So Many Louvers

And not a one that fits the three broken ones in the trailer. Every single one too short and/or too wide.

Lazy Susan Gets Lazy Sometimes

Long before we moved here, another man and woman claimed this dwelling as their home for many years. He left behind a work bench with his first initial and surname stenciled in black on the front, a collection of common stones in jars labeled with papery masking tape that no longer adheres and a question mark as to who he was. Who she was. What kind of life they lived.

In the upkeep and repairs of our home, I often find traces of his touch. I suspect he was the hand behind the construction of this lazy susan cabinet in the corner of the kitchen. I imagine the lazy susan is at least fifty years old. Over time she occasionally gets lazy and stops turning. The circular shelf sinks a bit and rests on the frame rendering it motionless.

In the past, I've been able to tighten up the axis rod and raise the height of the lower shelf to solve the problem. This time, the upper beam that supports the axis broke. I rigged together to a carpentry fix only to find the problem of the fused shelf persisted.

Friend Phoenix is back from a trip to Ibiza and Germany. He helped rig up a solution to the lazy susan problem. Now that girl spins like a top.

Under the counter, with the susan in pieces, I found another relic from the former inhabitants who walked these floors: De Kuyper Creme de Cacao. Open and imbibe at your own risk.

Book Cart Resuscitation

The NPR affiliate station I worked for (prior to my mombatical) was located under a community college library. Each day, I would pass by double swinging doors where library carts would rest before being launched back into service transporting books back to shelves. As I was leaving one day, I found an oak library cart cast aside for the more modern and maneuverable aluminum carts. I asked if I could have the cart. With a yes from a questionable granting authority, I quickly wheeled the cart to my car and threw it inside. What is a public radio geek but a dorkier cousin to the librarian? I was thrilled with my book toting acquisition. The cart, hands down, is one of my favorite pieces of furniture.

But like any librarian, my cart has seen some hard and fast times and weathered some water stains from errant cups left to flounder coasterless on it's delicate wooden surface. My cart sat bedside until Eric's nightstands pushed it back into the living room. I decided to show some love and fix the water stains. I read up on some remedies to use mayonnaise to pull out the water rings. Reason departed and I foolishly tried the remedy. Witness the dark oil stain of my folly in the picture above.

I pulled out a sander and tried to eradicate the oil stain. I found an old can of half full Restor-A-finish that I used on the cart. The cart cleaned up beautifully. Now it holds court next to the dining table. I love it as much as the day we ran away together.

Tent Repair

The roof on our outdoor room/wall tent developed a small tear. The neglected small tear evolved into a large tear. This weekend, Eric and I made a point to focus on some lingering projects and tending to the tent was high on the list.

In between Saturday's rain showers, we covered the hole with a tarp and sewed it in place. The heavily sun exposed canvas was quite brittle, but the stitches held.

I recommend a canvas sun shade/rain fly to prolong the life of the tent. Our tent still has a summer a head of it, but it has weathered quite a bit since pitching it four years ago.

Small Repairs Foster Great Satisfaction

The chenille bedspread from my paternal grandmother already showed signs of wear when I inherited it six years ago. Over time, the the thinning threads near the top of the spread finally broke and grew into two small tears.

I have learned from experience that it is best to repair a tear early. Avoiding and/or postponing the repair results in heartache. The tear gets worse, and I reprimand myself for not taking better care of what I have, which unleashes a long trail of self-inquiry that frankly is better spent weeding in the garden or focusing on maintaining/repairing other things.

I made a small patch from some floral flannel to cover the hole on the interior side of the blanket. And sewed larger patches on the exterior of a bright pink with dragonflies.

I found it easier to hand sew the project than try to wrestle the fabric under the arm of my sewing machine. I don't think it would have fit either. And I like the hand stitched look of the patches.

While working on my project, my youngest son was inspired to do some stitching himself. Very exciting for me.

Annals of Home Improvement: Screen Clips

Eric made an ingenious clip out of a fallen toyon branch to keep our bathroom cabinet door from swinging open a while back. The screen on our living room window has been plagued by a similar malfunction. It keeps falling out. The ledge is too small to hold a traditional clip, so after picking the screen up and putting it back in place the third time on one day, I realized two toyon-inspired clips could remedy the problem.

I pulled out Eric's Japanese saws and split a felled branch scavenged from the yard, drilled it & counter sunk the top so that the screws would be flush with the clip. I fixed the screen. Next, paint the house. Well, that one will have to wait. I'll just bask in the glow of a fixed screen right now.

