First, Amy, rereading what I posted, I realize that I might have given the wrong impression re: my scans and my prostate -- Altho my interpretation of the scans is that I don't have a cancer problem with my prostate, that doesn't mean that I trust myself on that -- In addition to the radiologist interpreting the scans, it happens that I had blood drawn last week for a six-month follow-up PSA test with my Urologist and coincidentally have an appointment with him a few hours after I see my ENT on Tuesday -- The Uro has done a digital exam, plus recent PSAs are showing better results than a year or so ago, so all signs point to merely prostate enlargement that comes with age.

Jerry, I was simplifing -- Actually, I first built a two-story concrete block addition behind a one-story house (all in Florida) and did the downstairs drywall for that. I learned that I can hang it OK alone, even the overhead stuf (with my scaffolding), but acquiring finishing skills took me a lot more time than I wanted to spend (more time spent sanding mistakes than finishing), so I hired a contractor to finish the second floor, however all the concrete, block work, trusses, roofing, joists, wiring, etc. were done by me, sometimes with physical help from friends.

I was lucky to have a carpenter and a mason as neighbors, plus two former electricians as work colleagues, so I had a lot of brainpower and experience to tap into for guidance (kinda like having this group!).

On the full house, I subbed out a lot of the heavy work (but not the framing, roofing, electric and most of the plumbing [the sub-slab plumbing was done by a pro because mistakes there are literally cast in concrete <g>]) and built a two-story, two-car garage with bedrooms and bath above, and my family and I lived there for four years -- Because it was going slowly, we subbed out most of the rest of the house, plus the septic system and well.

During that life, I was a transmission engineer with a phone company, so basic electricty wasn't magic... With the plumbing, I got a lot of advice from the county inspector's office and he had me assemble all of it dry and inspected it before I started gluing and soldering.

Amy, much of the savings I had by DIY went into better materials, like a larger electric service, lots of extra breakers, all-copper wiring, larger septic system than the minimum, tons of additional insulation, double-pane windows, split air-conditioning, etc. Plus I'm sure we didn't always get the best deal from our subs because they knew we were unlikely to be repeat customers, but we knew that going into the projects.