Help! I'm Stuck in a HGTV Twilight Zone

I am not knocking HGTV. Next to Disney Channel its probably the most watched channel in our house.  I truly believe it would be a great question for the A.C.T.  "ESPN is to men as HGTV is to women".  I actually don't mind watching some of the programs on the channel.  I actually like watching OTHER people do home improvement projects.  As long as it's not me doing the work I love it.  That's where the problem starts.  I have entered the HGTV Twilight Zone.  Over the last few weeks I feel like I am living HGTV episodes.  I have had to put on many Mr. Fix It hats.  

The first hat was a plumbers hat.  We have had a few leaks and toilets running intermittent times during the day.  I have had to replace various parts of the toilet.  Each requiring various trips to Home Depot and Lowes.  Sometimes I would solve the problem immediately.  Other times it would require a second and third trip.  I am actually somewhat proficient on the inner workings of the toilet.  There has not been very many disasters with these repairs.

The next hat has been a painter's cap.  Our deck needed to be repainted and we went with Home Depot's Deck repair.  I wont go into too much detail on this one.  This is well worth an entire posting.  Let me just say we bought the paint on July 4th weekend and we are not through painting yet.  This project has been back breaking.  We have even been attacked by a swam of Mosquitos.  This has been a group family project.  Children at times can be cheap labor.  If only we had more kids!  We still don't have an ETA yet.  My hope would be before the end of October.  

The next hats are ones I don't plan to wear for the latest breakdowns.  Our stove top started sparking last week. I don't mess with sparking especially on high voltage appliances.  I am passing on this one.  Then our TV decided not to acknowledge the existence of either remote.  I was hoping it was a simple fix with new batteries.  We are not so lucky.  I am somewhat proficient with setting up electronics. I have taken out hard drives on computers and installed memory.  I do not plan on tackling this one.  I know this will require taking it somewhere to be repaired.  Which means I might get it back before bowl season.  At least I got to see the first two weeks of college football in high definition.

If these were the only issues I would not be so worked up but I know it's just the tip of the iceberg.  I see other potential repairs on the horizon that will make me feel like I am in another HGTV episode.  If only I could TIVO to the end and the projects would be finished.