I've never been afraid to tackle projects, even things I never did before (Build my own house? Sure, why not?). My only gripe lately is not being able to do what I used to, and my independence in those sorts of things is something I rely most heavily on. I hear constant horror stories from people trying to have work done and it gets screwed up, and quite often I can't relate to it. When I was completely out of commission during the last few years, I tried to get people to come do some of the work. Most didn't bother to answer, some made a commitment but never showed, and in most of the cases where outside people came in, I did a surprising amount of the work. This still boggles my mind. In some cases, it was like life playing a cruel joke. For the first time ever here, the sewer backed up. I couldn't do anything, so I called a local plumber. The guy didn't show up at first when they said he would, but showed up the next day. When he did, he had back problems almost as bad as I did, and, guess what. I was disconnecting the toilet and moving it as much as he was. Fortunately, it was all fixed rather quickly, and only cost me about half of what buying the equipment and doing it myself would've cost.

Then there was the time I had the GE factory people come and do warranty work on my Geospring heat pump water heater. Guess who not only lent (several) hand(s), but who was the one that knew how to enter into all the factory service modes and tests? Hint: it wasn't the guy from GE. The damn thing has broke down again and has been running like a plain old electric water heater now for two years, I couldn't deal with it back then, and I really don't want to bother anymore. We paid 1600 dollars for the thing. It was wonderful for the first year or two, then the really stupid problems started. It's a great idea that failed miserably in practice. Do NOT buy one even if your life depended on it.

Okay, end of rant. :)