Doing Small Repairs And Projects

The Hot Spring this morning with dark clouds overhead

 With the celebrations being over and nothing of the likes on the books for the foreseeable future, I have no more excuse for doing nothing. A good look at the "Honey-Do-List", revealed 2 projects right away.

#1 is to correct the way our overhead cabinets are opening. They have very expensive, non-functioning stupidly constructed hinges which, after some years, are getting so lame that they can't keep the doors shut.

A good look at the hinges revealed that they could be reused, (though in a different way) if one could cut off the unnecessary part, and use the hinge on the downside,  then turn the doors 180 degrees around (upside-down). 

Arrows showing the difference in height

These arrows showing where the cut-off is made

The changed hinge remounted at the bottom of the door.

Left new, right old

To hold the doors shut I used common snappers, which we had bought earlier.

Besides of the doors now staying shut, it also turns out one doesn't have to bump ones head everytime when peering into the cabinet. So overall a double win at almost no cost.

#2 project was our entry door handle. You have probably seen those see-through handles mounted outside to the left of the entry door. Well, ours was broken and needed replacement. The initial research brought up prices of over 200 bucks/piece. Out of the question! Later I found one from Rec-Pro for less than a hundred bucks with seemingly correct measurements and design. It came right after Christmas, and now was the time to get it mounted. First I removed the old hardware. When mounting the replacement I had to insert the glassy handle before mounting the upper part of the holder. Unfortunately, it turned out that the thing was too long, making it impossible to use the old screwholes. So I had to gradually whittle down the handle until it fit. I guess that's what one gets when buying non-OEM parts.

And naturally life in the new year is not just working projects. We are still doing our walks around the area:

Brittle Bush with old flower stands

View across East Mesa