Oil Lantern Fix

Step aside slothfulness, there is work to be done. We just returned from a trip to Portland OR. Details to follow. I love trips out of town. A new town offers a new perspective. As much as I love departures, I equally love the return. A few days away always makes me see my home in a new light. Projects seem less like an endless list & more like something that just needs a bit of dedicated attention.

The weekend before Portland, I picked up four oil lanterns at a garage sale for $1.50 to add to our collection if three. We use them for patio lights. All were in need of some TLC. Upon returning home, I took to cleaning, replacing wicks as necessary and refilling them with citronella oil.

Four are now back in action. One, a Paull lantern (from the 1920s, I discovered), is awaiting a new globe. The Czech-made Meva 864 & one Dietz Comet #50 need new burners. From my research, the Dietz #50 may be a lost cause. According to www.oillampman.com (where I bought the new globe for the Paull), Dietz does not make a replacement burner for the #50. I did, however, locate a replacement burner for the Meva 864 from the manufacturer in the Czech Republic. I sent an email of inquiry & hope for the best.

I have not given up on the Dietz. The burner is manufactured without the intention of letting it be opened (unlike the other lamps). But perhaps I might be able to figure something out. Until then, I have four in action with a fifth to join the working lantern posse soon.

Mixer Is Back in the Mix

Slothful confession #1. My Kitchen Aid mixer has been broken for over a year. While using the mill attachment to grind tapioca into flour (not an approved grain in the mill instructions), I stripped the gears. Rebelliously, I willfully ground unapproved grains in the mill. And the mill did well for quite some time. But the round tapioca balls proved too much for the machine. With great sadness, I inadvertently rode the nag until she dropped.

I felt guilty for killing the Kitchen Aid and stymied by the prospect of figuring out what was wrong with it. I called upon professionals, not a psychologist who may have been better equipped to deal with the problem, but a certified Kitchen Aid repair shop only to find the cost of repair would be about the same cost of a new mixer.

So I realized I needed to crack the thing open and figure out what was going on. If I destroyed it while surveying the damage, no harm done. It would cost about the same to buy a new one as to repair it.

But I didn't do that. And the mixer sat on my counter eying me as I hand-mixed cookies, pizza dough and bread for over a year. I'm not proud of it. This is a Slothful Confession, after all.

Enter the Pity of Friends. Our friend Phoenix is in town. Unencumbered by guilt of destruction, he broke open the Kitchen Aid waded through the grease and diagnosed the problem.

Two gears were ordered & replaced. Grease was changed. The mixer rides again. Thanks Phoenix.

Small Projects with the Sewing Machine

I grabbed about an hour out of my day to sit behind my sewing machine and tend to some mending. I fixed some of those nagging little things like a separating elastic waistband. I followed the advice I gleaned from an Angry Chicken tutorial on fold over elastic. Although my project used conventional elastic, the advice worked great.

Then I turned to another project...an outgrown shirt. Typically, outgrown items are passed down, but I had an idea that this shirt could be salvaged to stay in the wardrobe of my oldest son.

I cut the patchwork out of the existing shirt (I'll use the scraps for other projects) leaving about an inch of material around it.

I sewed it on a larger shirt.

Now the shirt is back in the ring for another round. My son and I joked that we can keep this shirt in his wardrobe until he's a grown man.

Beach Chair Given New Lease on Life

When Eric and I first started seeing each other over a decade ago, a typical summer Saturday or Sunday we'd be at the beach. We'd head out early morning, set up camp and spend the rest of the long day in the water or resting on the warm sand. This beach chair acquired at a yard sale a long long time ago frequently made the journey with us.

Until one day, Eric adjusted the armrest. The wooden arm grew jagged fangs and bit back leaving a long and thick splinter in his hand. I still remember the shock on his face and slowly raising his left hand to reveal an almost two inch long 1/4 inch wide protrusion. The offending chair was put to pasture and our beach days evolved to include one and then two kids.

In light of commemorating our years together, I pulled out this beach chair and set to fixing it. I sanded the left armrest to remove the biting teeth.

I made beeswax furniture polish specifically for this project, conquering my phobia of doing so.

I cleaned up the chair and polished the arms.

As I work at the speed of parenting, I worked on this project for about two weeks. The project wasn't so difficult, but there was table tennis to be played, books to be read, scooter rides and sculptures to witness. In spite of living with this chair restoration for a fortnight, the boys kept it under wraps. And I was able to surprise Eric with a restored relic of our early life together.

