George W Bush

Watch this video of George W Bush -

I think its brilliant

Bush Impersonation Video

Tell me what you think

email me handyman@seehawk.co.uk

Growing older

I live in Pevensey Bay. I like Pevensey Bay. One of the reasons I like it is because if you're under 55 in P Bay you're considered a teenager. As you know, I have a lot of very nice customers. Many of them are elderly, and many live in P Bay. One of the many things I'm asked to do is take out baths and fit shower cubicles. Often the customer can no longer get his or her leg over the bath edge, or can't sit down, or they can get in, but can't get back up . There are so many different solutions and they can often be tailored to suit individual circumstances.

Without exception, all of my elderly customers were once young, fit, and healthy.

I can't begin to know what they feel, but I can only think it must be frustrating getting older.

I found this article in a book I read quite often - - I think it says a lot on the subject of getting older, sometimes when I read it I can see myself.

If we are getting older it will be harder to acknowledge that we have not been called to spectacular service, that we are unlikely now to make a stir in the world, that our former dreams of doing some great healing work had a great deal of personal ambition in them. A great many men and women have had to learn this unpalatable lesson - and then have discovered that magnificent opportunities lay all around them. We need not go to the ends of the earth to find them; we need not be young, clever, fit, beautiful, talented, trained, eloquent or very wise. We shall find them among our neighbours as well as among strangers, in our own families as well as in unfamiliar circles - magnificent opportunities to be kind and patient and understanding. This is a vocation just as truly as some more obviously seen as such - the vocation of ordinary men and women called to continual, unspectacular acts of loving kindness in the ordinary setting of every day. They need no special medical boards before they embark on their service, need no inoculation against anything but indifference and lethargy, and perhaps a self-indulgent shyness.

How simple it sounds; how difficult it often is.

Clifford Haigh, 1962

If you need some ideas about showers and baths, for yourself, or someone you know, pop along to the new showrooms at Plumbase Unit 12, Hawthorn Road, Eastbourne, Tel:01323 746666.

Have you ever put up ceiling lights?

Designers. How I would love to strangle a designer. Especially the ones that design light fittings.

I've just put up a Chandelier - it replaces what was there before. Have you ever tried standing on a platform with a part assembled light fitting in one hand, a screwdriver in the other, trying to get a ridiculously small screw into a badly machined hole on the side of a ceiling rose with your other hand. Wait a minute I hear you say I don't have three hands!.......... Now here's the rub. Neither do lamp designers. So why in the name of everything that is holy do they design such diabolical fittings. On a good day it can take 5 minutes to put up a lamp, but it can easily become half an hour, or even an hour... Once you've got it up, then the fun really begins.... dozens and dozens of tiny little dangly bits, need to be hung on hair like wire clips, threaded through virgin size holes. All this and then you've got to go out and get a specific type of light bulb which normal shops in the area don't stock !!!!!!!!!!!

It is my fervent hope that all designers everywhere heed this message, If you do not mend your ways, I will invoke a leather-winged demon of the night to tear itself, shrieking blood and fury, from the endless caverns of the nether world, to hurl itself into the darkness with a thirst for blood on its slavering fangs and it will search the very threads of time for the throbbing of your heartbeat. Just thought you'd want to know that. :)

Suzi is still going strong

What a great day today was. The weather was good. I met a lot of new customers, and got a lot done. Life is good.
I drive a Suzuki Supercarry. It's done 130,000 miles, doesn't use a drop of oil, is very reliable and carries everything I need. No matter what I throw at it, it just keeps going. Year after year it flies through the MOT. Whenever I take it for servicing, which I do religiously, David suggests I should get the new model, but I always say no. It's very basic, and has absolutely no extras, but this van is super practical, and I love it. I'm a handyman not a builder. I don't need, or want, anything larger or more powerful, because otherwise I would probably end up doing bigger and bigger jobs, which I don't want to do. I deliberately keep things small - including my transport. I know some day in the near future Suzi will have to be retired, but as long as she goes on doing what she's been doing, I'll keep on driving what I've been driving.

The floor was sinking fast - rotten wallplate

I don't work on Saturdays, well, not normally. This weekend I've had to make an exception (I quite often make exceptions for lots of things). The workload is very healthy and I need to stay on top of the new work coming in. Norman the P & D, is doing all of the painting and decorating he can handle. Oliver the electrician is as busy as ever. Jeff the gas man sighs when I phone him with another customer. Graham the plasterer is on a huge job. And I'm running around doing the bits I like to do. Yes the workload is very healthy.

