In Our House DYI Is Never As Simple As It Seems

Around our house, it's not merely enough to attempt a small DYI (Do-it-Yourself) project like painting or refinishing. We tend to tackle the messy ones like plumbing and tiling. We should know by now that our undertakings involve an excessive number of trips to the home improvement stores and never to begin the work over a major holiday when stores are closed or company is coming. But that doesn't stop us.

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Know of any good DIY websites or instructional videos? Tell us in the comments!

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Just this past weekend, New Years Eve, we decided to tile a backsplash in our recently renovated kitchen. The challenge wasn't so much laying the tile as laying our hands on the tile we'd selected. From start to finish, in three days, we went to once and to four different Lowe's stores a total of seven times.

Why so many trips? Well, once we settled on white subway tiles, we trekked from store to store looking for a box with unbroken sheets.  On a tip from the Timonium Lowe's store that the White Marsh store had plenty, we hightailed it around the beltway on New Years Eve only to find another DIYer had beat us to them. So, it was off to Bel Air where we managed to get what we needed for our end-of-year project.

Ironically, after spending so much time and energy trying to find unbroken tiles, our final three trips to Lowe's were to have the experts cut tiles to fill the small spaces at the end of a row. Believe me, it was worth it to have the professionals make the cuts—history has taught us our limits.

One year, just days before Christmas, my husband, Craig decided to fix a leaky toilet. After describing the problem to the friendly folks at Ayd Hardware in Stoneleigh it was determined that all he needed to do was to replace the wax ring upon which the toilet sits. No problem, right? They advised him to buy two wax rings assuring him that although the task was easy, he'd surely screw up on his first attempt. He never got that far.

As he worked to loosen the bolt holding the toilet to the floor, the wrench slipped and cracked the porcelain pot. It was Dec. 23 and we were expecting a house full of guests over the next few days. Trust me, Craig was the only guy buying his wife a shinny new commode for the holidays. Installation began early on Christmas Eve and true to the Ayd Hardware guys' prediction, he messed up placing the toilet on the wax ring. But he exceeded their expectations and messed up the spare too.

He rushed back to the store, only to find they were now closed until Jan. 2. Fortunately, for everyone involved, the owner, Vince happened to be inside the store, wrapping gifts for his wife. He let my husband in, gave him the wax ring and sent him on his way. Thankfully, the third time was a charm. 

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