Man and wife

[norsegirl]

My mother made an amusing observation a few weeks ago... when we got married, Jason got both a wife and a husband. I am proficient at every job around the house, from changing locks, hanging curtains and mounting storm doors to cooking, cleaning and taking care of the laundry. I'm a do it all kind of girl. Jason helps out occasionally (you need two people to hang a storm door, one to hold, one to do the actual mounting, and I'm in no shape to pick up dog poop or mow the lawn right now, not that I've never done those jobs in the past mind you), but most of the time, I take care of it all. I've noticed an interesting trend though... it seems that in any given week I generally choose to be one or the other. One week I'm all up to date on the laundry and the kitchen is kept spotless, but none of the home improvement tasks will get done. The next week I'll have a flurry of home improvement where I get all the locks changed and things planted in the garden and the garage organized and the house will look like it's been hit by a tornado. I guess you just can't have it both ways. Of course some weeks I get nothing done on either front and I hit the weekend wondering what the hell I did with all my time. I bet no one else's "husband" has ever had to pick sawdust out of hir bra at the end of a hard day's work though ;)

This week has been semi-productive thusfar. Monday I wasted a lot of time out shopping, so all I really got done was repairing the table I bought at Ikea. Yesterday I oiled the table and put together the filing cabinet I also got from Ikea. Still not quite finished on that one as I actually have to drill the handle holes myself, so I'm thinking after I post I'll head back into the garage and finish that up. Today's been pretty good as I sanded and primed the shelves for my daughter's room. I'm thinking one more coat of primer and one coat of paint and they should be okay.

We've decided to go with open shelves for toy storage for now. The room is still looking pretty bland and I'm thinking some bright and colourful toys on the shelves out in full view will really improve it. As the child gets older and the toys get smaller, we'll probably invest in some drawers or bins or something to keep it out of view. But right now it's all large-scale and pretty, so on display it goes. I'm thinking while I've got the drill out to put in those handles that I might hit upstairs and do all the drilling projects there, like re-hanging the towel rack at a more appropriate height and getting that curtain rod up to display the quilt. And I might as well install the brackets for the shelves even though the actual shelves still need a couple coats of paint. It will make installing them easier if the job's already half-done.

The dishes of course haven't been done since Sunday (the last day I played "wife") and I'm completely out of clothes. Whatever, I'm off to play with power tools.

Comments

[much-ado.livejournal.com]

I've noticed an interesting trend though... it seems that in any given week I generally choose to be one or the other.

see, now, this makes perfect sense to me; you can't do mess-making construction projects while simultaneously in a cleaning mode; you'll get sawdust all over the clean laundry, or potting soil all over the kitchen counters. not good :)

mind you, i think my pendulum cycles are much shorter than yours are (daily or even hourly instead of weekly), but i understand how things cycle back and forth like that. for me there's also an element of "critical mass", in that there has to be enough on either To Do List to mertit the effort of getting into one mode or the other, so tasks tend to pile up in clumps, and get enacted in clumps.

it's all really so very logical, when you think about it :)

[eve-the-just.livejournal.com]

You've hit the nail on the head. Can't clean when you're covered in garage goo. So might as well stay out in the garage and tackle more projects. I think the only reason I get in one mode or the other for a week instead of days or hours is that most of the projects I've been tackling lately have been multi-day things. Like the screen door took one day to install the doggie door and wait for the silicon to dry, and then another day with the husband's help to hang the door itself. Or painting, if you've got 4 or 5 coats to put on it's going to take several days because of the drying time.

I'm hoping that once the house is all unpacked and modified up to my standards that I can spend more time on "wife" activities and maybe only devote one day a week to the "manly" stuff.

[eliskimo.livejournal.com]

My husband is a businessman.
But he brought a Father-in-law to the equation who's good with hanging screen doors.

[eve-the-just.livejournal.com]

Jason *thinks* his dad is a good handy-man, but he once drilled a hole in a dishwasher's water line because he wanted to hang a towel rack so he wouldn't have to look at a tea towel on the stove handle any more. I figure anyone who makes an expensive mistake like that over something dumb that didn't need doing isn't allowed to touch a tool in my place. My father, while it *appears* he is doing the right thing also makes similar dumb mistakes. My mother is staring down a very expensive gutter replacement right now because he installed a bathroom fan incorrectly and the resulting ice-dams are destroying the gutters. I figure I'm smart enough to know when a task is within my reach and when I should call a professional. I think that is the key to successful home improvement :)

[much-ado.livejournal.com]

I figure I'm smart enough to know when a task is within my reach and when I should call a professional.

i wish i could bottle that know-how and give some to a number of my friends for christmas! :)

(one of the few reaons i'm glad to still live in a rental: my landlord takes care of all the things requiring Serious Professional Intervention, so i don't have to learn how... yet :)

[eve-the-just.livejournal.com]

Here ya go... some bottled know-how. All you need to do is ask yourself 2 questions...

1. Can this kill me? If the answer is yes, hire a professional. Always read everything you can get your hands on when it comes to safety, and if you have any doubts, put down the tools and pick up the phone.

2. How much can this cost if I fuck it up? If you're going to crap up a lot of very expensive materials or risk damaging something else in the process, don't go there. Call someone and sue them if they mess it up, you can't sue yourself, so better to let someone else take the fall.

As for rentals, that's all fine and good if your landlord gives a shit. For me, living in a rental was bothersome because I wasn't allowed to make the decisions about what needed repairing and what didn't. And every time the opportunity presented itself, the landlord chose cosmetic improvements over safety and security. I had a perfectly good and functioning fence pulled down a replaced while they refused to replace a stove upon which I could boil water NOT on a burner, or to fix a gap in a window that I could poke a finger through and which didn't lock. And let's not even talk about the roof leak or the mold.

[eliskimo.livejournal.com]

We're fortunate in that regard. My dad, while professionally an academic, has enough of the farm boy left in him to be competent. He put himself through school as a plumber's assistant and couple years ago when the school he was at decided to restructure, he fell back on his electrical training and worked on a construction crew for a summer.

Jay's dad is a mechanic by trade (works on hydraulic systems) and a carpenter by hobby. He has a full woodshop in the basement.

I just worry a little about what we're going to do when we can't fall back on our dads anymore. I can probably do more than I generally attempt.

[eve-the-just.livejournal.com]

The best way to learn is the same way you learned all the other household tasks you do... offer to help (although as a kid, learning chores might not have been *offering* to help ;)

It's best to learn these things by watching and assisting someone who knows what they are doing than trying to figure it out yourself. Going to SCA armouring nights if you have someone really knowledgeable in your area is also a great way to pick up new skills.

[snowy-owl30.livejournal.com]

You and I definitely have this condition in common! :-)

I default more often to the "wife" because my "husband" cycles tend to frighten my poor hubby. He's always afraid I'm going to pull down a wall or something.

[eve-the-just.livejournal.com]

I'm much less ambitious than that. My inner "husband" only does what NEEDS to be done (like installing the deadbolts properly and changing the locks). He'll also do the things that are easy (hanging shelves and curtain rods). He's certainly not tackling any plumbing, major electrical work, roof replacing or tiling jobs. And I'm most certainly not letting him move walls around. That's why we bought a house whose layout we liked and which required very little work. I'm a handywoman, not a contractor.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_medb_/]

I default more often to the "wife" because my "husband" cycles tend to frighten my poor hubby. He's always afraid I'm going to pull down a wall or something.

That's because he knows you might actually do that! ;P *snicker!*