Spring and Summer are here the garden centers and hardware stores are all packed with folks working on a weekend projects. I have come up with three things to keep those projects on TRACK!
1. Prioritize – Technically Summer only lasts 90 days, 91 on a leap year. So that doesn’t leave a lot of time to enjoy these projects you or your spouse keeps adding to the list. I have always found the best way to tackle the projects is to prioritize which ones are most important, which ones can only be done this season, and frankly which ones I can enjoy the quickest. Easy example: last year half way through the summer I finally had the driveway paved. I decided it would be one of the quickest projects to do, it would have the quickest use case from kids on bikes and the like, and it was probably middle of the road from a cost standpoint. Fast forward to the fall and winter…we are still enjoying the fruits of that decision when plowing snow and playing basketball. You can do them all, figure out which are the most important to you.
2. Do it yourself vs NOT – This is one that may come very natural to many folks. The choice is kind of obvious to me, but not in the usual way. I am bad at hammering. I am bad at cutting. I really have no redeeming handyman skills that I can think of at all. I also tend to have more money than I have time. All of these things work together to show me that I probably need to go ahead and hire someone, rather than attempt to do it myself. Financially it may work out in your favor, but only if you make the right decision. There is nothing worse than good money after bad. SIDE NOTE: Make sure if you are hiring someone to do the work for you, its the right people. I can say I’ve gotten burned twice going with family recommendations when trying to build a little pond in my back yard. Eventually after wasting a lot of money I did a search for Butler County PA Pond Expert and found someone that did exactly what he said he could do. That doesn’t always happen…
3. Save Early and Often – Nothing stings worse than having to wait a whole year to start or continue a project because of funding. Pitch all year long because when the warm weather hits we will all be very interested in these projects and wonder why we can finish them. I like to squirrel away so there are no surprises and no let downs during the building and projects season.
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