DIY Projects Made Us a Team

As my husband and I grow through the years, we learn new things as a married couple. Parenting is by far one of the most challenging things we have done. It may sound funny describing your spouse or partner as a teammate. But functioning as a team “unit” has made us stronger parents and taught us working together is essential.

Lessons and Projects

Buying our home in Fairfield County has taught us the importance of working together as a team. One thing we learned that comes with homeownership is all the projects that we need to complete.

A couple of days ago, my husband and I were sitting in our yard waiting for our girls to come off the school bus. I noticed our front trees needed some trimming. We decided this was a relatively quick project that we could do together while waiting for the kids. He grabbed the tree trimming sheers, and I showed him which small branches were hanging that needed cut. I held the ends of the branch while he cut. I admit this is a small project. But quickly identifying a small job and working together, it was done in 10 minutes, and no cost was spent on this. 

Another recent project we took on one evening was taking apart our bar stools and reupholstering the seat cushions. Sure, we could have paid money to have someone do this. But we decided to tackle it together and also save a bit of money. 

Since we have become homeowners over the past couple of years, we have worked together to fix various items. Some of our projects have included: the ice maker in the freezer, power washing the house, fixing our furnace pump and building shelving racks in our basement. 

Tips for DIY Home Projects

Get an idea of how long the project will take you to complete yourselves. (We first look up on YouTube to see how easy or challenging the task at hand will be).

Will you have the time to complete it? We often do our in-home projects in the evening when our children are in bed or on the weekends.

Do we have the supplies, or do we need to purchase items?

How much will it cost you to fix vs. hiring someone to complete it? It may be more cost-effective to complete the project with each other. But sometimes it may work better for you to hire help.

Better Parents

We may not be perfect parents, and both my husband and I agree that parenting is still one of our most challenging jobs. However, we have learned that some of the skill sets we utilize when problem-solving a project within the house can come in handy at other times. We now value taking time to generate solutions together, and patience helps us raise our children.

Marriage and relationships can be defined in so many various ways. It is different for every family. For my husband and I, we have found that working together as a team has strengthened our relationship and the foundation of our family.

What lessons have you gained from working together that has helped you with parenting?