Screen Repair

The screen door has had a rough year. Before my departing housemates can get their security deposit back, we (I) need to repair the screen.

I started by pulling out the piping that was holding the old screen into the frame. I got some new screen and cut off a piece that was a few inches larger on all sides.

Mounting the new screen turned out to be way easier than I had expected. You just need to have the special little tool. It looks like a pizza slicer but the blade is wide and has a little channel in it to cradle the piping. While you're rolling the piping into place, you need to gently tug the screen away from the roller to make sure the screen is taught.

After the screen was mounted and looked good, I cut off the excess with a blade.

That was probably the easiest, cheapest and most satisfying home improvement task I've ever taken on. I highly recommend it.

Kitchen Step Stool

Our kitchen has a ridiculous number of cabinets, but many of them are all the the ceiling. The only way for someone of my stature to use these cabinets is with a step stool. The stool I had been using just moved out with the last housemate, so I needed to fashion up a new one.

I started by making two side pieces with a square of plywood and two vertical supports for each step.

Then I cut the actual steps from the same synthetic 2x6 stuff.

Once I had attached the actual steps in between the two side pieces, I wanted to put on some type of footies to protect the floor and provide some grip. I cut some short sections out of an old bicycle tire to fashion on for this purpose.

So I flipped over the stool and stapled these guys on.

To make sure that the stool was nice and rigid, I slapped on a diagional piece accross the back of the stool, and put another little board at the bottom to keep it stiff. I finished it off by sanding down all the edges and rough bits so that it won't give splinters. Because of those synthetic boards, the stool turned out to be very heavy, but because of the little footies, it can slide on the kitchen floor without damaging it so I don't mind having such a burly stool.

B-icicle

We finally got a little bit of winter. I had a blast riding around in all that snow, but it was so deep that I seriously considered skiing to work. It was the first time I encountered conditions where I actually would have been more efficient on skis than a bike.

The problem with all that snow is that the bike gets all caked up with snow and frozen slush. I bring the bike into the garage at night but on nights like this, it doesn't get above freezing in there so I need to find some way to melt off the snow.

I used to use a hair dryer, but that was awkward and inefficient. I needed something that would melt down the whole bike and not require me to be there to reposition it and turn it off. I got a cheap little space heater with a fan for about $20 and found a timer switch for it (pictured below).

Now I just throw the bike up on the stand and set up the heater blowing warm air onto the bike for 2 or 4 hours (I left it for 4 in this case). In the morning all the snow is gone. All that remains is a little sandy residue from the salt and dirt in the slush. I just wash that off with a little cleaner and a rag and the bike is happy as a clam!