Since I've become a homeowner, I have had a few occasions to see whether I am completely incompetent at home improvement and home repair projects. My dad, an engineer, is also quite skilled at home improvement projects. When I was a kid, he was always working on some project. For example, he turned our unfinished basement into a finished basement. That meant cutting up lumber and turning it into walls, and putting drywall up and all that stuff. My role was helping. I was never too keen on it, because, well, as your typically computer geek type, I was neither skilled nor interested in building stuff. For my dad, it must have been the first heartbreak, which continued when I became a lawyer, and likely became complete when I got my cats.
Until a couple years ago, I spent most of my adult life in apartments, where repairs were handled by the landlord, and you couldn't make much in the way of modifications to those places. But now, this place is mine, and I have to do the repairs, and get to make all the modifications. Which is pretty funny, because unlike my dad, who could wander into a forest with a cordless drill and a hammer and build a house, I pretty much have all the building acumen of a chipmunk (except that they can probably build their own homes).
So not too long ago, I decided to put in a programmable thermostat. It was billed as an easy job, but it did involve a bit of drilling and hammering, and also disconnecting and reconnecting wires. The last part is the only part that I felt pretty confident I could handle. The first two parts had the potential for putting unwanted holes in the wall, or, worse, me. But I managed, and now I have a functioning programmable thermostat, which really has helped lower my energy costs. Plus it will make Al Gore and the other tree huggers happy.
More recently, specifically Thursday night, I came home from work and a quick stop at the grocery store (at about 9:30) only to find that the door from my garage into the house stopped working. The knob turned, but the door wouldn't open. Luckily, I was able to get in the front door. After figuring out how to take the doorknob apart, I was able to to discover that the deadlatch -- the part that keeps the door closed -- pretty much disintegrated and so the doorknob would turn without opening the door. Now I always was good at figuring out puzzles, so I was able, after some fumbling and swearing, to reassemble the thing, but it just disintegrated again after I (after some more swearing) managed to put it back together. Luckily, the hardware store sells replacement deadlatches, so I was able to keep my old doorknob and finally fix the door so I could open and close it again. Score another one for me.
Today, I installed a new shower curtain rod -- one of the ones that curves out so that the shower curtain sticks out a bit and give you a little more room. This involved more drilling, measuring, and putting in hollow wall anchors. Again, the risk for unwanted holes in the wall or me seemed to have increased. But I managed to get the thing put in with a minimum of bodily injury (Amy helped hold things and hand me stuff, which was only fair since it was her idea :-) ). Score another one for me. I guess I picked up more helping my out my dad than I thought. It was even kind of fun. I hope he doesn't find out I said so, though -- he gets way too into "I-told-you-so"s.
On top of my brief forays into home repair, I spent a good chunk of the day making what is possibly some of the best chicken noodle soup I've ever eaten (if I do say so myself). Luckily, I'm far more skilled at cooking than I am with home improvement. Good homemade soup is so much better than the canned stuff, but it can take time, and I haven't had as much experience with that as I have with a lot of the other stuff I like to make, so it was nice to have the chance to try it out.
