I bought a stud finder yesterday and planned to put up my gallery system today but it is not as simple as one might imagine. In the dining room the stud finder found so many electric wires running along the tops of the walls I decided I had better not to touch it. The bedroom had more regular studs and no electric wires so I decided I could install picture rails there myself.
I went off to the building materials shop to get a drill bit (to drill holes in the metal picture rail) and appropriate screws. I asked a couple of blokes at the shop about building methods in the 1960s and whether the wiring was pulled along the top of the walls.
'Oh an old house could be built any way at all,” I was told.
“So what type of tradesman would hang gallery picture rails?”
"Oh just a handyman!".
I remembered the handyman who had cleaned out the gutters for me and said "Oh but he might not know much more than me!"
Both gentlemen looked appalled at the thought.
"Oh yes he would!" one of them said.
"Oh be careful" cautioned the boss, "are you saying she is stupid?"
We joked about that but I could tell I had hurt their feelings.
I explained that I was worried about the electrical wires and the boss gave me the name and number of a local builder. He looked very put out though, like a doctor whose patients who come in with information or misinformation off the Internet.
Its a new world they have to get used to, patients who think they know more than the doctors and women who think they might know as much as a handyman.
I left the shop without the drill bit or the information about whether to use dry wall or wood screws. (I think the latter.) Tomorrow I will go to the friendly little hardware shop in Umina and get the drill bit and I am sure I can find information about screws on the Internet!
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