How do you make DIY more fun?

I know what you're thinking.... MORE FUN?? No.. that's simply not possible! I'm sure you spend many hours putting the Blue Peter training to good use with your love of DIY all day long.

If you've sucessfully left your Tracy Island obsession well behind you and now avoid even watching 'Home Improvement' shows because it all looks too much like hard work. Then this post is really for you!

My DIY ventures have really been few and far between and in the tradition of British building, start late, end even later, are a bit 'fudged' around the edges and need to be torn down in a few years and done properly. Add in a healthy dose of... hmm... I'll have a cup of tea first.

A prime example of this is my 'floating' shelf from IKEA. Which whilst it was floating...was also tilting. As it was above the sofa, this lead to many guests pointing out concerns that it was clearly on the verge of collapse and opting to stand rather than sit. You'll be pleased to know that this was eventually corrected and is now a perfectly level floating shelf with screws so F^&king big, if that thing goes, it's taking the WHOLE WALL WITH IT!!

So this week I was faced with another DIY dilema. LCD monitor bracket (well I say this week.. I actually I got the bracket a few weeks ago.. got it out of it's packaging. Admired it and then promptly put it down). This was a mistake on multiple levels as for the life of my I can't find the screws that came with it!

Deciding this week that I really did need to try and put it up I decided to pull on the wisdom of crass stereotypes of builders. What did they have, that I didn't. The answer was staring my in the face the whole time. BEER!

Beer is a miracle of invention. Armed with a couple of beers (no more than that of course, I'm not totally crazy!) I was now very confident that I could easily attach the bracket and not having the screws would in no way impeed my drilling skills!

Amazingly I'm still alive, the bracket is up! A feet of engineering genius that I was and am incredibly proud of! (I was sure it would have fallen down by now!)

So the moral of the story is. Bob the builder's gotta be plastered!! I mean his trucks and things are talking to him and singing! No wonder he thinks he can fix everything!!!