<p>I am the D and grandD of engineers, DH is both engineer and architect, 2 bros engineers, 2 sisters engineers, 2 sons going to study engineering. We have more wires and tools than some hardware stores.</p>
<p>My dad spent an entire winter planning a picnic table for our porch when I was 14. We had 10 people in the family so it had to be large and relatively substantial. When he finally did finish it (!), the seats were two inches too low so he rebuilt the whole thing out of metal tubing and metal barn roofing.</p>
<p>We moved into our house in 1986, and my husband moved boxes that he had moved into the old house when he bought it (1980). The boxes contained “stuff” he’d saved as a kid & in college. He hasn’t opened them since, but they continue to collect dust in a corner of the unfinished part of our basement. He just can’t part with anything! Of course, I figure that bodes well for me … :)</p>
<p>OH! I forgot: we have had a home-made boat keel in our garage for 7 years now. After we got the keel done (!), DH decided to change the design and of course, there are those new couplers available now, and “I was hoping to get 'hold of some of that new composite material” and let’s see if we can reuse some of that wood I salvaged from the titanic… argh!</p>
<p>My husband moved an old lawnmower that we owned in England when we came here. It’s one of those very heavy ones with a big steel drum that flattens the grass as you mow over it. I have no idea of the technical terms and don’t want to ask him, for fear of having it explained to me. But it weighs hundreds of pounds and the company paid to move it here so my husband could use the motor to make a hovercraft for the boys. That was in 1988. The boys are now men so when I suggested getting rid of it, he explained that he still has the plans for it and will be building it for the grandchildren.</p>
<p>Don’t tell anybody, but some Sunday nights either when hubby is not paying attention, or is out of town, I throw out boxes of stuff from the basement that he hasn’t opened since we got married (1979). I swear that even if he remembered owning it, he wouldn’t be able to find what box it’s in.</p>
<p>H & his dad are BOTH engineers. We have a family cottage on a lake. They have a small fiberglass boat that H used to bomb around the lake in as a teen. It has been out of commission since about 1976. The guys still have it in the shed, because “someday” they will fix it up for our kids (now 18 & 15).</p>
<p>This past November, I threw out seven boxes of Engineering News Record. The newest was from 1994. I don’t even let him bring it home anymore, but changed his subscription to the office. His secretary hates me!</p>
<p>Still laughing out loud here and the lone child at home thinks I have finally really lost it. Of course, DH the engineer is still at work. MOWC, the splitter thing made me laugh so hard my “six pack” still hurts.
Don’t get me going on the magazines. I have tried to cancel all the “free” subscriptions. I had baskets everywhere and finally I got rid of everything over two years old. He hasn’t noticed yet…
my other favorite trick? Take everything in the garage from Home Depot that has been there for one year untouched back to Home Depot and get something I want and will actually use…Shh…don’t tell him, he has never noticed anything missing in there.
