Submariners And Home Repairs

As my "Honey-Do" list starts to get longer and longer, I found myself thinking about how Submariners make such great husbands. (Hey, it's a less taxing use of my time than actually finding the short in my sprinkler system controller or fixing the leak from the hot water chamber of my water cooler.) And why is it that Submariners are such a catch, husband-wise? It's because, generally, we're much better than average at fixing things around the house. At least, in our own minds we are.

Enlisted submariners and LDOs, I've noted, tend to be really good at home improvement projects. Us officers, though, are probably another matter. I can't speak for everyone, but I've seen more "amateurish" home "repairs" in officer's homes than most other places. This comes from one of the cardinal rules of nuclear submarining -- if you ever see an officer with a tool in his hands, there's something very, very wrong going on. Because we can't fix things on the boat, we tend to try to overcompensate at home. I put in some ceiling lights and fans at our first house in Connecticut, and they worked great; luckily, the home inspector for the buyer never looked closely at the wiring job I did in the attic, because I'm sure it wasn't up to code. (One of the lights was off center in the room, 'cause I kind of put my knee through the ceiling when trying to get where I wanted to go, and put the light in that hole.) I recently replaced a garbage disposal in our sink (up-check), then was surprised when the dishwasher didn't drain anymore because I hadn't read the directions and knocked out the plug from the dishwasher connection (downgrade). Luckily for our wives, officers make quite a bit of money, so we can hire professionals to fix our mistakes before we have to sell the house. (That being said, I think even officers are better than the general public at fixing stuff around the house.)

How about you guys? Have you ever done a home improvement project that actually increased the value of your home?