The Most Important Thing I have Learned from my DIY Adventures

Now, I will say, in my years of DIY projects I have learned many things.  I have mastered using tools, and paint methods.  My creative side has always been there.  I used to temper it and keep my crazy in my own head.  Over the last few years, I have let that crazy come out and have found my projects so much more rewarding.  I have researched methods on how to do just about anything.  But there is one thing, that far exceeds anything and everything I have been taught.  This I have learned all on my own, by trial and error.

Ready? Drumroll……

Wah Wah Wah….really.  I promise.  This is the most important aspect for me and I will tell you why.

I don’t know about you, but when I decided on a project, many times it is spur of the moment, creativity is often not organized.  Well, at least mine isn’t.  As a DIYer, you have to be FLEXIBLE.

One of the many reasons this is so important to me is this.  I live in a very small town.  VERY.  We have a True Value Hardware store, thank goodness!  Believe it or not though, that has only been here for a few years.  HONEST.  When we built our home, there was nothing, nada.  The closest Home Depot was 1 1/2 hours away.  I made many trips to that store.  I became friends with those employees!  They knew my name.  I look back and wonder HOW we did this.  We were resourceful.  We were flexible.  We were.

Now having a hardware store here is fantastic, but guess what?  They’re small.  They do a fantastic job, but there are just some things they do not have.  And what else?  They close early, like 5:30.  You cannot just run to the store when you forgot to grab those screws, or that wood putty, or CRAP! The saw blade broke!  What are you going to do???  Well, you try using different screws.  Maybe you ignore the holes and chalk them up to “character” .  And  maybe try a different saw.  If worse comes to worse, an old fashioned hand saw can do the trick.  I promise you.  We have done this.

Here is a great example.

It was an average November Saturday last year.  I told my husband I wanted to build a frame around our TV.  We though, how hard could it be, we had “plenty” of barn wood in the back yard.  Remember that word “plenty”.  It will come back to bite me in a bit.  I showed my hubby a picture of what I wanted, and away he went making my visions reality.  Okay, now, I did not think about the mitered corners, the venting, or the access to the TV buttons.

I really should credit Lance with being resourceful.  He is King Resourceful.  When you’re knee deep in a project like this though, you have to be!  All that barnwood I thought I had, ended up being almost not enough.  Well, had each piece been cut perfectly, we would have.  Sometimes though, you measure twice, sometimes 3 times and your piece still ends up 1 inch too short.  Twice.  Yup.

So I scavenged, searched, and wracked my brain to figure out a solution.  We had one barely any wood left, but a little finagling and switching pieces around, we were able to come up with enough for that one last side.   I couldn’t just run to the “barnwood store”  or go buy some new wood and match it up.  It was 11pm at night.

Sure we could have stopped, given up and revisited the project when we had all the exact pieces.  But that’s not how we play.  I honestly do not think there has been a project I have done that I havn’t had to use my ingenuity and hope for the best.  Sometimes its running out of white thread, when you only have one more side of a pillow to sew.  Guess what?  If you use a darker brown or cream, and stitch it up, and make that the bottom of your pillow, nobody will notice.  At least, nobody has noticed mine.

I could tell you a story about every picture I post.  I don’t think any of our projects have gone off without a delay of some sort.  Yet, we are always able to find a way, to get that project completed.  Whether our ways are clever or just a little stupid, it does not matter to me.  I cannot tell you how many memories we have created through these projects.  We have also learned many lessons.  But most of all, we have learned how to be RESOURCEFUL.

Be Resourceful Printable

Thanks for stopping by to read my ramblings.  I hope you have a great day!