Solo Mother

You don’t need a man to fix it… but an extra pair of hands would be nice.

by christina on December 13th, 2006

I’ve got a coat rack to mount on the wall. A big, solid, heavy piece of Ikea furniture that weighs about as much as the King of Everything. Honestly, I fully expect it to fall off the wall, masonry anchors notwithstanding. Hang a coat on it? Hah. But it’s free, and it’s better than throwing our coats on the floor. And we need some place to hang our Christmas stockings. I’ve borrowed an electric drill. Pretty spiffy, huh.I did try to get it up on my own but I just don’t have enough hands. I’ll have to wait til a friend comes over and gang press him or her into service. But it makes me think: hrm. I’d better brush up on my handyman skills, cause when the toilet breaks at 3AM, who ya gonna call?

SINGLE MOM.

Every house should have a basic set of tools, kept in a central location, and returned to that location in good, working order. A set of Alan keys is indespensible in a house that might or might not be furnished by Ikea… though you’d be surprised how many faucets these days need one or two. What’s in my toolbox?

• hammer
• ratcheting screwdriver with changeable bits
• tape measure
• spanner/wrench
• utillity knife
• assorted nails
• assorted screws
• hollow wall anchors and screws
• picture hanging hooks and wire
• plumber’s tape
• spackle
• 2 putty knives
• twine
• bubble levels… one that hangs on string.
• snap line

There’s other stuff, but that’s a decent beginning for any household. You’d be surprised how often you look for this stuff and miss it when it’s not there. Note, for instance, that I don’t have a set of alan keys yet. Which is why I’m not taking a shower any time soon, and making due with a bucket in the bathtub. See, the landlord came over to finally fix the mixer on the other bathroom, the freezing one that has the shower, as opposed to the warm one that has a clawfoot tub. Only, he put the mixer on wrong and all I get is lukewarm water in a freezing bathroom. Sucks to be me.

When I was a kid, my mother had a little paperback book with the amusing title, You Don’t Need a Man to Fix It. When I moved out, she gave me the book, yellowed and brittle and missing a front cover.  It has since disintegrated completely, but I won’t easily forget it, or how to fix a running toilet. There’s a book out for today’s modern independent woman, titled, Dare to Repair: A Do-it-Herself Guide to Fixing (Almost) Anything in the Home, with a Rosie the Riveter look-alike flexing badass muscle and looking determined to stop that drip, pronto. A friend gave me a copy when we moved into the fixer upper. I don’t know where to begin!

Every house should have a good, basic guide to maintenance. How to relight the pilot on the water heater, maintain the heat pump, prep a wall for paint… just because these aren’t things they teach in college, doesn’t mean they’re easy to do. And you can save yourself a small fortune (ahem, day what, 8 of underemployment, hello) by being able to take care of the little things without calling a professional. Running toilets and leaky faucets waste a tremendous amount of water, for example. Expensive little drips.

Part of being a single mother is  being able to handle anything, big or small, from scraped knees to blown fuses to missed planes. Be prepared.

Now, if only I could fix my sense of humor… *panic over finances is never pretty*

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POSTED IN: home repair