DIY is my Kryptonite
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- Category: Blog Thursday - Euan
One of the strangest things about becoming a parent is the slow realisation that you are becoming your own parents.
My dad has always been an incredibly practical and logical man. So much so, that I have checked his ears to see whether or not he was a Vulcan. I, on the other hand, run screaming from the practical and poke a finger in the eye of logic. At least that is how I have always viewed myself.
We moved house this week. We brought a place that hadn’t been decorated since the early 1960s and when they did last decorate I think it must have been a practical joke. We engineered our move so that we had a month’s overlap. This meant I was forced to do DIY.
DIY is to me what kryptonite is to Superman. The mere mention of it makes me fall to my knees and whimper like an opening batsman who’s forgotten his “box”. Mention DIY to my Dad and his eyes light up, he wheels out a whole skip full of tools/toys and he disappears into a haze of dust and polyfiller.
My default setting has been to call up the old man and see if he fancies coming up for a week’s visit with all his gear! However, this time circumstances dictated that I was on my own. (parents moved to Surrey of all places and I live in Manchester. Thoughtless swine)
After two weeks of smashing wardrobes, stripping wallpaper, filling gaps, wallpapering, painting, sanding, and varnishing I found myself enjoying it. Honestly, I had to stop myself a couple times and make sure I wasn’t having a breakdown. Ever so slightly I morphed into my Dad.
The driving force was my kids. The previous house was a rented wind tunnel. Ok, wind tunnel is an exaggeration but it was draughty. Anyway, I found myself wanting the house to be a good place to be a child. I want my kids to be able to charge around, play games and use their imagination without being put into hospital by a falling piece of glass
