Spatula Forum

30 Days of Bloggery: I, Handyman

Let me present a shelf. Not much of a shelf, a mere garage shelf to hold a few tools and things, but here is evidence in my ongoing quest to actually become a rather handy man in our fine new house. We didn't buy a "fixer-upper," exactly, but there are a handful of small improvements both cosmetic and functional that we're making, as I attempt to overcome my utter lack of manly skills. (Both my father and father-in-law are immensely good blokes who can build just about anything, while I have trouble assembling a sandwich.)

So far I've refitted cabinet knobs, put up shelves, painted doors and installed coat hooks, reglued weak cabinets and the like. It's all a bit hard (I have a rather frustrating habit of doing something then realizing about halfway through I'm doing it wrong and starting over) but I felt a surge of manly pride yesterday when I decided I'd put up a storage shelf or two in our semi-finished garage and actually did it without anything breaking or much cussing on my part. Now on to somewhat larger projects like cleaning and refitting the gutters, finishing the half-sheetrocked garage and installing a brick patio. Estimated completion time: 2011.

Behold -- a shelf! Many years from now when the next people buy our house and move in they will just see a shelf, but little will they know it's actually a testament to my mad fixing skillz.