Just a few short months ago, my idea of home improvement consisted of changing light bulbs and occasionally dumping something known as Liquid Plumber down the drain in an effort to unclog the bathroom sink.
Ask me to do much else, and I’d become utterly useless. My eyes would gloss over and my mind would start drifting to other more useful things like when the Cubs would next win the World Series.
This aversion to actually completing a home improvement project came about for two main reasons:
- I didn’t care to expound on this type of knowledge.
- I lived in apartments my entire adult life from my 20s through 33.
This all changed with the purchase of our first home last April. Now, all of a sudden I’m mowing lawns again, and physically unclogging sinks with a drain snake (Evidently the liquid stuff corrodes pipes. Who knew?). I’m also learning how to refinish tables and repair gutters. Soon, hopefully, much more.
During my teenage years, I made a silly bet with myself, and lost. I bet that this whole home improvement knowledge base would become as useless as algebra (I’ve still yet to find the reason to include letters while doing math.).
Growing up, I had a good teacher for this kind of stuff, but a strong lack of interest. My dad’s an extremely handy person, and largely self taught, himself. None of that matters when you couldn’t have cared less about the class. I never saw the end-game for how a lot of that knowledge could be applied, especially living in apartments where there was no work area, and no need to do much more than call the landlord.
How can lowering a drain snake to clean the previous homeowner’s gunk from our bathroom sink possibly give me a strange feeling of satisfaction? Because yesterday I could have taken a sponge bath in the bathroom after simply running the faucet and today it drains just as fast as it comes in. Mission accomplished. Results evident.
It feels oddly good to be able to fix things around here without needing the landlord or a plumber. Maybe I’ll utilize Google, read a few books or take a class or two to learn a bit more. Anything’s possible.
Look out world, and look out family. Here comes a new dad, and a new homeowner, who may soon know just enough to be dangerous.
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Well put man, I was totally the same. Had a great teacher but not interested and then living in rentals.
We got our own place and then had to sell but the whole idea of fixing up things and making them better for me and my family, because I can! – has never left.
We’re back in rental but we’ve done up a vege garden for the kids and all sorts of other little projects.
but yeah, if it comes to sticking a hand down a drain to fish around in human waste or any other nasties… I’m calling the landlord.
Thanks Alex. That’s awesome. If it were an option on the last one, I’d call the landlord, too!