I ve always considered myself a dab hand at DIY. When it comes to painting and decorating, I ve always undertaken the work myself. Some people spend a fortune employing contractors to update every part of their house, and end up spending tens of thousands of pounds. Nowadays, where the value of your house can be so important, my belief is that every penny counts. I ve carried out some quite tricky work in the past including laying my own patio and installing French windows and I ve saved a small fortune over the years. Having said this, there are some things you just don t tackle on your own, and this is where I slipped up!

A couple of years ago I decided that a good way to maximise the value of our house was to create a more open plan feel to the living areas. Our kitchen is quite a dark room, but it backs on to our light and airy, but under used dining room. Being absolutely sure that the wall between the two rooms wasn t structural, I could see no reason why we shouldn t knock through, or at least create a walkway between kitchen and dining room. It would mean a greater feeling of space, and some more natural light in the kitchen.

I d never really carried out any work like this, but I found some great resources online, and I had all the tools I thought I would need. I had a good old trusty lump hammer, a powerful Jigsaw to cut my archway, a Hole saw, for any wiring I might need to do, a Spirit level, and enough plaster to give the great wall of China a whole new look! I knew it might take me a bit longer than it would take a tradesman, but with the money I would be saving I didn t mind a bit.

Things started well. I d been quite careful marking out exactly where I wanted the arch to go, and how high I wanted it. I also had a semi circular piece of chipboard made up for the arch. I used my measurements and pencilled in the archway, and decided to jump straight in. I used my jigsaw to trace along the pencilled line and this lead directly to my first major mishap! I hadn t realised just how difficult it would be for me to use my Jigsaw at such a height, and unfortunately I didn t have the strength or dexterity to maintain my perfectly curved line!

When I had cut out the majority of the archway, it was clear that I might as well have left the spirit level in the garage! Being the stubborn man I am, I decided to proceed, persuading myself that it would be easy to touch up my botched effort once I had created the hole. Unfortunately I never got as far as creating the hole, because the very last action with my Jigsaw was to cut straight through some wiring! Darkness followed, and I decided it was time to give in.

Needless to say a professional was called in, and an embarrassing conversation and a thousand pounds later, I had the Archway I had dreamed of!