Hello Bellas
My sister Al from the Pink Fibro and I were having a laugh the other day about all the little (and not so little) things around the house that need fixing. All the things that have probably needed fixing since we moved into our respective homes but time has passed and these days we just put up with the constant irritation. Women are good like that.
On this occasion, rather than wondering about our own homes, we were commenting on each others’. You see, we’d swapped houses between Chrissy and New Year and because we are no-holds-barred sisters, the conversation was full of things like:
“OMG, what’s going on with your kitchen tap?!”
and
“Are pool pumps supposed to be that loud?”
and
“Aside from nearly killing myself on your front steps…”
and
“We couldn’t lock the doors upstairs… um, do you ever actually lock the doors upstairs?”
So, here is an abridged list of things that desperately need attention in Maxabellaland:
- The front steps are crumbling sandstone. Nice if you live in a castle.
- Yes, it’s true, the upstairs doors don’t lock. Hello Hamburglar.
- There are no working door handles. Hello shut out of my own house on more than one occasion yet still we have not fixed the door handles.
- The seat on the second toilet is loose. Slip sliding awaaaaay.
- The stove does not work. The oven works well. This is why I’m a baker, not a fighter.
I could go on…
‘Til next time
Kymmie says
Oh, the list… oh, the list of jobs that never get done at this house. Well, it’s long. It’s longer than long. And we have an old house, so new things get broken all the time. So, our list never gets shorter. It just gets longer… and longer… still want to house swap? There could be some more comments exchanged! xx
Megan says
well, you may not want to hear this but one of our toilets has had a cracked toilet seat for over a year which my daugter refused to even use and its only now that I am in ‘crazy must do one million things before the baby is here’ mode that I finally on Saturday went and bought a new one. Def something that should have been done a loooong time ago!!!
nicole says
*my laundry taps are broken. they used to be those crystally type ones and they’ve just crumbled away.
*the kitchen cupboards don’t close properly. this is dependant upon the weather though…
*the garage leaks and all the paint is literally falling off the walls. it’s suuuuuuuuper attractive.
i’ve got my dad coming to stay next weekend and he’s going to fix the first two for me (he doesn’t know it yet though…) and i’m going to get onto the garage as soon as i can afford some waterproofy paint 😀
can’t wait!
hire a hubby to fix your steps and door handles and locks and stove? too soon?
1000 Homes of Happiness says
ahhh, only three??? My favourite in our little home is our bathroom door that mysteriously locked itself Christmas day 2009.
With 50 guests in the house and a line for the loo, Hubby decided to ram it down. Breaking the door from the hinge and the handle no longer being attached. We have plans to buy a new one…we temporially swaped it with the laundry door cause lets face there is no need for a locking door on the laundry
xx Kell
Hannah McNulty and Baby Moo says
Why is it that I am constantly relating to your blog! I am addicted! I was only talking with my sister-in-law yesterday commenting on my half-finished kitchen promised from our friend!!
To-do-list here….
1. Finish the grouting in the kitchen and put the door on the cupboard! Yep – we are missing a DOOR!!
2. Cut the exhaust hole for our fan above the stove….it’s purely there for decoration at the moment
3. Finish hemming my curtains….they have been hanging for over 12 months now with pins in the bottom! Oops!
I figure it’s the perfect lesson to test our patience and most importantly, tells us to not focus on the small stuff. X
Lucy says
~ Lack of screen door on back door. We live on 90+ hectares of bush. I am so used to the flies, I have an auto-swat arm.
~ Dodgy taps in ensuite that rattle the pipes so bad it sounds like cats being strangled.
~ No light bulb in the fridge. Our fridge is always in darkness. It has never worked, ever, in the ten years we have owned the damn fridge.
~ Loo roll holder thingo on the wall that falls off every single time you do a poo and reach for the paper.
I now realise this is not a comment, but a post all of its own….
Cat from Raspberry Rainbow says
The ruddy list has been growing and growing for the last 4 years, now it comes to bite me on the bottom – as we need to rent out the house while we move O/S for a few years. Lucky my step-dad is quite the handyman, and been giving me lessons is fixing stuff, or fixing the stuff for me. List too long to mention!
Jodie at Mummy Mayhem says
Ah, just quietly, we have glass doors that still have the manufacturer’s white writing on them that Hubby still needs to remove.
They were purchased in Dec 2001.
Brenda @ Mira Narnie says
Oh yes – this is a classic given that
a) we bought a really really old house and;
b) my husband is the polar opposite of the handyman!
This is the husband that needed to call the electrician to change lightbulbs that had not been changed for 6 months – yes i lived with no lights about 4 rooms for 6 months – enough to drive me INSANE!!!!
so our top 3 would be;
– the side gate is jammed – and requires all sorts of manouvering and swearing to get it unlocked and through it – i’m sure it would be simple to fix.
