Credit:  ASBOJesus

Guest post by Tara Dobbs
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Photo Credit: Tanais

In the age of Home Depot and Mike Holmes, more and more of us are feeling empowered to tackle home improvement projects by ourselves.

And why not?

Doing these projects yourself can save a boat load of money, not to mention the satisfaction you feel in telling your friends that, yes, you did install that laminate flooring all by yourself.

But how do you really know what you’re getting into with a project when you have never done that kind of work before? Will you really end up saving money? What about the risk of causing damage to your home or worse – yourself?

Hopefully I can give you a few tips in deciding which projects to take on yourself and which projects are best left to the professionals.

Is the project something that would normally take someone an apprenticeship to learn how to do? If so, don’t do it yourself.

I know it sounds silly when I put it this way, but seriously, the time, money, frustration and danger in getting started on a project such as installing a light fixture or re-plumbing a toilet only to discover you are in over your head is not worth it. There is false economy in thinking doing your own plumbing or electrical work will save you money.

Is your house/condo built before 1990? Then your drywall, flooring, or ceiling texture may contain asbestos and no work should be done without getting an asbestos abatement company in to test.

Living in an environment with asbestos containing building material is not hazardous to your health. However, tearing apart those materials apart becomes very hazardous when those asbestos-containing particles are freed into the air. This is when the asbestos can be breathed in and be harmful to your health.

As long as the area you are working in is free of asbestos-containing materials, then doing demolition work yourself in preparation for a renovation is an excellent way to save money and something very doable for the layman. However be sure that the places you are demolishing are free of asbestos.

If they do contain asbestos, then the demo work needs to be carried out with proper WorkSafe permits and certified professionals.

Are you really clear on all the steps needed to complete your project properly? If not, get a contractor to quote and break the project down into steps, and the cost for each steps.

Any contractor worth their salt will offer free quotes whether you use their services or not, and will also be willing to work with you on choosing which parts of the job can be done without the expertise of a professional.

The benefits of getting a professional to quote on and work with you on your project are twofold:

1. You will get the benefit of a professional to breakdown all the steps to your project, ensuring that you are well aware of all that is involved.
2. You also get access to their network of trades – minimizing your risk of choosing a fly by night company to do the work for you.

Just be sure than any contractor you choose has been in business for a good amount of time, is a member of the Better Business Bureau and has proper certifications for the type of work you are using them for.

Be careful in choosing which projects you do yourself. Often it seems like it will cost less but actually costs more when someone has to come in to fix your work. Working with a professional jointly is an excellent way to both minimize cost while still ensuring that quality and integrity of the structure are maintained.

We, of course, are always happy to offer advice and or quotes to anybody that needs it.

Tara Dobbs is the owner and CEO of Easy Care Restoration Ltd. Easy Care provides full service disaster restoration, quality rebuild and renovation services, carpet and flooring installation, and professional carpet cleaning.

Photo Credit: flattop341

Sometimes people really are broke.

Not the I can’t take the holiday I want this year broke, but the world is closing in on me, and I’m going down broke.

Tell-tale signs of the real deal include

• inability to pay bills on time, over an extended period
• chronically “robbing peter to pay paul”  (ie. using money intended for one thing to cover something else)
• no cash for saving or investing
• scrambling to pay rent/mortgage over an extended period
• sleepless nights

Sometimes even these extremes are simply a matter requiring better management of income.   But usually when this is a chronic lifestyle, it’s time to acknowledge:   I’m broke.

This is not the end of the world.

It’s a starting place to take stock, and plan a course of action.

Here are 5 initial steps to take.

1. Determine that an increased income is your top priority. It trumps your relationship.  It trumps  having fun.  It trumps any preference to avoid the situation.  And against nearly every life coach, dare I say:  It trumps (for now) pursuing your passion.  This isn’t a downer, folks.   It’s a deep recognition that you are in charge of your life.
2. Take stock.  Do it on paper.  What are the most critical financial needs you have?  What resources are available to you?

• Write out: with as much clarity as possible, your exact financial situation and cash flow needs.
• Research:  Are you eligible for any sources of funding such as insurance or benefits or employment insurance?
• Collect:  Does anyone owe you money?  Or favours?  How can you collect, strategically? Who could help you out, if it comes to it?
• Seek:  Do you have any forgotten treasures?  Assets you could liquidate (craigslist helps)? Term deposits (which can usually be broken in serious circumstances such as job loss/medical issues)?  Savings accounts?  even RRSPs (last resort)?  unused Lines of Credit or credit cards?
• Call:  Which creditors can you call to ask for some temporary relief?

3.  Relentlessly seek ways to improve your income. Heads-up:  You need to be strategic here.  In the gut-wrenching anxiety of the moment, you may be tempted to take any old job.   Unless it pays enough to give you financial lift over time, “any old job” probably won’t cut it.  It will simply prolong your situation, while it consumes your precious time.  Ask, and keep asking, “how will I obtain the income I require?”

Here’s an exercise.   For one month, every night before bed (so the ideas can settle and morph in your subconscious overnight), write at least 3 possible things you could do to obtain adequate income.  By the end of the month, you’ll have nearly 100 ideas.  Allow yourself complete freedom to write down anything.  Sometimes crazy ideas make you a millionaire.     This exercise also trains your mind to be alert to possibility.

