images: stock.xchng

When do you "give up" and call the professional to finish the job? When I was growing up, my mother had a rule: Dad was never allowed to 'fix' anything. See, my Dad would wait until my Mom left the house of the day to get into his home improvement projects. There was the time he tried to install a sprinkler system in the front yard, by himself, and hit the water main. The town wasn't too happy with him when they had to shut the water off on our street for a few hours to patch the job. Then there was the time when he had the bright idea to make an exhaust hole for the dryer, by himself, with the sledgehammer and he ended up putting a hole in the wall that he tried to cover up with a coffee can. My personal favorite was the time when he tried to install a ceiling fan in the living room, by himself, short circuited the entire house and we sat there without power for a few hours.

Needless to say, with my father's fine examples of home improvement I know when I'm over my head in a project and when it's time to call a pro. Or in the case of this weekend, when it's better to PAY THE EXTRA MONEY TO HAVE THE STORE put the damn thing together!

I spent six hours on Sunday (missing all of the football games) trying to put together a $140 basketball hoop for our kids. My neighbor came over to help, my father-in-law tagged in at one point to help, and I was t-h-i-s close to calling Target and paying them to finish the job. After dinner and a beer, I stepped back into the garage with the goal to complete the project. There was NO WAY I was going to waste this weekend putting it together!

By 8:02PM, the new hoop emerged from the garage, ready for it's first test shot. Sure, the arm that allows you to adjust the hoop height doesn't work (which is fine since my kids can't make a basket at 6 feet) and I somehow lost the net in the install process. In my mind the Town Water Department didn't respond, there are no holes in the wall, we still have power, and I only bruised my pinky when I missed the bolt and hit my finger.

I just hope one of my kids decides to actually play with this thing before I accidentally back into it pulling out of the garage!