– windows with paint on them – yep you only need a paint scrapper to fix that one but alas – still not done.
– several doors don’t close – just slight adjustment and i’m sure they’d be good – but again, no cigar!!
ps – on a much much brighter note – some delightful soul adopted a Softie xx
Sarah says
I can just imagine the conversations between you and Al! We are in the final stages of our reno but the to do list is still frighteningly long. Here are just 3. 1) plaster hall way 2) plaster old kitchen 3) carpet old kitchen. I could go on and on and on. But you’d probably end up crying out of sheer pity for me 😉
Tammi says
You made me think of my dad…he is a builder and his house has been unfinished for years…my sister has the downstairs flat and has had half a bathroom in since 2006, only the toilet is working as the taps have not been plumbed..oh the tales I could tell 🙂
x
myshoeboxlife.com says
Ok, my Top 3 list:
Replace kitchen sink tap with one that turns from side to side as we have a double sink.
Fix the leaking tap in the bathroom vanity.
Fix the broken plaster wall behind the toilet. Means I have the seat lid constantly up so that you can’t see them.
And here’s the real kicker – Mr G is a plumber!!!
(He tries the excuse, well I have to do that work all day long. I always reply well I’m a nanny all day but I still look after Miss A at night! 🙂 ) xx
BOB & MABEL says
3…. I could think of 300 in my home. Our back door does not lock and to even shut it requires brute force. Our upstairs is a work in very slow and uninhabitable progress and has been for 4 years. The outside of our weatherboard house is half painted (years ago) and I have now decided to change the whole colour scheme so we have many different looks going on!
mel @ loved says
Oh I love this, where do I begin?! Our house floods everytime it rains heavily, fairly urgent ‘to do’ yet still not done! Our hot water piolet keeps going out, so we’re outside trying to re-light very regularly, perhaps this needs professional attention. The batteries on our gate controls are flat, hmm…have been on & off for 2 years now, why is it such a tedious thing to have to get around to fixing…my goodness the list goes on & on…
Carly @ Carly Webber - My Life in Colour says
I’m fairly new to your blog but just love reading your posts – your style has me laughing every time. Wish could contribute with an actual house list but our landlord takes care of those at this stage. We do have a garage (of which the carport post is front and centre of the roller door so it makes it impossible to actually get a car in there) has over time become our “where should I put this?” storage…. And once things go in, they never return! If I can ever enter and be sure I’d come out alive I would quite like to have a big sort out! Someday… it will probably wait until we next move house!
Michelle says
Love your say it like it is motto, that’s what sisterly love is all about! I have a huge to do list, but the ones that have been on the longest (over a year!) are 1. Hooks in wardrobe for necklaces 2. Set up retic in my herb pots so they arent relying on my hand watering 3. Hanging up wall of photos that I painted the frames 10 months ago but still havent put them on the wall yet! This year they’ll bet done … promise 🙂
Michelle says
Love your say it like it is motto, that’s what sisterly love is all about! I have a huge to do list, but the ones that have been on the longest (over a year!) are 1. Hooks in wardrobe for necklaces 2. Set up retic in my herb pots so they arent relying on my hand watering 3. Hanging up wall of photos that I painted the frames 10 months ago but still havent put them on the wall yet! This year they’ll bet done … promise 🙂
Life In A Pink Fibro says
Well, you know my list is long. But the front steps are fixed (yahoo!). Same cannot be said of tap, laundry, blah, blah, blah. Hamburglar made me laugh!
Tricia Rose says
I was seared by realising that the only time I fixed all the things in our big family house was when we came to sell! So now we are in a tiny house and we get round to everything – we are older and less harried, not rearing little children. That makes a big difference. Your kids will laugh about the broken toilet seat with strange affection once they are grown!
Deb says
Oh yes the list! Mine includes…
1. A hook on the outside door so it would stop blowing in the wind,
2. The spring reattached to the gate to keep escape-artist 21 month old in
3. The heatpump stored in the garage for 18 months installed in the house! (ditto for the bath!!)
Sahara's Heart says
I always have a lot of things to fix since I am moving every three years and on every house that I go I find something that I would like to change!!..but it doesn’t matter how many things need to be change ..we all always will be the queen of the castle!:^P
x0xJ says
Because we rent my SO has the opinion of “not our house, not our problem” that is, unless we’re the one’s who broke it. So i have a HUGE list of things, like we have really old windows you have to push out, well the little “door” in the fly screens you open so you can open the window, hald are missing, and most are barely hanging on. The walls are an ugle patchy yellow that honestly i will be happy if i never see another yellow wall again in my life. One of the towel rails is barely hanging on. Our back verandah leaks thus making having a covered back verandah pointless. Also our house floods if we get a bit of rain (not huge amounts but a constant steady drizzle is enough to flood our house in one of the rooms and the garage floods completely. One of our stove top cookers is only good for boiling water and making charcol as even when it’s on LOW it gets raging hot. The shower door often falls off or jams up, i’ve been trapped in our shower many times crying out for help, never mind the fact when it’s fully opened well a pregnant woman cannot fit through without doing a little contortion work. Lol.
