Home improvement

Quite a few people are just like myself - want to have a nice looking and functional place to live. So in our quest for a first home we have purchased an oldish (1972) house in Southern California. It needed some work, but that didn't scare us away. After a year of living in a place of our own, I have started fixing minor things here and there around the house. But since I'm really interested in saving money whenever possible - I had to make a decision every time to do it myself or hire someone to do the work. While I enjoy doing almost everything myself the question of time and money always comes into the equation. Is it worth my time and how long would something take me to do. Very few things were done by contractors, but I've felt that I'm just so unqualified to do the job, that it simply be rather foolish to even try it. For example removing asbestos infused popcorn from the ceiling or plastering it later with a texture. In cases like this where the work would be way over my head (pun intended) or if there is a health risk - it is better to pay the money and let someone else do the hard stuff.