Home Improvement Q&A

[JCShutout]

My toxic masculinity is that I have to do all my own home repair work. I'm looking down on your adulthood if you can't fix your own toilet.

My rationalization is that I have nowhere to store any kind of tools beyond a drill, hammer, tape measure, and a few screwdrivers. With no ability to store them I shouldn't acquire them in the first place and must therefore pay manlier men to do this stuff for me. Men with pickup trucks and garages.

You can afford to pay manlier men to fix things for you? #privilege

[wart57]

My toxic masculinity is that I have to do all my own home repair work. I'm looking down on your adulthood if you can't fix your own toilet.

My rationalization is that I have nowhere to store any kind of tools beyond a drill, hammer, tape measure, and a few screwdrivers. With no ability to store them I shouldn't acquire them in the first place and must therefore pay manlier men to do this stuff for me. Men with pickup trucks and garages.

I have a pickup truck and a garage, I, therefore, am a manlier man than you. Yay me.

[haltz]

My toxic masculinity is that I have to do all my own home repair work. I'm looking down on your adulthood if you can't fix your own toilet.

I have a toilet sitting in my living room right now.

I just bought a perfectly fine home and decided to tear it apart and redo everything. So I have a million questions all the time. I'm not sure what people did before the internet. VHS copies of TOH? Garage full of reference manuals? Try and know a guy?

My life is basically

Decide to put some new flooring in
Take out a parquet floor
Notice a little water damage
Cut out the subfloor
Realize there is water damage to a joist
Learn what "sistering," "bottle jack," and "carriage bolts" are etc etc, spend more money and actually start the project a week later
Decide to put new flooring in the entire house
Realize that each thing is really five things if you're lucky

[G. Keenan]

My toxic masculinity is that I have to do all my own home repair work. I'm looking down on your adulthood if you can't fix your own toilet.

My rationalization is that I have nowhere to store any kind of tools beyond a drill, hammer, tape measure, and a few screwdrivers. With no ability to store them I shouldn't acquire them in the first place and must therefore pay manlier men to do this stuff for me. Men with pickup trucks and garages.

You can afford to pay manlier men to fix things for you? #privilege

I mean, I wouldn't automatically pay someone to fix something without trying to fix it myself first. But I'll pay someone to do something like refinish hardwood floors. [expletive] that.

My HVAC had a gas leak in it from an old valve. That's the kind of thing you pay someone who knows what the hell they are doing to fix.

[JCShutout]

I was just being playful. I like to try to fix things myself because I enjoy learning new useful skills and because I like to save money, but if my ignorance can lead to things blowing up or getting drenched, I hire a professional.

[sighyoung]

All you need is a hammer, duct tape and WD-40.

This sounds like a porn parody: The Story of O-Ring

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

I love home improvement stuff. But, if it electronic, I don't touch it. F that noise.

Like Geddy, I had a toilet issue that turned into quite the ordeal.

I replaced the toilet, but when I turned the water supply back on to the toilet (which was shut off at the valve right there by the toilet), the valve started leaking onto the floor. Because it was old, and I Just put a new toilet in, figured it would be easy to replace. So, shut off the water to the house and took the valve off. The only thing was, I didn't notice it was a compression fitting and not a threaded fitting.

After a few trips to HD to get the right thing, I finally got it. But, for a couple stressful hours, we were without water in the entire house. Also, shamefully, I had no idea what a compression fitting was so had no idea what to search on youtube. Finally, I had a beer to kind of calm down and collect my thoughts when it all made sense. After that, it was smooth sailing. The obvious lesson to be learned is, if you're having an issue, just start drinking. You'll figure something out.

Also, like haltz, I have no idea how people did DIY stuff before youtube and/or the internet. They probably did it incorrectly which would explain why so much stuff is [expletive] up in houses built pre-youtube and why every little project turns into a major ordeal.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

My toxic masculinity is that I have to do all my own home repair work. I'm looking down on your adulthood if you can't fix your own toilet.

A couple weeks ago a cat or possum or something died in our crawlspace and it took a couple days for the smell to permeate into the house.

First off, I hate our crawlspace because it's the perfectly worst height imaginable. It's not so short that it's inaccessible, but it's not tall enough to walk in. So, it's half crawling, half walking hunched over. And, the surface is not a nice solid dirt or gravel but rather a rocky/pointy surface which makes it all the worse. And, there's a plethora of suspended sewer lines, water lines, and heating ducts which make it even more fun.

Of course, this creature died as far as possible from the entry into the crawlspace. I finally got to it, noticed it had wedged itself under a duct (possibly why it died) and the skin had exploded to make way for the expanding carcass of muscle and nastiness. Had to get a rock rake or whatever it is called and pulled it out by the tail far enough to throw a trash bag over it, then pick up that trash bag and dump it into another one. Dumped a bottle of bleach everywhere and spread that out with my hands which meant spreading these little maggots everywhere and hightailed it out.

That was gross. Not a fun DIY project.

[haltz]

Anyone know of a used/consignment tool shop in St Louis? The one I found online doesn't seem to exist.

Also, My Toxic Masculinity would be a great name for your next album AD.

[G. Keenan]

The obvious lesson to be learned is, if you're having an issue, just start drinking. You'll figure something out.

Truer words have never been spoken.

Sometimes I'll start working on random stuff around the house just as a pretext drink.