We are two Gen X empty nesters who met at a bar in Vancouver in 1991 and have been married since 1994.
I (Rob) am a weekend handyman with no formal training in the trades. I am not a finishing carpenter by any stretch of the imagination but i do a decent (if slow) job on a variety of projects. I have done a lot of work to make and keep the house liveable including redoing both bathrooms, replacing the knob and tube wiring, refinishing floors, replacing the front porch, insulating and drywalling, and replacing windows. I basically refinished the entire basement that we are about to replace. I learned by watching my father add drywall, replace taps, add circuits and tackle most household jobs. I have also had friends with construction experience patiently teach me how to replace windows and doors and tackle bigger projects.
Sarah is a lapsed Master Gardener whose parents went back to the land in the 1980’s taking her from downtown Toronto to a farm in the Canadian shield north of Highway 7. She too was raised watching her father and mother restore an old farm house largely with their own skill. Perhaps that is why she has put up with decades of projects and years of sheets of drywall propped in the basement hallway. While Rob worked inside and on the house, Sarah worked in the garden, establishing flower beds and growing vegetables. Her garden contains almost 10 varieties of irises, lots of different hostas and many plants acquired from her parents and friends.
Decades ago we came up with a marital harmony agreement (the MHA) where Sarah is in charge of the design decisions and I just put the paint on the walls. This has generally worked out and saves me from having to express an opinion about whether i think a 1 inch square of a certain colour will look good on a particular wall. There is no right answer and it all rolls on the same way. We both like old houses and have grown up with parents who taught themselves how to build and maintain homes in the days before YouTube and the internet. For fun we watch Holmes on Homes and Escape to the Chateaux, and read This Old House magazine.