I can’t even send the magazines to the office…we work together…</p>
<p>How 'bout packing the trunk of the car/SUV? It has to be done “just so”. When my daughter graduated from Interlochen, we had THREE engineers (H, his brother and my stepson) helping with the loading of the car. I (a lawyer) was ready to hire someone to do it!</p>
<p>My H won’t throw anything away because “he can fix it”. He’ll buy the new one, but keeps the old one to “fix”. Hardly ever happens. I didn’t realize how bad this had gotten until we made our move to TN in 2006. I was afraid the company would withdraw the offer when they found out how much there was to move.</p>
<p>MOWC,
everything can be fixed of course! Duh! We have a whole garage of things which have been replaced but cannot be thrown away because they are still deemed fixable. I won’t even get started on packing the car.</p>
BassDad, I just read your reply out loud to him, and he got a very guilty look on his face when I mentioned option #3.</p>
<p>Now, does this mean that if I pester him sufficiently and he goes out and buys a whole spare room’s worth of tools, that I will not only get Casa de Bunny, but I will also get the shelving that I requested in the kitchen cabinets? (Dare to dream, right?)</p>
<p>You mean I’m not the only one who researches things to death? It doesn’t matter what it is - TVs, Cars, Trips, Appliances, Trees, light fixtures, anything. I think it can be frustrating at times for my W but I do end up knowing a lot about the subject at hand.</p>
<p>I’ve now spawned two female engineers in training so we’ll see if the trait passes on.</p>
<p>Ah, I thought that might be the case. We older engineers have gotten the spouse used to frequent arrivals via the New-Tool-of-the-Fortnight Club at Home Depot (although a few of the more esoteric items that I bought a year or two ago seem to have gone missing from the garage lately) and have thus built our tool kits over the years to nearly minimal standards. Newlyweds are generally still working on the basics.</p>
<p>In addition to the previously-mentioned items, the new shelves are likely to trigger the purchase of a precision miter box (no, not the cheap plastic one with three or four preset angles, the big, honkin’ metal one that you can dial in to any angle you want), a laser tape measure/level and at least a half dozen countersink drill bits in various sizes. (He does have at least three different cordless drill kits already, right?)</p>
<p>In my experience, engineers fall into one of two categories when it comes to product documentation and packaging. You have identified the one who saves every last bit of extraneous material right down to the styrofoam peanuts and little packages of moisture-absorbant material. </p>
<p>The other sort are not obsessive manual collectors because they consider manuals to be an unnecessary crutch for those who do not intuitively understand all details of use, repair and modification possibilities of every piece of equipment that they own. They may save block diagrams, schematics and so forth for really complicated items, but feel that anything that gets too wordy is redundant and can therefore be disposed of.</p>
<p>Thumper: a good verbal riposte to have at hand when dealing with some engineers is that “perfect is the enemy of the good.” As a would-be engineer who was diverted by the dean of the school of engineering, I still do research for cars, TV’s, etc. Three weeks max. Then we get on with it. And I’ve taught myself to throw out most things that can be fixed. Though I’m hoping the stereo unit with 8-track in the garage will become a piece bid upon by museums some day.</p>
<p>I love being married to an engineer and the mother of an engineer. Mostly.</p>
<p>*We have an oscilloscope handy when we need one. And a voltmeter.
*When we travel, I just leave my clothes out and my husband packs. They come out of the suitcase unwrinkled.
*I always know what brand of anything is best, should I care to ask.
*If I need a building project done, all I have to do is buy the parts then suggest some particularly boneheaded way of going about it… and my husband does it his way instead.
*I can always find the user manual; they have a special drawer in the kitchen.
*We know lots of people who can gets us software at the employee discount.
*None of our doors squeak. None. (He used chain lube.)</p>
<p>However, there is the occasional catch:
*We have a seven-years-running “car project” in the basement that was last worked on two years ago.</p>
<p>I don’t know if this is good or bad: my husband took his hobby–bike riding–and ended up with a business… just so he could get the best parts at wholesale. Now he works at home (still works 12 hour days). He has five bikes in the garage… For our wedding anniversary, my husband left his cell phone at home when we went to dinner. Best anniversary present ever.</p>
<p>AGHH!!! We have a double whammy with the car packing. Not only is DH an engineer, but he was also a rock and roll “roadie” for years and packed trucks!!!</p>
<p>Another true confession. We had a large workbench in our basement at the old house. It was covered with coffee cans of nuts and bolts. You “never know when you’re going to need one”. Of course, when you need one, you go buy more. There were also cans of paint and other nonsense. It was a mess. One day, I threw it ALL away. MONTHS (and I really mean months) later, DH went down and actually noticed his “stuff” was gone (keep in mind, the house was for sale…the stuff had to be gone!!) and pitched a fit. I said “Just tell me what is missing and I’ll buy you another.” He had NO IDEA what was thrown away.</p>
<p>Now…if I could just get rid of the thousands of paperback books!!!</p>
<p>I have few boxes of un-opened trinkets. But one of my good friend said that when he went to his wife’s closet and found few dresses with the price tags still on.</p>
<p>If we are trying to turn the tables on the ladies, I think the dresses are small potatoes. The next time your friend is in the closet (so to speak) ask him how many pairs of shoes with absolutely no wear on the soles are in there.</p>