DIY

I may have mentioned before, I really hate DIY – I’m not massively practical at the best of times, and it all comes to a head when it comes to All Things DIY.

This weekend, it’s been a bit of painting (which I don’t mind in general) and also dealing with skirting boards all round the new kitchen bits. That’s included cutting loads of mitre joints (the ones where each side is a 45° angle) which always bring out my failings in spectacular style. Some of it is down to not having the right equipment (something else which drives me cackers) but even the simple practicality and logic for cutting these damn corners drives me crackers.

We had already got a mitre-block for guiding the saw at the correct angles – but it’s not big enough to handle the skirting boards, so yesterday I ended up going off and getting another mitre thing specifically for larger items like skirting-boards. It’s made the final bits today a lot easier – although I’ve also carved chunks out of the block itself, due to the fact I’m also shit at using a saw in a straight line. We’ve got some other mitre stuff do in the next few weeks, so I’ll probably organise getting something else in place for those.

Still, the skirting boards are done now – and all told the job’s not too bad. In that way, it’s fairly satisfactory – but I still find that for the most part, DIY is infinitely less fun than most people make it out to be.