A new Mrs. Fixit

[tridlette]

Barb chased me over here from our ADHD website. My name is Laurie, they call me Trid. My DH of 20 yrs. passed away unexpectedly in October. Everyone in the neighborhood called him Mr. Fixit. I even have a birthday card to Mr. Fixit in my scrap book!

Well, of course, I am now faced with trying to maintain the house and do the repairs that were left undone. Last night I had my first challenge, and I pulled it off without even breaking a sweat!

My 15 yr. old son, Patrick, announced that the upstairs toilet wasn't flushing and the tub wasn't draining. So, on with the plunger, I cleared the toilet in less than 2 minutes, then tackled the tub drain. All I needed was a screw driver and a little courage to stick my finger into the glob of hair. Once removed, both the tub and the toilet are in proper functioning status.

In my pride, I posted my success, and Barb encouraged me to come take a look around here and see what else I can learn to do with a little help from my 3 teenage sons. Mike is 17, Shaun is 13.

So, you might just find me running to you with a dilemma here or there. I have trim work to complete in the kitchen, above the cabinets where the soffitt used to be. I also have a wall that needs to be re-sheetrocked since the wall paper from the 1950's came down with half the wallboard still attached, and an wall of wood paneling that has no insulation or sheet rock behind it That is going to need insulation and sheetrock as well, and then the taping, etc.

Mr. Fixit taught me a lot of things over the years, and the boys are really helpful too. Patrick put in the cabinetry, did the plumbing and laid the new flooring in my kitchen after he wired up my new electric stove. Currently, he has my tractor apart out back trying to repair the transmission. I have to get him to tell me what part I need to order, then go pick it up.

While I don't ever expect to be a showcase homeowner, I do want to keep my house in running order.

I look forward to bouncing ideas off of everyone here!

And, since I can't find any specific use for this, I still want to just use these smileys since I adore them!

[Tumbleweed]

First of all Welcome. I'll thank Barb for chasing you over here.

I'm so sorry to hear about your husband. That had to be very difficult when it happened so unexpectedly. I'm sure you learned a lot from him whether you realize it or not.

It sounds like you are just tackling each problem as it comes along! Good for you!

You mentioned drywalling. I ran into a interesting problem when I went to bring some "delivered" drywall into my basement. I couldn't carry it!!! It was too heavy and awkward. I have wimpy muscles I guess. I thought, hey.....I've seen some handy "hook like things" (you can tell I know my home repair terminology ) for carrying drywall so off I went to the store. Got home and still couldn't carry the darn things.

My solution, other than calling someone that had muscles, was to cut the dry wall in half. That I could carry! So, it made more work for me....much more taping and mudding but I got it done. Looks pretty good too.

One thing good, you have some strong boys so they should be able to help you in that department.

Anyway...great to have you join our small but slowly growing group and we'll do our best to help you when you run into one of those dilemmas.

[barb]

Its great to see you here Trid!

[Tumbleweed]

Thanks Barb for suggesting this site to Tridlette. I appreciate it.

Tridlette, I can already tell you are going to be a big asset to this site. And of course I hope you learn a bit of useful info as well.