My wife and I have been dragging our feet on getting a new dining room table for about three years now. She wants a farmhouse style one. Prices for these things are outrages in my opinion. She found multiple plans for DIY and total cost would be around $100 for material. I'm not in the business of carpentry, I'm in the mechanical trades. Should i try it myself as a first timer or pay an experienced wood worker? What would an expected rate be? From the plans I've found, the average time is around 10 hours

I guess I'd have to say Jesus. He was a carpenter, and I just figured if you're gonna follow in someone's footsteps, who better than Christ?

Build your own if you have the tools. They're fairly easy to do. I've built 2 so far. The one is about 6' long and the other was close to 12'.

It should be pretty simple to do with a Kreg jig.

 

If you're using traditional joinery it will last longer as the wood ages and moves, but takes a lot more practice.

My wife and I have been dragging our feet on getting a new dining room table for about three years now. She wants a farmhouse style one. Prices for these things are outrages in my opinion. She found multiple plans for DIY and total cost would be around $100 for material. I'm not in the business of carpentry, I'm in the mechanical trades. Should i try it myself as a first timer or pay an experienced wood worker? What would an expected rate be? From the plans I've found, the average time is around 10 hours

If you are ok being out the money if you screw it up, I'd say try to build your own. You may find a new talent or at least a hobby you really enjoy.

Try to DIY...and then sub it out if unsuccessful! You can do it

So after some time thinking, I've decided to just sub it out. My neighbor is a master carpenter and (I didn't know) owns his own business. He's charging $30 an hour estimated about 15 hours. Plus material and I'm expecting around $600-$650. I was really considering DIY, but the more I considered it true less appealing it became. He can do it in a couple days and have the headache.