Men not thinking

You are of course right there harrigran, if you lif the bonnet of a car these days everything seems to be 'sealed', probably safer, but not as much fun. At one time my husband would not dream of taking the car to the garage, now he has no idea what to do, although to be honest I could not see him doing anything now.

I don't think anyone tinkers with cars unless they are classic cars. All components are computerised and they run diagnostic checks on modern cars. In the good old days a mechanic would lift the bonnet and decide what needed doing. We once had to leave the car in a French garage for five days until they could run a computer check.

I think some still do but not as many as in days gone by. Cars especially have so much more electrical components that need specialist equipment. Bikes, cycles, perhaps less so.

Funny you say that about 'young' people, Printmiss. We are called on all the time for DIY jobs. I'm still trying to show my DD how to thread a kneedle lol.

That made me laugh Aka - do young people do things like that these days? Messing about with cars/boats, or anything at all was part and parcel of our life, and the way we learned how things worked, and being young of course we could always laugh off the mistakes.

We live in a hard water area and before we had a water softener the clear tinted glass shower door got cover in lime scale. I was rubbing it with lime scale remover, got bored and went to make myself a coffee. My wife thought this was taking far to long and used a circular sander on it. The lime scale was removed in seconds.

Fortunately my DH cured himself of DIY by renovating a Victorian terrace, very, very slowly before we lived together. (the stairs finally got carpeted the week he moved out I recall). Since then a new build rule has prevailed.

PRINTMISS that reminds me of when DH and his friend decided to build a fibreglass boat in friend's back garden of a small semi. They worked on it every summer evening they had free. Eventually it was time to launch the thing only to find it was landlocked! It took a lot of persuading before the next door neighbour allowed then to knock down a section of his garden wall so it could pass out between the two houses with barely an inch to spare each side.

We have a very good, practically minded friend who built a motor-cycle side-car in his spare bedroom - not even thinking about the width of the door of the room, - can't remember how he solved the problem, but it is something which is talked about on the odd occasion, much to everyone's amusment - can't even remember if he actually used the thing, but all good harmless fun in its day. Next time we meet up, I must ask him about that.

Here's another one - I spent ages complaining about my car battery going flat and got into the habit of parking it on slopes so I could bump start it while I waited for him to have a look at it. (I had this idea that as I did shopping, housework, cooking, childcare and gardening he might just look after the cars) Eventually he had to use my car in an emergency - and it wouldn't start! "I can't be expected to put up with this" he said !!! New battery was fitted forthwith!

Apparently I have wrecked the curtain pole in the sitting room! We have just got in, and Theseus noticed that the curtain pole over the French windows was crooked. (I rarely close these curtains but pulled one across slightly this morning, then pulled it back) You would never have noticed it was skewiff.

He is now standing on a stool right up against where I am sitting, "fixing" it. Much puffing and sighing. He has just dropped a screw under the settee and I am not moving.

He's finished it now. So glad you were there, GNetters!

My DEAR husband once decided to clean the terracotta floor tiles in the kitchen with a commercial degreaser. Result - indelible stains because he'd removed all the sealer - eventually replaced them with glazed ones that won't stain.
He also accidently sawed a lump off the end of our new pine kitchen table - we lived with it like that for 30 years!
But when I first met him he was keeping a dismantled Mini engine in his bedroom so I should have been warned!

Have to say my OH wouldn't be allowed to do any of these things. Does that make me a horrible wife? Mind you it could explain why nothing gets cleaned, decorated or mended until desperation sets in.

Remember those times well, Greatnan, I am still married to the man who (with his friend) thought the dining room table was just the place for a motor-cycle engine, and then the kitchen sink to wash it all down with paraffin etc. Really great day, that was. Then there was the time he thought he would do me a really good turn and clean the oven with a particularly strong grease remover, used for cleaning engines - the oven was not that dirty, but I think he was trying to redeem himself over something or the other. We had the taste/smell of the wretched cleaner for weeks afterward. Mine incidentally is one of those who starts something and never finishes it. He is great company though.

My ex used to bring his motor bike into the living room to repair it. He never understood why I got annoyed when he said 'I've washed up FOR YOU'

I must admit that mr.glamma does clean up after himself but he also lets the world and his wife know that he has cleaned up,he is decorating the lounge at the moment and as soon as DD walked in he told her that he had hoovered all the scraped paper bits and washed all the paintwork before he began we will get this for weeks to come now !!

Same as my DH simtim.

My OH never changes out of her best clothes when doing something messy. I normally let it go until I found her doing the painting in one of my new T shirts. I have got round the problem of changing when doing messy things by always wearing tatty clothes unless I am going out.

What is it with them. He's the same with cars. He could be in a Saville Row suit and if some thing went wrong with the car he would just lift the bonnet and carry on as if he was in overalls.

My DH, in trying to mend something probably quite beyond repair, dropped hot solder onto the vinyl kitchen table cloth leaving big melted holes.

He never thinks about preparation and damage limitation. If it is suggested he just tries to ignore it because he didn't think about it first.

The same thing happened with my daughter. Her husband sanded down the new wooden flooring, but failed to put any dust sheets over anything. She had a new baby at the time and burst into tears. My other daughter was with her and told him that he had to organise cleaners to come and sort out the mess. He did!! I don't think he will do that again in a hurry.

Petra Tell him how to clean it, then let him get on with it. If you do the cleaning, then it will never sink into the skull that prevention is better than cure, and that you are not nagging for the sake of hearing your own voice, but because he has made more work for you than he had to do in the original job..

You will probably have to clean it again, of course.

When DC were toddlers I went out for the day leaving DH in charge. When they picked me up from the station all three were grimy and covered in dust. They informed me with glee that they had taken the living room fireplace out, a job that had been high on the to do list.

My delight and pleasure fizzled out as we entered the house, everything, but everything, throughout the house was covered in a fine dust. Not only had dust sheets not be used, no doors had been closed either.

It is a feature of fireplace removal that behind the fireplace there is a huge quantity of very fine ash that when released goes up in the air and floats around for days. It was three weeks before the house was clean again and another year before I ceased to find small quantities of ash in hidden little accessed places.

My DH has spent months, yes months sanding down a small chest of drawers. He spent most of the weekend faffing about the choice of finish he wanted, this was limited as he had already applied an undercoat which was not compatible to his final choice. So he goes for second option and today, he decided he would paint the damned thing outside..........All went well until the wind started to blow......Now he has to rub the b****y thing down again to remove the grit and bodies of flies and wasps that have stuck to it. I think we are looking at another 2 weeks work at least .

How long have you been living with my husband petra ? Actually mine becomes even more annoying when he does start using dust sheets and newspaper. I am supposed to worship him as if he's the second coming and he gets most put out if I take a bit of preperation for granted.