In a sudden burst of energetic determination my husband, who always looks through the sales flyers which I never do, decided he wanted to change the toilet in our master bath. There was nothing wrong with the one that was originally installed when the house was built. But he had already changed another one downstairs in the powder room to a taller-sitting, dual-flush, low-flush model several years back and we both found the increased sitting height preferable to the original.

He is now past 79, heading to 80, anyone might think logically that someone of his age would no longer aspire to such physically demanding tasks, but you'd be wrong in placing him in that category. When he mentioned to me what his intention was, I did as  usually do, demurred, but to no avail. When he decides to do something he just proceeds unless I really strenuously object and give a good reason for it, which I seldom do. He is indefatigable, and he is impetuous, and when he wants to do something he just goes ahead, and so he did.

On Thursday he bought a new appliance and brought it home. Thank heavens it was a two-piece job since they can be awkward and heavy to carry. As it is, when on Friday he took out the old toilet, it was solidly melded together and he had to carry the cumbersome weight from the second floor of the house to the first floor and then on down to the basement where he will take it apart and dispose of it.

And then on to the installation of the new device. He found the installation instructions less useful than they should have been, but in his career as a home-maintenance-owner, this type of thing is not new to him. It took awhile, he had to go out for another part, but the job was done. And this is a man who spent his working life behind an office desk. His curiosity about how everything works and his capacity for physical labour, however, always led him to believe there was nothing he couldn't do, and throughout his life he has proven that he could do anything he wanted to.

Now he plans to focus on the millwork he intends to produce in finishing up the open area between the kitchen and our family room after removing a set of stained glass windows he had installed there several decades earlier. To put together moulding to match what he has installed in both the kitchen and the breakfast room. He's incorrigible about thinking up one project after another. When that's done with, he'll construct another door frame and fill it with stained glass, to replace the door that is currently at the entrance to the upstairs 'guest' bedroom. Something like those he has designed and produced at the entrance to our other bathrooms.