Learn a New Skill: Help a Friend

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Free labor! It sounds like a gimmick. Perhaps your friends may question your sanity for volunteering. But asking to help assist someone else’s DIY remodel is a great way to learn a new skill. Help a friend and not only learn how to do (or not do) something, but also improve your friendship!

Are you getting a freebie hands-on chance at learning something you know you are going to do on your remodel? Yes!

Speeding your project along because you will have done it before? Check!

Guaranteeing your chance at success? When and where and you’ll be there!

Are you getting some new stories to pull out at the next get together for some friendly ribbing? Ooooooh yeah!

I gotta admit when starting out I was so excited to get started, but at the same time I was so afraid about doing everything wrong. Would I take something apart and the house fall down? One of my solutions was to talk to anyone and everyone about their homes and helping a friend by volunteering to assist with any house projects before I got the keys to my first house.

I was ecstatic when discovering two of my friends were DIY’ing significant remodels. One was redoing a kitchen and the other a master suite.

Opportunity #1

The kitchen remodel friend called about a week after I started the paperwork on my first house. He asked if I would like to stop by and help tape and float drywall. I literally jumped at the chance. Despite being a few miles into a long bicycle ride, I turned my bike around without a second thought and raced over to assist.

As my mentors at work will tell you, and they are probably nodding their heads right now… I ask a lot of questions. This work had a different kind of pressure than my own project because it was not mine. So, if I messed up and created more work for my friend I was going to feel terribly guilty.

My first job was taping and floating a corner from floor to ceiling.

The inquisition began:

Does this look right? Yes.
Is there enough mud? Maybe a little too much. Smooth it out so it doesn’t crinkle the tape when we embed it.
How about now? Better!
Is this angle right? It looks OK to me.
Does it still look OK? Yes.
How about now? OK.
Now? Does it look like a corner?

Ten years later, I’m making up the original questions and answers. They are probably close. However, the question answering my question stuck.

Does it look like a corner?

It was a loaded question with so many aspects, yet so simple. Is the task at hand easily discernible? Is it up to my engineering perfectionist standards? Does it need to be up to my engineering perfectionist standards, or am I overthinking?

Just to be clear, we are not talking about signing off on a corner that has nicks, bumps, and bubbles. We’re talking about not going to the level of dragging a speed square across the 8 ft of corner from the floor to ceiling and making sure both walls touch it perfectly along the entire length. One is just sloppy while the other is an exercise in insanity. There is a happy medium in between where the wall looks perfect although perhaps the angle is not exactly 90°.  My corner was in the happy place.*

I answered my own question: Yes, it does.

My friend also taught me how to dip the tape in water to help imbed the tape in the mud especially with the lack of humidity in the Arizona air. The next day we started hanging cabinets. Or, I should say I learned how not to hang cabinets? The doors should be able to fully open.

Another opportunity to help a friend

Trickery! Who would guess the real location of the plumbing here without Superman X-ray vision?

Friend #2 ended up calling a week or two later.  Would I like to help demo a bathroom?  OH YEAH!

This demolition task turned out to be both fun and perilous. Ripping down drywall was the fun part… mostly. While speeding up taking out the old shower wall with his sawzall, he accidentally sliced through some plumbing. During the ensuing cascade of water, I learned the importance of turning off water to the house before demoing out a wet wall! The additional lesson was the importance of having a huge pile of grungy towels on hand.

In his defense, who expects plumbing to jump through a stud?!?! Notice how the plumbing crosses over from one side of the stud to the other and the second run is at an angle about 8 inches from the floor. It is obvious where the plumbing comes out of the wall and where studs are located. Generally copper lines go straight up or straight in any direction. No one would imagine a pipe jaunting at an angle much less appearing on either side of a stud. Shenanigans!

Given, in the builder’s defense the thought of pouring a slab with the plumbing in place and getting them in a wall is also a feat.

Where would we be without our friends?

I am very thankful for these friends who allowed me to tag along with their projects. These experiences not only gave a leg up for my own remodel, but new ideas and thought processes. I am much more careful about demoing any wall which houses plumbing.  No sawzalls here, only good old fashioned drywall knives.

Not only did I learn a bunch of new skills at the cost of only my time and perhaps a few sore muscles, but I also gained a new mindset. My friend’s question, “Does it look like a corner?”, can be applied to so many different situations:  Does the the tile on the wall look flat?  Is the mud floated far enough? Does the miter of crown molding look good enough in a corner?

When you feel your inner uber-perfectionist creeping up, step back from your project. If you are driving yourself crazy with a minute detail, ask yourself, “Does it look like a <insert big picture project>?” Odds are, if you are detail oriented with just enough skill to match, it probably does.  Cut yourself some slack and move to the next step.

One of the biggest benefits to learning new DIY skills while lending a hand to help a friend is strengthening your friendship.  By providing a second set of hands, you speed up their progress when they just need a little more muscle or that third hand we just don’t have. You are also an extra set of eyes and ears to spot any problems. Extra bonus: after slicing through plumbing, stepping through a ceiling, or any other good story, you have enough fodder for any roast!

Also note, the “help a friend” technique works best if you have a long time before your project to pester your friends. You can create more learning/ volunteering opportunities by egging them on to take on new projects. 😉

*A reference to Happy Gilmore.