Goodbye DIY man??

Hey all

sitting here contemplating the value of time

I have as much time in the day as richard branson and einstein why is it I achieve less than they

I'm sitting here nursing a rather black thumb care of a newly sharpened drill bit which I inadvertently inserted through my thumb nail- don't try this at home kids... Not in the top 3 worst injuries I've had (the piece of 4" x 2" pendulum-ing into my noggin' from a height beats it hands down) but not pleasant none-the-less

I'm thinking of hanging up the grinders and power saws and out-sourcing the whole lot.

Anyone else hung up the tool belt for good??

Surely 40 is too young for a midlife crisis...

Wal
 
Wally, don't hang the tool belt up for good. We have saved absolutely thousands upon thousands by hubby being pretty good on the tools. He has had some "silly mistakes" - drilling into his finger when the drill slipped, fallen off two ladders (while his friend was holding it each time :eek:).

I held my breath when he decided to sit out the back and cut bricks with his circular saw while holding the brick between his feet :eek:

Best one (for me) was when we had an argument 19 years ago. I had a new baby and Sunday afternoon while we were due for visitors for a barbeque he decided to pull my laundry out. Of course, I wouldn't need a laundry until next weekend, with a new baby!!! I was so mad I threw some of his clothes out the window. He lifted the double cement tub and while holding it (too proud to ask me to help hold it) one of the cement legs fell on his instep. No shoes of course. Weekends are "no undies" and "no shoes" days.

He was in a lot of pain, but continued on. While carrying the tub down the side of the house, he brushed against a wasps nest and, being dusk, they all flew after him and he was stung. He came running up the path, hobbling on his bad foot, flapping his arms like he wanted to fly. It was sooooo funny.

After our visitors left, we went to the hospital to have his very swollen foot x-rayed. Sitting for hours with a baby in a hospital was not quite so funny.

He is sensible 99% of the time, but he is (after all) a man so I expect some silly decisions sometimes :rolleyes:

Anyway, the thing is that he is in a pen pushing desk job and loves getting down and dirty with things that make lots of noise and building things, and especially demolishing things.

He has just come home from fixing a gate and getting a house ready for new tenants tomorrow. He would miss it if he stopped "doing things" altogether, but we do outsource more now we can afford to.

Think of the fun we would miss out on if he gave it up altogether....
 
Fantastic post Wylie, I got a rollicking laugh out of that one. I also agree with you that Wal should stay on the tools.

One of SS's former legendary posters, Duncan used to be passionate about this subject and I'm getting moreso every day. There's something fundamentally good about being able to fix and do things around the house. It makes you feel like you've accomplished something. It's good for men (and women too !!) to be able to stand back and say, "before I started this thing was stuffed, and now it works better than a bought one".

There's alot of business folk who are absolutely useless with their hands and don't own a screwdriver. They are forced to 'outsource' everything, and because they can't or won't do it, usually hide behind the ol' "I'd rather pay to have that done by a contractor and get on and make more money doing what I do best". I reckon that's OK up to a point, but she's gone way too far.

If you take that attitude to the nth degree, we'll all be sitting here in front of a computer, fat as a horse, stressed to the max, running a multi-billion dollar multi-national company and keel over with a heart attack before you're 50.

I'm at the point where I can afford to sub-contract out every service I could ever require, but am literally only one of two gents in the street who still mow their own lawn, prune their own trees and own a wheelbarrow.

After I leave my paid job, I'm planning on booking myself in to do a handyman's course, where laying bricks, woodworking, plumbing, mechanics, concreting and other skills like welding and soldering will be on the agenda.

My father can do all of these things, owns lots of property and the skills come in handy, and like wylie's husband, saves a fortune on call out fees. I own 20 times what Dad does, and feel inadequate sometimes as he is able to do heaps more than what I can.

Sometimes Wal, it's not about the money. For the sake of useful handy men in Australia, don't hang up the toolbelt. Keep going mate !!!
 
