It’s Honey-Do List Blog Swap Day here! A handful of freakin’ fantastic DIY bloggers are spillin’ the beans on the number one thing they’ve learned about doing DIY projects as a partnership.

If you missed the kick-off yesterday, head over to Erin’s blog and check out Day 1, then saunter your pretty lil bottom right back here and check out this wisdom!

(I posted my top tips on Monday, so click here if you missed it!)

Okay, let’s get this party started.

Erin at His and Hers Blog

The biggest lesson in our one year of owning a house: communication. I need to communicate to Rick what I want to do in terms that he can understand, because
A) he rarely can see what I can see,
B) “chevron” and “greige” are not part of his native language, and
C) he often thinks I am insane.

So, the communication of my ideas to him generally involves a picture, sugar cookies, and groveling while holding sugar cookies. On his end, he’s learned to get better about being specific in his communication during projects, say, for example, when he’s balancing a giant board on his head while balancing precariously on a ladder and simultaneously trying to drill…and wants me to help.

I used to get a lot of “Hold this there” and “Move it that way.” Life obviously contains fewer emergency room visits when vague pronouns are eliminated from your DIY vocabulary. DIY life is also better when I pay total attention to what Rick is doing with said board/ladder/drill as opposed to getting distracted by things like chocolate and and shiny things and cats.

Michelle at Decor and the Dog

Nate and I built two homes together.  You definitely learn a thing or two about each other when you spend almost two years building homes from the ground up.  Nate is very meticulous.  He likes to think through every stinking last detail before beginning a project.  And then he thinks through every thing that he just thought through.  Follow that? 

I on the other hand like to jump in and figure things out as I go. You win some and lose some with each of our approaches. We have learned to work with each others approach.

Nate and I start a project together. We line up the materials we need.  I then leave Nate to think through the project. During this time I walk the dog, clean the kitchen, wash 6 loads of laundry, and scrub the toilets. I then rejoin Nate and we start the project. Our developed-over-time approach allows Nate to have plenty of time to think through a project and it gives me time to finish up other things without getting annoyed that he is taking so long.

Carrie at Hazardous Design

The #1 thing I’ve learned while working with my husband is that he’s a perfectionist. He’ll agonize over details that I’d never notice. I don’t think that’s a bad thing, but I do find it interesting that a man who gets annoyed when he can see the seam in a long run of crown molding, or the nail hole that didn’t get covered with caulk, is the same man who continually walks by the pair of shoes he’s left out in the middle of our bedroom floor.

Now let’s hear from you!

What’s the number one thing you’ve picked up while working on crazy projects with your significant other? Any good tips to add?