DRESSED in a gorgeous gown to present the Come Dancing finals, few people realise that Rosemarie Ford is hooked on do-it-yourself.
Yet one close-up glance at her hands, she says, reveals all. Rosemarie, 36, became hooked on DIY as a six-year-old - and she's been chancing her hand around the the four-bedroom house in Buckinghamshire where she lives with long-time partner Robert Lindsay.
"My dad was a plumber and central heating engineer and amazing at everything around the house," she says.
"One of the very first things he allowed me to help him with was painting the side edges of the stairs when I was about six. He drew out the lines for me - then the phone rang, he answered it and I just went on painting. When he came back he was furious. I'd painted the whole steps. I told him I liked doing it so much I couldn't stop.
"I wish now I had learned more from him while I had the chance. It really annoys me when something stupid goes wrong, such as needing to change the washer on a tap and I can't do it.
"It was one of the things I longed to cover when we did the DIY Dilemmas slot on GMTV three years ago, but they said it couldn't be done because there are so many different taps today. When I'm home I've always got some kind of brush in my hand.
"I've learnt how to avoid the boring task of cleaning paint brushes when you are only putting them away for the night though - cover them in cling film. It keeps them moist enough to carry on as normal next morning.
"One of the most fiddly jobs you can do is fixing up bathroom accessories, particularly on tiled surfaces. The trouble is that the drill tends to slip.
"However, I've found out that if you fix a piece of masking tape over the area you want to drill, it stops the drill from slipping - and if only I'd discovered that years ago, I wouldn't have a wonky toilet roll holder in my bathroom."
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