Today I got a couple very minor house projects. By minor I mean low complexity, short execution time (hah! riiiiight), little skill involved.
Project #1 Install brass slide latch on the basement door so it can be securely latched closed once the dog is trained to stay down there while we are gone.
Project #2 Install door stops for the side door and back door.
Project #3 Clean up/organize the basement a little bit.
Project #1 was by far the least minor. It took about 45 minutes, required the use of an electric drill/driver, pencil, and a small wood carving chisel blade. Well, to start out with I broke all four different blade I attempted to use to chisel out the catch in the door frame for the bolt. I was able to do it, though, and these blades were all from one of those 30 piece wood craft hobby kits, so no big losses there. The main frustration came when the screws that came with the latch all broke 3/4 of the way in to the pilot hole i had drilled. Yeah. Turns out my new Ryobi cordless drill works pretty well as a broken off screw extractor too, so long as there is enough of the shaft sticking out to get the bit gripped secured down on it. Anyway, I just so happened to have a packet of smaller (but much more sturdy) wood screws that looked like they would fit the holes in the strike plate. Voila. I think my "after market" screws heads stick out a little farther because the latch tends to stick on the bolting action. I think that will change with time as that head gets ground down a little (or a gouge gets run through the bolt).
Projects 2 and 3 were piece of cake compared to #1.
Oh, and last night I reassembled all fo the orchid shelves. Soon we'll probably have to take up the carpet in the porch and put down some of that IKEA laminate. $1.50 a square foot or something like that. Supposed to be click and lock.
We'll see.
And my mom probably isn't going to hell. Not permanently, at least.
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