As much as possible I like to do the small "No job too small" stuff. I used to do the big stuff, but nowadays the body groans when I even think of heavy work, and so I now choose to do the small stuff. Wherever possible, then and there. Saturday was full of small stuff. I started off in Milfoil Drive. Bathroom doors are notorious for sticking. You can probably boil it down to a couple of factors. Humidity, and poor quality doors, badly hung. This one had all three! The low quality (superstore/cheap) knotty pine door had been poorly fitted and badly sealed.

The door didn't stand a chance.

(Where's my soapbox - it's time for a rant!)

You CANNOT - buy cheap - and get good.

Or as Confucius says

Cheap thing no good

Good thing no cheap

Please write it a hundred times.

Wooden doors are living, breathing things.

They expand and contract with humidity by a very surprising amount

If they are not protected by coats of of oil, varnish, or paint, they will warp - guaranteed.

Especially if they were cheap....

End of rant...

In the short term, I've solved the lady's problem by planing the door enough to stop it sticking, but not so much as to make the door too small when the humidity decreases.

There are a number of other small jobs that need to be tackled around the house, but they will have to wait until Thursday.

Having left Milfoil Drive, I headed down to my next call in Channel View Road. Here was a new small problem. The living room floor of this edwardian terrace house had sunk by two inches in the front corner. Visions of huge repair costs were floating in front of the lady's eyes.

I suspected that the wallplate that the floor joists sat on was rotten. We decided to lift a floorboard to see what the problem was. Lo and behold, the wallplate had disintegrated and left the floor joist (which was rotten at the end where it had sat on the plate) hanging in mid air held up only by the floorboards it was meant to support. The lady was thinking terms of hundreds of pounds. I told her it would be about twenty pounds in materials plus a bit of labour plus two cups of tea. We struck a deal, and I went off to get the materials. Within an hour the job was done, the floor back in place and safe to walk on. I was on my way, leaving yet another lady with a smile on her face!

The other two jobs of the day were electrical - replacing a broken socket and changing a light fitting. I was home for three and able to put my feet up for the weekend.

External doors come in all shapes and sizes

Can someone tell me why imperial external doors are normally 78"high in all widths except 32" width (which is 80" high). I can't find anyone who can give me a coherent answer. Its left me scratching my head.

Oak doors look fantastic. I fitted one today, and I was pleased with the finish. To my eye, oak just looks more solid , more dependable, than other grain patterns. One thing I do know is that tools have to be sharp to work oak. At a cost of six hundred pounds a door retail, believe me, my tools were very sharp. It often takes a long time to hang an external door in an old frame. Today was one of those times. Luckily the weather was reasonable, and so I was able to get the work done outside. It can be a bit dusty with all those wood shavings. The final result is worth the effort. It looks fabulous. Yet another happy customer.

After I'd finished hanging the door, I went on to an elderly customer of mine, who wanted me to re-hook, and re-hang, her winter drapes. If you think oak is heavy, try balancing on a ladder with a full set of curtains draped all over you, at the same time as your trying to get the curtain hook through the track eye. Now that really is hard work.

To finish off the day, I installed a cat flap in a new UPvC door. It only takes a couple of minutes.

Plastic doors are actually very, very, easy to cut through. The customer was amazed how little stood between him and the outside world. A sandwich of two thin sheets of plastic filled with foam.

An oak door can last a couple of hundred years.

How long would you estimate a plastic door will last?

Answers by email please!

Internal doors come in all shapes and sizes

Internal doors come in a variety of sizes. If you have a post 50's house, as a very rough rule of thumb, Height-wise there are likely to be a couple of options 78" or 80" Width-wise there are too many to mention. If your internal door frames are over 78" high you will probably be looking for "metric" door replacements. If you have "metric" height frames and are about to buy replacement doors, you should probably go straight to a building supplier, rather than one of the superstores. Why? Because the timber merchants will probably have them in stock - the superstores probably won't! If you want to use conversion tables to swap between mm an inches click HERE

In this line of work I meet some very interesting people. The lady I worked for today was a real hoot. She is in her early forties and had lived in Malawi for many years and had lived through the transitions of governments, and seen the effects on people and country. She was bright, funny, and forthright. She helped build "cells of recognition" and I now know more about Malawi than I thought I needed to know. Anyway the reason that I tell you all this is that this lady needed internal doors. She had bought an imperial door and had added bits to make it fit a metric frame, because she couldn't find the proper sized doors in any of the "pile' em high and sell 'em cheap" superstores. The door worked perfectly well - but it looked what it was - screwed up! Never mind the quality, feel the width! So today we went to the proper suppliers and got the right door sizes off the shelf. A couple of hours later the job was done, and I had another satisfied customer.