4. Deliberately be gentle with yourself. It’s possible you will take a number of hits until things turn around.   Don’t beat yourself up in the mix.   Give yourself a break.  Hang out with friends who truly care about you.  Ask for help, where you can. Identify places to go (literal or figurative) that nurture you.  Respect your own privacy – come up in advance with your own key messages if people make enquiries.  Press yourself into your faith praxis if you have one. Continue with yoga and meditation if it’s part of your life.  Keep yourself inspired, for example, read stories of others who struggled and lived to see another day (of course you will too!).  Above all don’t let your current financial circumstances define you.   You are So.Much.More than your financial life.

5.  Firmly ground yourself in the fact that this too shall pass.  Canadians who have not been broke at some time are the exception.   Much as we valorize people who build wealth steadily, almost everyone has had really tough times.  It doesn’t last.  Take it from one who’s been there!

If I took my conscience shopping everywhere, I suspect I’d stop shopping.

I had two facebook interchanges on the topic this week, one of which also reminded me of a Lululemon issue.
Here are the discussions. What do you think?
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1. To Foie Gras, or not to Foie Gras
Facebook: 28 June 12:47.
Christopher Flett is a business coach extraordinaire, for women. Working with him gave me tremendous lift-off when I started my money coaching business.
Here goes:

Christopher Flett: Kits Farmer’s Market:Just told to “F&CK OFF” by animal rights activist because I like Foie Gras. Full story here: http://tinyurl.com/l5trs8
28 June at 12:47 · via Twitter · Comment · Like

Nancy Zimmerman at 12:52 on 28 June
I’ve been confronted to do a lot of thinking about this kind of issue because of the whole seal hunt thing up here. One question to myself, to which I don’t know the answer but it’s a good question, is: To what extent do I accept responsibility for the humane treatment of the animal that ultimately I eat?

Rikia Saddy at 21:37 on 28 June
I too believe in the circle of life, but I can’t see the point of torturing animals before we eat them. There are many delicious foods that don’t require shoving a hose down the throat of a goose and forcing in 3 pounds of grains and fat, several times a day.
Isn’t a normal-sized goose liver sufficient?

Christopher Flett at 19:51 on 29 June
No it isn’t. If it was, we wouldn’t have to feed them extra helpings.
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2. Made in China
This is an on-the-ground perspective from a former client of mine who sources materials for her company overseas.
(She wrote from Thailand, btw!)

Saw your status and wanted to comment (since I’ve just spent the past week and a half visiting factories in Asia!) Definitely in China health hazards are a plenty. As you can imagine, clothing is ridiculously dusty (especially anything cotton related such as cotton spinning) Every time we do a visit we look for such hazards and the factory owners always tell us the same things… they educate the workers on dust hazards and provide masks but the employees don’t comply.

I’ve been to cotton spinning mills in India and after a 2 hour tour, my nose tickles for days! The factories are usually in hot places so the workers refuse to wear the masks since it’s already so hot without masks on. Don’t get me wrong, I totally don’t agree with it, but I have seen some factories genuinely try to enforce rules to no avail (and for the past few years if an employer got really strict, employees would just move to a more lax factory: I suspect that’ll change a bit now with the slowdown)

Anyway, my two cents after having seen the manufacturing side of things! Manufacturing is certainly a crazy world, don’t even get me going on the labour end of things! A lot of people’s perceptions is that people like Nike produce in sweatshop environments. In actuality, large brands (Nike, Patagonia, mec) are leaders in making improvements in health/safety/pay by ensuring that work hazards are minimized, overtime is paid etc… it’s hardly a perfect world and factories don’t always comply but with more and more brands coming on board it’s getting better. It’s the “no name” brands or knockoff brands (where price is the number one concern) that have little/no standards. Anyway… I digress!

I think the whole manufacturing/3rd world thing is very catch 22.

I’m still torn everyday on what I feel is right or not. The sewers (the workers, not the plumbing system!) make a base wage of less than $5 day (there’s a lot more money to be made in incentives though) and by Western standards, that’s hardly a lot of money. Then again, most of the workers are under 25, without an education and live in factory dormatories (hardly luxurious) accommodations. Then again, they are able to send home at least 50% of their income to their families (typically dirt poor farmers) which is not something that I’d be able to do in Canada! So, because of our Western greediness, the farmers kids move to the factory towns to be able to send money home to support the rest of the family. So does that mean that by buying things we’re exploiting the workers? Or would they be worse off if we didn’t buy anything? The issue I have is if companies (such as lululemon) keep shifting where goods are made because labour costs get too expensive (labour costs in China have been increasing at more than 10% a year for the past few years) and start giving up the Chinese factories in favor or vietnam, bangladesh, etc… that’s where I think the “west” gets exploitative.

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3. Lululemon and child labour
Before Lululemon became a public company, but well into its meteoric rise, I attended a grass-rootsy talk about fashion in Vancouver. Chris Chip was a guest speaker, and discussed sourcing his materials. Apparently he had hired a few young girls in his factories overseas. He openly discussed his dilemma: Odds are that if he didn’t hire the young girls they’d be in the sex trade instead. So what, he asked the audience, would we do in his position? Turn them away knowing the alternatives? Hire them and feel good about providing a safer situation? Hire them and feel lousy about child labour?