Reply to: Getting a man in to make wife happy

[Lockhouse]

I do virtually all the decorating at home. The only things I don't do are plumbing and large areas of plastering.

The problem I've found with builders is that I'm never happy with the quality of work. They always try to be clever and paint without removing all the handles, fittings etc, they always try to get by with one thick coat of emulsion instead of two thinner ones etc. Nobody else would probably notice, but I do.

If I do it, every hole is filled, I do all the cutting in with an artist's brush, everything gets at least two coats of paint etc. It really doesn't take that much longer if your preparation is good. I'm just finishing up the wife's she-cave at the moment (basically a cross between an office and a den with glass display cabinets for her handbag collection) and it will have only taken me five days for a top-to-bottom repaint, all the fittings changed for nice new shiny ones etc. After that I've got two guest bedrooms to do and a hallway - I find it all theraputic and totally different to my day job. It's not about how much money I could have saved\paid by getting someone in, it's about having the best quality job done. I put the radio on at 08:00 and before I know it it's time for a pre-dinner G&T.

When it comes to wallpapering, I try and avoid it, I can do it but I don't particularly like whole rooms - I may do a feature wall but the beauty of emulsion is that you can just repaint to change colour or repair it easily if it gets marked or damaged. I guess it's one of those things that goes in and out of fashion.

I'm not saying it's all plain sailing and I'm not that much of a control freak that I don't trust anyone else, just that if I do it, it'll be done properly.

[vetran]

I had my own DIY saga recently:

So after:
7 hours
5 trips to B&Q
1 trip to Wickes
And about £120 in parts

I have a bathroom basin tap which is not leaking. I’ve also learnt a tulip load about taps, pipes and all their different connectors!

Toolstation.com - they deliver and are a third of the price on such things.

[Spacecadet]

I had my own DIY saga recently:

Last weekend I got home to be told by the Mrs that the bathroom basin mixer tap wouldn’t close. I had a look and managed to wiggle bits around till it got down to a fast drip. It looked like a fairly simple job to fix too, the tap mechanism must have come loose and I just had to get the right tool and tighten it up.
I headed over to B&Q the next day and got what looked like the right tool. Back home I carefully took the tool out of it’s packet and tried it; turned out to be too big, but the right shape at least.

Few days later, I had to go to Tescos, so decided to pop back into B&Q and change the tool for the smaller size, they only had 2 sizes in. Got back home and tried the new one. This one is too fecking small!

Decided that the tap must use some proprietary tool and it’ll be simpler to change the entire tap to a better one. So yesterday I spent 15 minutes removing the tap. Luckily isolation valves had been fitted to the pipes and the tap was connected to the isolation valves by means of flexible pipes which simply screwed into the valve. The whole thing was a fairly straight forward job. Another trip to B&Q, returned the now useless tool and bought a new tap. I checked that the new tap was supplied with “tails” like the old tap was.

Got back home and opened the box. Sodding “tails” are copper pipes and not flexible hoses like on the old one! Had a look at the old tap and thought I might be able to get the hoses off the bottom of it. I couldn’t get anthing into the bottom of the tap to release them but 10 minutes grunting and a cut hand and indeed, both hoses pulled off leaving the connecters exposed enough for me to get a pair of long pliers in and unscrew them.
Now I was feeling very confident, I screwed the connectors into the new tap and pushed the hoses back on. Brilliant, now I just have to attach the tap to the basin, connect the hoses to the pipes and then restart the water. As soon as I open the isolation valves water started leaking from the bottom of the taps. FECK! I can’t get to the bottom of the tap now so I have to take it all apart again. I try to take one of the connectors of the bottom of the tap but it just keeps turning round without coming out. I give it hard pull and it pops out. That’s strange. No stripped threads... I check it with the tail that came with the new tap and realise that the connectors from the old tap and slightly smaller than the new tap!

