ONLINE SHOPPER; $220 for Two Hours? Clocking Mr. Fix-It

MACHINES spoke to my grandfather. So did squeaky doors, creaky floors and flicker-prone light sockets.

He listened, and they told him what was wrong.

My grandfather could repair anything, but unfortunately my family's fix-it gene petered out before it reached my generation.

As evidence, I offer these items from my household to-do list:

1. Toilet paper roll holder (fell off wall last year).

2. Towel ring (new, has been sitting in box for two months).

3. Outdoor light fixture (new, in box since 2002).

4. Wall mirror (lists drunkenly to one side).

5. Bedroom door (why does it stick?).

6. Dishwasher (needs to be leveled; racks roll out recklessly every time door is opened).

7. Bathroom pipe (possible leak).

Maybe these inanimate objects were trying to have a conversation with me. But unlike my grandfather, I don't speak dishwasher.

For a long time, I took a different approach to the landscape of ruin that was surrounding me. I pretended not to notice. All it took was a little adjustment to my lifestyle -- like, say, training myself to hop backward while opening the dishwasher to avoid losing an eye to the knives in the onrushing cutlery basket.

It was no big deal, I told myself as I stacked rolls of toilet paper on the floor. Everybody compromises, I assured myself as I tried to grill chicken kebobs by the dim glow of a flashlight.

This might have gone on forever if I hadn't found myself stopped, one day recently, at a red light behind a panel van.

It was an ordinary white van -- except for the cheery red lettering across the back doors that said ''Mrhandyman.com.''

I was intrigued. Was it possible to go online to find a reputable local handyman who could fix a variety of household ailments?

I was skeptical. Having lived on Long Island for nearly 15 years before moving to California, I had hired my fair share of problem handymen whose names I'd selected from the local PennySaver. Even 15 years later, you don't forget the person who ''fixed'' a bookcase but left behind sharp exposed nails. Or the one who ''fixed'' a crumbling guest room ceiling; two weeks later, chunks fell onto my mother as she slept.

But I'm open-minded, especially if that means never again propping up the drain with a toothpaste cap.

I cautiously investigated. At home, I found mr.handyman.com on the Internet and soon learned that there were 127 local Mr. Handyman franchises in 28 states. Service Brands International, which owns the Mr. Handyman brand, also owns the long-established Molly Maid and 1-800-DryClean.com operations.

In fact, it turned out that online handyman services are a growing business. I found referral sites like servicemagic.com, which will pass on requests to local contractors or handymen who will contact customers directly. I also found www.housedoctors.com, which like Mr. Handyman directs customers to local, independently owned franchises. House Doctors has about 200 franchises in 43 states, but none in my area.

Services are not limited to minor repairs. The online sites offered homeowner help that ranged from kitchen installations to tiling to laying brick.

It was a seductive concept. On one hand, homeowners are more eager to fix things than ever before, having spent $125.8 billion on repairs and improvements in the year that ended in June, a 4 percent increase over the previous year, according to Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies.

But we need more help doing it than our grandfathers did.

''There was a time when your father or grandfather could fix just about anything,'' said Todd Recknagel, president of Mr. Handyman. ''Our generation can fix some things. In the future, it doesn't seem like our kids are going to be able to fix anything.

''There's also the issue of time,'' he continued. ''In many families, with two working incomes, everybody's busy and when they come home, they don't want to do the to-do list. They want to hire someone to do it right. It's a question of lifestyle.''

I wanted that lifestyle.

Mr. Handyman said all I had to do to find a local handyman was ''click here.'' Next, I entered my ZIP code. A local phone number appeared for ''Mr. Handyman of the NE Bay Area.''

When I phoned the local franchise, a sales representative asked me to describe my to-do list. He said all the items on it were doable. He offered to schedule a handyman visit for me within a week.

''How much?'' I asked.

Unclear, he said. The service was pricier than I had expected, with a $220 minimum labor charge per service call. Materials were extra. If the work took more than two hours, additional hours cost $90, billed in 15-minute increments.

''Where it gets to be cost-effective, is when you have a long enough list of things to keep us busy for two hours,'' he said. ''Or if you need us to do a variety of things like the things on your list, where you normally would have to call in a number of people -- an electrician, a plumber, a painter -- to do separately.''

He estimated that my list of tasks could be completed in two to three hours.

(To compare prices, I also submitted an online customer service request to ServiceMagic, which referred me to bfphandymen.com in San Francisco. BFP Handymen estimated much more time -- six to eight hours -- to complete the work, but at a lower rate: a $150 flat fee for the first six hours, $25 an hour thereafter.)

I decided to test Mr. Handyman first.

The morning of the scheduled 9 a.m. appointment, I received a confirmation phone call at 7:30. At promptly 9 a.m., a handyman named Ronnie arrived. I spent five minutes showing him around, describing the various projects.

He recommended a course of action that he said would accomplish the most repairs in two hours and proposed leaving the dishwasher and suspected leak for last because those jobs looked more time-consuming.

After two hours, he had fixed the toilet paper roll holder, hung the towel ring, hung the outdoor light fixture (and tested it with a bulb), anchored the wall mirror and tightened the bedroom door hinges.

In addition, he had caulked around the base of the light fixture and completed a couple of other minor repairs he had noticed in the process: spackling a chipped spot in the kitchen wall and correcting an uneven floor vent that had never sat flush.

Total: $220.

I was impressed.

Suddenly I remembered another nagging problem: the bathroom drain stopper was broken.

He said could fix it.

I authorized a third hour of work.

Soon, the stopper and the dishwasher problems were history. He identified the source of the bathroom leak. I said, ''Is there time to fix it?''

''Well, there's 20 minutes to go,'' he said as he headed to the van to look for a new length of pipe.

I understood this to mean there were 20 minutes left of my third hour.

That's when I let down my guard. I was so pleased with the work thus far that I asked him to give me a ''quick'' opinion of some rotted lengths of wood siding on the exterior of my house. Before I knew it, 20 minutes had passed and there was no more time to fix the leak; it was time for me to leave the house to drive a daughter to play practice.

As I said goodbye to the handyman, I felt bad about wasting the last 20 minutes of the third hour -- until I looked at his bill. According to his calculations, I had wasted the first 15 minutes of a fourth hour. The total: $337.86, including $5 for materials like screws and caulk.

Confused, I checked the clock.

His timekeeping was correct.

I paid.

The verdict: the quality of the work was great. And maybe the missing 15 minutes was a simple misunderstanding. But it left me with a sour taste. I felt nickel-and-dimed.

Would I hire Mr. Handyman again? Yes,but I'd meet him at the door with a stopwatch.