I'm envisioning a time when our beach days will evolve again...when we get to swim with our boys in the ocean...when they move on to chase lions and Eric and I return to long days together at the beach much richer for the journey together.

Joovy Caboose Stroller Fix

Many months ago while the boys and I were returning from a grocery sortie at Figueroa Produce, our stroller hit about an inch bump on the uneven sidewalk in Garvanza Park. It wasn't a hard bump, but it was enough to completely snap off the front wheel on our stroller.

The company sent me a replacement part gratis...granted after a bit of discussion about faulty merchandise and company responsibility.

When the part arrived, I was a bit daunted by the fix. So the broken stroller sat. My kids were getting a bit too heavy for me to push both of them at the same time. And now that they have scooters, who really needs strollers?

My friend who just had her second baby four days ago, that's who. So I set to the task of repairing the stroller.

First, I had to drill out the existing brads. The thought of boring out the brads paralyzed me in the past. But the time to set aside fear had arrived. It was much easier than I expected. I was able to drill through the top of the fastener then use a screwdriver to pop off the top. The piece came out easily. I'm terribly thankful.

Replacing the new part was easy after finding the right size hexagonal wrench and traditional wrench to tighten it.

Then I removed the tire from the broken piece by turning it upside down and releasing a switch and put the tire on the repaired stroller assembly.

Ready to roll.

Lamp Fix Redux

Back in January, I "fixed" our broken lamp. The switch had stopped working. With a bit of tinkering, the old switch was resurrected to last another two months. It finally bit the dust this week. I learned in January our local hardware store didn't have a replacement switch that fit.

I had better luck at a specialty lighting shop.

I think this fix will last awhile.

Previously:

Lamp Fix

Patching Pants

Eric is really good at repairing his jeans. I remember a trip to Joshua Tree when our oldest son was barely two. In the quiet of the desert, Eric started repairing a pair of his jeans by hand stitching homemade denim patches over the holes. Those patches are still going strong and many more have been added.


I decided to take a lesson by repairing a pair of my oldest son's pants. We cut denim from a recycled pair of jeans and pinned the patches to cover the holes.


Eric usually uses the sewing machine these days instead of hand stitching. He added another patch to some of his jeans.

Interior of Eric's pant leg with the tear sewn down.

Then he turned them inside out and ran a stitch around the tear. The sewn down material is less likely to be caught when you push your feet through the pant legs.

Interior of my son's pant leg with the tear removed.

I sewed the patch on my son's jeans with a tight zigzag stitch. I turned them inside out. Instead of sewing down the material surrounding the tear, I cut out all the material inside the border of the patch. I figured a tear would grow bigger by curious toes, best to remove it altogether.


Ready to wear.

Lamp Fix

Our living room lamp finally gave up after about a month of steady complaints. The foot switch started to get sticky and unreliable. You'd step on the switch, it might or might not turn on the lamp. Over the weekend, it finally stopped working completely.

I opened the switch case to investigate. Sure enough, when I pressed it the telltale click was silent. I removed the switch and set out to the local hardware store with my youngest son "to do some very important business for our family". The only push button switch they had was too big to fit the case. The man behind the counter suggested a couple of locations to try.

I went back to the car, thinking about the goose chase that often accompanies small part chasing. I pulled the switch out and started to fiddle with it. After about five minutes, I got it to click again. After a few more minutes, it started to click consistently. My son and I headed back home.


The lamp shines again. The lesson learned is to spend a bit more time with the actual part trying to make it work before heading out to "fix" it. This fix may not be permanent, but it's the place to start on the road to repair.

Shoe Repair

Just when it got cold, my cold weather shoes came apart. I've been eying a nice pair of Clarks boots which are similar to these but probably much more comfortable. I was tempted use the excuse of the sole delamination to justify the purchase of the new shoes but these were just starting to grow on me and I have to try to fix them.


I brushed on some Weldwood contact cement. This stuff is not environmentally friendly - high VOC. I try to keep the can open for as short a period as possible but I figure if I were to take these to a repair shop they'd use a similar glue. I've use the same small can for many similar projects.


I painted both pieces with glue wherever there would be contact. After 15 minutes of letting the glue dry on each piece, I put them together as carefully as I could and then stood in them to set the cement. I rolled my foot a little to distribute pressure which is probably what caused the heel to slip a bit. It doesn't quite match up around the back but over all it turned out pretty good.


Now I have a kind of history with these shoes. They are imperfect but gaining character and therefore gaining interest to me. It should be "reduce, reuse, recycle, repair."