Since I am back in Paris, I have been staying with my mother, who lives alone and is terrible at DIY. Her bathroom tap has been liking a little for ages, and she puts a small bowl to collect the dripping water, which she uses to water her plants. No big waste, just postponing things you could fix in a few hours. She also is a smoker and has very dark walls, because the smoke stains the paintings.
I have offered to clean those walls for her. I don’t know the first thing about plumbing but this may be my next task, to fix her tap. I use a lot of Youtube tutorials, and google my way around those things. I was about to paint her walls, and looking at paint qualities when she mentioned that the person who previously painted her living room said they could be washed. After doing some research, I learned that you can clean the walls with a bit of soap, hot water and a very clean sponge. You need to dry the wall as you go, to avoid leaving some stains.
I find it very nice to help people, because it makes them happy and my time is basically free, I have a lot of free time. So when I offer to baby-sit my niece so that my sister can go out, or when I paint my mother’s living room, I see a big smile on their faces.
Furthermore, it allows me to learn some new skills, like last year when I was putting wallpaper on a friend’s wall, and painting, I learned how to do all that, and the next time around I won’t have to pay someone to do it for me.
My dream being to buy a run down house and fix it up myself, all those skills will help me with my goal.