Katherine sent me this pic of her posing with a robot she repaired at her lab. It was broken and unusable when she arrived there, and would have cost the university thousands to fix the machine. She knew this particular robot would make her job easier, so she got out the manual and figure out how to make the repairs herself. That natural mechanical ability comes from her dad's DNA, but the DIY attitude is one she got from both of us.
We are big DIYers here at Casa Valerean. We almost never call outside contractors to deal with problems at home; we do it or figure out how to do it ourselves. Our neighbors call whenever they have a repair problem to see if my guy can fix it for them; right now he's rebuilding a shed with rotted wood floors for the minister next door. I came up with the solution to repair our buckled tile floor by remembering where some spare tiles were hidden in the kitchen. I also just figured out what was slowing down my work computer and fixed that earlier this month.
Besides being frugal, the DIY attitude allows you to get things done. You also learn constantly; I can't tell you how many times I've watched a cooking, embroidery or quilting video to learn how to do something. My guy does the same thing when he works on our cars or an appliance; he's now learning how to take care of the new car by watching videos.
Not taking advantage of the enormous volume of information on the internet is where society bogs down these days. You can find instructions on how to do almost anything online now. Or is it that people are just too lazy, and it's easier to hire someone else to do it? DIY means work, so maybe. In reality my guy and I were raised to fix things ourselves because our families were too poor to hire outside help, but also as a point of self-respect. If you owned something, you took care of it. Not anymore, I guess.
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