Too funny! There's no way I'd ever get on our roof, so hats off to you for trying! ( I married an engineer too...I feel your pain )

Haha. Glad you are okay. Tell DH to hire a licensed and bonded contractor! Also, remind him about keeping your homeowners insurance paid up!

I guess i shouldn't be laughing but I am. My XH would never hire anyone to do anything. Why pay someone else when you can do ti yourself? Or, you COULD do it yourself if you knew how and had the right tools and some good help. He had none of those. One time he even made some water skis. He used wood that was so buoyant the kids were practically floating upside down in the water. There was no way to get those suckers down in the water.

He put a roof on the house and the nails he used were too long. Water dripped down them into the attic.

He built a gate and hung it backwards. Mostly he went out and bought all the material and then never got around to doing the project.

Of course, his subs were me and the kids so you know what that was like. He was a dentist and I used to tell him "you be the dentist and let the roofer be the roofer,the plumber be the plumber, etc."

Stay off the roof! Don't touch varmint turds. Call the lawyer to sue your deceased mother! But seriously, take care of yourself. I can't imagine that he would ask you to do that, knowing your health history.

There's a saying that my DH likes to use--"You teach people how to treat you." Recently I have started caring more about me and less about people in my life who show that they don't care very much in return. I see a man who doesn't care much for your well-being, and only you can change that.

I don't know what we can say that we didn't all say in your other thread.

LOL!!!!!!! :)

.... 40 Years of Wild and Wacky Squirrels ..... partying, plotting and pooping ......

...... Ewwwwwwwww .......

This is so funny, but I can relate because I married an engineer too! I remember our "courtship" days spent fixing up his house to sell prior to our marriage and combining households. I'll never forget him insisting I paint the insides of bi-pass closet doors, or the hours he would spend building models of work he was planning to do, such as a model to study how well the laminate was going to hold up on the kitchen cabinets he was refacing (for a house being prepared for sale?!). The first year of our marriage he had me up on the roof with him. Once I got down I told him never again. It's taken a while, but he is now at the point where he agrees to hire most work out. It may take him a year to research a project, but at least we're not doing the work anymore. I say it's time to turn in your own notification!

As to your legal issues, it sounds like you might have a case against not only your mother, but also your DHâ¦and your children, who are the ones who should be climbing out on that roof for their aging parents, one of whom has had a heart attack.

Might as well make the mice Respondents too, and therefore God, for creating the varmints in the first place.

Alas, I suspect we're about the same age, and I go out on the roof when necessary, which fortunately isn't often. I don't like heights. I did get over them, though, in order to keep my elderly father from getting out on his roof to clean gutters and the roof itself, which included climbing over a second-story porch railing and walking about five feet along a width of about 16 inches with no railing and a cement wall and brick path below.

But i I didn't do it, his stubborn self would have.

I can't imagine climbing out on my roof, so my hat's off to you for trying. I agree with other that you should tell your husband to stock up on liability insurance and to hire a licensed and insured contractor.

You are so funny! At least you have an identityâ¦turd cleaner. We almost never hire people to do work. I do all the designing, planning, research, ordering and probably the majority of labor (by a tic) as I am also the finisher and detailer. Husband then comes in and hangs something heavy. Neighbors and friends then come over and tell him how brilliant he is. I get no respect I tell ya!

lol jterrilynn.

My DH was raised in a house where you didn't hire anyone to do anything and he has carried on that tradition. Why? because no one is the perfectionist he is.

Thank you all for you sympathy and stories of similar travail. I must go on record to say that I have the most wonderful husband imaginable. Everyone always tells me how lucky I am to have such a great and gentle man love me so much. I just really like to whine and have pity parties sometimes. Luckily I have no fear of heights and used to be a rock climber and to tell the truth I have on occasion used the old angina trick to get to sit on my butt and play candy crush, or paint or read or anything other than what he wanted me to do.

What does that have to do with suing him for not hiring someone to go up on the roof in lieu of you? This is America! Where children sue parents, and wives sue hubby's mistress for loss of conjugal affection!

I say sue away! Proves you're patriotic!

This post was edited by Tibbrix on Fri, Aug 8, 14 at 19:21

No, you can't sue your mom. Don't you know you marry your dad? Unless you work hard not to, and then you may not be able to live with him either! LOL

Please don't learn the hard way that you don't heal or bounce back as easy at 60 as you do at 20 or 30. Just hire out and supervise enough to let them know you won't settle for 2nd best.