If you are going to buy doors go to the right suppliers - it's cheaper in the long run. If you need some advice email me at handyman@seehawk.co.uk

Plumbing with ice cold feet

What a suprise this morning's snow was. I know it had been forecast for East Sussex, but when I woke up and looked out the window, it was a gigantic suprise when I saw they'd got it right. I was so overcome I wanted to go straight back to bed. In Eastbourne we seem to have a micro climate, and whatever the rest of Sussex might be experiencing, we nearly always appear to fare better. Except for wind! What do you think? Post a comment and tell me.
I'm always interested in what the weather's going to do, and so I went looking for weather forecasts. Beside using Weatherbonk because of the live webcam, I also use the Met Office Weather. It's all down to personal taste.

I had a lovely customer today. She wanted me to re-route some pipework in preparation for a new kitchen being installed. The old kitchen has been removed, the pipework has been altered,
and the lady can now get her kitchen installed. When she bought the house a few months ago it was very run down. With lots of design ideas she is detemined to bring the property up to a high standard. It's still half finished. The kitchen is literally an empty shell, and the plasterers have yet to skim the walls. The bathroom has been re-fitted and is now being tiled. At the moment the house is like a building site - a building site with one tiny exception - in all the main walkways - wall-to-wall near white carpets! If it had been me, I would have left the carpet fitting until after the messy work was finished. But what do I know I'm just a man!

As a rule I go to Plumbase for virtually anything plumbing. I've been using them for years. The guys are friendly and helpful, and I've noticed that when non-trade people go in there, they are not treated like idiots - as so many trade outlets do. I've seen them deal with some outlandish requests from the public, but they're always patient and helpful.

Gates and Fences

The wind has blown itself out - for the moment.
Winter has finally arrived!
I'm not used to the cold.
By the end of the day my tiny feet were frozen.

So have a guess what I've been doing today. Yes , you're right. Fencing! Lots and lots of minor repairs, plus a couple of replacement panels, and a post to replace. Not a bad days work. It's got to the point that I'm starting to enjoy repairing lap-panel fences. I know they're cheap, but they're so flimsy (even the "quality" ones). Overall, I'm sure they work out much more expensive than "proper fencing. If you need to renew some fencing, I suggest you order it from a proper timber merchant, rather than going to the superstores - there is a VERY BIG quality difference. I've been using Alsford Timber in Birch Road as my supplier. Try them, they're nice people to do business with.

It wasn't all fencing. I also had to hang a couple of Ledge and Brace gates, which doesn't take long. I suppose I should say it's all in a day's work.
I'll freely admit, by the end of today I was ready to come home and thaw out.

Multiple Sclerosis

This morning I had to do a few simple jobs for a young man in the prime of his life. I don't think he is yet 30.

A bit of polyfilla in a couple of small holes. Replace a broken tile. Add some silicone around the worktop. All very minor tasks. Minor, that is, for me. This man is in the throes of full blown MS.

I have no idea what he is feeling. Do you think he might be morose, sullen, rude, arrogant, spiteful, condescending, insincere, or out to take advantage, as so many people appear to be? No. This young man - THIS MAN - is none of these things. His movements are very limited. He appears to struggle with every movement he makes. His speech is slurred. He has to consider every word he utters. He has no privacy. He has to allow strangers to do even the simplest of private and personal acts for him. But despite all that he is friendly, polite, thoughtful, gracious and kind. He retains his dignity.

Anyone can be objectionable towards others- and many are - there's no skill or art in being objectionable - it's evident in all aspects of race, creed, class, education, and intelligence.

But it makes the perpetrator a very pitiful individual.

As I left that man today he thanked me - he didn't just say "thank you" - he meant it.

He has my utter respect. I cannot begin to know what he feels. All I know is, "that there but for the grace of God go I" and I feel humble.

