I have a huge amount of work on at the moment which is certainly keeping me out of mischief and my job for today has been on the books since around Easter so definitely time to get round to it. The original work order has been amended several times with things added to which need attention. It’s quite an old house which really needs some love and the new tenants are certainly doing their best to make it nice but sadly a few things need the attention of R U Handy Property Maintenance!
First on the list was to replace two damaged internal doors. I’ve had the new ones in the shed for a couple of weeks now so it was just a case of removing the old ones, bringing them back to my workshop and planing the new ones to fit along with drilling the various holes for handles etc. fitting doors is a job i quite like, the OCD part of me loves the way when its hung for the first time it fits perfectly in every way, fitting the door furniture finishes the job and I’m proud of the two i fitted today. There were about 10 jobs on the list, the dreaded toilet seat to replace although this one was pretty clean for a change (i still take no chances with gloves and lots of wet wipes!) then there was a problem with the shower door.
These are things i try to avoid apart from simple adjustment as they can be difficult to make work properly and this one was a prime example. It was a three part affair and the frame of left hand section in reality was simply worn out. It looked like it had been repaired countless times and the hole that the top screw is supposed to go in was completely worn away. I tried several things, longer screws, thicker screws, all of which had been tried before so didn’t work. It was time for some Yorkshire spirit of improvisation. I figured out how to remove the said section all together and brought it back to my workshop where I fashioned a bracket to brace the corner, re-drilled the adjusting slots which were also worn away and re-assembled it. I returned it to the house and re-fitted it, it needed some further adjustment but eventually it worked perfectly and i was pretty pleased with my efforts.
The spirit of improvisation is i think sadly lacking in today’s world, mine comes from my years on the farm growing up when we rarely had the right tool for the job but with some out-of-the-box thinking we usually got the job done. For me it was a bright spot in a somewhat difficult childhood and adolescence. Growing up on a farm is a privilege, one I probably didn’t appreciate at the time but it has certainly served me well since.
The rest of the jobs on the list were relatively straight forward, i have a couple to finish off tomorrow and i can then cross it off my list. The variation of my work is one of the best parts about it, many of the jobs are a learning experience and I cherish the knowledge which I’m gaining.