I can do simple things, especially now that there always seems to be a youtube video to help. In my car I've replaced bulbs for tail lights, the cabin and engine air filters and the front and back wiper blades. I'm usually good at putting together furniture that requires at-home assembly, and am quite proud of my ability to put together bookcases and bedframes by myself even though you really need four hands to get it right. I once used six packs of Diet Coke to hold up the sides of two new bookcases so I could attach the bottom pieces to them. I was able to replace all the door knobs in my condo except for a couple where the holes were not properly drilled in the doors. I replaced most of the door hinges, too.

I wanted to replace all the electrical outlets and light switches by myself, and even posted here about it (years ago). But I couldn't get past the thought that everything would seem to be working fine but really something would be wrong and then the whole place would burn down. So I hired an electrician. Once I tried to put up new curtain rods, but I couldn't get them straight. Finally I called a friend who's really handy, the son of a plumber, and he put them up for me. He made it look so easy.

I tried to paint my kitchen cabinets when I first moved into my condo but I made a mess and didn't like the way they turned out. Luckily I found a good contractor to renovate the kitchen and bathroom -- with new custom cabinets in both rooms. The painters who did the other rooms and replaced all the door trim and base boards were a disaster -- they did a terrible job and dripped paint on my furniture.

I've enjoyed getting into the details of the kitchen and bathroom work, with the cabinet diagrams and the tile designs. But I didn't inherit a natural ability to actually do the work. I would figure it out eventually, I think, but would have to fix too many mistakes and probably a few disasters along the way. And I don't have the patience for that.