| Is anyone else here completely useless when it comes to DIY? 18:14 - Aug 18 with 4745 views | noggin |
I've been decorating my flat recently, well I say "I've been", what I mean is, mates have been..
Everything I touch breaks or is ruined. This evening I've been trying to put a blind up and I can't even do that. When something goes wrong, I get angry with myself and have to walk away before I smash everything up in a rage. It's really getting me down.
It doesn't help that Norwegians are mostly very competent DIYers.
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| Is anyone else here completely useless when it comes to DIY? on 18:48 - Aug 18 with 4656 views | factual_blue |
Don't worry - you're not alone.
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| Is anyone else here completely useless when it comes to DIY? on 18:50 - Aug 18 with 4653 views | Deano69 |
Hopeless too. Once lost 6 pencils drilling 6 holes for shelves.
(and drilled through a power cable, luckily it was for a night storage heater that was off at the time..) |  |
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| Is anyone else here completely useless when it comes to DIY? on 18:55 - Aug 18 with 4637 views | BlueBadger |
| Is anyone else here completely useless when it comes to DIY? on 18:50 - Aug 18 by Deano69 |
Hopeless too. Once lost 6 pencils drilling 6 holes for shelves.
(and drilled through a power cable, luckily it was for a night storage heater that was off at the time..) |
I'm no expert, but you'd have probably been better off trying to use an actual drill rather than pencils when making holes in walls. [Post edited 18 Aug 2020 19:27]
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| Is anyone else here completely useless when it comes to DIY? on 19:08 - Aug 18 with 4582 views | ghostofescobar |
No, I’m great at it and I’m an office worker. Hope that helps. |  |
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| Is anyone else here completely useless when it comes to DIY? on 19:20 - Aug 18 with 4567 views | Illinoisblue |
Right there with you brother. Recently had new windows put in and was genuinely impressed at the contractors’ skills and how they effortlessly know where/how to cut and get the trim exactly right. |  |
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| Is anyone else here completely useless when it comes to DIY? on 19:25 - Aug 18 with 4551 views | eireblue |
Yep, equally awful, and one of the things that can get me angry.
I now live by the adage, if you want something done properly, pay someone that can do things properly. |  | | |
| Is anyone else here completely useless when it comes to DIY? on 19:36 - Aug 18 with 4519 views | gtsb1966 |
If you are as bad as me you are in big trouble. Years ago when I smoked I was attempting tiling in the kitchen when I came across a bolt in the wall. I unscrewed it and took it out so I didn't have to cut a tile only for gas to come gushing out. I had a cigarette hanging out of my mouth at the time!!! That same kitchen project made me hire a wall chaser as I needed another plug at the other end of the kitchen. I went straight through the cables going up into the bedroom. To top it off I've planed down one of those white six panelled doors only to hang it upside down. I don't even attempt DIY now for obvious reasons. |  | | |
| Is anyone else here completely useless when it comes to DIY? on 19:39 - Aug 18 with 4519 views | davblue |
DIY is up there with Coronavirus in the sh1tness stakes.
Absolute garbage and a waste of time. |  | | |
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| Is anyone else here completely useless when it comes to DIY? on 20:28 - Aug 18 with 4464 views | GeoffSentence |
Yep. Totally cack-handed. The blinds I 'put up' fell down pretty sharpish. They key is to acknowledge that you are crap and laugh at just how crap you are. |  |
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| Is anyone else here completely useless when it comes to DIY? on 21:18 - Aug 18 with 4391 views | jeera |
I'm not so bad as in sticking up shelves and pictures and what have you.
If I'm painting I will dedicate 100% until it's complete as I can't stand anything half done.
My problem, as in everything in life, is I have no patience.
I swear, curse and moan my way through everything like that. I want it done and I want it done yesterday. This normally means a few hefty mistakes and taking twice the time any job should. |  |
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| Is anyone else here completely useless when it comes to DIY? on 21:51 - Aug 18 with 4328 views | Coastalblue |
I'm quite lucky that I've always been quite good with this sort of stuff and used it to earn a decent living for a good number of years. My old man used to make me feel inadequate though, he could turn his hand to literally anything and build pretty much anything from scratch.
It must be easier these days though with Youtube? If I do stuff on my car, which I'm capable of but lack the knowledge and experience I can always find a few guides to watch first, would assume DIY tasks are much the same?
Maybe I just found a new career if not. |  |
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| Is anyone else here completely useless when it comes to DIY? on 22:06 - Aug 18 with 4306 views | Swansea_Blue |
| Is anyone else here completely useless when it comes to DIY? on 18:55 - Aug 18 by BlueBadger |
I'm no expert, but you'd have probably been better off trying to use an actual drill rather than pencils when making holes in walls. [Post edited 18 Aug 2020 19:27]
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With insight like that, you sound like an expert to me.
I’m useless. What’s worse is that my father in law will tackle anything and assumes everyone else can too. I can tell he sees me as an utter failure! |  |
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| Is anyone else here completely useless when it comes to DIY? on 22:25 - Aug 18 with 4283 views | jeera |
| Is anyone else here completely useless when it comes to DIY? on 22:06 - Aug 18 by Swansea_Blue |
With insight like that, you sound like an expert to me.