This is what I do

I work as a general handyman and I'm able to do a wide variety of jobs.
Although I have the skills and knowledge to build a house, I no longer choose to undertake any large projects. Many customers tell me I am particularly good at problem solving.I can custom build wardrobes and bookcases, hang doors, assemble flat pack, make wooden windows open that have stuck for years, install cat flaps, fit washing machines/dishwashers, fix leaking taps, toilets, and ball cocks, in fact there are not many jobs I cannot do.

My skills
My skills cover most things carpentry, plumbing, or electrical
I do not do ANY heating or gas - but I know a man who does...
Please note I am not a registered plumber or electrician
All electrical work carried out by me will be approved by a fully registered electrician. If and when certification is applicable he may charge a fee for the certificate.


Other Trades
I know a number of very good reliable tradesmen. These tradesmen are known to me and have been tried and tested by my many customers. The people whom I introduce, or whose numbers I give you, are completely independent from my business. Make sure that you feel happy with them and negotiate with them for their work directly.


Estimates
Any estimate given whether verbal or written will be for my advice, labour, and expertise only and does not cover unforeseen circumstances, additional works, or work to be carried out by any other tradesmen.

All materials are in addition to the estimate and must be paid for in advance. If you wish I can take you to my trade suppliers, where you can take advantage of my trade discount accounts.


Rubbish clearance
Any rubbish will need to be placed in your general household rubbish bin, if a large amount of rubbish is expected then I would advise that you arrange a skip to be on site. Alternatively I can give you the telephone number of a man who does rubbish clearance.

Payment
I accept cash and Paypal.
I do not give credit in any form.

A fence too high!

It's been a busy week. The storms made it even busier. I now have more than enough fencing repairs to last me a lifetime. Well, at least enough for a couple of weeks.
There have been some guys out there quoting near black market prices. One customer I went to had been quoted £180.00 - wait for this - to have a single 6' X 6' fence panel slid back into its existing concrete posts !!!!!! They didn't even have to replace the panel with a new one. That type of fence panel can be put into place by two people in about 2 minutes. You go figure out the hourly rate. Now I want to make it clear, I have absolutely no problems with someone making a very healthy profit for services rendered, but, and it's a big but; please draw the line at profiteering. Leave that sort of behaviour to bankers and other such "professionals". That's my rant for the day done.

Fences Doors Tiles Plastering Lights and Smoke Alarms

Well, so far, it's certainly been an interesting week.

've been a film maker/producer, Carpenter, Fencer, Tiler, Fencer, Plasterer, Fencer, Electrician, and did I say it already - a Fencer? These high winds are bringing down fences left right and centre. With at least three calls a day to carry out quick repairs to damaged fences, I've had my hands full. Add to that the normal workload of door hanging and tap washers plus a little bit of tiling and plastering and not forgetting the replacing of light switches and this week has flashed by.

In between, I've found time to "chew the cud" about a new range of air power tools with the guys down at Archery Tools -and produce a couple of videos for the "Eastbourne for Peace and Liberty" group. If you'd like to watch the videos click here and here. Both speakers, Maya Evans and Emily Johns, are well worth listening to. If you have an open mind, they will be worth the watching , because they give a different point of view to the usual stuff that is trotted out.

What I haven't had time to do is update these pages. If only I was superhuman I could get so much more done.

Coming soon to a blog near you...

This is going to be a very short entry. Its midnight. I'm knackered. At the weekend I went to a talk organised by "Eastbourne for Peace and Liberty".
I videoed the talks by of the speakers Maya Evans and Emily Johns, and I've been editing the videos. Maya's talk is ready and can be viewed in the links column.
Just click on the play button to watch. WATCH IT -- It's a real eye opener.

Sorting tools and sharpening chisels

It's the weekend! That means tools have to be cleaned, sharpened, and sorted, ready for next week. "You should do that every day" I hear you cry. Yeah right! No matter how hard I might have tried, it wasn't going to happen. With the wind and rain, pelting down from heaven above, all week long, my main thought, when packing things away, was to stay dry and sheltered.
I have to admit I simply threw every thing into the back of the van and closed the doors. By the end of the week the inside of the van looked like it had received "friendly fire" from the US Marine Corps. It was bad.

