The Official HBSDealer Editor's Blog

"Things without all remedy should be without regard. What's done is done."

-- Lady Macbeth

So spoke Scotland's first lady. She was talking about the murder of King Duncan, but she could have been talking about DIY home improvement projects in light of new -- and questionable -- data on consumer attitudes toward their own projects.

A recent survey from Zillow Digs reports a high incidence of regret among homeowners that choose to go it alone in home improvement.

And I don't believe it.

For starters, common sense and my own personal experience suggest otherwise. (Remember that time I replaced the shingles on the garage? That was great.) But more than that. As soon as I saw the headline, I conducted my own survey. My wife, my mom, my dad, my sister and my brother -- none could point to a single DIY home improvement project that they regretted.

Is my family so special? It doesn't seem likely. It's much more likely that Zillow Digs is doing the home improvement industry a disservice by promoting the idea that DIY projects are a minefield of regret. A "field of dreams" seems a more appropriate analogy.

Lady Macbeth touched on this topic of reaching for the stars: "Wouldst thou have that which thou esteem'st the ornament of life, and live a coward in thine own esteem?" She favored the big projects.

 The Zillow Digs press release carried the headline: "One in three regret DIYing a home improvement project." See the difference? There's DIY and then there's "DIYing." In other words, the regret is not that consumers completed a project, but that they did it themselves, as opposed to hiring a pro.

Zillow Digs spelled out which projects were most regrettable: Add a room or expand an existing room (regretted by 53% of homeowners); Reface cabinetry (regretted by 49%); Refinish basement or attic (48%); Replace carpeting (43%).

On the flip side, Zillow pointed to least regrettable projects: Replace lighting fixtures (15%); Replace cabinet hardware (18%); Paint one or more rooms (18%).

But even here, the idea that DIY projects are regrettable to a large segment of home owners is questionable. Digging a little deeper into the Zillow Digs press release, we see that regret is described as "unhappy with some aspect of the project."

This description of regret, seems to me, inadequate, misleading and regrettable.

Consider the following:

Was their some aspect of your wedding that you regret? Yes.

Do you regret your wedding? No.

Was their some aspect of your college career that you regret? Yes.

Do you regret going  to college? No.

Was their some aspect of your recent golf trip that you regret? Yes.

Do you regret your recent golf trip? No.

Shall I go on? No. You get my point. There are a lot of things in this world that we don't regret at all, but we might regret some aspect of that thing. 

DIY doubters, worried by the misleading statistics might wonder: What if the home improvement challenge is too great to handle on our own? What if weather interrupts? What if the costs rise above our initial projections? In short, what if we fail?

Again with Lady Macbeth: "We fail? But screw your courage to the sticking place, and we'll not fail."

Do you have an opinion on this topic? Let us know here.