I’m useless. What’s worse is that my father in law will tackle anything and assumes everyone else can too. I can tell he sees me as an utter failure! |
To be fair, whoever coined the phrase that 'a bad workman always blames his tools' was either a liar or a cheapskate employer who didn't want to pay out.
When you have the proper gear, most jobs become far simpler. | |
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| Is anyone else here completely useless when it comes to DIY? on 11:53 - Aug 19 with 4092 views | Ryorry |
Wow, didn't think I could do much till I read this thread! but even I can do tiling and creative Heath-Robinson repairs.
Bit stuffed for replacing tap washer in downstairs cloaks that went yesterday as former bf who was a kitchen installer once said don't bother getting the tools to replace tap washers, they're too expensive for the rare occasion you need one. Doh! |  |
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| Is anyone else here completely useless when it comes to DIY? on 11:59 - Aug 19 with 4077 views | hampstead_blue |
I'm with you.
The ideas are great but when it comes to the application everything turns into a congealed mess.
Nowadays I simply pay the bill and enjoy the professional's work. |  |
| Assumption is to make an ass out of you and me.
Those who assume they know you, when they don't are just guessing.
Those who assume and insist they know are daft and in denial.
Those who assume, insist, and deny the truth are plain stupid.
Those who assume, insist, deny the truth and tell YOU they know you (when they don't) have an IQ in the range of 35-49.
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| Is anyone else here completely useless when it comes to DIY? on 12:05 - Aug 19 with 4070 views | Libero |
I think it's fine being cr@p at it, as long as you know you're cr@p at it.
My old man is absolutely hopeless and does shoddy job after shoddy job, think Homer Simpson putting together his grill...
Problem is he refuses to accept that he's sh1t at it, undertakes huge projects, takes out loans to do these projects and then inevitably they look like absolute sh1t and he's trying to tell you that he's really proud of the job he's done while you look around the room wondering if it's actually safe to be in there, let alone horroring at the aesthetic.
When he had his own bar I thought I'd get on top of it quick and get my Father-in-law who is brilliant at all this stuff to make him the bar area and do a few jobs he needed doing.
Dad then asked me if I fancied painting the toilet for him for a bit extra cash, I told him it was a very kind offer but I wouldn't be able to do it to the required standard, hoping that he'd ask the Father-in-law to come in and do the job.
Nope, he just got his wife's daughter who has never held a paintbrush in her life to do it f*cking atrociously. Literally paint drips on the f*cking floor and everything, made me wish I'd just said yes. |  | | |
| Is anyone else here completely useless when it comes to DIY? on 12:26 - Aug 19 with 4056 views | Lower_North |
Yep same here
Once put a set of legs on a garden chair wrong way round. No problem unscrewed them and put them on the right way.
Feck me got hold of second chair and promptly put them on wrong way round again.
I steer clear of it all now.. |  | | |
| Is anyone else here completely useless when it comes to DIY? on 12:55 - Aug 19 with 4038 views | Ryorry |
| Is anyone else here completely useless when it comes to DIY? on 12:05 - Aug 19 by Libero |
I think it's fine being cr@p at it, as long as you know you're cr@p at it.
My old man is absolutely hopeless and does shoddy job after shoddy job, think Homer Simpson putting together his grill...
Problem is he refuses to accept that he's sh1t at it, undertakes huge projects, takes out loans to do these projects and then inevitably they look like absolute sh1t and he's trying to tell you that he's really proud of the job he's done while you look around the room wondering if it's actually safe to be in there, let alone horroring at the aesthetic.
When he had his own bar I thought I'd get on top of it quick and get my Father-in-law who is brilliant at all this stuff to make him the bar area and do a few jobs he needed doing.
Dad then asked me if I fancied painting the toilet for him for a bit extra cash, I told him it was a very kind offer but I wouldn't be able to do it to the required standard, hoping that he'd ask the Father-in-law to come in and do the job.
Nope, he just got his wife's daughter who has never held a paintbrush in her life to do it f*cking atrociously. Literally paint drips on the f*cking floor and everything, made me wish I'd just said yes. |
On a serious note, the house that's now my home had to be gutted when I bought it a few years back. I knew it needed major renovations, but the level and number of potentially fatal bodges committed by the previous owner, an enthusiastic but unskilled DIYer, were horrifying - lord knows how any of the 3 children raised there survived into adulthood.
Sadly, both parents died of lung cancer - he in his 60s, she a couple of years after selling the house to me. He'd installed *all*the flues in the house (incl kitchen range) upside down, so CO and other toxic gases were being fed back into the rooms.
He had installed a Baxi back-boiler which was plumbed in to compete *against* the CH - potential explosion there.
He'd added new wiring in a way which could have caused electric shock and/or fire.
He'd installed a false ceiling in the dining room consisting of several layers of heavy plasterboard, all suspended by a single central bracket no bigger than my forefinger.
He'd installed "flues" in the chimneys by pouring concrete down em ...
All according to the professional crew (trusted, used before) of sparky, plumber, chimney man & RH man who was old friend acting as foreman while between jobs.
Obviously cautionary tale supporting all those here who prefer to leave it to the pros! | |
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