Get comfy. This is gonna be long. 🙂
So. I’m exhausted. What a day this has turned out to be!
This morning I did NOT want to get up. I wanted to stay under my nice warm covers and not come out. But, alas, I had to. I got up at around 8, showered and got ready for my RWA meeting. The kiddo came running in about 8:15 hoping to get under the covers with me, but I was already up and about. He was disappointed.
Instead, I fed him waffles for breakfast and he watched Ben 10 while I finished getting ready. Then it was off to the meeting. He stayed with his grandparents while I did my thing.
Afterward, we had some lunch and then went to the grocery store. I detest grocery shopping. And because I’m on a strict budget, I really had to watch my pennies. I even took a calculator with me. How sad is that? I clip coupons too and managed to save about $5 in coupons. Not a great savings, but it’s better than nothing.
Anyway. In my laundry area, which is in the kitchen/dining room, I have these bifold doors hiding the washer and dryer. Well, a couple of days ago one just fell off. I couldn’t get it back up there. I figured it was busted. So, since my garage door had been ailing anyway, I called the handyman.
He came out and looked at the bifold door and told me because it was old, there really wasn’t much that could be done for it. They needed to be replaced at the tune of $300 dollars. Yes, this story DOES have a point. Since I don’t have that kind of cash handy at the moment, I knew it would have to wait. However, seeing my ugly washer and dryer area with all my JUNK piled up there was getting on my last nerve.
So the other day at work, I was talking to my honey about the issue. He said there was a way to sort of rig it to temporarily fix it until new doors could be put on. This may be difficult to explain, but I’m going to try… You see, there this hardware piece that goes down inside the door. It’s only particle board and some type of veneer. So it’s cheap. They aren’t great doors, but doors nonetheless. Anyway, Honey suggested a round wooden dowel and some epoxy would do the trick. He told me exactly how to do it. In fact, he suggested he would come do it.
Well. I’m an impatient sort. I don’t like waiting around for someone to do something if I can do it myself. So after the grocery store today, it was off to Lowe’s. Of course, I spent way more than I needed to, but I got all the items I needed to fix the door. A round wooden dowel, 7/8″ x 36″, a hand saw, epoxy that sets up in 1 minute, and some other miscellaneous stuff. (I also bought energy efficient lightbulbs for the outside light, my lamp and my lights in the kitchen. I plan to go back and get more.)
So anyway, this afternoon when we got back, I tackled the repair job. It started out exactly like Honey told me. I managed to saw a 2″ length off the dowel and get it in the hole. Then I used a ton of epoxy on it. I let it set up. And once it did, I got the drill out. I love power tools. I started drilling a hole in the center of the dowel for the hardware piece. I finally got it big enough but was still having trouble. So I did what any girl would do – I got the hammer after it. I hammered the crap out of it…and knocked the bloody dowel out of place.
sigh
Well, because I’m impatient (I think I mentioned that before), I decided to use caulk on the thing. Yeah! That’d work!
NOT.
It made a HUGE mess. All over me and the door and the hardware. And the stupid dowel thing wasn’t working. I thought at this point I’d get a flat head screwdriver and the hammer (using it like a chisel) and see if I could knock out more of the dowel to make the hardware sit in there properly. Instead, I split the thing in two. Figures.
Actually, that worked out all right. As it turns out, the crescent shaped dowel was the perfect size for the hole AND the hardware. Sweet!
But not so fast. The epoxy nozzle had hardened and there was no way it was going to come out. So I got the pliers after it. And promptly busted the entire tube of epoxy. Which immediately had to be thrown in the trash. And it was all over me. Did you know that stuff burns when you touch it? Yeah, not fun. I think I washed for an hour under hot soapy water.
But back to the door. By this time, I had dragged it inside, thinking I could finish the job inside and get it up on the track. Well, I had no superglue or anything in the house. So because I had screwd up the epoxy, I had to make another trip to Lowe’s to get more. This time, I was determined to get the thing fixed. Despite the fact my back was killing me, my hands were destroyed, and my knees were in bad shape from crawling around on the garage floor.
I get the epoxy and get back home. I glue the crescent shape dowel in place. I let it set up. The I very s l o w l y slide the hardware in the hole. It fits snugly against the dowel and the inside of the door. YES! Then I take the epoxy and SQUIRT the crap out of it. I mean, I filled every nook and cranny with that stuff!
It smells too, by the way.
So then I did clean-up while I waited for it to set up. I had caulk and epoxy and stuff all over me and the floor. A few minutes later, I lifted the door and very carefully tried to get it in the track. After much trial and error (and cussing like a sailor), I finally – FINALLY – got the door in!
Yes, it’s fixed. Yes, it’s in the track. YES, I did it all by myself. Of course, I had to come up with my own way of fixing it after botching the way I should have done it. 😀
Who needs a man anyway? Of course, my hands are killing me, my back aches but it’s done. Done I tell you!
In the midst of all this, while puttering around the garage and waitng for my drill to charge (because every time I go to use it – without fail – it will be dead and I have to charge it and wait and wait for it to get enough juice to use), I decided to see what all the boxes were stacked up. I found all my cross-stitch books! I had been wondering where they were these last few months. And then I found more stuff that didn’t need to be in the garage and financial records from like 10 years ago that can be destroyed now.
So I emptied about 23408 boxes and got rid of them. This is the year of Purge and Delete. If I haven’t used it in a year – it’s gone. I cleaned out a lot of stuff in this house since the 1st of January. I’m sick of the clutter. I’m sick of having things in the house I don’t use or need. I don’t want anything that hasn’t been in use for more than a year. That’s the new rule.
Now if I can only apply it to the kid’s room…