Oh, roof turds. You had certain money in your pocket from a lawsuit against your dear mother's estate. Now how are you planning to make your case? My mother encouraged me to marry this engineer, who " I must go on record to say that I have the most wonderful husband imaginable." ? You can just forget all about a winning lawsuit now.

BTW, this legal advice is worth what you paid for it.

Hahaha! My engineer husband! Finally got him to work on cleaning up the barn. Well there's this loft area that is only accessible by ladder. He's up there digging around and wants me to help him get some stuff down...so it's honey, here catch as he tosses me an electric motor as I'm standing on a ladder! Sure enough, 50 years or more of squirrel nests, motors and machine parts and even a box of papers from his sr year in high school. Good news is he cleaned out a whole pile of junk ...bad news is, he put more stuff up in the loft! So it goes...

Today was even more fun. Split 2 cord of wood, which meant I moved 4 cord of wood...once unsplit and again split. Stupid splitter died and we have 16 more pieces of wood to do. Rats!!! Any idea why my back hurts?

Life as a DIYer, wife of an engineer...

Lol Gyr.

RGPS, I about wet my pants laughing at your post and then Dedtired had to go and make me laugh harder.

If I keep reading your posts I will have to arm myself with depends and a box of tissues. One to wipe my eyes and the other to.....well you know.

Glad dedtired and I can amuse. Can't believe I'm getting no kudos for having given up the life of being Mrs. (Lovey) Thurston Howell the Third. I could have been having a MaiTai with Paris and Kim as we speak.

You're a champ to have give up Thurston for The Professor, but I think I'd rather shovel squirrel turds on a 3 storey roof than have mai-tais or martinis with Kim and Paris!

Well, I married a doctor, who puts those G-tubes (surgical feeding tubes) in people who climb up on their roof, fall off & have head injuries. On top of that, I'm an ER nurse who sees the occassional young adult who falls off a roof and has a serious head injury. If you're old (above 65 with a traumatic injury),
just plain silly to get up on a roof.

My father, at the age of 81, was still climbing up onto the roof and cleaning the pine needles out of the gutters -- and yes, he was an engineer!

Bbstx. Amen to that thought.
Roomy, I too am an ED nurse but only 60 so have a few more years of foolishness left in me. My auntie just gave up cleaning out the gutters at age 92.

Whining is good, how else would we get to laugh. My father was an engineer. An electrical engineer and when we were kids we would get a shock because he would try to fix electrical outlets and leave it open with wires dangling. Anything electrical in the house had to be fixed by others. I have a son, also engineer and he is amazing. Repairs roof, wiring, cooks, gardens, looks after his children. His Dad (my husband) can fix most things but is not so helpful. My son on the other hand is great Dad and husband. Which makes me very happy!

When I was the wife of an engineer, another wife of an engineer told me about a self-help group for wives of engineers. I needed that.
Diane

Interesting and funny thread. I married an engineer (electrical) too. On top of that, have two mini-him-engineers. One mechanical the other computer.

Every day I thank God for my non-engineer dogs.

This is hysterical! My dad was a Civil Engineer, my son is also one. They're perfectionists! It's in their blood. If they can't do it themselves, they have to stand over the job.

Feminists will hate me for saying this, but my excuse in situations like this is for me to say, "But I'm just a girl, I can't do that." hee.

My feminist credentials go in the toilet whenever I say to DH "but that's a BOY job" . I've been saying it a lot lately.

DD married an engineer. I was thrilled. Oh, boy, a man in the fam who can do all of the "Guy Stuff" (I'm a selective feminist!). That boy is wonderful and smart and quite good looking, but he can't measure to hang a picture or a curtain rod or whatever for anything.

Exactly how is it that we all married engineers it seems or were raised by one or produced one. .??

This is so funny and helps me know that I am not alone or crazy. I also married an engineer. We have become diy'ers because we had some mishaps in our home by subcontractors and decided we like our own work better. However, it takes soooooooooooooooo long because he is such a perfectionist. He also works on our cars and will only take one to a mechanic if he knows what the problem is, but also knows he can't fix it. Right now we have a car that makes a noise like a foghorn, but he doesn't know what it is, so he won't get it fixed. He will only fix things if it has a negative affect on him, so I have to devise ways of making something grab his attention.

My friend just stands at the bottom of the ladder and says loudly "be careful Paycheck!!" when her DH tries to do these things.

