out!
xo
s
Laura says
The doors look great! And I really think you made the right choice about hiring it out. Installing new doors into an existing frame is soooo tricky… and frustrating and generally a pain in the arse! We installed a simple storm door and it took my husband the whole day and our toddler learned a bunch of new grown-up words. :(
Laura says
I love the new doors. We have two rotting back doors that just need to be replaced. Home depot has scared us away from replacing them before. Can you tell me more about the process you went through and the flat fee?
YoungHouseLove says
We just picked out the door at the store to see the price, paid $35 for someone to come out to size our opening to make sure that door would work (the $35 goes towards installation so it’s not extra money) and then after the guy came out and said it would work we paid for the whole door and install in the store and they called a few days later to set up install and then came out and did it in one day. No added charge for the extra time or trip to the store it took him or anything!
xo
s
DIYnot Kelly says
Exterior doors are a pain to install, what with needing to make everything weather tight and all. For that price, I would probably hire it out too. And like you said, you don’t have unlimited time. Some of my DIY projects wait for months or even years because I don’t have time to do them right now, and sometimes I conclude that I should have realized this in the beginning and just bought the darn thing.
AnnMarie says
We have the same set up off of our living room and I am at a loss of what to do for curtains/shades/blinds. It has the shape of a bay window, making it slightly awkward to do anything with. I’m anxious to see what you decided with yours!
Christina says
I totally thought this was going to be a Reader Redesign based on that first picture. I didn’t recognize it was the YHL’s home! I would totally hire out for a door install. It intimidates me. HA!
Amy says
I almost choked on my soup when I saw your headstone… Thanks for the laugh! Your new doors are beautiful! Can’t wait for the full run-down and photos!
Jen says
It looks great! I think the idea of someone having easy access to the house if they were snooping around back because you hadn’t finished installing the door yourself would’ve been the tipping point for me having someone else install the door!
Beth says
Love the post and the DOORS! OMG, so pretty!! It’s reassuring to see you guys hire some things out. Not that I don’t admire and love you for your mad DYI skills because I do, it’s just…reassuring :) We definitely pick and choose what to DYI and what to hire out based on costs, safety factors (i.e. could we potentially burn down the house / get maimed or killed doing this?)and sometimes sanity. Because sanity is important.
On a different note, did yall ever do a budget breakdown on the deck? Did I miss it?
The doors look great!
YoungHouseLove says
Ack, we have been meaning to do that when we finally stain/seal it. Soon I hope!!
xo
s
Diane says
I ALWAYS outsource pet grooming. Tried to save a few bucks by DIYing, barely lived to regret the experience.
Juliet says
I think anyone who has ever been faced with “unforeseen circumstances” while installing doors can relate. Foundation/settlement issues, non-standard sizes due to the building’s age, and the astronomical prices for custom doors…I’m just not ready to talk about it…
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- I’m happy you survived Juliet!
xo
s
Juliet says
But they do look amazing!
Felicity @ ourlittlebeehive says
So smart. The door we installed (into concrete no less) ended up being a far more involved process than we could have ever imagined. It turned out fine in the end, but wasn’t fun.
We hired out for nearly all of our basement reno. I was down there every day overseeing and did all the design, but I was pregnant and doing demo work and then all that heavy lifting just wasn’t going to be possible. If I weren’t pregnant at the time, we would have done it all ourselves and I bet we would have really had a doozy of a time with the bathroom plumbing – they broke up the concrete and dug down by hand then replaced 70 year old pipes!
Michele from IL says
Hahaha…love the tombstone. The french doors look great! :)
Katie N. says
My husband and I JUST finished a bathroom makeover (literally last night!) and while it was lots of fun and we’re excited with the outcome (and oh-so-proud of ourselves for accomplishing it!), it definitely helped us to decide that we will hire out for our kitchen reno. Although we really enjoy DIYing things around our house and are happy to tackle certain projects, we just simply don’t have enough time or space (city living!) to do more major work, so we will be on the hunt for a great contractor who can whip up our kitchen while we go about our normal lives (minus the home-cooked meals!).
Lesley says
Wow I can’t believe the great price you got on the door and installation. I think I must live in the most expensive place on earth. Last fall we had a rotting french door replaced with a slider for around 4k. I love the french door look but that was going to be about 1,200 more and the room it is in really worked better with a slider. The year before we had our front entry door replaced which was also about the same price b/c it has sidelight windows. We still have 2 other sets of french doors to replace but we are still in the saving mode. I just can’t believe the price differences, it is so upsetting to me.
