"IF YOU WANT SOMETHING DONE RIGHT, DO IT YOURSELF"

How I had to fix my general contractor's total f*ck-up.

My first blog post is about the wisdom of the Do-It-Yourselfer's mantra that "if you want something done right, do it yourself."

I asked my general contractor to have their electrician install wall sconces that I had purchased for my new-construction house. BIG MISTAKE.

This was something I could've easily done myself, but the contract included the installation of these electrical fixtures. With a million other things I had to do myself around the house, I figured why not have the general contractor handle this simple-enough task.

I ended up spending more time fixing the electrician's sloppy and reckless work than I would've spent had I just installed the fixtures myself from the get-go.

FIRST, the electrician badly scratched the finish on both sides of the sconce. So I had to disassemble the sconce, sand down the finish completely, and repaint it.

Fortunately, I was able to get a good match with an off-the-shelf white matte Rustoleum rattle can that I had in my stock of home improvement materials. (As an aside, over the past decade, I've collected a mini-Home Depot of odds and ends. The materials I have on hand are sufficient to address about 50% of any of my DIY needs that may arise at any time.)

SECOND, the electrician completely snapped off the head on not one, but both of the screws to secure the sconce housing over the internal wall bracket. This meant the scratched sconce was stuck to the wall and couldn't even be removed for refinishing. My general contractor was at a loss for what to do.

Using a rotary tool with a small conical grinding head, I spent about half an hour grinding down both screw fragments until I could pry the sconce housing off the internal bracket with a precision flat-head screwdriver.

This also resulted in making the screw holes on the sides of the external sconce housing a little bigger, which meant there would be an unsightly gap between the replacement screws and the perimeter of the screw holes.

My solution for this was to place white vinyl screw caps over the replacement screws, which I was going to do anyway to hide the unsightly screws.

Here's the end result of my work -- you can't even tell the sconce was repainted:

The moral of the story: If you want it done right, do it yourself.

The sconce is the Nemo Spigolo, which retails for $302 when it's on sale.