Lessons learned the hard way.

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newbat, Aug 8, 2:00am

600 for me

newbat, Aug 8, 2:02am

on the wedding ring idea if you happen to break an old mercury thermometer take the wedding ring off before cleaning it up. mercuy and gold like each other too much and mercury will always win.

bigchieflittle, Aug 8, 2:21am

plastic lighter left on top of pot belly. .fire place. nothing really happens for a few minutes untill the gas become very preasurerised then the plastic melts and causes a explosion that sends plastic flying throughout the house. not good while entertaining guests and loading the fire with wood.

bethel1, Aug 8, 3:43am

when replacing the brick hearth under the 1970's wood burner with tiles try not to say 'oh my %^^' when you pull up the bricks (finding that they are not fixed in any way) to discover they have just been laid on the carpet and had a wooden edge put round them.

pc_nut, Aug 9, 12:03pm

computer related but none the less dont delete the linux partition of a hard disk when dual booting with vista. as the boot loader config is on the linux part and if deleted it screws up the MBR (GRUB) and doesnt boot. around 2 hours of screwing around (i lost my blank CD's among other things) i managed to repair the MBR and windows boots again ^-^ yay

bethel1, Aug 9, 5:22pm

oh and the underlay was the old coarse "hairy" type, we would have had the equivalent of a peat fire throughout the house had it ever caught alight:))

crackerjack19, Aug 9, 5:41pm

I dont seem to make as many 'funny' blunders as I did years ago when I moved a lot faster and obviously out manouvered the limited brain power that some young people have. Here is a beauty though that one can do at any age that I pulled off about two years ago. I my shed/household/
storage room/workshop I had a 44gal
drum on which I had stacked a couple bags of cement mixture.While modernizing 'the' house I had accumulated some very hard very rough 4x2 studs were only good for fire wood,where to store it! In the drum of course,so cut out the top,this I did without the use of a 'gasaxe'.When the 'top'was recovered from the bottom of the 'drum' there was no bottom it had been removed years earlier.Believe me you cant stop the wife laughing at blunders like that.

grannieg, Aug 14, 12:38am

Bump This is way too good to let slip back down the page!

bit, Aug 15, 3:28am

Most of you may have realised this but don't put the plug in the bathroom basin, turn the tap on and walk away. You may end up using all the towels in the house and lifting the edge of the hallway carpet to dry it out. You can hope the mdf skirting hasn't swelled and need replacing. What am I going to do with that woman. Incurable.

wotz_it_2_ya, Aug 15, 3:59am

when on holiday and staying in a motel with a circular sink, do remember to not have face over said sink when you turn the tap almost full on. The rush of water does tend to go down one side of the sink and up the other.

masturbidder, Aug 15, 4:54am

.a couple got their KY jelly and putty mixed up. and the glass fell out of their window! (sorry, old joke)

skyedog, Aug 15, 5:37pm

A few years ago but. when you put the rubbish out of the vacuum cleaner on an open fire and then remember you had sucked up a button battery- put the fire screen up before you rush out of the room, scared of the bang you knew would come.Resulted in little scorch marks right across the lino floor and even on the bench on the opposite side of the room.

saraht13, Aug 19, 1:25am

When your flatmate (landlord) wants to do DIY. And takes all the window catches off to "make painting the window frames easier" and then takes the window frames OUT of the wall because that is easier still.Don't be surprised if you come home after a week long holiday to find windows still on the lawn and a $4 tarp covering the hole in the house (ssshhh don't tell the burglars).After angry phonecall (it was winter too) insisting it be filled in, DON'T expect he will pay the excessive powerbill from trying to heat a house with only half a wall.And DO expect to spend the following weekend putting the window catches back on cause he is "away on a job" so they don't all smash in the wind.Needless to say found somewhere else to live after a few stories like this.But it was hillarious to watch him try and do the macho "ugh I can fix it" and then spend the weekend with the other flatmate (his girlfriend) fixing up his work - and yes I am female too.

kuaka, Aug 19, 3:26am

bump - someone must have some more diy disasters to be avoided that they would love to share with us!

quick-trade, Aug 19, 6:08am

. Before you decide it's a good idea to put up a wall in a garage to make a nice smoko room, remove anything from that room that you'd like outside as a garage door is a lot bigger than a standard door!Nice work boss!

majoba, Aug 19, 6:20am

Same goes for domestic renovations. Before you have have the mezzanine area converted to put a ceiling on the living room below and convert the top area to a bedroom, check out whether you will be able to remove the queen size bed from upstairs once the stairs are no longer open. And do check it out before moving out day.

maxi090605, Aug 22, 1:10am

when repainting, used a primer then sand paper then paint, because I did the shortcut of painting directly, so it flaked!, when replacing rotten part of wood, use builder's fill instead of ordinary filler with a caulking gun, because it will be sticky when you sand paper it! when trying to make the wood waterproof, don't use selley's all clear sealant, because you can make it smooth and even as hard you try, hahaha! now I learned so much from these mistakes! ah, the beauty of DIY here in NZ.

bit, Aug 22, 4:01pm

When wallpapering, cutting around lightswitch you don't want to turn off power and upset family so you continue to fit another 2 pieces and wet 1 more. When it's getting dark you change mind and decide to off the main power and unscrew light switch, jib material falls between paper and wall making giant bump. You try to scratch it out - it goes down further. To put power on and try vacuum - fail. Gravity wins so you pull nicely fitted wallpaper up from bottom. Then remember you have a wet piece of paper that needs hanging NOW. Phew! Managed to salvage the situation though.

suie1, Aug 24, 3:37pm

Don't start a lawnmower inside on the carpet it will do damage.

peanuts, Aug 26, 4:40am