When is DIY not a good idea?

When should you take your home into your own hands and try a renovation yourself?  I am thinking never if you haven't had the experience working in the trades.  Dave worked building houses for years and knew not to tackle any projects at our house!  What seems easy on the DIY programs on TV, really are not that straight forward.  When we moved into the Tripp House in 1999 the sun room was the latest addition to the house.  It looked pretty good- sporting fresh paint and a new floor.  We thought it was a nice little room for plants and reading.  Over the 11 years that we have owned the house it has deteriorated significantly and not until the work was being done did we know the full extent of the problem- the room was not correctly added to the house!  The guys think that someone who was not well versed in carpentry added the sun room over a weekend.  I was suspicious myself when I saw them removing peg board from under the flooring.  Does that seem right?  Maybe OK for Julia Child to hang her pots and pans from but does it belong under the floor?????

I showed pictures of the sheathing that was all rotted beneath the clapboards.  Well, yesterday they were going to begin to shorten the room by the 7 feet as per the design when the full extent of the rot was discovered.  I had called home to check on Dave's painting progress when he informed me that the whole sun room had to be removed!  I started to panic that this would be a big added expense to the project but Peter assured me that it was really not that big a deal.  I calmed right down to just my usual state of nervous.

When I left the house yesterday morning I took a picture of the sun room from the yard and the street.  I thought when I returned home I would see an abbreviated room with new sheathing.

Sun room- view from yard

Sun room- view from street

What I found this morning when the sun came up- a blank palette from which to rebuild! 

Gone!

What was in- is now out!

I used to look out at a roof but now....

So it will be interesting to see what has gone on during the day.  By the way, the windows that Dave is painting look wonderful!  The second coat of Aztec Brick has made them warm and spicy.  A friend who also likes to cook said the color looked like Espelette pepper (a very fancy mild chili pepper from France) and very appropriate for people owning a kitchen shop.