When to code all by myself, and when to use a framework or even a flat-file cms?

Why would you use a framework

• Shortens development time
• Focus less on legacy browser support
• Not reinventing the wheel to accomplish relatively common tasks
• Usually have better cross browser support and handling of unique browser issues
• Help establish basic design principles such line heights, font rhythm, etc
• Help establish a basic UX that users will understand
• Allow someone else to keep updating as some things are depreciated, and others are added

The negatives

• Usually leave a ton of bloat or unused code
• Too easy to have a site that looks like many others
• Can be limited to what the grid can or can't do
• Same note, you let the framework control your design, instead of the design controlling the framework
• As nice as allowing someone else to update the framework, framework updates can cause unexpected issues
• HTML or classes are not usually semantic, or as semantic as your site should be
• You can have name space collisions

I kinda went through this cycle. When I first started I hand coded everything in a very rude and crude way, but it worked. I then starting picking up on all the frameworks and plugins out there, and used those for a while to start doing more advance things, in a shorter amount of time. Basically harnessing the power of people smarter than me. I wasn't satisfied with using frameworks and plugins and not understanding how they worked, so I've been moving away from using them again, and more toward lean, mean, custom code, but having dissected a lot of the frameworks and how they do things, I've been stealing their "best practice" ways of doing some things, adapting it to fit my own.

Not my question, but Kevin gave a great answer above!

Thx Kevin! That explained it well!