There’s No Place Like Home

Ellen Darling

More and more people are trying DIY at home and watching DIY on TV. What is DIY？ Read on and find out.

1. Last week I visited my friend Pete in the new home where he lives with his wife and daughter. Pete used to spend his holidays travelling the world， visiting the pyramids in Egypt or scuba diving in the Caribbean. Nowadays he prefers to spend his holidays and weekends making his house look more beautiful. Like hundreds of thousands of other British people， hes discovered the joy of DIY （Do It Yourself）， which means if there are any things that need fixing around the house， he will try to do the job on his own. On Saturday morning hell visit his local hardware store， get out his toolbox and settle down to work on his next DIY project.

2. As he proudly showed me the new kitchen hed put together by himself and the newly painted walls， I asked Pete where he got his inspiration from. He told me that his favourite source of ideas was a DIY programme on TV.

3. This got me thinking about the enormous popularity of DIY programmes in the UK. Each major channel has at least one home or garden makeover show and there are even satellite channels entirely devoted to the subject.

4. I suppose its not really surprising that DIY programmes are so popular. Two common sayings in Britain—‘an Englishmans home is his castle and ‘theres no place like home—show how important our houses are to us. With the economic changes of the last decade or so， many people cant afford to buy a bigger house so they are looking at how they can make their house better without spending a lot of money. DIY is the perfect option.

5. So， what DIY programmes are on offer on TV？ The most successful was called Changing Rooms. It had 10 million viewers and the basic idea of the show—in which neighbours do up each others houses with the help of two designers—was sold to more than 20 countries. DIY SOS is another very successful BBC DIY show. It is a winning combination of friendly presenter and jokey builders who brighten up peoples lives by repairing their DIY mistakes. In one programme， the team helped a family who had started to build extra rooms on their house but had run out of money. The familys three daughters had been forced to live in the tiny spare room for the last four years， so DIY SOS saved the day， giving the girls a stylish bedroom each and helping the family out of a very stressful situation. My favourite DIY programme is 60 Minute Makeover. The challenge is to redecorate a number of rooms in a house in 60 minutes. The owner of the house is sent out for the day not knowing that their house will be completely transformed when they come back.

6. There are several stories of DIY TVs own botch jobs. In one episode of Changing Rooms， a room was built to display a large collection of expensive teapots. Overnight， the shelves collapsed， destroying the valuable collection. On another famous episode， when the designer brought the owner in to see the redecorated room， she shouted， ‘Why would I want this in my room？！ and burst into tears.

7. Have I ever been tempted to try some DIY？ Well， the thing is， Ive seen the statistics. I read a report that said over 230，000 people were injured while doing home improvements in the UK in just one year， including 41，000 who fell off ladders and 5，800 who were seriously hurt by hammers. So no， I wont be going down to the hardware store. Ill stick to watching DIY on TV with a nice cup of tea， thank you very much！

Answers

Activity 1

1 d; 2 f; 3 e; 4 a; 5 b; 6 g; 7 c

Activity 2

1 toolbox; 2 inspiration; 3 channel;

4 spare room; 5 botch job; 6 injured

Activity 3

1 home; 2 house; 3 home; 4 home; 5 house / home; 6 houses; 7 Home; 8 house

Fun Corner

1 By the way; 2 Prime Minister; 3 As soon as possible; 4 Personal assistant; 5 Over the top; 6 Very important person; 7 Oh my God！ 8 Football club; 9 Laugh out loud; 10 In my opinion

Activity 1

There are seven paragraphs numbered 1 to 7. See if you can match the headings below with the correct paragraph.

a No surprise

b DIY on TV—here to help you

c A very dangerous job

d Holidays are over

e Makeovers all over

f Proud owner

g DIY disaster

Activity 2

For each paragraph， find the word or phrase that means the same as those below.

1 the portable box where you keep DIY equipment

2 new ideas

3 TV station

4 extra or guests room in the house （two words）

5 bad work （two words）

6 hurt

Activity 3

‘Theres no place like home is a popular English idiom. Complete these idiomatic expressions with ‘house（s） or ‘home.

1 Charity begins at ______.

2 They get on like a ______ on fire.

3 Come in！ Make yourself at ______.

4 The food was nothing to write ______ about.

5 My teenage son eats us out of ______ and ______.

6 People who live in glass ______ shouldnt throw stones.

7 ______ is where the heart is.

8 She brought the ______ down with her wonderful performance.

Fun Corner

DIY stands for Do It Yourself. What do these common short forms stand for？

1 BTW ? ? ? ? ?6 VIP

2 PM ? ? ? ? ? ? 7 OMG！

3 ASAP ? ? ? ? 8 FC

4 PA ? ? ? ? ? ? ?9 LOL

5 OTT ? ? ? ? 10 IMO