The trick with home maintenance is making sure it don't spiral into relationship repair.
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Easier said than done when you slide down that rabbit hole without the requisite skills.
Because there's a fine line between wanting to make something better and in the process making it a whole lot worse.
And once things are said about problems around the house and people's inability or unwillingness to attempt fix those problems - well, they can't be unsaid. Or unheard. Or unignored.
Indeed, there's a reason why fantasy sagas like Game of Thrones are so popular.
It's because normal folk recognise something lurking beyond the logical.
It's not dragons. It's called a dripping tap and it's the psychological abyss that threatens to consume all domestic harmony.
Representing the slow hemorrhage of faith in each other to prevail against the unknown.
In this case, plumbing. A simple science they say. Water always flows downhill.
Like morale when the leak keeps leaking.
It's been dripping for years, you say, can't we keep ignoring it in the interests of domestic harmony?
But something that wasn't a problem yesterday, and possibly won't be tomorrow, is definitely today.
So get yourself a stamp and a postcode and address that thing, NOW.
Not that this reference to ancient forms of communication will resonate across all generations.
But put the mobile phone away and try denying the shit ain't real when Elvis threatens to leave the building permanently.
House maintenance demands your attention in this way.
Just when you thought the weekend was going to be fun.
An emotional catharsis erupts with no guarantee an answer will follow.
Just a lot of time in the room of mirrors. (It was a bathroom tap)
And multiple trips to the hardware store.
Probably a washer, you say out loud, but how to get to that washer without ripping the tap out of the wall?
Thus requiring the attention of not only a plumber, but now a tiler, and probably a builder if you give it a red hot go.
Funny, this was supposed to be about saving money.
A test on so many levels.
The need to fix something.
The inability to do so.
The rush to YouTube to find salvation.
"Remove tap head from screwless spindle" is typed into the search engine.
"All is lost, how did it come to this" spells out between the lines.
Thankfully those sort of thoughts aren't recorded in our cookies, yet.
Just the body language.
Home maintenance has morphed into co-existence calamity.
So much water under the bridge.
So many drips down the plughole.
Just got to make sure the relationship doesn't follow.