Yesterday I re-felted a storm damaged shed roof and replaced 8' fence posts along a larchlap panel fence-line, next to a ditch. By the end of the day I was covered in mud, mud, and yet more mud, but the job was done. I tell people I don't do fencing , but still they call me and still I do it. I like to be helpful and sometimes it's fun to do something different, and with all this wind, a lot of people needed help.

Today's been wet, with less wet periods, and the wind is still blowing a gale. But I don't care. I've been out in the workshop most of the day, poodling about, cleaning, sharpening, and sorting my tools - it's a great life - it's much better than working for a living.

I wonder what next week will bring...

Are you suffering from too much wind?

What a day today's been. Did you notice the wind? I've been running around, sorting out people's fences, all day long. Well, not so much sorting them out, it was more shoring them up or ripping them down. In this weather there is not a lot to be done other than make safe. Has anyone worked out how far a fence panel can fly? I bet it don't alf urt the one who catches it!

I've now come to the conclusion that a lot of fence panels are held in by the very cheapest and flimsiest materials that can be found, and are probably not fit for purpose. I know they're not going to last a lifetime, but they should last more than a couple of seasons and they should be able to withstand some high winds before they fall apart.

So what have I done today? Loads!

What have I earned today? Next too nothing!

I suppose my reward will come in Heaven - or maybe over the weekend when I can get down to repairing the damaged fences - Weather permitting!

Fence repairs are relatively easy, post repairs can be a challenge. If you need help give me a call.

If you need fencing materials try Alsford Timber in Birch Road.

If you need some tools to do the job go to Archery Tools
they're next to the zebra crossing, just up from the Tesco Express on Seaside.

Don't forget to tell Paul and Alan I sent you!

Radiators Valves Stop Cocks and other plumbing jobs

After you've read this post - go and do it!

I get called to so many homes on small plumbing jobs. A dripping overflow, a tap washer worn out, a toilet cistern not flushing. As I've said before, basic plumbing is simple. BUT.... it's made a whole lot more difficult when the stop cocks are siezed. Thankfully, most people don't have to suffer household plumbing emergencies too often. But when something springs a leak it needs to be dealt with straight away.
I won't go into a long essay about how to fix a leak, you can find more information here

What I want to do is ask you to do one simple thing twice a year. It will save you a lot of heartache, and it may save you money in the early replacement costs of the valves.

Stopcocks seize up if left untouched for too long, so turn it off and on again every six months. If it's stiff or doesn't turn off (clockwise), a pair of pliers may help, but don't force it too hard - stopcocks can shear off and cause a real flood. When you've found your stopcock - label it in case of emergencies. Next time you have someone in to do some plumbing, ask which other valves will isolate hot or cold water, and label them too.

If you can't find a stopcock inside the house, then there should be one outside the house, it's better to find it before an emergency arises!

Now you've read this - go and find them NOW while it's fresh in your mind - otherwise you'll have to do it in an emegency.

Doors Outside Lights, and Sovereign Harbour

Today I went to see a client that had been given some old doors. I have to admit when they told me on the phone I did stifle a groan. When I went around to see them (I always try to get to people the same day), I was close to groaning out loud. Mildewed bananas came to mind. The doors were literally black with fungus and had been poorly stored. They looked as if they had come off a skip, and I hoped they would be finding their way back there. and to add insult to injury, the "new"doors were the wrong size anyway, and so after a brief natter, we agreed that I should hang new doors. Boy, was I relieved. Now I have something to look forward to on Monday.

I like hanging doors. No, I take that back. I love hanging doors. It's my favourite thing to do. The trickier the better. If you fancy hanging a door yourself read this PDF from Gary Katz. He's American - and yes I know they do it differently over there - but he does come up with some neat answers to a few of the tricky bits. If you don't want to do it yourself call me 07930 335 937.

Having spent most of the day in Sovereign Harbour changing light and socket fittings, I managed to amuse myself, in the late afternoon, with clearing another load of gutters! After yesterday you would have thought I had had enough, but that's just the way this work is. For some reason different types of work always seems to comes in batches. Lets just hope that batch is finished.

When it rains gutters overflow

Guttering. When I even hear the word, it invokes a horrible vision. High up -that means ladders. Full up - that means filthy dirty. Wet - that means gunge trickling down the arm under the sleeve. Winter - that means cold. That's been my day today Wet and miserable up a ladder clearing out gutters in the rain. When I wasn't doing that, I was down on my knees fixing more leaks under more sink. Tomorrow I'm inside changing electrical sockets - oh bliss! It's been a rough ol' day and I'm going to bed. Goodnight!

carpentry plumbing electrics... and fencing!

