My husband thinks he can fix things but he isn’t always correct in that belief. He makes assumptions that don’t necessarily fit the situation. So there are things that are more or less fixed but not as well as I would like. There are some things I would rather replace than try to fix, tbh.
I’ve had some minor success in searching for online videos for minor repairs, like a door that isn’t closing properly and some toilet maintenance stuff. I can do things like paint walls et al.
Now we’ve found a local handyman (praised throughout NextDoor) who lives in our general area and has a small crew. He has reasonable rates and they can do most household repairs. That’s worth it to me.
H once mentioned to me that he liked taking toys apart when he was a kid so he could figure out how they worked. To me this was strange, but since then I have found most of our engineer friends did the same. OTOH I find directions to put things together frequently seem as if they are written in some ancient language. I have no interest in how anything works I just want it to.
Although I have always been very good at math, I would have never made it as an engineer. I am an accountant.
My H is pretty handy. He can do very basic electric and plumbing stuff. Anything with the power drill, he’s good. He’s a super perfectionist when it comes to painting. He wouldn’t let me touch a brush. (Fine by me!) But the older he gets, the more we are willing to pay other people. No more painting the porch, shed, house foundation.
One bonus of teaching 500 kids every year for 30 years, you make contacts. We have several former parents who do things for next to nothing. Everyone loves the PE teacher, lol.
He’s also our decorator. He’s MUCH better at that stuff than me. I’m the practical person. How easy it it to clean?
But anything financial related, health care related, tech related, scheduling related, general adulting related, that all falls to me.
One scary story… Our first summer after marriage, H worked for a friend’s construction company. He dropped H off at a house and had him completely rewire it HIMSELF! H had 1 semester (year?) of electronics at CC before switching out. He didn’t like getting shocked so much, lol. To my knowledge, the house is still standing 30 years later, but still, yikes!
quote=“FallGirl, post:22, topic:3643165”]
H once mentioned to me that he liked taking toys apart when he was a kid so he could figure out how they worked. To me this was strange, but since then I have found most of our engineer friends did the same.
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Yep, this was my H, too. Toys, lawnmowers, radios…the good news was he “usually” was able to put them back together
My H is pretty good at most repairs, particularly if they don’t involve heavy lifting. He and I prefer to leave plumbing to the plumbers and electrical to electricians. He could do it but prefers not to as he did it back in the day and we have good, reliable people who come when we hire them.
I’m still grateful for my BIL who turned off the outside water for me before the weekend freeze, but now also grateful to a friend of my brother’s who has been helping me repair a broken dryer. I told my BIL that I turned it on and heard a big pop and all the lights came on but no spinning. BIL told me what to order from Amazon. Did that. Friend came over and oh yes, I ordered what I was supposed to. Wait wait wait. He comes back when the repair kit came, but oh, now we need some wheels that turn the drum. Order, wait wait wait…He finally comes back today and yes those are the right tools but now he needs a different drill thingy that I don’t have. He’ll be back…maybe tomorrow.
The cost is right but the process is long.
While he was here he fixed some thermo coupler in the furnace that wasn’t working well last year. I could get the heat up to about 60 (we live in an older house that has some kind of water heated system that really only heats the top floor). He took a new $2 bill, rubbed it on the wires, vacuumed the box, and now we’re waiting for heat to come. He even gave me back the $2 bill. Hoping for 64 degrees this year.
My BIL installed my H (his brother)’s car antenna (it breaks off when it hits a branch or if something hits it. He also replaced/repaired malfunctioning backup light and cleaned rear windshield. Yay for handy BILs. We were happy BIL saved us a trip to mechanic.
When we were at BIL’s home, my H fixed his dishwasher by cleaning the hose out so it would drain properly and not back up and leak all over. H saved BIL an appliance repairman visit.
quote=“FallGirl, post:22, topic:3643165”]