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Are you a home improvement exclusion zone? Does the difference between a hammer and a chisel elude you? Well now there's no excuse; there are a whole host of virtual DIY dads to teach you the ropes in cyberspace. Sit back and tune in to our indispensable top ten DIY video links. As VideoJug.com puts it: "Life explained. On film."
1. Dave the builder gives a useful guide on finding the right tiles, preparing a wall, fixing the tiles and finishing the job, set out in two short video clips: how to tile a bathroom wall.
2. How to hang a door - after watching this 18-step (yes, that's eighteen) video guide, you'll be eligible for a PhD in door-hanging. As the summing up at the end of the video goes: "that's well hung."
3. Three minutes and four seconds on how to fix a dripping tap.
4. It could save your life: how to fit a smoke alarm.
5. Blown a fuse? House plunged into darkness? This video tells you how to fix the problem (but only, obviously, if you watch it before the electricity actually goes off...): how to change a fuse in a traditional fuse box.
6. Should you be unfortunate enough to have to replace your door handles, save on handy man costs by fitting your own: how to fit a door handle.
7. We've all done it once: just slapped on the emulsion without sanding or stripping the wallpaper, only to find the walls peeling within days. Watch this to understand the dark art of how to prepare a wall for painting.
8. How to fit a cat flap. Does what it says on the tin. Further delving into this link will lead you to clips on how to feed and look after your cat too...
9. These two videos make preparing and laying a wooden floor seem as easy as making a cup of tea. How to lay a real wood floor.
10. Fed up with your kitchen? Replace the worktops! You guessed it: how to replace a kitchen worktop
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My dad left my mum with three girls under the of eleven and one boy aged twelve in 1950 I learnt to do most DIY from books
My first husband wanted me to wait for him to do the DIY and behave like a female, his words. I was not prepared to wait I found another husband who hates DIY. I have learnt over the years not to be afraid of power tools and have had lessons at my local college on the best way to use them. Ladies it is easy there is no mystery be brave you will be delighted.
pamela meredith, Bexhill, East Sussex
Lack of DIY skills? Look no further than single-parent families headed by a woman. Dare I say it? Feminism inspired legislation has deprived sons and even daughters of a male role model. When I was guardian for Japanese students in UK, you would not believe the âbuzzâ the boys got from learning to change front brake pads on their cars in less than 10 minutes. Hardly rally service crew standards, but you have to start somewhere.
But beware of amateur enthusiasm, because that's the blind leading the blind.
Andrew Milner, Karuizawa, Nagano