143/365 Handyman

I realize that many daughters think their dads are capable of hanging the moon, but I think in my case, it's especially true.

As the years pass by, as I've grown older, I've become more and more aware of how good Dad is at solving problems around the house. Not only does he have an impressive green thumb, but he's been able to fix and maintain things with latches, screws, motors, levers...

A recent example: my bathroom fan wasn't really working, and its ancient, circular installation meant it was allowing air from the attic to seep directly down into the bathroom (smelly and cold in the winter). When it became apparent that not many bathroom fans are made for circular holes anymore, Dad bought a new fan, switched the motor out of it and into the old fittings, and rigged up a damper that would allow the air to be vented out of the bathroom but not from the attic back into the room.

Brilliant, and it works!

Then, in that process, he realized the attic air wasn't circulating properly, so he figured out the problem and set out to replace the soffit vents on the outside of the house. (Which he's doing in this photo.) And the process continues from one project to the next.

I'm amazed by the ways he thinks to fix something, which often involve thinking outside the box. It makes me very proud to have a dad who does more than go to work, come home, and sit and watch TV.

And Chase seems to have inherited those fix-it genes. They're both handy guys to have around!

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD1000 at about 8:00 p.m.