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Is doing things yourself out of vogue?

February 13th, 2011 at 03:09 am

This could be subtitled: Is the American man willing to do anything for himself any more?

WARNING: Sorta frugality / sorta rant ahead...

During a discussion a few days ago I mentioned how I had built from scratch / built from kits / refinished most of the furniture in my house. During this I remembered how it had been many years since I bought a solid wood kit to build (probably 6-7 years). I figured there would be more kits out there available now. I mean, there is the internet now, everything is more available if you search for it, right? But just about every link to a place selling kits was out of business, sold their items on Amazon at crazy expensive prices (they're kits for crying out loud!), or they sold only a few kits any more and now sold mostly finished items Frown

Now I don't think the companies have changed their focus on selling fully built items just because of higher markups. I'm sure its because so few people want to build their own items, while saving money in the process. When I was putting together my first collection of furniture, this is what I did. I refused to buy fiberboard junk. Now you can't do it, even if you wanted.

Sorry, it just bothers me you can't even get kits of good furniture any more. Considering how the economy is rough right now, I figured more people would want to do what I did to get good furniture for decent prices. But nope, it looks like the "I want it now, I don't want to have to do any work for it" philosophy is still going strong. Ugh

Posted in Frugality, Rant | 4 Comments »

4 Responses to “Is doing things yourself out of vogue? ”

  1. ThriftoRama Says:
    February 13th, 2011 at 05:07 am 1297573633
    1297573633

    Funny you should mention this. There was a NyTimes article about a year ago saying we are no longer a nation of tinkerers. We've lost the skills, and it's going to cost us both personally and as a nation in the long run. Wish I had the link...

  2. CB in the City Says:
    February 13th, 2011 at 12:52 pm 1297601532
    1297601532

    I think part of the problem with wood kits is that wood is so expensive now, it doesn't seems like savings to the regular consumer. I, too, wish that real wood was more readily available, though, frankly, I don't want to put it together myself either.

  3. Ima saver Says:
    February 13th, 2011 at 04:38 pm 1297615127
    1297615127

    my dh is a real do it yourselfer! He can build anything.

  4. Jerry Says:
    February 19th, 2011 at 10:49 am 1298112593
    1298112593

    I fear that, soon enough, we won't be able to do much of anything like that. People have little to no interest in hand-crafting anything, and they just want it cheap and fast. We refinished much of the furniture in our place in the States, as well, and we got some of the furniture for nothing, which would lead us to only paying for the parts and varnish to make them lovely again. I would love to do that again when we return to the States, it was fun and the stuff looked great. There is nothing like the insurance of knowing that you made (or refinished) something yourself. My wife even found some old frames, and taught herself to goldleaf them. They look amazing. Anyway, yeah, I hear you...
    Jerry

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