I dream of the day when we own our own house, i am perfectly happy to spend a weekend at home getting stuck into fixing things up. But for now everything you see above, it’s livable.
alexkeller says
hahahaha 🙂
right now there is a cabinet door missing in the kitchen. my husband seems to think that it works better with no door … but it’s near the floor, which means it’s near the dog hair … ew.
the other thing that is never ending is my son’s love of stickers. and his love of putting them on every surface of the house. i’ll be forever scraping sticky residue.
my son’s other favorite thing to do is draw on lots of surfaces of our home. so eventually, we’ll paint, but until then, you’ll be dazzled with the family portrait in our bedroom, and impressed with his squares on the backs of our doors.
Looking for Blue Sky says
I’m living in a beautiful but really old house and have rubbish DIY skills and have been moaning about this on my blog. My current urgent list is as follows, *takes deep breath* :
– fill cracks in outside walls
– unblock shower
– get someone to replace cracked wall sockets
– stop bits of brick falling off chimney
– plane garden and shed doors so they close without kicking
– do something about old draughty windows
Actually the list doesn’t look quite so scary now I’ve written it all down in one place 🙂
Toni says
Although we rent, we do things around the house if they’re not going to cost us too much money. This house is lovely and hasn’t too much wrong with it, mostly neglected yards. And crook FLORAL and APRICOT SATIN 90s curtains. So the only task on my list is replace the damn curtains ASAP.
Also, LOVED your ‘girly porn’ comments on my blog, makes me laugh everytime I think of it.
*disclaimer* Maxabella does not and never will write girly porn for or on my blog.
DancingInTheRain says
We too had doors that did not lock for awhile. Instead of getting new locks we got screen doors installed that can lock and let in a cool fly-free mozzie-free breeze too!
MultipleMum says
After we had the conversation about you and Al having the conversation, I have actually fixed a few of my issues! The major remaining one is the stove. The big element has been broken for at least a year. Drives me nuts and yet I put up with it. Why?
Trish@Show and Tell says
My list is long. But my top 3 are:
1. Replacing our broken kitchen timer with a new one….so the next time I am boiling eggs on the stove at midnight (as you do)….and fall asleep on the lounge (as you do)….I can be guaranteed of being woken up before the house catches on fire and burns down (and yes, this almost really happened!).
2. Replacing the frosted glass panel in my shower that gives my neighbours a very unnecessary view of…well…private things. (I suspect that’s why I hear a lot of screams in my neighbourhood around 7am each day).
3. Replacing my broken front door bell….so that when friends and family come to visit, they no longer have to break their hands banging on the table on our front deck trying to get our attention.
xx
Trish@Show and Tell says
My list is long. But my top 3 are:
1. Replacing our broken kitchen timer with a new one….so the next time I am boiling eggs on the stove at midnight (as you do)….and fall asleep on the lounge (as you do)….I can be guaranteed of being woken up before the house catches on fire and burns down (and yes, this almost really happened!).
2. Replacing the frosted glass panel in my shower that gives my neighbours a very unnecessary view of…well…private things. (I suspect that’s why I hear a lot of screams in my neighbourhood around 7am each day).
3. Replacing my broken front door bell….so that when friends and family come to visit, they no longer have to break their hands banging on the table on our front deck trying to get our attention.
xx
PartlySunny says
I’m gonna go with the little annoying things that should’ve been done 4 years ago when we moved in:
1) cover patch where tested out different color paint in kitchen
2) finish hanging pictures (yes, I said we moved in 4 years ago)
3) hang hooks to put up organizers from IKEA to keep kid’s toys from drifting into total chaos (I have hanging issues, obviously)
Andrea says
3 years in the making….
1. LIGHTS – Bathroom light/Hall light/Hall light /outside light
2. DOORS new lock for front screen door – so we can lock it, new screen for back door.
3.FINISH 1/2 starts – finish painting all the rooms, finish renovating everything, finish hanging pictures and curtains.
Really, only 3? There are so many i could add!!
kim says
pictures wait for ages to be hung, our kitchen ceiling leaks in persistant heavy rain (a big shout out to our roofers on or renovation five years ago who did the job twice, and it still leaks! yay for you), and for some reason the downstairs toilet stops working every six months – cue the buckets of water.