I believe that I stooped to an all-time new low in terms of home repair last weekend. It's going to be best to not let my dad know about it. I am not sure he could survive the humility.

Dad's been slowed by a severe stroke he suffered four years ago but, up until that time, he was a real whiz at home repair and improvement projects. By himself, he built most of the house that I spent many of my growing up years in. Unfortunately, I didn't inherit any favorable DNA in that area.

My lack of home repair skills is embarrassing -- it really is. Fact is, my job is actually a part of the home improvement industry. Yes, on the manufacturing end of things, but I have hundreds of homeowners each year who seek me out specifically to answer their questions about home repair. I have been on radio talk shows and written numerous magazine articles. You'd think I'd know what I am doing. Yet I remain a blubbering idiot when it comes to home repair.

I can look at things and picture in my mind what they should look like. Sometimes, I will even know what tools are needed and, at least theoretically, I will know how to get from "Point A" to "Point Perfection" but then reality sinks in ... doing those things will require real work and real time ... and real expensive tools. I just don't care to "go there" once I get to thinking about it.

So, I either ignore, procrastinate, or blunder my way through things half-way. Things always look worse after I am done with them even if they do work better.

So, what did I do last weekend? What was the horrible home repair sin I committed? I hate to even admit it. I fixed a broken towel bar with hot melt glue. I felt a bit like Martha Stewart but it was still wrong ... very, very wrong. It was not a good thing. Fact is, I think the towel bar is going to stay in place and work for a long time. It's not pretty but it works. The biggest problem, though, is that someday someone will uncover it, see what I did, and mutter a few profanities in my memory. Oh well, it's not every day you get to make someone swear.