Crossword Genius

It's impolite to search through notes during home repairs (11)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

discourtesy

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'home repairs' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot understand how they can define each other.

'it's impolite to search through notes during' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'it's' could be 'es' ('e' can mean 'electronic' which is similar to 'IT') and 'es' is located in the answer.
'search' could be 'scour' (scouring is a kind of searching) and 'scour' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for discourtesy that I've seen before include "Ungraciousness" , "A rude lack of consideration for others" , "incivility" , "Rude behaviour" , "terrible rudeness" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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