Blinking back the tears.....

[Big Al]

I don't have any advice for OCD,

>>>>>> when you do let me know because my wife suffers from OCD. The traits for her is constant watching of football, cricket, rugby and even bloody golf now !!!
I've often thought it was the idea of watching men in shorts with funny shaped balls but now it's also women golfers......

This occurs on a weekend and also on a night... oh and a saturday afternoon or sunday morning for the live elements of football and rugby........

.... if only the traites extended to the housework or gardening........

[prison break fan]

Julie, I think the beds look fabulous, and I think you are lucky to have a husband to build them! I know you don't mean to moan about them, but spare a thought for us poor widows and single folk who can only look on in envy!! pbf

[Rosendula]

Big Al, You sound like you need a Big Hug

You too, Julie

And everyone else

Group hug time!!!!!

[MuddyWitch]

Having just spent the weekend sieving soil on to several of my beds I just like to go for a bit of hubby swapping...mine's a dab hand at weeding, but just as anal!

Chin up, kiddo.

MW

[Green Aura]

Oh Julie, we can't half pick 'em eh?

We nearly come to blows when tackling any form of DIY - divorce always gets suggested.

Many years ago I got a frantic phone call from my SIL to "come and sort out your ****ing brother!".

She'd bought a new carpet exactly the right width for their son's bedroom - my very smart bro wanted to cut a strip off the full length of the carpet and put pieces in the alcoves, instead of just cutting out a piece for the chimney breast.

My OH is just the same - these days I just look at him, mouth the words "easy way/ hard way" and start whistling winnie the pooh (another thead!) and he usually comes round.

[Peggy Sue]

Ah I'm not the only one with an OCD husband. He's kicked off coz my garlic isn't in a straight line. He has an obsession with onions and potatoes (both of which cost bog all to buy by the sacka nd taste not alot different) and is filling the entire allotment with these- in very striaght lines.

A few lonely leeks have survived the rabbit attack, but he dug those up as they needed tidying. So one bed is so tidy now there's nothiing in it- no weeds, no veg, but tidy. The other men will comment on how tidy it is and he'll be happy- oh to eat veg, just the odd leek even....

Mustn't be ungrateful as you say!

[JulieSherris]

Ok - deep breath here....

Today, he was back at work..... Yay!!

So, I planted my broad beans, peas & spring onions & onions in the first 2 beds.... He made me a plywood template so I don't have to guess the spacings... and everything is planted nice & neat.... haha, whether it GROWS nice & neat is another matter

And then because I still had a pocket full of peas, I went around the bank & part of the fence shoving a few in here & there... well, if they come up all well & good, & if they don't, well, I've still got LOADS of peas left so nothing lost - although I know THEY won't be growing in nice neat lines & I shall deny all knowledge

Tomorrow I take charge of soil filling duties... and I expect to have the next 4 beds done by teatime

[bodrighy]

I read this thread partly with amusement and partly with embarassment that any husbands can be that bad Sue and have a mutual understanding that neither of us will ever get things the way the other would like so we don't try to. In our thinking nature is never in straight lines, rarely does the expected and is totaly in charge of plants, animals, weather etc. After 35 years we both have permanent teeth marks in our tongues and have been up and down the wall a few times but have learnt that we both have skills the other doesn't and shouldn't expect them to have. I learnt that life isn't about give and take, it's about give and recieve. Give and take always ends up with one person being the giver and the other being tghe taker. Our way we both give and both recieve but never take.

That's the ideal anyway. B****y hard work getting here. Our kids summed it up when they bot us each a sign for our new home. Hers says " A young chick lives here with an old rooster" mine says " If at first you don't succeed, ask Dad".

Pete

[JulieSherris]

You know, we're ALL different - and yet we mostly find common ground - especially on forums such as these.

Andy was brought up by parents who were a LOT older (he was adopted) and his Mum is the most infuriatingly 'perfect' person I've ever met.... she even pops her lippy on to answer the telephone (I kid you not)
So it's not surprising that he should have his little eccentricities - and in the most part, we live a happy compromise at home.

We're opposite ends of the spectrum - I rush in & get the job done with what I can find around me - if it needs to look pretty, I'll paint it after.... he has to sit & draw plans, go online, research, measure, make another drawing to scale, price up materials, measure again - look for better ideas online again, make another drawing...... in the meantime, I could have played quite happy with hammer & nails & got it done!

