#Tbh these are all interchangeable. you know the drill

[mychemicalgoremance]

Sup

[labelleizzy]

Go. Fix things.

Six screenshots of a Facebook post by Meagan MvGovern:

Text ID:

I grew up in rental houses. Dozens of them. We never fixed anything, and I didn't know you *could* fix anything.

But when we got married, Mark owned his house, and when I moved in I was gobsmacked. This wasn't a rental! You could hang up pictures with nails? Buy new carpet? Get new flooring? Fantastic!

But when Mark went to replace rotten siding on the house, I was *horrified*. I couldn't believe that he'd do something like that to our house, that he wouldn't call a repairman. How could he know how to fix a HOUSE? A house is a specialized thing and needs a fixer.

But Mark ripped out the siding, and put in new siding, and painted it, and it looked just fine.

And then we needed a new hot water heater. And Mark took a saw to OUR PIPES IN OUR HOUSE. I was convinced he'd be dead and the house would be flooded. He pointed out that he was an engineer who designed the water systems at chemical plants and might know what he was doing. I wasn't convinced. But we had a new hot water heater in a couple of hours, without a plumber.

And so I watched Mark fix stuff over the years, but I didn't get how to do it.

I couldn't get the hang of the tools. I wanted to try carpentry, but I sucked at it. I tried fixing a few things, but didn't know how.

My dad was great at carpentry, but he left by the time I was ten, and all I knew from him about carpentry was that it was a mystical skill like glassblowing that you did as a way to show off your talent and you needed special tools and training. He liked to talk about how you had to hammer in a nail in three blows, and how the right hand tools made all the difference.

And whenever I tried to fix anything, it was all wrong. This wasn't meant for me. The tools were too heavy. I was too short for everything. I couldn't get crowbars to work. I couldn't lift the circular saw to go where I wanted it. Drills stripped out everything I tried. Nails bent, every time.

I couldn't keep track of tools, and they didn't work right anyway.

And then, slowly, I realized that the reason these tools didn't work for me is because they weren't built for me.

No, I can't use screwdrivers and hammers very well. And drills are heavy. And circular saws are way too big for my hands. And everything I want to do is always about a foot above where I can comfortably reach. Everything is awkward and hard.

And I started to see that it really is the tools, not the user. One year I got a set of lightweight, small, cordless DeWalt tools for Christmas and it changed everything.

I had a circular saw that fit my hands! One that was light enough to use everywhere, and that I didn't have to lug around extension cords for, and that I could take inside and outside for jobs.

And it turns out that you don't have to hammer in nails for every job.

You can get a thing called a driver, that's really a fancy cordless drill, but it screws in screws for you and has interchangeable bits and you can do huge amounts of work in a fraction of the time it takes to screw around with a hammer and nail.

If you get a good stepladder, all of the sudden, that screw that won't go in? It goes in like magic. You just have to know where to stand and when you're in the right place, it all works.

And there are Youtube videos for EVERYTHING, and they show you how to do it, and while sure, there is a guy who will mansplain everything to you at every hardware store, every single time, there are also a whole lot of men who listen to what you're asking, give you pretty decent advice, take you seriously, and show you exactly what you need to get the job done -- especially if you've watched enough Youtube videos so you know the right terminology and know what to ask for and how to explain what you're looking for.

People who I've asked for help with design, planning, and with tools have been patient, kind, and eager to help someone learn the skills needed to do the job.

And now I have a cordless driver, drill, and circular saw, all sorts of bits and batteries, a jigsaw, a weird tool that hammers nails into concrete with small explosions, a table saw (this one still scares me, TBH, and I avoid it, and there's no "small/inexperienced-person friendly" version of a table saw -- it's just a scary beast,) and about ten measuring tapes and squares because I lose them ALL THE TIME.

Mark does plumbing and electric.

I do all carpentry and painting.

And in the last two years, I've remodeled a storage room in my basement into a huge pantry, added a closet to the basement bedroom, put in French doors to replace sliding doors (this was a fail and they don't work right and might have to be redone but they work better than the sliding doors did!), put in vinyl flooring in two rooms in the basement, replaced the windows in the basement, took up carpet in the hallway and put down hardwood flooring, and then took up carpet on the stairs and put down oak treads.

Two years ago I couldn't run a saw.

And now I've rebuilt a barn.

Go get tools that work for you.

Use ladders to reach where you need so you can see things clearly. Having the right angle and the right perspective is everything.

Don't let tools made for other people keep you from fixing up your life to be the way you want it to be.

Go get the tools you need to do the job right, instead of thinking you're not the right person for the job.

Go fix things.