Forced to DIY

Being an ME vs EE I stay away from complex electrical repairs, but had to replace 3 or 4 push button on/off switches on a CJ MV-75 amplifier. It was pretty simple, even if soldering multiple wires to a terminal got involved a few times.

Considering the cost of mailing that hunk of metal off and waiting, waiting for it’s return more than made up for the hassle.

I do almost all my own repair work around the house and in the yard, including stereo, guitars, and amps. In the process I've built up a pretty good collection of tools and the skills to use them. And in those cases where something is either above my skill set or beyond my physical ability, I have a pretty good idea of what's actually involved and what it should cost. Case in point, the 6-year old LG washer in our Hawaii vacation rental house recently packed in the drain pump.

Being an LG, it diagnosed itself, and parts were readily available from Sears or Amazon. But, it is a front loader in a stack, and my days of being able to deadlift large appliances are long gone. So we decided to replace the unit and sell the repaired old one. Replacement was no issue, just two strong guys with the right straps to lift and separate, swap in the new unit, and restack. About 45 minutes total. I called Sears Appliance repair to do the pump swap, just in case there were other problems, like a solenoid valve (possible) or controller board (unlikely). I figured about $20 for the labor and the part was on Sears website for $41.30. the price quote I got was over $300 in labor and almost $150 for the pump. Showing them the part on their own website for a fraction of their price didn't matter, they were going to charge what ever they wanted, couldn't guarantee they delivery time, wouldn't warranty parts they didn't sel. blah, blah, blah. So I got the part from Amazon Prime for $35, delivered to Hawaii in the usual 6 days, got the replacement instructions from the University of YouTube, and now a very happy woman has her first washing machine in Hawaii. 

I also have a Fishman Artist Acoustic Guitar amp with a noisy mic input. In this case finding a repair shop was near impossible, so I'm taking it upon myself to fix it. Sure enough, YouTube has a video for fixing that exact problem in the same channel. Soldering iron on standby, awaiting the part.

My APT Holman preamp upgrade? Nah, let a pro do that.

So, yeah, DIY if you can, outsource it if you can't.

Plumbing.

Definition. 

Poop flows downhill. 
 

Payday is Friday. 

@erik_squires 

In the past, we have gutted and renovated houses three times and you just learn how to do things. That being said, I always shied away from plumbing. 

There was always just to much to lose if I screwed up somehow.

Recently I have fixed my kitchen faucet, both bathroom faucets and I am now looking into fixing a leaky diverter valve in my shower.

Like most things. Research is the key. Lots of research.

If you trust yourself, go for it, but if you get in over your head, stop immediately.

DIY on things you don’t know anything about can wear you out in short order. Now I’m a DIY person to an extreme. I built our home including the carpentry, electric, plumbing and most of of the HVAC. I also do all my home maintenance work except I’ve learned the hard way I can’t fix appliances and try to avoid most auto repair.

The thing that wore me out the most though, was trying to keep my beloved old Bang and Olufsen Beogram 4002 linear tracking turntable running. Nobody locally could repair it properly, and I knew nothing about electronics or stereo equipment repair. I even went so far as purchasing a second Beogram 4002 for parts.

As the frequency of needing repairs increased with age, finally the last time it broke down no amount of research and DIY fixing could resuscitate the turntable, I was in despair. Each previous repair had been agonizing mostly due to trying to figure out what needed to be done each time. At last I finally gave up. I threw both the original and parts turntable in the garbage to make sure no one else would ever suffer the same travail trying to keep it running for another forty years. I loved that turntable, and may it RIP.