The trick is to not be afraid to try something. Baymule roofed her own house - twice! You used to have to read DIY books - now there are lots of U-Tube videos showing you how to do things. DH went to college after work, and worked 6 days a week a lot of the time so a lot of our remodeling I had to learn to do. Wwhen he but our barn he would work on it in the evenings after work cutting and laying the plywood subroof. The next day after dropping the children off at school, I wold climb up onto the roof and nail all the plywood into place. That evening he would do more cutting and laying for me to nail in the next day. I learned to plan out a job and pick up all the materials for it during the week because in the early days the hardware stores closed early on Saturdays and were closed on Sundays. Running out of even simple things like nails or screws on Saturday could mean a wasted weekend.
Our family - both sides - are big DIYers. "If you want it done right, do it yourself" is our motto. My grandmother taught me to upholster and paint furniture, hang wallpaper, sew, can, etc. I furnished our first home with garage sale stuff and it looked great. This was before shabby chic got popular. Since I couldn't afford to hire anyone or buy new, I had to get creative. I even would take down old light fixtures, spray paint them, then rehang them and they looked brand new. It was fun and cheap so I just kept doing it. I learned to strip and refinish furniture on old antiques my grandmother passed on and it became a hobby to find junky furniture with good bones and refinish it for my house or my kids' eventually. Gammy loved grage sales too! If you know what to look for (dovetailing on drawers, real wood, etc.) good wood furniture is often overlooked in thrift stores and can be had cheap. Sometimes the maker's name is inside a drawer. Well built wood furniture outlasts IKEA and most modern stuff. It is fun finding and refinishing old stuff so it looks new again for cheap. DD1 has a lovely large mahogany china cabinet by a well known maker that I found marked down half price at the thrift store, stripped and refinished. DDIL1 has a lovely quarter sawn oak buffet that I found at the thrift store painted a horrible olive green, stripped and refinished. Half price again too. All my kids have very nice furniture pieces that I refinished for them. In fact, DD2 has lately made some amazing finds of her own. LOL
Then I learned a lot about building and renovation, along with building codes, from our first house - 100 years old - 3500sf. It belonged to my grandparents and had been rented for 30 years. The day we moved in the upstairs windows fell out of the rotted frames! It was in terrible shape but on a nice lot with fruit trees. We bought it cheap from Gammy when the tenants moved out without notice. We were one year married, no kids, both working, DH in college, energetic and hopeful. Over the next 15 years we rewired (DH), replumbed (DH and DFIL), repaired, reroofed (DH), painted and papered (me), DFIL made all new kitchen cabinets for the kitchen, I stained and varnished them, and I learned to lay ceramic tile. That house had a basement and attic so redoing plumbing and wiring was easier. The first winter we lived on the bottom floor in just the kitchen, 1 BR, and LR. One wall heater in the whole house. Lots of rain that year - El Nino - I heard a noise in the back room and went to look. The ceiling was leaking everywhere. There was nothing in that room so I shut the door and went back to watching TV on our little black and white 12". Half an hour later I remembered THE HOUSE WAS A 2 STORY! Went upstairs and the back bedroom had 6" of standing water on the floor!
We had 4 children in that house, renovating rooms as our famiy grew. We loved the place but it was on a very busy boulevard. We finally moved to the current California house because our 11 year old wanted a pony. LOL The day after we moved in while I put stuff away in the kitchen a cabinet door fell off the cabinet. Deja Vu! 38 years later DH and I (with some help from DFIL before he and DMIL moved to Arizona) had completely rewired, replumbed, reconfigured, repaired, drywalled, replaced the kitchen and bathrooms, tiled the kitchen, learned to lay vinyl flooring, laid laminate flooring, poured concrete, built a barn, fenced, and had the best time of our lives raising our kids with livestock and in 4-H.
I would go to Daddy's house and work on wood cabinets etc. with him in the garage while DMIL played with and spoiled our youngest kids. DMIL taught me to quilt. Daddy (DFIL) taught me about working with wood, hanging cabinets, mortising a door, etc. DH taught me about electricity - I turn off all the circuits and hand him the tools LOL. I learned to run outdoor PVC plumbing lines.
Just before we bought our Texas property DH and I completely renovated a 7 unit apartment building - new kitchens, new baths, I laid all the vinyl plank floors myself (6000 sf), and tiled the bathrooms (7). I learned to use a table saw and electric miter saw. I also learned that the right tool can make the job 100% easier. DH, DS1, and I learned to install formica countertops (those right angles are tricky), and I tiled the backsplashes and tub/shower surrounds.
Everything we learned added to our store of knowledge and we passed it on to our 3 boys like DFIL passed his knowledge on to us. Daddy is gone now but when I work on cabinets I feel him looking over my shoulder.
I feel lucky to have learned so much throughout my life from so many loving teachers. I am still learning a lot from all of you on BYH too. Learned about the correct voltage of electric fence chargers from Farmerjan (pay no attention to what the mfgr says it will charge - always get stronger), wire fencing (only use woven wire not welded for livestock), T-posts, and pallet shelters from Baymule, etc. Never stop learning, if you do your life may as well be over.
Life is good - live it fully.
I think you may have missed your calling. You could flip houses like crazy. Seriously though you are doing so much and it looks really good.
