A Handyman, He's Not...

My husband is a wonderful man.  He's a great companion, an amazing father, and a wonderful provider for our family.  He is not a handyman, however.  Together we've taken on many household improvement projects and while they do usually get finished, they takes us twice as long as we expect, which is likely five times longer than the average adult would spend on them.  Take for example the Limerick bathroom we thought we would tear out and replace over a long weekend.  A month and a half later, we finished the project.  The bathroom looked nice, not perfect, but certainly a HUGE improvement over the dirty yellow disaster that was there when we moved in.  I imagine anyone else could have had the bathroom done in a week, it was rather small, but for the two of us it took well over a month and perhaps a million arguments.

Yesterday I asked my husband to install safety latches on the bathroom cupboards, a project I thought would take him 10 minutes.  An hour later my fuming husband came out of the bathroom, latches installed, but I thought better about asking him to install the curtain rods in the bedroom...perhaps another day.  So with this knowledge that my husband is not exactly the handiest of men, I have had a rough time supporting his desire to take up a new hobby.  Especially since it happens to be woodworking.  I know he wants to feel productive and manly and hands-on, and I support him, really I do, but I have to say, I've had my reservations.  He has even gone so far as to empty out a room in the basement in which to put this "woodshop."  I had thought perhaps the space might be better used as a family room.

But, yesterday we went to Lowes and he decided to look through the "Do-It-Yourself" books for a "project."  We came across one for "Cabinets, Shelves and Home Storage Solutions."  Cabinets?  Shelves?  A BOOKCASE perhaps??  This would be the perfect project!  We are always in need of bookcases, and I certainly wouldn't turn down some storage units or an entertainment center!  Needless to say, we purchased the book.  And while I'm eager for him to take up this new hobby, and perhaps build something useful, or even just decorative, I'm sincerely hoping that he can do so and still manage to keep all his fingers attached.