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The day the kitchen drawer broke...again
Our house is what some folks these days are calling "a used house". We bought it used, and it had been well used by the builder and his family by then, used for the raising of kids and when that had stopped working, rented out to two or three people at a time for a few years.
Then we came along and rescued it -- agreed to live in it while the well was rehabilitated from an encroachment of petroleum that had leaked from the forgotten tanks of the oldest gas station in Kennebec County, and when that wouldn't work, we've lived here while they dug us a new well down on the edge of the property and then spent more than a decade getting the gas -- "the product" as one engineer insisted on calling it -- out of the old well and the environment. That, at least, was finished last year.
So the house is a well-used 30 years old house and the home-built kitchen cabinets (including the rustic split-wood rustic facade on the at the top of the very tall cabinets) have had plenty of work to do over time. I've had to fiddle with the drawer a few times over the years, including taking a bit of a kink out of the guide rail that was there when we bought the house....
Today (suddenly and without warning -- or hardly any warning, anyway) ... the "silverware" drawer broke, going all awkward and clattery and spilling a few spoons inside the bottom cabinet. The center rail guide had broken -- metal fatigue! -- and needed to be replaced. When I say metal fatigue, the tongue of the center rail was still well attached to the top bottom of the drawer opening, three sturdy screws proudly doing their jobs...
I'd been doing other work today... You know, some computer work, some writing, some PR, some scritching of cats, ... and I also designed an Allies flyer and read over a draft of someone elses PR stuff. So I was willing enough to break for the day and off I went to the hardware store (s)...where I could not find the 21 inch center rail I needed. I didn't feel like futzing with a 20 inch by adding a wooden support, so I got the 22 inch... which promptly broke my hacksaw blade (old, old blade) when I started to amend it.
So after scrounging around in the "One day I'm going to build me a railroad" cabinet I found another somewhat lighter weight hacksaw and gingerly trimmed the center guide rail to length with a blade originally bought to cut scale rail. Sigh. Not quite the same work, that.
It got cut, and *only then* did I remove the the the proud screws I mentioned before... only to discover they were sort of loose, after all, and had been embedded in wood filler...because as became rapidly obvious, the center rail has been replaced before, probably two or three times. Figure that we've lived here going on 15 years...so those first 15 years must have been very hectic indeed!
So I improvised. Rather than replacing the wood, I bracketed the mounting bracket. The bracket holding the guide wheel to the back of the drawer also needed replacing... and there were 7 holes back there. One, luckily, was right where I need one. But that means there are now *10* bracket holes on the back of the drawer, brave drawer that it is.
And you know, now that it's done, the drawer works. No squealing or squeaking, hooray! On top of that, I found the old 2-4-2 locomotive I'd lost track of, have a reason to go on a tool replacement trip at some point, and can say Hey... I finished something today!
Alas, while I was at the hardware store (s) I saw a couple interesting awning kits, and it looks like, old Dubya's understanding of the weather notwithstanding, I ought to look at some passive solar reduction techniques RSN.
There you go. A little bit about the day the day the kitchen drawer broke... ah, the writing life, one wild ride after another.
...and what's up with you?
Then we came along and rescued it -- agreed to live in it while the well was rehabilitated from an encroachment of petroleum that had leaked from the forgotten tanks of the oldest gas station in Kennebec County, and when that wouldn't work, we've lived here while they dug us a new well down on the edge of the property and then spent more than a decade getting the gas -- "the product" as one engineer insisted on calling it -- out of the old well and the environment. That, at least, was finished last year.
So the house is a well-used 30 years old house and the home-built kitchen cabinets (including the rustic split-wood rustic facade on the at the top of the very tall cabinets) have had plenty of work to do over time. I've had to fiddle with the drawer a few times over the years, including taking a bit of a kink out of the guide rail that was there when we bought the house....
Today (suddenly and without warning -- or hardly any warning, anyway) ... the "silverware" drawer broke, going all awkward and clattery and spilling a few spoons inside the bottom cabinet. The center rail guide had broken -- metal fatigue! -- and needed to be replaced. When I say metal fatigue, the tongue of the center rail was still well attached to the top bottom of the drawer opening, three sturdy screws proudly doing their jobs...
I'd been doing other work today... You know, some computer work, some writing, some PR, some scritching of cats, ... and I also designed an Allies flyer and read over a draft of someone elses PR stuff. So I was willing enough to break for the day and off I went to the hardware store (s)...where I could not find the 21 inch center rail I needed. I didn't feel like futzing with a 20 inch by adding a wooden support, so I got the 22 inch... which promptly broke my hacksaw blade (old, old blade) when I started to amend it.
