to secretly wish we could just buy some bloody

[OrmRenewed]

new book shelves?

We need some shelves. Now! We have about 30 boxes of books and nowhere for them to go. And until they have been unpacked we also have no dining room DH is a carpenter. And he will without a doubt make some lovely shelves. But as he is dithering about debating which timber to face them with and how big they should be, they may not exist until after christmas.

Ikea have some nice ones They could be built and up in less than a day.

Wish I had married an impractical man, or at least a practical man with a greater sense of urgency and a lesser need for perfection.

How about buying the Ikea ones and ebaying them if when he builds the others?

Marys

Well my DH is a builder and our shower has been leaking for six months and there is a nice big stain on the ceiling below. I've asked him approximately 100 times to repair it but no change yet... At least you say your Dh will put them up soon.

YABU if you married a builder-type expecting him to actually do anything in his own home without nagging.

I'd buy the IKEA shelves, put them up, stack the books and deal with the tantrum in due course.... Life's too short to wait for 'artists' to get their act together.

I have a LOT of sympathy! We've just moved into a flat which is furnished, with has no bookshelf. Surely this is an essential piece of furniture! My books are scattered in untidy piles around the bedroom. Our problem is that we can't afford or transport a bookcase :( Wish my boyfriend was a carpenter!

Agree, just get some. Say they are a temporary solution until he gets the others done. Just get them rather than debate it.

I agree nomedoit. But he wasn't a carpenter when I married him

OK, you're excused!

Depends how urgently you need your dining room. And whether your DH is likely to be even slower if you are not actually tripping over the boxes of books.

I bought some Ikea shelves as a temporary measure in a rented place, and it was just as well I wasn't planning to use them long-term because after 9 months the shelves were falling apart. OK, I do have a lot of books, but still....

I get the impression that the Ikea ones are designed to look like they do in their catalogues, with a few books propped up on every other shelf, and the rest of the space left empty with a few artfully arranged objects.... I now have three rooms' worth of built-in bookshelves which are standing up very nicely to my obviously overweight book collection .

we bought a lovely set of shelves for DDs room a few weeks ago from ikea £14.99...ikea stuff sells well on ebay for if he ever gets round to doing the built in shelves

FWIW my DH is an electrician and we have had (in order) water coming through an electric fan that is now broken as he 'didnt want to touch it', a double socket in plain view in our dining room practically hanging off the wall for 6 MONTHS begging for DD to put her fingers in it!!, spotlights on the dining room ceiling hanging down waiting for him to 'get around to it' and a light in the loft which has never worked in the 6 years we have lived in our house and he basically ignores my friendly requests nagging for him to sort it out so we can use the loft for storage and see where everything is!!

dont marry someone with a trade type job if you want things to be done in your own house

when I was a kid we had as many book shelves as we needed - planks & bricks!! No skills required, quick & easy to erect & remove & they can be whisked away in minutes once your DH sorts himself out.

oh and just to sympathise, I'm married to a bloke who works in IT (I'm unsure of his actual job title, I think it's "professinal geek").

I can't download any more music, as when we moved house, the computer with my itunes on didn't get set up properly with internet connection. I have a laptop I'm using now, and the computer with itunes does work, but I can only add tracks to my itunes (and therefore my ipod) via a CD. He'll get round to sorting it 'at some point'.

I know this will never happen, but the idea of having to start again and upload every CD I own onto this computer is just too depressing.

I think the expression is "A cobblers children are the worst shod"

I grew up in half-built houses that only got finished weeks before my Dad wanted to sell up, and start a new one!

My father and brother are in the building trade, so I begrudge paying for simple repairs, and my hubby is sooo impractical its untrue! I have ended up doing most things myself.

Being 7 months pregnant I ask DH to put up shelves in the nursery, and I had to stop him drilling through electrical cables

He got paint out of the shed, and complained that he had to throw away "the water on the top layer" I had to actually show him how to stir it! After 8 years together I realised that I did all that stereotypical male tasks in the house, paying the bills, DIY & driving (he is Dutch and didn't like drivng on the wrong side of the road) Whilst he made up for it by doing the laundry, a lot of the housework & bringing me proper coffee and a fresh smothie bed every morning etc He is now taking up some of these challenges and it is a revelation to me!

we have the bookshelves, but waiting for a certain person to get on with putting them together!

Linen - are you disabled?

If not, put them together yourself and stop being such a wet rag!

i am entirely a wet rag!

Actually they need putting up on the wall, i cannot drill holes, get it straight and bang them in. wouldnt know where to start. it is a 2 man jobby i am afraid.

Panda that is so believable!

I am currently contemplating taking the shower apart myself so he has to fix it. WE have a small plate-sized patch of mould on the bathroom wall and the skirting has rotted next to it.

Also:

• recessed kitchen light that regularly drops out, scaring me to death
• paint peeling off outside of house, should have been painted years ago
• roof tile missing so kitchen leaks during heavy rain, should have been fixed years ago
• garage that looks like a builder's yard
• don't mention the garden

Also, I do ALL our paperwork, finances, tax returns, all his business paperwork, all cooking, cleaning, veggie gardening, child-stuff and everything to do with his family so I am buggered if I am climbing up onto the roof as well before anyone suggests it...

I am so jealous of you all who have handy type practical DP/Hs. Mine is a great dad but utterly clueless on anything remotely practical and everything requires getting someone in so its expensive and never quite how you want it. Our next door neighbour is a carpenter and has just replaced his front door and the step and everything and it looks fab (and makes ours look even worse).
don't complain too much, or you can send them round to me!

Yes, Trixie, where they would sit on your sofa watching TV, complaining about what a long day they've had!

DH has a go at jobs - gets all his tools out all over the place and no-one is allowed to touch them or move them. Then he spends an hour getting just the right bit of timber. Chaos reigns. So I go out with one of two of the kids and come back to the house still in chaos, sawdust everywhere and hardly anything to show for it - but he's happy because he's made a good start and done it properly. But the tools have to stay out because he will finish it "tomorrow".

But it has to be said that when he does finish it, it's v good.

I waited 6 months for my bookshelves, because they had to be beatiful, perfect and planned in the greatest detail by hubby.They are lovely, but i had to get some cheap bookshelves to fit the rest of the books in, because they are more ornamental than practical!

Now we are building our own house...

Orm, does he have carpenter friends? Tell him that you're going to phone one on Monday to come and put the shelves up (to your spec in your choice of wood) as he is obviously too busy to do it.

I HATE HATE big jobs going on in the house. Disruption, chaos and someone hammering their finger and howling curses every two minutes.

Better all round if DH does it.