Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Words - Confusing

I did mention in one of my blog posts that I would tell you all about how doing DIY in the US can be confusing when it comes to the names of things, so here are some examples.

We spent ages in Home Depot looking for skirting boards, funnily enough they also come in lots of different types over here, you can get the normal plain wood skirting that you just paint or stain and varnish or there is this stuff that is like compressed chipboard (its probably made out of something completely different but i can't think of another way to describe it right now). It turns out they are called baseboards!

To repair the walls where we ripped out the cabinets in the bathroom we just needed some plain old polyfilla, now this is called something completely different and I never would have guessed in a million years Spackle!!!!! go figure!

Oh, I just remembered, I forgot to mention Taps, or faucets as they are called here.

4 comments:

  1. So funny - I have my own list going for sure :) I forget what you call bedskirts in the UK?

    I hope you will join me for my Expat Blog Party on March 19th :)

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  2. Hi Sam!
    For the bubbling veneer on the desk, there are a couple of options. I did not tear off the veneer and replace it since that would cost money and I don't like that.
    If you put a sheet on the desk and apply a hot iron, it *may* reactivate the glue and make the veneer lay down flat. You would pile something heavy on top til it dries.
    If this doesn't work there other methods, involving cutting the bubbles and squirting glue underneath.
    I was too lazy for all of that, so I just refinished it how it was and I'm going to try the hot iron trick.

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  3. Hi there,
    Funny post! Sorry it took me so long to get back to you. I'm not really sure what you're talking about with the edges of the tiles in our bathroom. What part of the vanity did you mean.
    I would be happy to tell you anything I know. If I can. lol
    Kelly
    I have a "contact me" link to my email at the top bar of my blog. We can talk there:)

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  4. So funny. My husband is from Brighton and he definitely has had some word confusion since he moved here. I actually prefer your versions a lot of the time. We are trying to teach our daughter to use a lot of the English terms. Rubbish sounds so much nicer than trash. :) Thanks for popping by my blog!

    ReplyDelete

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