Home Improvement Ideas

Home improvement projects are not a war and a weekend warriors more than likely will end up with a war on their hands that they have to fight on multiple fronts. The following steps can help you get your weekend home improvement project done fast and have fun doing it.

Talk the project over with your other half. Talking over means exchange of ideas, so be open and listen to her/his ideas as much as you talk about yours.

Ask for help carefully. Who is good with his hands? Who has good tools, if you need any? Who likes to help? And most importantly, who do you get along with and have fun with who has the previous qualifications? Remember you are setting up a fun project and not a battle plan.

Delegate and respect. My project was in two parts; remove the seals without damaging the wooden frame, inserting the new seal so that it is completely in place. I showed a friend how to do it and asked him to tell me if I did it OK. This helped him to put his critique hat on and point out what I had missed, so when it was his turn, he had a better idea what to do. We basically checked each other's work in a friendly and respectful way.

To satisfy the rational mind, give yourself a reason for starting the home improvement project. In my latest project, changing the window seals, I had three reasons, high cost of electricity, irritating drafts anytime I passed by the windows, and concerns about the damage rain may do to the wooden windows if it got in.

But, rational reasoning is never enough. Most of us work with an emotional reward much better. Set up a reward for finishing the project. The savings on my electrical bill is great, but savings is not something I can sink my teeth into, so I set up a nice quiet and romantic dinner with my wife.

After you talk things over with your other half, write down what the two of you expect to happen. This doesn't have to be a long, detailed and extensive list that exhausts you just by looking at it. Keep a central theme and a few steps. The central theme could be something like, change the seals on the windows. I use this example since I just finished this.

Get a supply list together. This needs to be detail to prevent delays, frustration and repeated trips to the local hardware store. I needed the window seals, a tool to remove the old ones, a pair of scissors.

Check the availability of your supplies. In my case the seal turned out to be a custom order and I had to wait a week to get it. Checking the availability saved me a lot of frustration.

Be ready for the unexpected. In my case, the seal would not go into the grooves easily, so I had to find a tool to do it. Someone suggested a little hand tool that pushes the carpets on the tacks. It worked great.

Once I had the window seals in my hands, I tried one window and timed myself. It took me about half an hour. Having over forty windows, I knew that the entire project takes about twenty hours. With couple of friends, we could do it in a day.

This step helped me with a more accurate projection of time it takes for the project to finish. It prevented the frustration, the rush, the push and the shove to try to get the project done in less time that it really requires.