We have numbers of friends who manage amazing feats of DIY both in the home and in the garden. They make things, alter and refurbish, paint and decorate and more. Some, like my other half, are supremely skilled and capable at DIY, well, would be if jobs could ever get out of the planning stage and into construction. He’s more a DISY – Do-It-Sometime-Yourself and it can be better to get someone in to do the job or DIMY (Do-It-Myself).

Now my brother-in-law is that particular breed of Do-It-Badly-Yourself. He’s keen to do things and gets on with things quickly. Rather too quickly sometimes. There was the time they got a lovely new carpet and then found the door would not close. He whipped the door off right away (estimating the amount needed to be removed with “rack of eye” that technical term for “don’t bother to measure it”.). He then proceeded to saw a good three or four centimetres off the bottom of the door and then put it back on only to find the wiggy door now with a gap under it of some two centimetres. If he had thought about it perhaps a choice of plane to remove the excess would have been better.

Next step was down to the DIY supplier and a look at doors – and the good outcome was a choice of a pre-finished (good idea) handsome white moulded door which upgraded the whole look of the room. At the same time they saw some nice double glazed doors with fancy glass they liked-and ordered one for the back door from the kitchen. A good result overall! But the moral of the story is…… although DIY should be encouraged where possible, it’s probably better to either take training on practical DIY courses such as carpentry or electrcial installations or get the professionals in.