This has been my motto pretty much my entire life. I didn’t actually coin the phrase until a few years ago, but I have always lived with this philosophy.
My parents are extremely conservative and stable people. My dad met my mom when he was in grade 9 and she was in grade 8. They started dating and are still together and happily married today. While my dad was in high school, he got a part time job at a local corrugated box company. He was offered a full time position when he graduated from high school. He retired from that very company 3 or 4 years ago.
I am about as opposite from this as possible. Although I realized my parents were always there to provide me with a safety net, they really didn’t understand or encourage the majority of my endeavours. Attending university didn’t make much sense to them, and accepting a job to guide rafts in the French Alps was certainly bordering on insanity. How could I possibly expect to guide a raft down an extremely dangerous river when I didn’t even speak the language of my guests?
“If it can be done, it can be done by me”
I honestly don’t believe there is anything special about me, but I don’t believe I am lacking anything either. So if something has been done by someone before, then what should restrict me from doing the same thing?
Like I said, I’ve always lived this way, even if I didn’t have the motto to back me up. I’ve guided and kayaked crazy whitewater rivers, I’ve climbed 14,000+ foot mountains, volunteered and lived in the Guyanese rainforest, obtained my undergraduate and masters degrees, worked as a firefighter, helicopter paramedic, and community developer…. I’ve done a lot of stuff.
But investing everything I had into a 6,000 square foot sawmill that was on the verge of falling down with the dream of converting it to our home and conference center was definitely worthy of psychiatric evaluation.
What did I know about construction, carpentry, electrical, plumbing, drywalling, etc.?
The succinct answer to that question is a simple (and truthful) “nothing”, “nothing at all”.
What was I thinking?
I was thinking that construction, carpentry, electrical, plumbing, drywalling, etc. are all things that could be done by other people. If other people can do those things, then why shouldn’t I be able to do them too?
There is absolutely no reason at all. So I bought books and magazines, and asked advice from people with experience in those fields. And sure enough, little by little, day by day, things began to come together. There were certainly some learning curves which were steeper than others and there were also many days (weeks) of frustration. But in the end (7 years later), this place is the palace I always dreamed it could be.
But there is a reason I chose to write about this topic today… You see, I recently found a small glitch in my motto….
The entire house is pretty much completed with the exception of the ensuite bathroom. This is a 200 square foot bathroom with 64 square foot walk in European shower. A lack of financing prohibited me from starting the bathroom until a couple of months ago. This was going to be my most complicated construction project to date. I have experience now with plumbing, drywall, and tile installation, so I wasn’t too worried about that. But we decided it would be nice to have radiant floors in this bathroom. I have experience with the piping, but I haven’t done any precision concrete work before.
But if it can be done, it can be done by me.
So I laid the radiant heating piping and got to work on the concrete. This is where I learned that maybe if could be done by me, but unfortunately with no experience working with this medium, if couldn’t be done as level and as smooth as I would have liked!
When working with wood or drywall or even plumbing and electrical, one attempt can be made and if I didn’t like the outcome I could tear it up, start again, or sand it down until it worked. But with concrete, once it’s in, it’s in.
Oops. 
I don’t know what I did wrong. Maybe my mix was wrong. Maybe I should have had some help so I could have poured the entire floor all at once instead of in sections. Or maybe with my lack of experience, I simply lack the talent.
Admittedly, I also have become a little cocky with my motto and despite having no experience with radiant floor concrete laying, I never spoke with anybody in the field to learn if there were any tricks to the trade. Maybe that would have helped….
Anyhow, the bottom line is that the concrete is in now and it’s not as level and smooth as I would have liked. This week, I’m going to lay the tile and hope I can smooth things out with the thinset. But regardless, this all comes back around to “Attitude”. When the bathroom is finished and ready to use, it will have been created by me. Only me. It made not be perfect, but it was made with my own 2 hands and I’m going to be proud of my effort.
But I have learned some lessons from this endeavour.
First, maybe if it can be done, it can be done by me. But I have to understand that I might not be able to do it as well as somebody with experience in that field. Can I paint the Mona Lisa? Certainly I could. But would it look as good as da Vinci’s masterpiece?????
So I have a couple of options. First I could hire da Vinci to paint a portrait for me and in the end I am guaranteed a beautiful portrait. Money will have bought that portrait for me and again, it will be beautiful. But what connection will I have to that portrait?
I could paint the portrait, or install the radiant floor myself. In the end I will have a personal connection with the end project. I could focus on the negative when people ask whether the painting is of a house, a landscape or a face! Or I could feel proud for taking on the challenge myself, with the understanding, that the next time I’ll do a much better job.
So, if it can be done, it can be done my me. And if I can do it, what’s stopping you?
Get out there and give it a try. Maybe your results won’t be what you expected, but they will be YOUR results. Feel proud of yourself for taking on the challenge and if you’re not happy with your results, don’t sweat it, give it another go and I guarantee you’ll do it better the next time.
