I perform a lot of my own handyman work. Does that make me a handywoman?
I blame my dad. He thought girls should do the same things as boys. A revolutionary idea in the seventies. He taught me to hang drywall and operate a radial arm saw. I handed him tools while he fixed all kinds of things.
Now I repair things around my own house. Mostly small things that seem mechanical in nature. The internet and YouTube have made home repairs so much easier. I can find a YouTube video on anything.
Often the repair goes like this.
I use a certain arsenal of tools.
But my husband is like a tool king. He’ll look at the problem and find a tool in the garage that I’ve never seen before and is perfect for the job.
Once he handed me a water pump that connects to a garden hose and is operated by a regular drill. I never imagined such a thing existed and certainly never suspected it lurked in the recesses of our garage.
I was filling the base of my new punching bag with water to keep it from scooting around while I punched. But I filled it too full and couldn’t move it into the room where I needed it. Seems like if I am tough enough to punch, I should be able to move the heavy, water-filled base for the bag. When it wouldn’t budge, I went in search of a solution. That’s when he handed me the pump.
This weekend I decided to swap the hinges on my dryer door. It opened the wrong way for the new house. I had to reach over it like the downward dog in yoga to scoop the clothes into the hamper.
No matter that the door had a unique, down and sideways opening design. Or that the instructions said it would be more difficult than swapping the hinges on a normal dryer door. The company had created an online video. Six minutes and soothing music. Easy peasy.
. . . Until I couldn’t get the screws loose.
I made several trips to the garage, looking for different tools. Each time my husband questioned me. After I Googled “how to loosen a screw,” I went on a search for the impact drill. That’s when he intervened.
How does he loosen those screws that I can’t?
Then I completed the rest of the instructions, pausing the video every few seconds.
After an hour and a half and a couple of re-dos, I had success.
. . . which is why I continue to attempt such projects like a handywoman.