Many of us have big dreams and we sometimes may even try to bring those dreams to fruition. On occasion, we hear about somebody who not only dreamed big, they did big things.
Alex Dodman had a dream of turning his backyard into a paradise. We can only imagine how it must feel to love and want something that bad but you have such a long road ahead of you in order to make it a reality.
That is when Alex decided to go on YouTube for a little bit of inspiration. He watched a woman building a pool in her yard and that is when he decided that he could do it as well.
Back in 2018, Alex lived in Essex and was an ambulance worker. He and his partner Sarah lived in a rundown home with their two children, Eddie and Allie.
To put it mildly, their home was a fixer-upper but the 38-year-old father decided he was going to do something amazing for the family. He knew that he could build their dream home, so he started watching YouTube videos to make it a reality.
It took some time but he eventually added a cinema in the house, a gym in the backyard, and a new home office. After doing this, he realized that he had doubled the value of his home.
He said: “We had the house valued and were told it was now worth £525,000, which I put down to the work I’ve done.”
Although he started out without much confidence in his abilities, he was beginning to realize that he had a natural talent. He would watch YouTube videos and then make them become a reality for himself.
This was the case when he decided to fulfill his dream of having a pool. He had watched a YouTube video of a woman building her own pool and that is when he decided to hire a digger.
Despite the fact that he has zero experience, he created something amazing. He said: “In general, the hardest thing to learn from a DIY perspective was plumbing – that’s quite annoying. If you do it wrong, you get drips and stuff.” He continues, “But it’s not as hard as I thought it was going to be, it really is kind of like water LEGO.”
He went on to say: “I’ve made mistakes and stuff doesn’t always turn out how you think but giving it a go is the best way. I learned almost everything from YouTube, and there are a lot of builders’ forums online where you can find help on loads of projects, any problem you come across, it’s likely someone else has in the past and has written about it online.”