Apartment Projects #13: A Quick Fix, Et Cetera...

So the other day I was closing a drawer in an old bureau…
I had done a quick fix on all the drawers a while ago, so quick in fact, that I had never mentioned it…
The problem with the old thing was that when the drawers were shut, they shut unequally, i.e. at varying depths… a few simple drawer-stops were all it took to straighten that one out…
But in closing that drawer, it reminded me that there was another little task… On yet another bureau, we had one of those “fall-out” drawers we’ve all seen, the kind that when pulled out reach a point… and want to fall on our toes!!
This is the only drawer that does this… It has one of those little C-shaped plastic things, that are supposed to ride a rail underneath… Either the plastic was broken or the rail (or both)... I didn’t bother to check…
The fix for this one, was finding a scrap that fit in the gap at the top…

An easy find, and easy to cut a strip off of, and then to cut that in half again to make two, one for either side…

Easy too, to drill a couple of out-sized holes for screws and countersink them…

The hardest part was screwing them to the inside walls of the bureau… I probably should have drilled some pilot holes, but didn’t… Just started them with a hammer, and screwed them in… it looks like Maple…
I didn’t attempt to make it a perfect fit… Wood swells, and all I wanted was for it not to fall out anymore…

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The sign that I was working on hasn’t gotten much further… I transferred the shamrock pattern onto the wood, in this case Cherry…

I re-sawed that because I want two of them…
Anyway, they’re still not cut out… Precious little time lately…

We went on vacation, Debbie and I, at the beginning of September… it already seems like an eternity ago…
Arrived at York Beach, Maine on a Saturday, and the next day I celebrated another birthday, my 53rd… We had a full day and hadn’t even “beached it” yet… After all, we had the whole week, right?
Well, Tropical Storms Lee and Katia conspired against us, one coming up the interior of New England, the other 400-500 miles off the coast… It rained from mid-morning Monday until Thursday evening… Straight…
Still, a rainy day at the beach trumps a day at work anytime!! We Slept, and Ate, and Shopped at our leisure…
It turned out that my Cousin Brian and his wife Louise were up in York for the week too and it was great to see them… and not have it be someone’s funeral or wedding or something…
The only wood-related thing on the journey was my Sea Latch box that I made a while ago… I currently use that as my “work box”, the one that I empty my pockets into at work so I don’t have all the extra “stuff” jangling around in my pockets…
I thought it would make a good place for my shaving gear… and it did… Except, that all that rain swelled it up like Mad!! I thought I’d have to snap my latch to open it!!
Happily, a couple days back at work returned it to normal…
Finally, on the Friday of our Beach week, we had some Beach Weather!! It was an excellent day…
Cousin Brian taught me how to play “Kubb” in picture-perfect weather…
Here’s one of me playing in the Atlantic…

No Joke, Folks, I went in the water three times and enjoyed it with the same feeling I had… almost fifty years ago… :)

-- Mike in Concord, NH---Unpleasant tasks are simply worthy challenges to improve skills.