I think I was just coming to the end of a long 11 days of him being home - and in 2 weeks, he has ANOTHER 11 days off
But all being well, we might just have the chook house done & plans drawn up for the rabbit hutches.... unless I get the hutches done next week, before he has a chance to put pen to paper

[Big Al]

You know, we're ALL different - and yet we mostly find common ground - especially on forums such as these.

Andy was brought up by parents who were a LOT older (he was adopted) and his Mum is the most infuriatingly 'perfect' person I've ever met.... she even pops her lippy on to answer the telephone (I kid you not)
So it's not surprising that he should have his little eccentricities - and in the most part, we live a happy compromise at home.

We're opposite ends of the spectrum - I rush in & get the job done with what I can find around me - if it needs to look pretty, I'll paint it after.... he has to sit & draw plans, go online, research, measure, make another drawing to scale, price up materials, measure again - look for better ideas online again, make another drawing...... in the meantime, I could have played quite happy with hammer & nails & got it done!

I think I was just coming to the end of a long 11 days of him being home - and in 2 weeks, he has ANOTHER 11 days off
But all being well, we might just have the chook house done & plans drawn up for the rabbit hutches.... unless I get the hutches done next week, before he has a chance to put pen to paper

I still think you are being hard on him or could it be envy.... now there's a thought. Could you be envious of him being as perfect as he could be....

So long as the food's on the table and the tv is plugged in then my wife couldn't give a monkey's chuff as to where it all came from so be happy that you have him even if his little foibles drive you nuts. you would be lost without him, I bet.

[lsm1066]

I think you have to actually have a perfectionist husband to know how terribly frustrating it can be. I bet he even lives by the addage "even when I'm wrong, I'm right" too Julie. The trouble is, we're always the ones who end up seeming ungrateful because they did this beautiful job and made everything perfect. The fact that they took ages to do it doesn't seem to figure in their thinking (Simon took 5 years to build a bookcase for instance, but it was so beautiful that even though it was bolted in to the walls in the old house, it was dismantled and moved with us).

So we're seen as nagging wives because if we want anything done that we can't physically do, we have to keep on and on and on until they finally can't take the nagging any more and do it for a quiet life. Or (as in my case) we ask how something's going and then pointedly don't mention it again for weeks.

I suppose what I'm saying is, I understand. You have my sympathy, as does everyone who doesn't have the luxury of someone to do it for them. But to those who feel that we're lucky, just imagine how it would feel to be looking at half a ceiling for 4 years because you don't have the time or the skills, whereas they do but they ran out of the particular type of screw that they used and since it's imperial, they don't make them any more so they're on the computer for 4 hours researching screws to find out where they can get them from (on a daily basis? I think not!)

Oh dear, that turned into something completely different. But just so's you know, I'm looking for a bricklaying evening class.

Lynne

[Millymollymandy]

Oh dear - you guys have my sincere sympathies.

You should see my veg patch early in the year - everything growing in nice straight lines cos I bothered to get the pegs and string out. Then see it in late summer when I decided to just do it by 'eye'.

Anyway I got my broad beans in yesterday too. I do hope I am going to like them!

[Big Al]

>>>> snipped

Oh dear, that turned into something completely different. But just so's you know, I'm looking for a bricklaying evening class.

Lynne

now we are getting there.... DIY.....,lol. That leaves more time for the men to indulge in things they WANT to do not HAVE to so....

[TheGoodEarth]

The traits for her is constant watching of football, cricket, rugby and even bloody golf now !!!

Sounds like the perfect wife! Does she drink beer too?

[Annpan]

<<<<snipped>>>>

..... they do but they ran out of the particular type of screw that they used and since it's imperial, they don't make them any more so they're on the computer for 4 hours researching screws to find out where they can get them from (on a daily basis? I think not!)

That sound terribly familiar

The only trouble in this house is that I tend not to wait for him to do it.... if it hasn't been done in a timely fasion I get the tool box out and start randomly banging things together (I am NOT a perfectionist when it comes to DIY - though I do know how to do things properly, I am often too Pi$$ed off by that point to care ) then he usually has to tidy up the mess and make me a cup of tea because I am so exhausted having been 'working' all day. And then I utter that old phrase "well, you should have done it yourself then"