So back in the car. I need to get a flexible hose which will fit the new tap bottom. I get to B&Q, find the hoses, drive home, attach the hoses to the taps, remount the tap on the basin and go to attach the hoses to the isolator valve. It won’t fit, the connection is completely different!
Back in the car, back to B&Q to get a refund on the hoses. Now I go back to the plumbing section to with both the old and new tails in my hand to make sure I don’t make the same mistake. Can’t find the right part anywhere so ask for help only to be told that the part I want doesn’t exist!!! ****!!!!!!!!

Decide to go to Wickes just in case. Same story there but I do get some better advice and get a hose to connect the isolation valve to the bottom of the new copper pipe tails. I also need to pick up a mole grip to help with the mounting. I go and pay and I’m almost back in the car when I hear someone calling for me from behind. I turn round and see the chap who was helping earlier, he’s found something which will be easier to fit and negate the need for the mole grip. So back inside I go. Another refund (the 4th so far) and another purchase. I take the new hoses home.
I fit the tails that came with the taps, fit the tap to the sink. Unfortunately everything is a bit close together but by tightly looping the new hoses round I manage to get them all connected together.

So after:
7 hours
5 trips to B&Q
1 trip to Wickes
And about £120 in parts

I have a bathroom basin tap which is not leaking. I’ve also learnt a tulip load about taps, pipes and all their different connectors!

[OwlHoot]

I'm WFH today and the Mrs CS happens to be at home due to being a school teacher on her Easter break.
She wanted some odd jobs to be done, and last time I had a go at DIY I spent hours and days trying to do stuff that a professional would do in 1/10th of the time. That was bench time that I could have spent on a course improving my quals and skills.

This time we've got a man in to do some odd jobs - fitting curtain rail, putting a mirror up on the wall, fix leaky tap.... nothing big.
Its far cheaper for him to do it than me, but it really does make me feel like an empty shell of a man sometimes. Event worse when he gets all of the praise, and I feel utterly useless.
Thing is I just CBA to waste another saturday dropping things on my feet and hammering my thumbs into the wall.

Am I alone here?

I must say all those jobs you listed should be trivial for any able bodied person, and doable in no time.

For me, anything involving wood, paint, or water plumbing is a doddle (although I don't touch gas or mains wiring).

The problem is the time and hassle of going to buy all the stuff, knowing what to ask for, and sometimes (with big planks of wood for example) getting it home.

I've tiled a bathroom before, but got a pro in to tile my present bathroom in marble because it would be too expensive and unsightly to feck it up - The marble cost over £4K! Same goes for things like plastering and floor sanding - There's too much of a knack required to get tip-top results, and one can't expect to be as good as someone who does it every day.

Also, each tradesman in your house doing work is a possible source of information later for burglars down in the pub. That's another incentive, as well as saving money, to try and do more DIY yourself.

[escapeUK]

If you can afford a dog, why bark yourself?

[BrilloPad]

Any man coming in to make my wife happy would need to bring shoes and chocolate.

[vetran]

Sounds tempting, apparently I'm off to the In laws tomorrow, try to look attentive during the sister in laws soliloquy .

Is it nobler in the mind to discuss my diet all day or suffer the twists of fate that makes me a sad middle class mum whose life is so difficult?
To take um bridge with the difficulties associated with living in a small exclusive close ?

anyway, painting is women's work?

[mudskipper]

I honestly can't believe that some of you lot cannot do any of the following:

Change a washer
Wire up a light fitting
Put together self assembly furniture
Drill a hole in masonry or concrete.

Your all big girls blouses!

I honestly can't believe that some of you lot cannot work out where to place an apostrophe

You're

[SantaClaus]

I honestly can't believe that some of you cannot do any of the following:

Change a washer
Wire up a light fitting
Put together self assembly furniture
Drill a hole in masonry or concrete.

You're all big girls blouses!

[mudskipper]

Strange, that seems to be a common request.

Unfortunately the potential dry spell seems to kill the idea.

When I ask 'whats in it for me' both cheeks get slapped. It hurts

The wife can actually cook, (quite well but don't tell her - treat em mean) so that isn't much of a draw.

How is your sewing?

I can sew! And knit! (see username)
Got two ceilings need painting. How you fixed for this weekend?

