Do you remember that old television
program, ‘Home Improvement’? The star of the show, ‘Tim, the Toolman Taylor’
would prance around his home and the homes’ of friends, thinking he was helping
out by doing odd jobs, but inevitably, blow up the house, knock down walls or
injure himself. Let’s be realistic, we
all have little ‘Tim The Toolman’s’ running around our houses, thinking they
are Mr Fix its and can take care of all our handy man needs. But unfortunately
few of them can! As wives and girlfriends, we so often put in our two cents,
‘honey, I don’t think that’s a very good idea’, or ‘honey, maybe we should call
in the electrical
services on this one’, and yet, even though we know better, for the sake of
our other half’s ego, we back down easily as soon as he gives that look, and
simply says, ‘I’ve got this one dear’.
Well, as strong women, it’s time to stop
backing down. It is time to stop letting hubby or boyfriend, brother or dad
tackle a project for which he has absolutely no idea what he’s doing, just so
we can pay a professional to come in and do it properly later. It’s time to
skip the explosions, the fallouts, and the trips to emergency and simply call
in the big guys from the start. While there are a few jobs your other half may
be able to get done, below are a list of trades they should avoid at all cost –
and this is speaking from personal experience. So put your foot down!
- Electrician
So my husband
thought he could jump up into the roof, do a little rewiring and work in an
extra power point in the lounge room for us. We did the usual routine, arguing
lightly about calling electricians
in Sydney, he gave the look, the magic words and I gave in. Two hours
later, we were in emergency. While there are a lot of practical skills your
partner may be able to master, doing circuits in science in high school does
not qualify him to do electrical work on your home. Electricians train for
years to know the ropes – so definitely don’t back down on this one!
2. Plumbing
I’m not going to
lie, I’m not handy. I don’t know a wrench from a spanner, and can barely hammer
a nail in straight, but I do know that water shooting out of a hole in my
laundry is a bad thing. So did my dad, so he offered to fix it. Against my
better judgement and because I didn’t have the cash, I agreed. Somehow over the
course of a few hours, my dad managed to increase the size of the hole in the
wall, undo anything and everything that connected and finally realise he had no
idea how to put it all together. What was a cheap job for a plumber, blew out
to a huge bill. Should have called in the pros to start with!
3. Cabinet making
The final one, was
a great laugh when it happened, but not so much fun getting fixed. My sister’s
brand new hubby decided he’d help out by installing a brand new flat pack
kitchen. Never having done anything like this before and a bit of a city boy,
he figured he was basically playing leggo – fitting bits together – how wrong
he was. To his credit, he put all the pieces together almost correctly, and it
actually looked quite lovely, we were all impressed.
Until she cooked us
a first big grand meal to bless it – and all the plates slowly slid down the
bench and onto the floor. Unfortunately hubby didn’t realise that a real
cabinet maker has to check the angles on the slab, especially in old houses –
and as the kicks, cupboards and bench tops were all fitted nice and flush to
the angled slab, the angle exacerbated and she had a slight, but destructive
slippery slide on her hands!
The moral of the
story – ladies, stop worrying about hurting his ego and start worrying more
about how he’s hurting the hip pocket! Call in the qualified, trained people
from the start!
