jeneticallymodified
Forum Legend
it's fine provided you know what you're doing. it can really easily go wrong though- when you're dealing with supporting/loadbearing walls, hidden wiring or pipes, old buildings, slightly dodgy construction, etc.
luckily for me my dad is the kid of a master bricklayer, my brothers are a fabricator and a kitchen fitter, and my bf is a mechanic, and i grew up amidst constant renovations.
most of the time i know just enough to not be completely dangerous to myself and others, and definitely enough to know when i'm getting towards the edges of my basic knowledge base, and when it's time to get on the phone, get online, or get down the library.
just like the house i grew up in (which i'd come home from school to, and unexpectedly find entire walls missing that were there at breakfast time) our house is a perpetual work in progress.
most recently i ripped out the interior of a brick fireplace that some idiot had lined with horrendously badly applied ceramic floor tiles, took out and re-fitted the firebrick, and got it working again.we're also working on making the outside pretty currently... amongst other things (french doors just went into the kitchen but it needs new cabinet doors, floor, tile, additional counter and cupboard-space, decks need to go down on the side and back of the house (current one is poured concrete that has cracked to expose bags of garbage and rotting beams
) , 3 windows need to be bought and go in upstairs, we still have a load of laminate floor to lay upstairs too, i badly need the bathroom ripping out cos the floor is soggy and some muppet used the tile spacers completely wrong- it also needs enlarging and replumbing, the basement was put in by a stoner with bizarre ideas about partition wall placement, putting doors and doorhinges outside of the doorframes, putting headless barbie-dolls in the roof-space, running cable everywhere you could imagine ever needing cable and then some, etc, so that needs gutting, etc. busy busy. 
