If you want the job done right, do it yourself

In sub-zero cold, I joyfully marched across the barren garden towards our building. With running nose and numb toes, I carried a pile of pine boards as if it were my precious dream.

I always envy the "handy men" - experts at DIY, which neither my husband nor I had the ambition to practice. Thanks to a cunning salesman, we tasted the joy of renovating our own home.

As tailor-made wardrobes tend to cost a fortune, we decided to cover the walls with paper, build iron shelves, lay wooden boards and cover them with slide doors.

We found the ideal wallpaper, iron shelves and slide doors without too much trouble. At B&Q, a big decoration department store, we found the "Russian pine" board. At the size of two dining table surfaces, each board is glued together by small pieces of pine. But its price was way beyond our budget.

At a stall selling bathroom ceilings, we spotted a dehydrated pine board. The owners, a couple from southern China, entreated us to sit down and offered us water. They said that each board is made from a single pine and no chemical glue is involved in the processing.

At 110 yuan ($15) per sq m, this seemed to be the best choice. We happily signed the contract, but didn't ink our requirements specifically. Two months flew by before we got everything ready to lay the boards for the shelves. Surprisingly, we heard that we had to cut the 150 boards from 2-m pieces to required sizes.

"I didn't promise you to install them," said the man with a moustache. "In fact, I varnished the boards twice, which I never did for other customers."

Xiao Shu, our decoration director, refused to cut the boards. "What kind of a man are you, if you make empty promises and don't install your stuff for your customer?" he said furiously and left us in heated argument.

I've spent most of my life in classrooms and offices. Dealing with such emergencies required expertise and eloquence that I simply don't have. My husband finally got the pine man to cut the boards shorter with a hand saw.

As the shelves are of varying sizes, narrower boards are needed to fit each row. But the pine boss insisted he didn't have a larger electric saw to slide the boards narrower.

With reluctance, Xiao Shu agreed to lend us his saw, which he had left at another house. His workers have all left town for family reunions in the Spring Festival. In spring, they will decorate for our neighbor.

As we carried the piles of pine boards back and forth, the security guards and cleaners all looked on with disbelief. Most owners rely on workers to do everything and seldom move a muscle in the decoration.

We moved the boards inside and stuck them together on shelves that I have designed. Like two bees, we built our closets piece by piece. The bright pine boards look great with blue iron shelves against claret wallpaper.

My knees ached that night. But we couldn't sleep and kept on talking about our happy new life, especially with the new closets which will soon be covered with beautiful slide doors.

(China Daily 01/23/2008 page20)