Home maintenance classes can help you save money and be smarter about what needs to be done to keep your new home in shape.
After the heady early days of homeownership wear off, first-time buyers often quickly realize that they lack even the most basic skills needed to take care of their new home.
For New Yorkers accustomed to calling the super for every repair, using a drill to hang drapes or an Allen wrench to fix a leaky faucet can be nearly as daunting as the idea of performing brain surgery.
You can get all the inspiration you need from do-it-yourself shows and videos, but what if you don’t know how to properly hammer a nail and don’t even own the right tools?
This is where home repair classes can help, giving uninitiated homeowners hands-on training. Courses cover a range of skills, from basic home maintenance to more elaborate tasks like tiling a bathroom, installing locks and repairing or replacing drywall.
A skilled labor shortage that makes it increasingly difficult to find a reliable handyman is what drove Mary McCabe to take a series of home repair classes at the New York City College of Technology, at the City University of New York.
First, she was irked when a tiler took five days to tile her small kitchen floor; then an electrician disappeared after disconnecting the electricity in her two-family home in Bayside, Queens. That is when it dawned on Ms. McCabe: “I trust myself, and I am handy,” she said. “I can learn to do some of this on my own.”
Comfortable around tools, because her father had been a carpenter, Ms. McCabe has taken five classes this year and has used her newfound skills to re-grout her bathroom tiles and fix a lawn mower.
John Rearick has taken classes to learn basic carpentry skills, as well as how to use a circular saw and repair Sheetrock.CreditTony Cenicola/The New York Times “Most people are intimidated with using tools, but taking a hands-on class really boosted my confidence,” she said. She estimated that she has saved about $3,000 so far, just by learning how to do simple home repairs herself.
For more read the full of article at The Nytimes
