i married into a non-DIY family.
 

my BIL got the keys to his new condo 10 days ago.

he has been puffed up like a peacock since the purchase. funny really. he as ZERO clue as to where to start. wife and i have been passing this flu thing between us for about 2 weeks, so going over to look at it has not been possible. BIL actually never told us he was in market...just "poof"! look, i got a place"!

i went yesterday. i would have not bought it, but the price was decent. a condo. BUT his HOA is $450 per month..! no pool, no gym. in 10 days, BIL has not even swept the place. no cleaning supplies, nothing.

yesterdays visit was funny. we moved about his place in the dark. he said he called PG&E, but cant get the lights to work. i had to flip the master to light then place up. he said, "hey, what did you do?"..(i honestly cannot find the fuse box..anywhere)

he needs to paint, re-do the floors with carpet/tile..and tear out the kitchen and downstairs bathroom. he has NO CLUE! i think he needs my help..

but spring turkey is end of march..and i do nothing during that time, even on my own home.

my MIL hires out everything i dont do for her. but she is a dynamo. she gets quotes, rides contractors..gets the work done. her husband and son are hopeless without her. i think her son is about to appreciate mom alot more!

diy network, youtube, and hgtv are gonna be his best friends...or else

I remember the first time I had to help my then future father in law with something.

Asked him where his tools were.

In the garage he responds.

I go out there and he has them all on a peg board, one slotted screwdriver, one phillips head, a hack say, a hammer, one pair pliers, one adjustable wrench and a $19.95 auto parts store made in Taiwan socket set.

Oh boy.

Upside is my wife really appreciates that I am able to do things around the house and fix the cars.

My FIL was the ultimate do it yourselfer. He hated to pay a professional for any repair. He was an amazing man that could rebuild a engine, re-wire a house and every fix it job in the neighborhood. When he died my MIL was lost. She did not even know how to take her car to the repair shop because he husband did all the maintenance on everything. She did not know a plumber or a repair man at all. It has taken her years to to get a list of good repair-men. Every time we go for a visit I know I will have something to fix or install.

The best part - you can work you butt off for the in-laws for free. They never offer to do anything in return.

Not my MIL. She will have some pain in the butt chores for me but she always cooks a nice meal. She will always pay for any expense and round UP the payment to me.

Most of the chores she has me do is way better than sitting on the couch and doing nothing.

Mmmmm spring turkey. I need to get my private land lease taken care of again....

Was thinking of goign twice this year, once for bow and once for shot gun.

Now back to your regularily scheduled programming.

At the time in Jr high and high school, I didn't appreciate my dad and what he instilled in me as far as learning me up on mechanical things.........I'm a fairly a decent wrencher today.

My dad like many old school fathers had "a bent nail box"............Son, you want to build a tree house? Here you can straighten these nails they're fine.

thank you dad, you taught me well. there's a certain mechanical pride in fixing it yourself that is lost on the disposable generation of todays youth and adults.

Heck my dad soldered up his own HeathKit tube stereo. Now we have $20 DVD players that we toss and are disposable.

I still cut the cords off of old curling irons or electrical items, never know when you'll need a cord or plug in the future.....

grins.

I think I pissed off my FIL when I had better tools and could do more with them.

Not really. Those shows are so far off the mark it's not even funny. They don't show a third of what it takes and half the stuff they do is dangerous. Oh, they always have their safety glasses on as they use an air nail gun 90 degrees in front of their face.

Not me brother. I've been using guns for 30 years and I want myself and everyone else in the room behind the gun. I love it when they say, "You hold it and I'll nail it" while the holder is in FRONT of the gun.

Oh, and to watch them paint with a roller on a wall with no pole. Why would you do all that work off a ladder when you can stand in front of the wall with a roller and pole and paint the whole thing from base to ceiling?

I almost have to leave the room whenever they walk the homeowner wife over to the chop saw when she's never used one before.

My in-laws simply make phone calls and write checks. Definately not DIYers.

They are wonderful people, and if they ever ask me to do anything, they would be willing to pay the going rate for whatever I do- Which I'm happy to do without charging them.

My dad is this way. The only time we call someone is when he flat doesnt have the time. He did most of the remodel work on our house. He grew up in a small motel, learned to fix it all at a young age.

And then of course he was into cars, so he can fix those as well. I've yet to see something he can't do. I'm getting to be the same way. If I see it done once, I can usually muddle my way through it on my own.

hahahha..my BIL just came back from Home Depot. he called it a "run". he left the condo unlocked so i could get started.

he came back with a single roll of painters tape. he takes, "baby steps" to a whole other level.

i wanted to hit him. hahhaha.

i gave him a to-do list.

i will not help a man that doenst make a tiny bit of effort for himself. unless my wife makes me :)

you forgot to mention that they use $30k worth of machines to do $300 worth of work...

I find the thing with helping non DIY'rs is to set their expectations.

"I will help you providing we agree that "help" means that I will be doing less, not more, work than you."

i talk a big game. i just got fleeced by an appliance repair guy. $150 to change out two "coils" on my gas dryer. dang it. they just unplugged in and out. they didnt look like any coils to me :)

I married INTO a DIY family. Mine wasn't so much. I've learned, not because of the in-laws, but because I prefer to DIY when possible. To be honest, I'm kind of impressed at myself with what I've learned to do (when I bought the 911 I didn't know what a fan belt was, but I learned that, and how to rebuild a tranny). But to my in-laws, that's just normal, so there's no appreciation there :)

Hah! How many of them built up a tranny? To me, that puts you in rare company. I've done a partial thanks to red beard James

Yea, I did my engine swap on my El Camino and my MIL did not even blink. She thought that was a normal activity for men. A lot of my wife's friends were SHOCKED that I would even attempt something like that. I suggested she tell her friends I took ALL the suspension off of my 911 and rebuilt it. I drove it to Savannah GA and drove on Roebling Road and back home in a car that is 27 years old.