Vinny Had The Right Attitude

    For me, renovating pig's ears has been a lot of hard work mixed with too many mistakes to count. I've learned to repair my damaged ego by reminding myself that my blunders are just part of the learning process. 

    Please consider these scenarios. A doctor establishes a medical practice. That happens all the time from coast to coast. Or someone announces that they passed the bar and can now practice law. From what I understand, that's the way it works. We seem to me accustomed to paying folks to practice medicine or law on our behalf, but if a plumber shows up at your front door with his tools and says he's practicing plumbing most people would be like, "What!? Not on my house." People I know want someone who already has the plumbing trade figured out. 

    The way I see it, that's what home renovators have in common with doctors, dentists, and attorneys; we're all really just practicing and learning as we go along. And thorough the process we figure things out, right and wrong. This worked, this didn't, or this could have been better some other way. Everyone screws up sometimes. It's inevitable. But moving forward afterwards is how life works.  

    I hope you've seen the movie My Cousin Vinny. Joe Pesci is Vinny, an inexperienced lawyer who didn’t really know what he was doing. Yet that didn’t stop him from trying/practicing. He kept doing boneheaded things, going to jail for contempt, and then showing up for court again and again until he eventually fell into a groove, started to sort things out, and saved the Karate Kid (Ralph Macchio) and the guy from the first episode of Friends who played Rachel’s ex-fiancé. 

    Like the people operating on you, drilling into your teeth, or helping you with your legal battles, a home rehabber or do-it-yourselfer isn't going to know everything about what they're doing when they start working on their own home. They're gonna screw up sometimes and probably more than once. I’ve been working in the construction industry for two decades and I’ve been renovating extremely run down houses for over half of that time. Even with all that experience I still fail inspections. 

    My advice to home owning rehabbers and DIYers is: Be ready to forgive yourself when you make a misstep, measure or cut something incorrectly, order or buy the wrong thing, or get into a situation that you're completely clueless about. The mistakes you’re going to make are just part of the adventure of renovating a house and if you ever do something similar a second time you'll know better. Just be prepared to cut yourself some slack and retrace a few of your steps when you do something really stupid. 

    Furthermore, remember from the start that you're practicing and that no house renovation goes flawlessly. However, unlike surgery, a root canal, or a legal battle, you’re the only one that’s going to suffer when you do a really dumb thing. No one’s going to die, wince in agony, go to prison because of you. Keep in mind that you’re just renovating a house and unlike the people you really need to be perfect, it’s alright for you not to be.