Hi Daz

Too right !

Skills shortage hey :)

I have several lawn mowing buisness clients that tell me im mad doing my own garden work ...............but if I dont mow the lawn, or do the cocos palms then i still have to go to the gym, and that I hate ............



ta
rolf
 
One of SS's former legendary posters, Duncan used to be passionate about this subject and I'm getting moreso every day. There's something fundamentally good about being able to fix and do things around the house. It makes you feel like you've accomplished something. It's good for men (and women too !!) to be able to stand back and say, "before I started this thing was stuffed, and now it works better than a bought one".

Even more than being able to fix something, there is huge satisfaction in being able to make something from scratch. It's great to sit back when you've finished and say: 'That thing didn't exist before today.'

Wal, 40 is way too young to put the tools away for good. But it's not too young to start paying people to do the things you really hate doing. I'll never sand another floor, sheet another ceiling or attempt to render a wall.

Scott
 
Worst incident I've hear of was my Dad's mate. (warning: don't read while you're eating your lunch)

He's very talented with the DIY stuff and has done up multiple houses. Years back he was doing a complete house reno. down at Semaphore, including redoing the inside, and extending both outwards, and adding a 2nd story - all by himself.

One day he was cutting some steel with an angle grinder. The blade exploded and one of the pieces went straight through his leg above the knee cutting through the main artery. The leg was hanging there by a few tendons and bloody was gushing out. He forced himself not to pass out (as there was no one else there working with him), tied his shirt around the leg and yelled for his wife. Since there wasn't a phone connected in the house yes, his wife had to run to the neighbours to phone for an ambulance.

Got him to the hospital just in time. Doctors said he was remarkably lucky to have saved the leg, and not die from blood loss.
 
Steve I can go one better...

A mate of my dad was using an angle grinder to cut a brick wall. The wheel got caught and it jumped back at him and went straight through his nose.

He actually healed quite well. Dad drove him to the hospital. Apparently he was more worried about dad's frantic driving than the injury.
 
eeeeeew - i thought getting the fingers caught in the blueboard cutter the other week was bad enough. got some lovely bruises under the fingernails atm.

hubby recently took out the back of his knuckle with the angle grinder (dangerous things) and had three stitches.

neither of us dare go near a nail gun.
 
Steve I can go one better...

Peter,

I can go 74 better.....http://www.aihw.gov.au/mediacentre/2002/mr20021206b.cfm


74 people die a day from heart attacks....from mainly sitting on their bums and eating too much and not getting out there and doing something physically active.

That's not 1 horrific accident per lifetime where it eventuates into a nasty injury.

We're talking about 74 coffins every day, day in day out.

By sitting there on yer bum, contracting everything out and not doing anything yourself, metaphorically speaking you might avoid being run down by the lone car coming down the road but you're more likely to get smacked by the 74 trains just around the corner.
 
Hey Wal
Don't give up at 40. Jeez it's hard enough to find useful blokes/shielas as it is.

My old man is almost 80 and helped build two houses in the last couple of years. Up a ladder assembling steel frames in the hot QLD sun would be enough to drive most mortals to the pub. And! He was a pen pushing CEO Monday to Fri, most of his working life. But come Sat morning he was building projects like boats, renovating, renovating the garden every other year. He gets bored easily. Lost count of the number of projects he has done, but they would number in the hundreds. I used to call him 'The Little Aussie Bleeder', as it didn't take much for him to cut or scrape himself dry of a few mills of blood.


I'm the youngest of four boys, and all us modelled ourselves on that can do attitude. Three of us were sailmakers, so sailing taught us to improvise when something broke, jammed or disintegrated. Most injuries you just ignore. More important to finish the job at hand, than worry about the mangled bleeding hand. Relieve and relive the pain at the bar. Don't forget to embellish the truth quite a bit.

Don't worry about the pain, enjoy the fun and satisfaction of being a DIY.
 
Back
Top