User:Turcotjs

I have started writing a book about how to "Do it yourself." I want to share my knowledge of what it takes to do things yourself that most people hire a professional to do. I do not want to make a profit from this book, so I'm thinking wikibooks would be a good home for this project. My only concern is that the book is not really a textbook. That said, I see many other books here that I would also not consider to be textbooks. I would like to receive some feedback from wikibooks as to the appropriateness of my book for posting on wiki books. I am posting a draft of the first page of my book to allow for review. The pleasure of a response would be greatly appreciated.

Title: Do It Yourself and Help Others Too

Are you handy? If not, this book may not be for you. Doing it yourself is fun for those with some natural ability but can be very frustrating for those whose gifts lie elsewhere. I don’t know if I became handy by doing it myself or if it came naturally, but I think you have to try in order to find out. When you do, don’t expect to be able to just do something without a little training or research. Natural talent is nice to have, but experience is also very helpful. You probably learned in high school what kinds of things come easy to you and what things do not. I was always good at math, science, and shop. These kinds of tendencies are your first hint that you may become handy. That doesn't mean you should tackle every problem you encounter in life without the help of a professional. What it means is that you may be able to do a lot of things yourself by self-teaching. That has mostly been my approach. When I got my first car, I checked books out from the library to do my own maintenance. It helped that I came from a blue collar family that did a lot of things for themselves. It also helped to live in a blue collar neighborhood where there were a lot of blue collar journeymen to watch and get help from. One other initial caution is to avoid over-confidence. There is a saying that you may know “just enough to be dangerous.” Doing it yourself without adequate research may cost more rather than save you money. One way to overdo it is to try something that risks damaging an item that could otherwise have been repaired. The other obvious no-no is to invest in tools to do a job that would cost less to have done by someone that already has the tools. Before starting any DIY project, I always research the cost to acquire or rent the appropriate tools; and I make a call on the level of difficulty and risk of failure. Of course, I learned a lot by making a few bad calls. If you aren't sure you’re going to be good at something or if you are going to be doing a lot of that thing, consider renting the tools for the first try. Then, if you find that you ARE good at it and want to do more, you can start buying the tools as you do more and more similar jobs. Aside from reading books, there are lots of other ways to get handy. One excellent way is to volunteer your time to charities that do the kind of thing you want to learn. A great way to learn construction and carpentry is to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity. I did that for a year and learned a lot from the other volunteers. I have also volunteered for many years in a car repair ministry. We had a couple of auto shop professors from the local community college that showed us how to do most everything. I learned a lot more about auto repair when I joined an online group of “virtual repairmen.”  People would post their problems, and we would answer them. At first, I took the easy questions that I knew the answer to. But that was a little boring, so I started taking harder questions that I had to do some research to figure out. That is how I learned all about fuel injection and the computers modern cars use to operate the engine optimally. I also answered questions about appliances and everything around the home. One other way I learned a number of trades is to volunteer for extra duties on the job. I was in the Air Force for 30 years, and I got involved in a lot of things outside my profession of mechanical engineering. For example, I volunteered as a tax adviser to help other troops or retirees file their income tax returns. I did this for a number of years such that I could answer about any question about personal income tax. I’m at the point in life now that I have done most everything myself and am the person most of our friends ask when they have a question outside of their expertise. Fortunately, many of our friends have a few skills that I DO NOT have, and having helped them a time or two makes it easy for me to ask for help when I need it. I enjoy helping others and in fact feel that I am blessed when I do it. Perhaps that is why I considered writing a book about it.