Who has a spouse that does wood working and/or home improvement stuff with them?

[Rich Engelhardt]

As a sort of companion thread to this one:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...working-legacy

Who here has a spouse that enjoys wood working and/or doing home improvement stuff with them?

My wife and I have been redoing rental property now since 2002 & every time we take on a new house, we take on more and more "stuff".

My wife did all the drywall work on the last one. She hung all the drywall in the basement, then taped and sanded it. She did a very respectable job.

LOL! & No! I didn't instruct her....I had a contractor show here step by step how to do it!

I really think the key to our 36 year marriage has been - - not to tell her what to do - - in any way shape or form!

She also does help me out in the shop from time to time, but, doesn't show a lot of interest in learning the "why" of things, like in "why do you have to edge joint lumber".

[Mike Cutler]

Mike, Like yours, isn't interested in why, but she's part of every home project we've done. The sound and vibration of the machines is uncomfortable for her.
Hand mix 6500 lbs. of mortar and fill in our stone foundation. Tiled bathroom surrounds. Installed wood flooring, and appliances. She's involved in all of it.
We've been married 33 years, so we must have figured out our "division of labor".

When she silver soldered the radiator on my truck, to repair a seam leak, I did have to step back for a minute. That one got me.

[kevin nee]

If you call going shopping for SHOES while renovations are going on. My wife is a great helper. I help her weed the garden by watching TV. We are a good team.

[George Bokros]

My wife helps me install crown molding. She helps hold the molding in place, checks corner fit in one corner while I check corner fit at the opposite end and nail.

[Russell Stanton]

We have been married for 50 years and she has helped in many projects from installing and engine in a 67 Alfa, body work on a 74 Alfa and she is now a woodturner and artist. She has done pyrography and carving on many of her turned items and on mine as well. We really enjoy our time together in the shop.

[Darcy Warner]

She will be my wife in 13 days, but she helps me with whatever I need. Moving machinery, painting, tailing lumber, hauling stuff, cleaning, organizing etc.

I spent 12 years with someone that showed no interest in anything I did and wouldn't lift a finger to help me out.

[Jon Grider]

My wife is involved in most of our home projects. Her greatest strengths are her keen sense of color, proportion, style and period awareness. We're on our second major home remodeling project and she does lots of research on our projects to keep our MCM home period correct. She has stripped and refinished cabinets and furniture along with painting projects. She gives me someone to bounce ideas off when I'm building things and I usually defer to her judgement when we have different opinions. She is exceptional at finding good deals on stuff for our home.

[Erik Loza]

My wife is quite handy and good at DIY-type stuff and we did projects together during the early days of our relationship but the reality was that I really preferred to do projects alone. It took me a while to come to this realization and in hindsight, created a lot of friction between us in the beginning. We would try to do things "together"and since everyone works at different paces and dexterity levels, I would find myself getting impatient rather than relaxing. Accomplishing projects were my "Erik time" for reliveing stress and We came to the realization that it's OK for me to say, "I want to do this by myself", which does not equal, "I don't want to do this with you". To my lovely wife's credit, she gets it and is glad to give me my space. We were putting together some Ikea furniture yesterday. She took the chairs, I took the tables, and we both got them done at our own paces. It worked out great. For us, the ability to give personal space has been just as important as having the ability or inclination to do it together.

Erik

[Shawn Pixley]

LOML helps / performs on most of out maintenance / improvement projects. We have done one complete house ('20s Craftsman) and several rooms and a deck in our current house. She has a good craftsman's eye for quality and precision. She is not very fond of the saws but nailers, drills, and all hand tools are useful in her hands.

We have to debate colors for a year before there is a meeting of the minds.

[Mike Henderson]

She will be my wife in 13 days, but she helps me with whatever I need. Moving machinery, painting, tailing lumber, hauling stuff, cleaning, organizing etc.

I spent 12 years with someone that showed no interest in anything I did and wouldn't lift a finger to help me out.

Congratulations on your upcoming nuptials. Sounds like you have a winner.

My wife helps me with advice on color and design. She's not interested in the actual construction, which is fine with me. I enjoy making the stuff and there's no deadline.

Mike

[Brian Holcombe]

My wife will usually comment on things that I build, good or bad depending on how she sees it.

[Art Mann]

My wife and I are partners with almost everything we do. In our little CNC router business, she does all the artistic design work, she does some of the toolpathing and she can run the machine by herself on simple jobs. Our house contains many pieces of furniture and cabinetry that I built and we finished together. We have painted the interior of our house together twice. We usually have a vegetable garden and she is right there weeding and harvesting with me. Just last week,I cut down three 12 - 15 inch diameter trees in our yard and ground up the stumps. We both raked away the larger wood pieces and planted grass on the bare spots. We are mostly done with hauling off the brush. She is less than half my weight and (unlike me) she is thin and has a fine bone structure so I don't want her to help with the heavy work. She has a lot of projects of her own and I am usually right in the middle of them. As of next week, we will have been doing things this way for 42 years.

[Mark Felps]

My wife and I often work together. Both as assistants for each other, and as collaborators. We did a set of Christmas ornaments on the scroll saw. She thought my cuts were cleaner, so I did most of the cutting, and she did most of the sanding (which was just fine by me) and then we finished them together. Recently she built a quilt rack for her mother, and i acted as her assistant, holding stuff in place, carrying clamps around for her, etc. She did most of the actual building out of poplar, and then I did a lot of sanding for her. She was nervous about the finish (we used a gel stain) so she let me do that, so I could take the blame if it got messed up.

We like working together and we have different skill strengths. She's actually better at mechanical stuff, so she fixes and sets up tools for me sometimes. She also does a lot of textile work, so when I build my first chair, she'll be there to do cushions for me. We really enjoy working together, although it means sometimes I wind up helping her do quilting stuff, too.

[Cary Falk]

My wife does the research (finds what she wants on Pintrest). I am tasked with getting it completed no matter what the complications may be.

[Jay Larson]

My wife does the research (finds what she wants on Pintrest). I am tasked with getting it completed no matter what the complications may be.

That is my fiancee. She comes up with the ideas, not Pinterest but Houzz, And I am tasked with building it.

Unfortunately, she now has the idea that since I have "too much" lumber of mixed species it doesn't matter that it matches the existing woodwork.