I don't do fencing. But as soon as a high wind comes, and we have high winds most of the time, I can guarantee that at least one client will ring up and ask me to mend their fence. Normally, I say "no, but I know a man who can". This time, because it was for the caretaker of our local Quaker Meeting House I've said yes. "It's only one panel" Dickie said. What he didn't tell me was it was on the rooftop! Me and my big mouth. Now I'm going to have to do it.

Drains sinks and other fascinating things...

While surfing the web last weekend I found a couple of new toys . I'm always interested what the weather is going to be like and so I tried this out. An Eastbourne Handyman link. I put up a webcam in a matter of seconds using Eastbourne Handyman link. It’s an evaluation program that's not only free to use, but dead easy to set up. If you go to Eastbourne Handyman link you can see out of my study window!

Today was a plumbing day.

Kitchen sink taps - who designs these things?
If anybody out there is a designer of ANYTHING, this is for you.

Pleeeeease, after you've done the "getting in touch with your feminine side" bit, fit what you have designed, yourself. Not on a workbench or in a controlled environment, but in a few real life situations. Then you will find out for yourself, why fitters the world over, think designers are plonkers! If you can't fit the stuff yourself, how in the name of God do you expect others to fit it? Please THINK before you commit pen to paper.
Is that so hard to do?

Anyway back to what I was about to write before I interrupted myself!

Changing a kitchen tap is fairly straight forward (If you want to do it yourself, try this link Eastbourne Handyman link). This one wasn't quite so straight forward. Plastic pipework, copper pipework, six different types of plastic, brass, and copper connectors, and four of them weeping quite badly. (Badly enough to have already ruined the kitchen sink cupboard). So much goes on under there. Sink, waste disposal, washing machine, dishwasher, all need connecting, and then the water has to be drained away, and all that in a shoebox sized cupboard.
It's no wonder that so many household disasters happen there.

It took the better part of two hours and two cups of tea to sort it all out. Now the new tap is all bright and shiny, the WM & DW connectors and all the pipework have been changed, the expectant mum's world is back in order. In a couple of months I'll probably have to take it all out again to replace the cupboard that is going to fall to bits because of the previous weeps.

Jane is a very good friend of mine. Seventy-five plus, ex-school teacher, warm, charming, and gifted. She, and her husband John, are Quakers. (By the way, so am I) She has one of those voices that you want to listen to, no matter what she's saying. When she reads poetry, verse or prose springs to life in front of your eyes. Despite all that, she still had a blocked up basin waste pipe. Jane can work miracles with the spoken word - but I know how to clear a blocked waste pipe. Clear the trap under the basin, a couple of judicious taps with a hammer along the pipework and the decades of limescale breaks into little pieces and is flushed away to the sea. Moral: We should all specialise in the things that we're good at, and always use the right tool for the job.

Nice customers...

For several years now, I've followed the policy, that I only work with people I like.
The reason is very simple. First impressions do count, and more often than not they are the right impressions. If you don't feel comfortable with someone, there will be a very good reason why that is . Its the gut feelings that count. Sometimes, when I haven't followed my own advice, something has gone amiss. Not every time, but often enough that I could kick myself. This year, no matter how much I might want to, I am going to resist the urge to help everybody. The last guy that tried to help everybody was crucified, and he had a very powerful dad.

This morning when I got up I knew I would enjoy work today because I was going to be working for two very nice customers. I've worked for the first couple before now. They have a nice home and over time want to make it nicer. They are so easy to get on with, and appreciate what I do. Because of that I try to do that little bit more. The job was to re-jig the cupboard under the stairs. Not a complicated job by any standards, but as with anything else, not as easy as one might first think. It would have been easy to throw up something plain and simple, and they would have been happy with that, but because they're nice people, I did something simple but with with a lot more style, and user friendlier. It cost them nothing to be nice, and the payback was that I was prepared to do more because of their pleasantness. I actually undercharged for the job, but the funny thing is I don't care, I like to be appreciated.

Make a decision and then make another one!

