I'm in my early 40s now and had never done any woodworking a single day in my life and never even had really used any type power tool other than maybe a drill.

Early in the lockdown, my wife and I decided to completely redo our backyard, We were initially going to hire someone to do it, but after receiving bids for $20k+, we chose to tackle it on our own.

My first project for the new backyard were two simple cedar planter boxes. Fast forward five months and I've made more planter boxes, a deck, some steps, acoustic panels to hang in my studio, and a custom desk for my daughter.

I've found that while the end results are far from perfect, they're still pretty great. Even after figuring in purchasing a few power tools (including a sliding compound mitre saw like you mentioned) we still have spent way less money than had we hired someone to do the same work.

I'm really looking forward to my future projects. My only regret is not taking this up sooner!