YoungHouseLove says
So sorry about the price difference Lesley! That stinks!
xo
s
Lesley says
I should also mention the price wasn’t even in the labor as we had a friend do it and he showed us the invoics for everything even with his contractor pricing on materials. He only charged us about $400 for install which I didn’t think was too bad to have it all done in one day, We also went with a simple design similar to your door, nothing fancy.
YoungHouseLove says
Wow, that’s crazy!
xo
s
Colleen in MA says
Love those doors. They are now one of my favorite things in your house!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Colleen!
xo
s
smith207 says
I’m glad you posted this- not all jobs should be DIY, especially dangerous ones.
My grandfather was a roofer for 30 years and one day he slipped and fell from a two story house. He ended up paralyzed from the neck down. He lived about 8 more years after his accident as a quadriplegic with 24 hour nursing care.
I’m not trying to scare others, but professionals who know what they are doing can get hurt. My rule of thumb is if it is dangerous, don’t even attempt it on your own. It is just not worth the money you are saving.
Hire someone and make sure they are licensed and insured- for your protection and their own safety.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh no, I’m so sorry for your loss and your dad’s injury! Safety is definitely something to think about when deciding whether or not to DIY!
xo
s
Danielle says
I am not sure how many things I would tackle on my own just for safety reasons. Since I married a former construction worker/plumber/jack of all trades, I do not have to do anything :) My dad was really big into doing DIY and did all his own car repairs so I wanted a guy that could at least to the same. I actually dreaded the thought of calling someone. I just happened to get even more then I had wanted :) I am kind of blessed that way!
charlotte says
Just had French doors installed. Bought and delivered by Lowes, installed by a local guy. Had some other work done at the same time, so I can’t give you the cost breakdown, but new doors and no mistakes from DIY?…priceless.
Jodi says
We DIY approximately 0%. Not exaggerating even a little. We have trouble changing our own lightbulbs. But I truly enjoy following along on all of your projects. Particularly the deck that you single-handedly built. Wow. I rely on you guys for insipiration and ideas… then I farm it out.
Best luck on your tour. Can’t wait to read your book.
m @ random musings says
Of all the the installation services that big orange and blue offer I am most willing to pay for windows and doors on existing homes. Never underestimatethe effect of settling and updates to “standard” sizing!can’t waitto see the screen situation
Koliti says
One of my friends says she will ALWAYS have a professional do her roof and electrical.
While I by no means tackle any project that is of your calliber and scope – I do like to ask the home depot guy “What is the cuss word rating factor on my little project?”
Your grave marker is the ULTIMATE cuss word factor! :)
YoungHouseLove says
Hahaha- cuss word factor = hilarious!
xo
s
Jen@The Decor Scene says
Gorgeous!!! Love your choice. We recently had Lowe’s install our back screen door. We had already put in the door ourselves 2 years ago, but we wanted a screen door. My mom was kind enough and gave us a gift card to Lowe’s last Christmas and we finally used it for the storm door. We had never put one in and we didn’t want to mess with the siding if we had to, so we left it to the pros. Plus we had the gift card, so the money out of our pockets was very small. It was a win, win in our eyes. We like to do most of our DIY. The big projects in our home we haven’t done ourselves was all of the pavers around our whole house which took the contractor 2 weeks to do, PVC fencing, our new kitchen when we first moved in, our roof or front door and pouring cement for our Family Room to level it all out from the old garage. We have done everything else in our home and we are ok with paying for those bigger projects that we saved the money for. ;)
Patricia says
may I ask an off-topic question…how do you choose the fab freebie winners? Thanks!
YoungHouseLove says
We use a site called random.org which automatically generates a number between 1 and 10,000 (assuming we have 10,00 entries) that correlates to that numbered comment. Then we check that the person didn’t enter more than once (since that disqualifies them) and that’s it!
xo
s
Bridget says
We DIY basically everything except for drywall work. For whatever reason, my husband and I are both horrendous at drywall installation/repair. It ends up lumpy every time and is not good for our marriage (HA). We can run our own 220 electrical lines, build custom showers, rip out walls and add on rooms… but when it gets to the drywall portion, we hire a guy!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, I love that!!
xo
s
diane says
Did the install include the interior and exterior trim and finishing or just putting in the doors?
YoungHouseLove says
Yes, trim too! I just had to paint it!
xo
s
Heidi P. says
A random question: You got pressure treated wood for your deck, right? All the pressure treated stuff I’ve looked at has perforations, where they sink whatever treatment stuff into the wood. But I don’t see that on any of your decking wood. How did you get pressure treated wood without those dashed lines?
YoungHouseLove says
We got ours locally so maybe it’s a different method? Up close they definitely have that tint of PT wood, but they don’t seem to have any deep grooves or anything in them.
xo
s
Heidi P. says
Hmmm, ok. Thanks!
