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- My mother's basement
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Mostly, I find myself doing (or paying to be done) jobs that are fixes of jobs that were done badly by previous owners. There is nothing worse than a necessary job done sloppily. Just as an example, the plumbing in our kitchen was remodelled maybe 15 years ago, long before we had the house. Now, they ran the cold water supply along the interior exposed brick wall of the rear extension; nothing wrong with that. Then we discover that it has no lagging! So the first real cold day, the pipes froze. Such simple little things that cowboy builders/plumbers do badly that are incredibly irritating.
Or replacing a window and taking out, but not replacing, the lintel! What kind of moron builder would do that? A cheap one, is the answer, one who really doesn't know what he's doing. So now we have a window on its last legs, sagging under the weight of the brickwork above, and the un-necessary cost of re-replacing a perfectly good otherwise window, with the associated building work. Just do the bloody job properly!
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As a somewhat accidental and mostly reluctant landlord, who has found himself undoing other people's "improvements" to my rental properties (one little house, and one duplex), all I can say, in my best WJ Clinton accent, is I feel your pain. It just galls me to tear out and throw away materials that were improperly installed not very long ago. But there is no reasonable alternative, lest I make myself guilty of the very crimes I rail against, so tear it out and throw it away I do.
I take it as a sign of disrespect to the skilled craftsmen of this world that people with no experience whatsoever think they're up to a job they really aren't. It's not that a homeowner can't do most things around the house, if he's willing to ask a lot of questions and take a lot of time. But so many do neither.
Me, I know what I don't know. I clean, and paint, and sometimes help with more specialized jobs, provided I'm not just putting myself in the way (I have friends who know these things much better than I ever will). The rest of it I leave to the professionals. In the end, it costs a lot less that way, and it goes much quicker.