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Most home renovations are done by the homeowner and the main reason Home Hardware and Canadian Tire stores expanded and then came the new kid on the block, Beaver. Just as they were enjoying the growing market along comes Aikenhead with Americaâ€" style warehouse retailing. Such invenâ€" tories and such prices! The number of hardware stores has declined over the past 20 years but the size of the survivors and the new ones is truly amazing. What a treat for the old DIYers and what a stimulation for the recent converts. When you look at the various hardâ€" ware outlets you realize the strength of the renovation and the doâ€"itâ€"yourself market. It seems everybody‘s doing it. DIYer must avoid thinking he can handle any job COST FACTOR Professionals do not work on cost plus projects. Homeowners want to know exactly how much it will cost and when it will be finished. This puts the contractor under considerably more pressure than a homeowner who is interested only in the quality of the job he is doing. for that is the cost. But there is also the satisfaction to be had from doing the job yourself, often better than you could afford to pay a professional for the attention to detail. The trap the DIYer has to avoid is to 3 Around think he can handle any job, while in fact many jobs require two or more men at a time, often highlyâ€"skilled and using specialty equipment. Chimneys and roofing spring to mind. However, even when you know your limitations and you decide to call in the professionals you discover that Murphy‘s Law is strictly enforced; e.g. Law #6: If something can go wrong, it will, or #2: Things always take longer than you think. In the Toronto Star of Sunday, Aug. 8 there was a cautionary tale of a woman who lived through a nightmare renovation even though she had taken what she thought were all the necesâ€" sary steps and precautions. Even though it was a major renovaâ€" tion involving half the house, she neglected to use an architect and the ough a nightmare The editors conducted a U.S. survey gh she had taken _ by questioning professional real estate re all the necesâ€" appraisers in each state on the relative ions. values of various popular renovation s a major renovaâ€" projects when it came to resale of the the house, she home. architect and the _ (See ‘ Difficult page 3) lack of detailed drawings as the con tractor got into the job created numer ous delays and extra costs. She had carefully selected and investigated her contractor but she made the mistake of hiring him in the summer, his busiest season, when any delay can affect all of the jobs. HOME MECHANIX This lady could certainly have beneâ€" fitted from an excellent sevenâ€"page article in the September ‘93 issue of Home Mechanix.