I've worked with my hands and tools all of my life so most of this stuff comes pretty easy to me, but I will admit that there is a small segment of society that just seems to be very uncomfortable and clumsy doing any kind of work with their hands or tools. If you are one of these types you probably would be much better served to stick with making money at what you know, and hire out your maintenance, remodeling and repair work.
Good point. I have a neighbor who is really eager to be a good DIYer, absolutely shouldn't be allowed near a power tool, absolutely sucks at doing anything with his hands, and is typically totally impressed with the results of his efforts, LOL. That said, he is an awesome guy in general, and excels at his "real" job as a counselor for disabled vets.
The other point to ponder is that it doesn't matter if you are dealing with a pro. service tech. (electrician, plumber, HVAC tech. etc....) builder, or remodeler, they all have problems doing their job, and frequently have to throw a flag on the play, and move on. You get called to a job to change a breaker in an electrical panel, open the panel and find far larger issues. You're can't go any further, and you need to bill for a service call that acomplished nothing, and inform the customer that a $150 job is now a $1000 job. You show up to install a new toilet and find that the vinyl flooring under the toilet has nicely concealed a leaking toilet flange, and severe rot. The existing toilet is sitting on what used to be a wooden subfloor, but now looks more like wet potting soil. You and your crew show up to start building a deck and discover the lumber company truck has located an abandoned septic tank in the customer's yard. You know this, since you can see the truck's rear end had disappeared in a sink hole in the yard, and the headlights are pointing to the sky. You then get to battle the lumberyard over who pays for the $1000 tow truck bill, and then have your guys waste 1/2 a day had unloading a truck. Next the homeowner want's you to fix the hole in the yard, even though he "forgot" to mention it, when he told you there were no problems with driving a truck around the house.
The difference between being a DIYer and a pro isn't just the lack of tools and experience, it's the reality that Murphy's law is real, and bites you in the ass on a regular basis. As a pro. you factor that in to the game. As a DIYer you are more likely to mistakenly believe that you are under a dark cloud, and the god's are making it clear that you shouldn't be doing this. The cure for most is to soldier on, lick your wounds and never give up. In a while you are no longer all thumbs, you have enough tools to tackle the job, and you have gained the confidence to get it done.