Good Lord of Mercy! Ya'll ain't Southern ladies are ya? My place is IN the (air-conditioned) home, not up ON it...in the heat...cleaning out animal waste! Anytime I (pretend) to start to do something that requires standing on a stool or heavy lifting, using a hammer, DH says "here, give me that before you hurt yourself. Just tell me what you want done and I'll do it" :) I didn't marry an engineer (and I think I'm glad I didn't!) I married an utter genius when it comes to anything related to building homes. OK, his one downfall is plumbing. Even I know you don't hit plumbing pipes with a large wrench!!! As a rule, we don't hire things to be done around here either. And when we do, he's right in there working with them (to make sure it gets done right, he says). Having said that, I will admit that there are times I wish I weren't thought of as so "dainty" or "tender". OP, I'm very thankful you survived and have enough sense to NOT go back up there.

Anyone who gets up on your roof should be licensed and bonded, and takes that risk upon himself or herself as part of the job. Your DH needs a lesson in the mechanics of hiring the right people for the job ;-)

We hire out everything possible as our local economy is depressed; if we do our own work it deprives someone else of a job. I hire out everything from changing the light bulbs to bathing the dogs purely as a patriotic gesture.

That's my story and I am sticking with it!

I guess I am the anomaly here. I am an engineer and I also married one. He thinks he can do anything, and he really can do a lot, especially electrical and mechanical work (the lawn mower, tractor, small machinery, etc and some plumbing) but he's also a stubborn y-chromosome. I think that factors into it more than the engineer-part.

I, on the other hand, will gladly write a check to the most-qualified bidder (also being acquisition program manager trained). It's the right thing to do when the task is beyond in-house capability. And yes, it supports the local economy!

Julie, that line by your friend cracked me up!

Did you have things rigged up around the house? 3 engineers in this family. One example is growing up we never had a key. We had a stick of wood on a peg that ha a magnet in it. You rubbed it by the garage door wall in a certain spot and the door wood open. I am sure friends thought we were kooky, but it worked!

I married the opposite of all mentioned above. My husband was pretty proud when he changed the battery in the smoke detector last night! I told him at least he knows more than his dad, who hasn't gotten past the light bulb stage. I'm the diyer in my place and I haven't gotten beyond faucet replacement.

funny thread! I am not an engineer, but if I were graduating from hs and going to college now, I very well might have chosen engineering as my degree.
I am the diyer in our family too and sometimes dream of having a husb who says, 'here, give me that before you hurt yourself.' like monikakm's!! my husb would be the dream husb for those who want to hear 'just hire someone!!' but I have wished over the years that he loved the challenge and satisfaction of doing a project like I do!! he's very smart with what he does, but does not excel at home maintainance and repair... he used to try in the early years, but his frustration and my perfectionist tendencies squelched that! I do a lot around the house, but never got on the roof!! maybe because we usually tend to buy new/newer houses and move before they get too old...

When the pipes freeze and we have to go down to phoenix we will be moving in with our daughter since our son swiped the condo. Her house is an old farm house built in the early 30s that is in great shape but it will be very interesting to see what trouble DH engineer will cause down there.

I come from a long line of engineers.

Does anyone else have a wiffle ball suspended strategically from the garage ceiling? When it touches your windshield, you know you've pulled in to the *exact* right spot.

Thanks, Dad. As for your clever "invisible" fish-line eyeglass strap....I think I'll stick with contact lenses. :-)

Oh yes, we had that too. I think it was a tennis ball though.

Oh how I feel your pain! Another spouse of an engineer here who will not hire out house projects. My engineer DH suffers from renovation ADD where he bounces around from major project to the next without ever completing them. Current list of ongoing projects: he removed a kitchen pantry to make a mud room and consolidate 2 back doors into 1, not completed, then he moved on to finish the basement, and add a bathroom and new laundry room, that's pretty close but the bathroom and laundry room are just getting started, built ins in our master bedroom he started 3 years ago and I got impatient and hired a carpenter to complete, but our carpenter is even slower than he is! Then our main bathroom shower stall leaked he began demo on the shower and made a temporary shower over the tub but halted that project to concentrate on the basement. Now I have studs and rotted floor exposed where our shower stall was, I'm estimating it will look like this for about 2 years before he can focus some attention on it. Our kitchen was renovated by him in 2007, still needs a backsplash installed. But I'm not allowed to hire someone to install. Oh and he helped my cousin who is an electrician re wire out house when we moved in and never patched the holes in the ceilings and walls. It's on the "to do" list.
Oh the joys of being an engineers wife!