The other morning I was lying on the floor trying to find the energy to put my sneakers on when my gaze landed on the top of the closet door. I'm not exaggerating when I say that we have been muscling one of the two doors open and closed for ten years, because its track is bent. It's just one of those things that never quite rises to the level of "need to repair immediately!", and there you have it.
But on this particular day, I saw how simple it would be to remove the faulty track and replace it with a functioning version. It literally looked like a six-screws-out, six-new-screws-in job. Still on the floor, I searched for the part at a nearby big box home improvement store, and saw that it cost about 18 dollars. And so, a project was hatched.
The new parts sat in the corner for a few days, but yesterday I was determined to get that repair done, but I found that the battery on my cordless driver was dead. This afternoon, battery charged, I headed upstairs to conquer that closet door.
Despite my awareness of how heavy they were, getting the doors off was harder than I thought. Once they were propped against the foot of the bed, I climbed the step ladder to remove the bracket. Unfortunately, those screws had been in there for thirty-five years and a couple of paint jobs, and they did not yield to me like the hot knife through butter I imagined. Thank goodness I have been doing some arm exercises, because it took some over the head muscle to get those suckers moving.
Once the old track was out, I eagerly unwrapped the new one and read the directions. It was a straight-forward installation, and I lifted the new piece to the top of the closet frame. Except... it didn't fit. I angled and re-angled and pushed and tapped with a hammer, but despite being standard-sized, the dang thing was literally a quarter inch off.
Sighing, I looked at the toolkit and my eye fell on the hacksaw.
Could I?
I could.
Thirty minutes of brute finesse later, I had SAWED THROUGH METAL and was ready to continue the project. And this time, everything went according to plan. The track went up; I replaced the hardware on the doors, I swung them into place, and installed the bottom track. For the first time in a decade, our closet doors open as they should.
Perhaps there is a better way to fill my pandemic isolation time than with long put off do-it-yourself home projects, but what would that be?
But on this particular day, I saw how simple it would be to remove the faulty track and replace it with a functioning version. It literally looked like a six-screws-out, six-new-screws-in job. Still on the floor, I searched for the part at a nearby big box home improvement store, and saw that it cost about 18 dollars. And so, a project was hatched.
The new parts sat in the corner for a few days, but yesterday I was determined to get that repair done, but I found that the battery on my cordless driver was dead. This afternoon, battery charged, I headed upstairs to conquer that closet door.
Despite my awareness of how heavy they were, getting the doors off was harder than I thought. Once they were propped against the foot of the bed, I climbed the step ladder to remove the bracket. Unfortunately, those screws had been in there for thirty-five years and a couple of paint jobs, and they did not yield to me like the hot knife through butter I imagined. Thank goodness I have been doing some arm exercises, because it took some over the head muscle to get those suckers moving.
Once the old track was out, I eagerly unwrapped the new one and read the directions. It was a straight-forward installation, and I lifted the new piece to the top of the closet frame. Except... it didn't fit. I angled and re-angled and pushed and tapped with a hammer, but despite being standard-sized, the dang thing was literally a quarter inch off.
Sighing, I looked at the toolkit and my eye fell on the hacksaw.
Could I?
I could.
Thirty minutes of brute finesse later, I had SAWED THROUGH METAL and was ready to continue the project. And this time, everything went according to plan. The track went up; I replaced the hardware on the doors, I swung them into place, and installed the bottom track. For the first time in a decade, our closet doors open as they should.
Perhaps there is a better way to fill my pandemic isolation time than with long put off do-it-yourself home projects, but what would that be?
I like that phrase- "Brute finesse"- there are lots of projects over here when you run out of stuff to do at your place.
ReplyDeleteI am so impressed, especially when the hacksaw entered the scene!
ReplyDeleteFunny to read that the moment where you were prostrate on the floor "trying to find the energy to put my sneakers on" led to such an impressive feat!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on accomplishing such a herculean task without a return trip (or additional order) from the big box store!
ReplyDelete