The complete roster

The whole register

Twenty-four jobs, in section order. Nothing structural is listed and nothing ever will be: no electrics, no gas, no plumbing past a washer, no wall that might be holding the house up.

Effort is measured for one adult working alone. Undone means whether the room goes back to how it was.
№	Section	What changed	Effort	Undone	Mess
01	Paint	Paint that survives being wipedFinish matters more than colour in a house that is used. Flat paint on a hallway burnishes wherever a hand touches it; a harder sheen survives cleaning but shows every wall defect. Where each belongs, why the ceiling is the exception, and why the second coat is not optional.	a weekend	with a repaint	high
02	Paint	Cutting inThe line between wall and ceiling is the whole job. A steady hand beats tape.	an afternoon	with a repaint	medium
03	Paint	What preparation actually isFilling, sanding, washing and dusting. The painting is the short part.	two evenings	fully	high
04	Paint	Colour in the room, not the shopA sample behaves differently on four walls under domestic light.	an evening	fully	none
05	Repair	A chair jointClean out the old glue or it will not hold. The commonest reason a repair fails twice.	an evening	fully	low
06	Repair	A sticking doorUsually the hinge, occasionally the frame, rarely the door.	an hour	with filler	low
07	Repair	A dripping tapA washer and a spanner. The water goes off first.	twenty minutes	fully	low
08	Repair	Filling a hole properlyProud, then sanded back — filler shrinks.	an hour	fully	low
09	Surfaces	What a worktop has to takeHeat, water, knives and time. Every material fails at one of them.	an evening	fully	none
10	Surfaces	Sealing and resealingThe bead around a bath is a consumable, not a fixture.	an afternoon	fully	medium
11	Surfaces	Tiles and groutThe tile almost never fails. The grout always does.	an afternoon	with a regrout	medium
12	Second-hand	What is worth repairingSolid timber and real joints are worth an afternoon. Chipboard and staples are not.	an hour	fully	none
13	Second-hand	Stripping, and when not toOld finish is sometimes the value of the piece.	a weekend	no	high
14	Second-hand	Measuring before buyingThe doorway, the stairs, and the turn at the top.	twenty minutes	fully	none
15	Second-hand	Mismatched on purposeA room of one set reads like a showroom.	an hour	fully	none
16	Storage	Storage where the mess already isStorage gets used when it is within arm's reach of where things are put down. Everything else becomes a cupboard nobody opens.	an afternoon	with filler	low
17	Storage	Shelves that holdThe fixing, not the shelf, decides the load.	an afternoon	with filler	low
18	Storage	The hallway problemCoats, shoes, post and keys, in the narrowest room in the house.	an afternoon	with filler	medium
19	Light	Where the light actually fallsArrange the room around the window before buying a single lamp.	an hour	fully	none
20	Light	Three lamps, not one ceiling lightA single overhead source flattens everything under it.	an evening	fully	none
21	Light	Mirrors, and what they doThey move light rather than make it, and only if they face something worth reflecting.	an hour	with filler	low
22	Floors	Under the carpetOften boards worth sanding, occasionally a reason the carpet went down.	an afternoon	no	high
23	Floors	Sanding boardsDust everywhere, and the finish decides how often you repeat it.	a weekend	no	high
24	Floors	Rugs and scaleToo small is the usual mistake and it makes the room smaller.	twenty minutes	fully	none