The biggest and most important project I have worked on as a job was remodeling a bathroom at a house in Troy, MI. I worked with an independent contractor named Paul, we had 5 days to demolish the current bathroom and put in all new things from drywall to the tub in this all brick cozy looking home. This was scary for me because I had never worked on homes before, where it actually counted. If you mess up a tile then you have to redo it, and that takes time. Most of the projects I had done before I was just standing to the side getting tools while my dad worked, or maybe I screw the screws in or made measurements but if I made mistakes they could fix it. Not here. Time was money, and money was limited.
When we arrived at the home, I was quickly relieved when I saw how friendly the owner was and how nice the house was inside.”This won't be so bad” I said to myself, then as I looked at what the owner had bought i thought  “we have way more than we need, if I mess a cut up it won't be a problem”. Now I was much more relaxed than the night before, the house was small and not intimidating. Made with lots of brick and almost no siding, I knew it would be nice on the inside. When I walked in the house I was not surprised, everything inside it was very nice, from granite countertops to cherry hardwood floors. This didn't last for long as I found out that paul had a quick temper in the workspace. The bathroom was right on the left as I walked in and I immediately understood why Robert, the owner of the home wanted it re-done. It was outdated and plain gross! The cabinets were white and the countertop was plastic, who had ever heard of such a thing?! When we finally got the toolboxes in and had made measurements for granite and drywall, we started to demolish the existing bathroom. We each had hammers, but before we could smash away we had to take screws and bolts out so when we took them out they would not be so big and heavy. Throughout the day the task seemed to get easier and easier once we got the big stuff out. The hardest must have been either the tub or all the floor tiles. The tub was heavy and made of metal, but the floor tiles were small and heavy in mass quantities, and there seemed to be a million of them.
The second day we had just a little more demo work to do then we could get started with hanging up the drywall. Paul showed me how to cut it, then gave me the rest of the measurements we took at the beginning and had me start cutting. It was very hard to cut in a perfectly straight line with a utility knife even though I had a straight edge, partly because I was nervous and partly because it was my first time doing it. I was told not to screw up because we had bought just enough drywall to make it work but no more, but in the end there was plenty left over and I messed up the cut more than once. Paul got pretty mad at me when I messed up the cuts but towards the end I got the hang of it and he didn't seem to mind my previous mistakes. The following day I got to use the wet saw, which is used to cut tiles. The reason it is called a wet saw is because there is water that cools down the blade in saw, because the tile is so hard to cut through the blade would overheat and that would cause a problem.  The first couple times I used it I was nervous about cutting my hand so I held it far away and kept slipping, resulting in a jacked up cut. Paul saw me do it once and got mad, at that point I had to hold it up close and hope for the best. It worked just like he said, perfect cut and I had all my fingers. in the following days I also used a keynote saw, electric mitre saw, and a circular saw which was pretty exciting. On the fifth and final day of our working, we had to put the vanity and do the last coat of paint. When we finished we both went out into the hall, and stood back and the results were amazing. We had done it, I had done it and it felt great.
This may seem like a regular experience to many people but to me it was extraordinary and exciting. This experience of having a real job where there was little margin for error, shaped me a lot in my skills of home improvement. The jobs and tasks that I did on the job are special to me because my dad had not done most of it, nor my friends!. And I think that it will continue to affect me for the rest of my life, from being the guy everyone calls to fix things to never having to call anyone because I can fix it myself.