Do it Yourself

The Christmas holidays are a great time for visiting family, going out with friends and eating and drinking more than usual. In between all of that most people like to lie on the sofa, watch films, read the paper or a book and generally take it easy.

Unfortunately this Christmas holiday I have been busy with different pass time, DIY. DIY (said ‘D’ ‘I’ ‘Y’ , not ‘die’) stands for Do it Yourself. It is the term used to describe work you do to your home that you do yourself, for example decorating or putting up shelves. You can pay people to do these jobs for you, but a lot of people prefer to save some money and do it themselves. Like me, most people I know hate doing DIY, but you normally have a huge sense of achievement when you have finished.

This holiday we have been working on our sitting room. First of all we stripped the wallpaper. We used a steamer which makes the job easier and it’s very satisfying to get rid of the wallpaper, but that’s only the beginning. Then we had to prepare the walls by sanding them to make them smooth. Next we painted the skirting boards and the door frames before painting the walls and the ceiling.

Now all of that is finished I can sit down and see what films are on the TV. Then again, the television has been so bad this Christmas I think I’d rather watch paint dry.

The paper – the newspaper
Take it easy – relax, don’t do much
Decorating – paining walls or putting up wallpaper etc.
Sense of achievement – a feeling that you have worked hard at something and feel you have achieved something good
Sitting room – the room where most people go to relax, watch television etc; sometimes called the lounge
Stripped the wallpaper – took wallpaper off the walls
Steamer – a machine to help strip wallpaper; like a big kettle that uses steam to loosen the paper
Skirting boards – the wooden boards that are at the bottom of a wall, next to the floor
I’d rather watch paint dry – an expression that helps you describe that something is/would be very boring
‘Would you like to come to the Natural History Museum to see the new dinosaur exhibition?’
‘No thanks! I’d rather watch paint dry!’