Today has been a day of looking at future jobs. Two of those jobs will be carried out tomorrow, and involve a good deal of basic carpentry. Oh what a fun day tomorrow is going to be. I love being a handyman - it certainly beats working for a living.

At the beginning of the year (two days ago!) it had been my intention to start a series of DIY tutorials via this blog, however, surfing the net over the last couple of days I have found lots and lots of sites already offering the same thing. Now normally that wouldn't matter to me - in the past I would simply have gone ahead and done it anyway. But nowadays in this age of "you said - we said - they said" ambulance chasing vultures - prudence is called for (Now there's a sign I'm getting older!). So, I have decided that instead of giving suggestions on how to do a job, I will, over the coming months, give links to other websites that already show a good method of getting the job done. It is then up to you if you want to follow their advice, or you can always call me in if you don't have the time or inclination to do the job yourself (07930 335 937).

First suggestion... While I was surfing the net I came across a "How To" video website. Its not just DIY videos it's about just about anything. Click How-to videos to visit. It's really worth the effort. Just remember that its meant for Broadband users. If you don't yet have broadband - and I can't think of any good reason not to - have a look at this provider comparison chart.

The first day back to work

The hardest part of today was getting going.

The first job of the day was in Stone Cross, and was the work of a few moments. Changing a bathroom pull switch was a nice way to get the year going! Its one of those five minute jobs that can go horribly wrong.

This one went as smooth as silk.

Back home to make a bucket load of telephone calls - still outstanding from the Christmas holidays. After two and a half hours I finally managed to get back to work.

Working in Eastbourne means that many of my clients are elderly. The number of times I have been called to a house to change a fuse in a plug, or fit a new light bulb must run into the hundreds. The next stop was in Sidley Road to do just that. Changing a fuse is no big deal, but if you can't bend down to get it in the first place, it becomes a nightmare. How I am not looking forward to growing old.

And so on to the next job over in Hampden Park. Carpentry is my first love, no matter how simple. A broken floorboard at the bottom of the stairs. The lady had already twisted her ankle, and so this was considered something of an emergency, especially as her invalid husband and her very elderly mother needed to use the stair lift to get to the loo which was at the top of the stairs.

And that's where the problem lay - under the stair lift! In order to lift the carpet out of the way, to get to the floorboard, the stair lift would need to be be moved.

Did I say earlier that the job of a handyman is simple? Perhaps I over-simplified.

After a lot of heavy breathing, I got to the root of the problem. Some moron (possibly the stair lift fitter?) had cut the original wooden floorboard out and replaced it with a piece of 18mm chipboard. Don't get me wrong there is nothing wrong with using the right type of chipboard, but in this case it wasn't flooring grade chipboard. The "flooring" had simply disintegrated under constant use. (Flooring grade chipboard is marked 'flooring' and no other should be used. It is normally available in 2440 x 1200 and 610mm sheets and in 18 and 22mm thicknesses with tongued and grooved edges for easy laying and fixing.)

So it was straight down to Alsford Timber for some real floorboards.

Within minutes of getting back to the job I'd finished! Cutting in floorboards is simple, it's the getting to them that can be the problem.

The last job of the day was in Rotunda Road to put up a wooden curtain pole over a doorway.

Her son had wanted to put it up over the Christmas period but didn't have the right tools, had given up trying, and left some large holes in the wrong places! An SDS drill made all the difference. After twenty minutes I was on the way back home for a well deserved rest having done probably 3 hours "work" all day. Four contented customers - that means recommendations in the not too distant future. Its a great life being a handyman. I'm off now for a cup of tea, I'll add more soon

The start of a new year

It's eleven in the evening and I'm not even a little bit tired. I've spent the last two weeks hibernating at home. The phones were switched to silent and the blinds were closed.
Watching videos, eating and drinking and spending time with my wife. It was heaven. This evening I listened to the answerphones and found I had dozens of callers waiting to be dealt with all from people wanting me to do things. As of tomorrow morning the balloon goes up - as do the blinds - and a new year of work begins. Believe it or not I'm looking forward to it. That's what happens when you do something you love to do. . Most of what I do is simple to do. Simple doesn't mean EASY - it means SIMPLE. I make a good living doing these simple jobs.
If I can do it, anybody can do it.

Over the coming months I intend to publish hints and tips about the different jobs I do.
Maybe these tips will be of use to you. If you need to get in touch all my details are on the website. I look forward to hearing from you.