Husband is no handyman!

Zara is 43, married with three kids and living in an old house inherited from an aunt. She loves it to pieces, but her husband Trevor is no handyman and because both barely earn enough to keep the family together the old house is falling apart around them and impacting on their marriage.

"When something goes wrong at home - and it often does with this old place," explains Zara, "I can’t rely on Trevor to fix anything.”

“He tends to effect the easiest and cheapest temporary fix he can think of and then forgets all about it hoping it will right itself in time. Of course, it never does."

“We went through a period recently when we were totally powerless in the kitchen and had wires on the floor and snaking across the bench-tops.”

"I told everyone my kitchen was ‘wired’ and they thought I was putting in cable," laughs Zara, "but it really was a weird and dangerous way for us - and especially the kids - to be living. But when you've no money, and your husband is hopeless at home maintenance, what can you do?"

“It all started with three weeks of almost non-stop rain,” explains Zara. “First the power outlet for the toaster and electric kettle went kaput. No problem.”

“Trevor moved the appliances over to the refrigerator power outlet and used a short extension cord with an adapter. It worked beautifully. I did not have to stay home waiting interminably for an electrician to turn up, and we did not have to fork out the exorbitant fees tradesmen charge just for coming to take a look at whatever problem one has.”

“All was well for a few days until I noticed that the electric kettle was not working. Oh dear. Time to buy another one. And then I opened the refrigerator and realized that there was no light shining brightly upon my mixed assortment of leftovers and over-ripe tomatoes. Apparently the refrigerator power outlet had packed up, too.”

“I don’t trust Trevor with electrical faults, so it was tiime to call the electrician.”

“Wait! It was Friday, if we called him now he would charge us double for weekend work. We needed to find a stopgap measure until Monday.”

“Trevor looked around for another power outlet and found one under the sink,” laughs Zara. “Into it was plugged the cord for the garbage disposal unit. We wondered if it had packed up, too. We had not used the unit for a while - though I probably should use it to dispose of leftovers rather than store them in the refrigerator until they turn a funny color - so I pressed the button and nothing happened.”

“Every power outlet in the kitchen was non-functional!”

“It was pouring with rain and Trevor figured that there must be a short-circuit somewhere due to moisture. The house was getting old and probably needed re-wiring, but that was something we just did not want to think about now or ever.”

“Thinking, quite rightly, that it was not a good idea to start investigating electricity problems in the rain, Trevor looked farther for a power outlet and found one in the dining room. The only trouble was that he needed a longer extension cord.”

“A quick and very wet trip to the local hardware store with the kids groaning every inch of the way fixed up that problem. So, before my leftovers and over-ripe tomatoes had totally spoiled, we managed to get the refrigerator humming again. In the meantime, as you can expect, we used the electric kettle and toaster in some very strange places.”

"We literally had tea and toast in bed," laughs Zara. "The kids thought it was cool having breakfast in our bedroom!

“By Monday, we were all quite adept at stepping over the extension cord that trailed from the dining room into the kitchen and festooned the bench-tops like a snake. At the hardware store, too, we had bought an adapter that lights up when the power supply is functional.”

"That light was very empowering," explains Zara, "because when that red light was shining brightly it indicated that the kitchen was once again functional."

“The rain kept on coming. When will it ever stop? There were people with flooding problems, trees were falling all over the place and in some areas people were without electricity altogether. Not considering our problem to be an emergency, we decided to wait for service until the rain eased and the electricians were not so busy.”

“Guess what? It was four months later that we actually got around to calling an electrician. It was only when the toilet cistern decided to overflow that we realized having wires all over the kitchen wasn't a very smart way to live and, since she I to stay home to wait upon a plumber, I thought that we might as well kill two birds with one stone and call an electrician, too.”

“It was a simple blown fuse - that's all,” laughs Zara. “If Trevor had been a normal guy he would have fixed it straight off months ago!”

"The main thing that worried us," explains Zara, "was that the electrician might have found a major problem and we just couldn't afford to have the whole house re-wired."

"As it turned out the plumber said that the pipes in the old house were lead or something, not copper," sighs Zara, "and recommended having new copper piping put in."

"The thing about living in a big, old house – especially with a husband around," says Zara, "is that tradesmen think you must be rich or something to call them to do something a guy usually does.”

“We can no more afford getting new piping than we can afford new wiring. We will just have to make do with what the house was built with."

“In making ‘do’, we are probably risking major problems further down the line, and could be risking our lives, too, where electrical faults are concerned, but the kids love living in the old house - and so do we – and we really don’t have any other option but to take that risk.”

"I think it’s time Trevor stopped being a new age guy and started being a real guy – you know, the type who can fix things!”