I am glad that, almost from the first home I remember, my folks owned the houses we lived in.
This was good because we could change things, and change we did!
My dad built a garage onto the house we lived in when I was two. I remember helping my mom do the laundry just off the garage door to the kitchen, so I wonder where the laundry facilities were before he built that garage?
Dad also designed the house my folks built when I was seven, and finished the basement himself. I remember helping to pull electrical wiring, helping him build a retaining wall, and painting.
Lots of painting!
I was taller than my mom by then, and helped out as much as she did, if not more.
I painted my room purple when I was eight (it came out much darker than I’d expected – a valuable lesson), and painted my room in a different house a golden yellow with white trim at age thirteen, all by myself. I also helped paint the rest of the house, put up wallpaper, and other tasks.
I learned how to repair holes in drywall, extend phone jacks (back when all phones were landlines), tile and grout a shower, and other home maintenance skills.
I suppose that it was only natural that when I got my first car at age nearly-22 (I bought it myself; ironically, so I could get to my early-morning job as a bus driver), I did a lot of the maintenance rather than hire it out. How many 24 year old college girls do you know who can change the oil in their cars?
I’ve been taking care of small auto and home maintenance tasks myself ever since.
Later, I expanded these skills significantly on my own – including putting a beautiful swedish finish on the hardwood floor in the master bedroom of the first home I owned.
Thankfully, my toolbox has expanded beyond my college-era “butter knife and needle-nose vise grip pliers” phase. I actually own several sets of real tools now (garage sales are a great place to get started, inexpensively).
In this section of The School Of Lost Arts, you will learn how to do some very basic auto and home maintenance skills.
You’ll be able to do simple repairs around the home, and do things like replace the air filter on your furnace, greatly improving its efficiency and prolonging the life of your furnace, while reducing the dust in your home.
Never again will you have to pay three times the cost of an air filter or windshield wipers for something that takes literally a minute to install, just for the convenience of having the oil change guy do it.
Unless you want to, of course! But you’ll be able to do it yourself and use that money on something else more important to you.
Are you ready?
Are you excited?
Great! Let’s get going!
Courses:
Auto Maintenance 101 – Checking Fluids (free!)
Auto Maintenance 102 – Replacing Air Filter (free!)
(Coming soon)
Home Maintenance 101 – Replacing Air Filter (free!)
(Coming soon)
The School of Lost Arts 