Jaime Whall says
Looks UHHHH-Mazing! My hubby is a carpenter by trade as is the his brother and father. So, we do everything ourselves. Right the guys are building the youngest brothers first home from the ground up by themselves. Busy, busy, busy!
Joy says
My boyfriend and I replaced a sticky sliding door with French doors over Memorial Day weekend. It-was-horrible! Our measurements were off and we had to widen the door opening- cut all the siding on the exterior and rip out drywall on the inside. We still haven’t replaced the drywall because we thought we would “wait a few weeks” to see if we needed to readjust the door. It is such an embarrassment. We always tell our friends, “Don’t mind that big hole in the wall–don’t those new doors look nice!” Once we got the door in place, leveling it was a nightmare. Next time we will definitely leave it to a pro.
YoungHouseLove says
Aw man, so sorry for all that trouble Joy!
xo
s
Debbie C says
Your new French doors are fabulous! Yes, new doors are a pain to hang! My hubby replaced an old bathroom door with a new one, and after shimming, shimming, and more shimming, he never wants to do it again. I guess we’ll have to hire out the other 2…
bw1426 says
I usually try and balance out the cost savings of DIYing it vs the potential cost of a DIY screw up. If the risk of a screw up is high and the potential cost of said screw up is high, we leave it to the professionals.
Katie H says
I love that light fixture right in front of the doors – any idea where it’s from??
YoungHouseLove says
That came with the house- no idea where it’s from but it looks like an old glass tiffany lamp.
xo
s
AngelaKr says
Holy wowsers! I thought we were house crashing again but nope! The new doors look fantastic!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, thanks!
xo
s
alg says
Wow! Such an instant difference!!
NancyO says
How did you decide on the install for $350’ish? Was it the Home Depot recommended professional?
When I got my door at Home Depot, they had a flat fee for door install but I knew I could do better. I contacted ServiceMagic and got a couple quotes. I had my door installed by a professional with quality recommendations for $100 vs $350. It was a flat fee too.
I learned that the people who install the doors for home depot are contractors. So, Home Depot gets a sliver and so does the contractor. By using ServiceMagic, they got a sliver but according to the guy I worked with, he said that ServiceMagic was more beneficial for him to work with than being on the Home Depot contractor list. win win for both of us. And, an idea for you in the future.
nancy
YoungHouseLove says
Yup, we went with HD for the install so the warranty would be more protected (if you hire someone else and the door fails, HD can blame the installer and the installer can blame the door and it’s hard to get one person to fix it/take responsibility). To us it didn’t seem too steep to use HD for it, but if it was a crazy amount of money we definitely would have gone with someone else. In the end I think anyone else would have charged by the hour and for extra parts (which he needed when he ran back to the store) so I think we lucked out going with HD thanks to the flat fee (it took him over twice as long as he expected)!
xo
s
Eve says
The doors look great! We have some sliders to replace ourselves, in our dining area. While they’re not rotting, one door is permanently foggy due to the weatherseal being shot. I imagine we’ll get sliders again so as not to impede on the seating on the deck (it can get a bit tight but there’s enough room to walk) but I do love French doors.
And I giggled when I saw this topic because I was just discussing with an online pal that I’d love to hire it a lot of it out, the zillions of plans we have for this house (revamping a 1200 sq foot basement into usable space including a 3/4 bath someday, reconfiguring the kitchen and dining area, adding a laundry nook upstairs instead of downstairs to make it easier to get done) – if only we were independently wealthy! I do love DIY and there would still be stuff I’d choose to do ourselves, but there’s always the unexciting parts to get to the stuff I’m psyched about.
Jenny says
I like the french doors – very pretty.
JulieB says
I just paid the appliance store to install a dishwasher. $134 seemed worth it. It took him 20 minutes, and they took away the old one. It would have taken me 6 hours and three trips to Home Depot, as well as figuring out how to get rid of the old one.
Peg says
This was a really great post! I can’t believe how much stuff you guys DIY, there is a 75% chance my jaw will drop when I’m reading a post. Serious props to you.
My husband is a general contractor and he will ALWAYS hire out for drywall. He hates it and says that it hurts his back, but he doesn’t mind roofing so I think he just doesn’t like it, haha! The other thing he hired out for when building our house was carpet install – it was just so cheap to have Home Depot do it, kind of like your french doors!
If it wasn’t for my husband I would be perfectly happy to hire out ALL building tasks, but if it wasn’t for his skills (aka unpaid labor) we would never have been able to afford to build a house either. As for me I was content pushing the broom at the end of the day. Power tools are not for me!