So after scrounging around in the "One day I'm going to build me a railroad" cabinet I found another somewhat lighter weight hacksaw and gingerly trimmed the center guide rail to length with a blade originally bought to cut scale rail. Sigh. Not quite the same work, that.
It got cut, and *only then* did I remove the the the proud screws I mentioned before... only to discover they were sort of loose, after all, and had been embedded in wood filler...because as became rapidly obvious, the center rail has been replaced before, probably two or three times. Figure that we've lived here going on 15 years...so those first 15 years must have been very hectic indeed!
So I improvised. Rather than replacing the wood, I bracketed the mounting bracket. The bracket holding the guide wheel to the back of the drawer also needed replacing... and there were 7 holes back there. One, luckily, was right where I need one. But that means there are now *10* bracket holes on the back of the drawer, brave drawer that it is.
And you know, now that it's done, the drawer works. No squealing or squeaking, hooray! On top of that, I found the old 2-4-2 locomotive I'd lost track of, have a reason to go on a tool replacement trip at some point, and can say Hey... I finished something today!
Alas, while I was at the hardware store (s) I saw a couple interesting awning kits, and it looks like, old Dubya's understanding of the weather notwithstanding, I ought to look at some passive solar reduction techniques RSN.
There you go. A little bit about the day the day the kitchen drawer broke... ah, the writing life, one wild ride after another.
...and what's up with you?
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None of this is cheap, as it turns out. And, I can't really complain, because most of this stuff has been working for 26 years. Although, while shopping for the new oven, I asked the clerk how long the new one could be expected to last, pointing out the age of the broken oven. His answer? "About 5 years for the digital stuff." So, the oven will still heat up in 5 years, but the all the buttons and digital readouts will be goners. And, they don't replace those - you have to buy a new oven!
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now, most of what's required is a reasonable set of the right tools, some patience, and a clear understanding that replacing what you had with the same kind of thing is usually the bet. If you had center rail, you should replace with that; if you had bottom rail, you should go with that... for simplicity.
"minor" renovations .....HUH!
At this point I am ready to file for a burn permit. Someone pass the marshmallows, Please. And where IS the chocolate?
Re: "minor" renovations .....HUH!
We need to do something about our tub...but I figure if we do we're gonna redo the whole room big time, lights and all.
Re: "minor" renovations .....HUH!
aahhhhhwHELLL!
Kitchens!
two years ago- new appliances and a new counter & sink last year, but the floor has been really pitiful cheap vinyl tile in a speckled cream that didn't ever look clean even when it was. But the kitchen is 15x19 and there were always greater priorities.
Yes it's the house in my user icon
Jo had offered six floor moppings for Christmas, but when she actually looked at the floor last week something snapped. I came home to bare wood.... which was in amazingly good condition overall. We had hoped that was what was under all the layers but hadn't ever had the courage to attack it. (Layers were: 3 layers of 12 in square vinyl/linoleum, one layer 1/8th inch plywood, 2 layers sheet linoleum, and a layer of burlap.)
So everything movable from the kitchen is in the dining room and there is sawdust everywhere, but the nice narrow pine tounge & groove has all had one sanding pass at 80 grit and they have started on the 120 grit.
The part that has had the 120 grit pass is so *smooth* and silky. Of course even with plastic hung over the doorways the dining room and living room are acquiring light dustings of sawdust, and the kitchen requires a throrough wipedown of relevant surfaces before any food prep. Did you know that sawdust will cling to vertical surfaces like stainless steel refrigerators?
(I suppose sawdust would add fiber to our diet.)
And since all the canisters and appliances and anything not in a
cabinet is in the dining room, it isn't exactly convenient, but it's
going to be wonderful.
What's amazing is that since it's been so protected, once you sand the 100 plus year old wood it is just as fair and smooth as if it were new -- actually my husband says that it is much better than anything you'd see today even in wood intended to be exposed. It was cut from lumber that was tighter grain and slower growth than most wood cut for lumber today.
That is, their paint/construction grade lumber & flooring is better
than our stain grade woods today. We've found that in the cabinet and trim that we've stripped too.
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By the way, are you still left coast?
Re: Kitchens!
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I've got a friend who is very into trains but doesn't have the space for them. I'm interested in the engineering of the things.
Doc
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