@SwarmShawarma Fixing removes the dopamine hit of shopping or of being given a new thing (and women do love that don't they).

In my lady's case I can't think of anything big or clever I have fixed that has disappointed but a list of minor disapointments are;

She was disappointed when the oven door could be fixed by tapping another hole to screw another catch in and buying a replacement seal. She has really hoped for a new oven but oven heats food, so what is the problem?

Soldering some wires in her lap top meant she didn't get a new one.

She would like a new gate but I keep repairing the existing one (which in fairness does look a little old).

She would have liked new taps but the old ones only needed the seats grinding and new washers.

She assumes a new vacuum will clean better but really she just has to get all the crap clogging the existing one out and clean the filter.

She has had it in for my old Oak kitchen table since she arrived. It was my parents and it was antique when they had it. It is a rustic oak table. Nothing fancy, plenty of minor knocks. It is not going to be thrown out. Attempting to compromise I sanded it down and treated it with silvered oil to kill bacteria. It is tolerated (just).

Many complaints have been levelled at my hand made mahogany bed and I have variously assaulted it to stop the most minor squeaks. Its not going. She has in the past admitted the truth that she really does not like it because its a wooden bed. She associates a wooden bed with being a hick. She wants a smart urban bed. Should have got a smart urban gent then.

A new conservatory would be a lot better in her mind than fixing the lead flashing and the brackets that hold the panels in.

If the television were bigger I think there would be no complaints about my fixing the aerial from time to time but she insists the TV is broken and we need a new bigger one to fix reception. (This amuses me more than perhaps it should).

She wanted a new front door like some other houses in the street have when the lock broke but I just changed the lock (not that that really even qualifies as a repair).

One that I did win was that she was constantly telling me to throw out an 18th century mahogany table that was water stained. I refused and simply sanded it many times with decreasing grit sizes and applied finishing oil. It is as smooth as french polish. She now loves it. In fact she likes to tell people that she sanded it because she tried to help a few times.

@Typo-MAGAshiv Nice one. A broken machine is a puzzle, solving the puzzle and getting a working machine as the reward is very satisfying.

You say you were not a tool guy when younger. This is actually quite similar to my own story. I was a young intellectual who liked the outdoors but only in a gentlemanly sort of way -it was just a huge adventure playground. I wasn't really practical. Friends would come to me with practical problems to solve because I liked solving problems but I had no basic skills and anything I solved was just from first principles not because I knew how to do it.

I can even remember once telling my friends "I have no interest in being able to fix my car, when I can pay a fat greasy man to do it while I go and do something more interesting" I used to think that guys who liked fixing stuff were really just compensating for small dicks or a lack of anything manly to do in life.

Life took a few turns and I ended up working outdoors as a tradesman and boy did I have some catching up to do! I discovered that it was actually very satisfying to fix something not throw it away or be dependent on getting someone else to fix it. It was even more satisfying to make a part with steel and cutting tools when you couldn't easily buy one. It was far more fun to make ammunition to fit your rifle perfectly than to buy the finest ammunition and the finest rifle.

Being able to fix stuff gives you a feeling of much greater security. You are not stuck being dependant when something goes wrong.

At first my lady looked in disgust at my collection of "junk" in the garage -parts and fixings saved from stuff that is broken. But over time she has come to accept that when something breaks I will probably have "something that I can use to fix that" in my junk. The junk is no longer loathed. At least I am no longer told it should go.

She is glad when I fix stuff but I still know though that she would rather have had a gentleman who just bought the new replacement she wanted every time something broke. However to me its almost a moral issue -why throw away when you can fix? Why buy heating oil when you can cut wood? I am not an eco geek or anything but waste just seems not as good as repair, expense not as good as moderation. However women love the power to just make it fixed by paying someone to fix it.

Women really want the king who can order it done not the craftsman who gets it done. When you put it like that its obvious.