[russell]

I'm WFH today and the Mrs CS happens to be at home due to being a school teacher on her Easter break.
She wanted some odd jobs to be done, and last time I had a go at DIY I spent hours and days trying to do stuff that a professional would do in 1/10th of the time. That was bench time that I could have spent on a course improving my quals and skills.

This time we've got a man in to do some odd jobs - fitting curtain rail, putting a mirror up on the wall, fix leaky tap.... nothing big.
Its far cheaper for him to do it than me, but it really does make me feel like an empty shell of a man sometimes. Event worse when he gets all of the praise, and I feel utterly useless.
Thing is I just CBA to waste another saturday dropping things on my feet and hammering my thumbs into the wall.

Am I alone here?

Did you also get him to give your wife one as well?

[vetran]

Strange, that seems to be a common request.

Unfortunately the potential dry spell seems to kill the idea.

When I ask 'whats in it for me' both cheeks get slapped. It hurts

The wife can actually cook, (quite well but don't tell her - treat em mean) so that isn't much of a draw.

How is your sewing?

[mudskipper]

K2P2 maybe you are doing it wrong - withhold favours until its done. only six months dry spell and after 20 years she takes her own cups downstairs - YAY!

Seriously did 2 bathrooms, 1 cloakroom, 3 bedrooms & 2 receptions (Gut, replace everything including actual floors in some cases) each room has the wow factor (well people go quiet and green when they walk in). Plus a front & rear garden landscape.

Wife wanted the kitchen done, didn't want me to do it (I take too long apparently) , she got a household name in. Guess which room is falling apart?

She did want someone to do the dining room but after the building inspector said her choice would be breaking the law she let me do it.

I enjoy it and I get to do it how I want that means back to the plaster or brick if needed, pipes hidden, cabling in the wall not on the skirting board.

I find it quite relaxing, when I'm doing it. It also makes me smile when I walk downstairs in the morning.

Cost wise I find it much cheaper, the labour, materials & extras add up.

I like being able to shop around and buy what I want without a tradesman insisting on sub standard , poor value stuff or expedient parts. (I buy a lot on eBay).

Every-time we have someone in, they don't quite do it right. Maybe I'm a bit picky (OK a lot picky).

I have cat5/6 flood wired, infrared/rf everything and we spent stuff all. £6-10k for everything except the kitchen.

I propose a new TV show - husband swap. Suggest pilot programme featuring vetran and Mr k2p2. A month should cover it.

[vetran]

K2P2 maybe you are doing it wrong - withhold favours until its done. only six months dry spell and after 20 years she takes her own cups downstairs - YAY!

Seriously did 2 bathrooms, 1 cloakroom, 3 bedrooms & 2 receptions (Gut, replace everything including actual floors in some cases) each room has the wow factor (well people go quiet and green when they walk in). Plus a front & rear garden landscape.

Wife wanted the kitchen done, didn't want me to do it (I take too long apparently) , she got a household name in. Guess which room is falling apart?

She did want someone to do the dining room but after the building inspector said her choice would be breaking the law she let me do it.

I enjoy it and I get to do it how I want that means back to the plaster or brick if needed, pipes hidden, cabling in the wall not on the skirting board.

I find it quite relaxing, when I'm doing it. It also makes me smile when I walk downstairs in the morning.

Cost wise I find it much cheaper, the labour, materials & extras add up.

I like being able to shop around and buy what I want without a tradesman insisting on sub standard , poor value stuff or expedient parts. (I buy a lot on eBay).

Every-time we have someone in, they don't quite do it right. Maybe I'm a bit picky (OK a lot picky).

I have cat5/6 flood wired, infrared/rf everything and we spent stuff all. £6-10k for everything except the kitchen.

[mudskipper]

To be fair, got the same problem on the spare shower. Plumber doing the bathroom seems to have broken a shower in a completely different room after draining the system. £110 for a new cartridge, but I'm going to fit it.

Yep, I'm sure Mr k2p2 could do it, if I'm prepared to wait another decade or so for him to get round to it (it would require a weekend without any sport on telly). Perhaps £500 is a bargain after all.