Ever showered in ankle-deep water because that stubborn clog just wouldn't budge? Bombarded the house with noxious chemicals to destroy a marching parade of ants? Shelled out a car payment's worth of cash to a repairman for a job you could have done yourself?
These are common situations that all homeowners face. But keeping up a house doesn't have to be expensive, according to home improvement gurus who have an arsenal of cheap fixes to tame common at-home repairs.
"Murphy's Law applies when you're a new homeowner," said Judy Ostrow, author of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Home Repair." "If you don't learn things , you can really get up to your neck in repairmen."
That's what Ostrow, a mother of two grown children who said she's "old enough to know a lot about home improvement," said happened to her when she was a new homeowner with a husband and a new baby.
"I really got sick of paying $100, $250 ... and started learning some things myself," she told ABCNews.com.
Terri McGraw, aka Mrs. FIXIT, said that when she got married, she expected her husband to fix things around the house because that's what her father did. But the "honey-do" list, she said, just kept getting longer and longer.
"I truly at first had someone come to change a light bulb in a cathedral ceiling because I didn't have a ladder," she said. "I thought, 'Oh my God -- I could do this myself.'"
Now, as Mrs. FIXIT, with two books, TV appearances and a home improvement Web site, McGraw, 48, said she considers herself to be a cross between Heloise and Bob Villa.
Many of the tips offered by Ostrow and McGraw are simple and require ingredients often found in the house anyway -- things like toothpaste, mint, vinegar and shaving cream.
"Everyone lives somewhere," McGraw said. "You've got to live in
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