My dear old Grandad (who is still with us in body but sadly depleted in spirit*) came to stay with me and an ex for a week once.
While he was with us he got my girlfriend to take him to B&Q and buy a load of stuff we didn't want or need and then fitted it all for us. When he'd gone every tap in the house could be isolated without having to touch the stopcock, thanks to the joy of ballafix valves.

He also fitted some new taps to the bath for me - which actually was handy, as I'd been meaning to get round to it and hadn't done it. Trouble was, they moved when you turned the handles - his explanation, "You can't tighten stuff on a plastic bath, you'll break it" didn't sound right to me, especially when after he'd gone I tightened them and they worked fine. This in turn led to this gem of a phone conversation a couple of weeks later:

"Have you sorted your taps out yet?"
"Yeah, they're fine now"
"Oh! What did you do?"
"Ah, you know... I... tightened them"

Also, while he was there he saw my shed and decided to put some bits of wood on the walls so that I could hang some hooks and things. I showed him a few offcuts of skirting board, tongue and groove etc that were stacked neatly in the corner and said he could use them.

I got home from work the next day to find that he'd not touched my offcuts, but had instead searched the garden for suitable pieces of wood and used them. They were muddy, splintered, uneven and rough, the entire inside of the shed looked like it had been brought up from the Titanic \o/

And finally, while he was there he oiled every hinge in the house, so every door slid quietly shut on its own... so we had to go and buy a load of wedges to hold them open, the way we liked them.



*Funny isn't, no matter how annoying that week was, I wish he was still like that instead of the shadow of his former self he's becoming... O_o
(Professor Kenny Martin Hmm? What?, Mon 7 Apr 2008, 16:21, 1 reply)

On a similar subject...
I know *just* how you feel about your grandad, I wish people wouldn't lose their minds like that, mine's gone the same way :(
( Alex Save a Tree, Eat a Beaver!, Tue 8 Apr 2008, 21:56, closed)