No, not the type of home improvements many of us do around the house, i.e. kicking a falling apart dresser in shape, nailing a picture frame, or putting in proverbial light bulbs.

When my husband had just started his carpentry business, I was in school (I still am, but in a different one; the first school landed me an air-conditioned, dry, and heated-in-the-winter-time office job), and I used to work with him for about a year or two. I still do work with him when time allows or circumstances call for it.

Most of the clients we worked for were families. There was one single male and several single female clients. Females don’t bat an eye when they see their handyman show up with his wife as a helper. They actually prefer, I think, this type of an arrangement, because they know that the female will look after the mess, and leave the place as she found it or better than when she walked into a house. Males, on the other hand, have to supervise the work. I am not sure if it’s a natural male trait to supervise in general, or if they have to see for themselves if a female is actually capable of anything handy or is she just there to pad out the bill.

Our latest client was particularly interested in the husband-wife dynamics of the carpentry project. He surreptitiously observed us from the windows of the house while we replaced his screens on the porch. I was acting as my husband’s helper because he simply knows the process better than I do and he is the leader on the job (as opposed to in-the-household-realm where I rule, of course). But this time, knowing that we were observed, I was trying particularly hard to move with confidence around the job site and perform every task with the real know-how. Fortunately, the job was not that difficult. If I had to cut beams or joists, it would be more difficult to pull off this level of confidence. Overall, I think I pulled it off. The client was satisfied with the work, on top of the entertainment he received observing our work-family dynamics.

No, don’t get me wrong, this is not something I would do full-time (though, I would not be too bad at it). There is a reason why I chose an office job instead of carpentry. Rain, cold, and heat are not my forte. I prefer to be more comfortable on a day-to-day basis (though it is nice to change the pace once in a while). Fiberglass in every orifice of your body, dead cats or rodents, camelbacks jumping on your face, dust in your nose, sand and sanded-old-paint in your eyes and mouth, animal urine or feces under your clothes, mold – these are some of the pleasures you may encounter when working under a house- are not the things that will endear you to the world of carpentry. But it is pleasant to look around you at the end of a back-breaking, sweat-filled, or itchy day and see transformations you achieved around someone’s house, as well as feel good about tangible results you have accomplished during the day. Office paperwork does not give me the same satisfaction.