Monday, May 28, 2007

Handy Woman?


  • I am not a handy person. Therefore, I love it when people sit around all day thinking of ways to make my life easer. I never heard of a Paint Buddy. I suppose I've never heard of it because I don't watch daytime television, go to hardware stores or watch sports channels. It's a pretty handy dandy gadget.
  • After reading the instructions for installing a new lavatory faucet and reading the instructions to change a doorknob, I think I know why men don't read instructions. Have you ever tried to read the instructions that come with anything to do with home improvement? I was totally lost. Thank god for the internet when it was time to change the doorknob. I paid the tub refinisher guy extra to install the new lavatory fixtures.
  • Before the guy could install the new faucet thingy in my bathroom, he was telling me what else I needed from the hardware store. I had no idea what he was talking about and told him so. For some reason, he thought that if he kept talking, it would eventually sink in. It didn't. I just wrote down everything he said, word for word, and went to M&D Supply. If you don't know what you're doing and you need some hardware, do yourself a favor and go to M&D.
  • I guess I'm going to have to suck it up and take some home improvement classes at Lowe's or Home Depot. I really don't enjoy doing that sort of thing because I'm so accident prone that it really isn't a good idea for me to be around power tools, chemicals or electricity. However, I'm thinking that if I take a couple of classes, I might be able to at least understand the instruction pamphlets when I want to do something myself.
  • Oh, I can build furniture with those prefabricated furniture building kits. I kick ass doing that.

11 comments:

Adela said...

M&D rocks!!

Susan in St. Paul said...

If you can put together Ikea furniture, I am sure you can do anything ;-)

There directions are fairly clear but arrrgghhh!!! I put together this inexpensive vertical cart (http://snipurl.com/1mh7z) I wanted to use to sort my fabric collection (aka stash) into silk/wool/heirloom/ synethics/cotton. It was pretty hard, first to understand what was to happen and then to make it happen . The cart is bigger than I am, and deeper than my arms are long, so I had to do this pretzel like thing inside of it to get the shelves in. Then I got hives....

Anyway I got it together but it wasn't easy or quick.

I suspect being handy is learnable, you just need to understand the terminology, you can do it!

Laurie said...

Laura - Yes, it does.

Susan - I'm going to buy Ikea when I get my new TV. We shall see.

Anonymous said...

I'm not handy, either. Dave and I together are dangerous. We keep the handymen in our neighborhood gainfully employed.

Zina said...

Part of my managing skills are suppose to be fixing things around the theater. I've pretty much stood by and watched for most of my years.

Here's what I've learned: Most maintainance things have been done for millions of years. There is pretty much the right way and all others are wrong. No way around it. No short cuts...no cheaper...nothing quicker.

Most cute little quickie gadgets don't always make things easier.

And when you read those directions and they go on and on about one little nitch fits into this little ridge and you start to think "Oh that is so small it can't be that important!" it will be the most important thing you will even need to do for the entire project.

I've just learned to get along with the smelliest guy in the room. You feed 'em and smile at them and they will do anything for you and tell you everything you need to know.

Laurie said...

Leslie - Good point. If I learn how to do all this stuff, I'll be taking money away from somebody else. I'm helping the economy. :)

Zina - Smelly guys do generally know what the deal is, don't they.

Peter said...

At last a woman who understands why men don't read instructions... or maps!!

Miss Cellania said...

You know how they come up with those directions? They assign writing it to the most useless guy in the company, so it won't affect regular production. Being fluent in the original language is not a requirement. Neither is a grasp of logic.

Laurie said...

Peter - I'm with you, buddy.

Miss Cellania - You just might be right about that.

Grimm said...

Hell, I am proud of any little tiny accomplishment I do.

I am totally envious of your doorknob skill.

I think my current horseshoe pit project will be finished sometime in 2036.

Laurie said...

Grimm - I think it's time to do another doorknob. Wait, that didn't sound right.