I’ve been a constant visitor of iVillage.co.uk since 2003. It started when we were moving to my mother-in-law’s house and needed to upgrade the other master bedroom for our own use. It was only my husband and I back then. No little girl to mess up the decors and furniture yet so I have full rein on giving the room a total makeover. I daily check websites about interior designs, makeover TV shows, paints, furniture, cheap deals, etc. This was when I got addicted to iVillage. The Home & Garden section is a wonderful resource for homemakers who are always on the budget like myself. It features DIY stuff, gardening tips, remodeling areas of the house, handling pets, pest control (though I have to say that issues like this should be left with professionals like Terminix), cooking, cleaning and maintenance, and my favorite - a huge photo gallery of design ideas. I noticed that DIY is all the rage now making me wonder if people in the States either have super powers or they don’t have much to do. I for one can’t even juggle my work from home gig and parenting my now 2.5-year-old toddler.
Still on the subject of Do-It-Yourself. There’s this notion that if it’s a DIY kit, it means it’s easy, a no-brainer. But it’s not. Just because someone said you could do it doesn’t mean you won’t encounter any problems at all. Take my friend for example; he thinks he can put up a bookshelf on his own after watching a “build your own shelf” episode from HGTV. He gave up after trying to piece the puzzle for 30 minutes with an added bonus of a huge splinter on his pinky. He probably didn’t watch the TV bloopers wherein the guy was hit on the head when the shelf that he was trying to put on the wall crashed. You can’t just be like Ty Pennington overnight, you know. At least, that’s the only thing that he tried to do. Other people I know, in hopes to save money, will try to fix their plumbing or refrigerator on their own. And that’s without the slightest idea on what they’re doing. I’d say go to American Home Shield and let them take care of your home problems. I’m not against DIY, in fact, I’m all for it, being a budget conscious mom that I am. But if your DIY is going to cost you more money because you don’t know what you’re doing and you had to start all over again, then what’s the point?
