Home repair

Anyone who owns a home understands how much fun it is to perform home repair. You can think of a number of things that probably should be fixed/replaced/removed/etc. Whether you do them or spend an afternoon drinking- Hey! Stop staring at me!- is your choice.

There was one item I have been meaning to fix ever since I bought my home many years ago. It wasn't anything in my wheelhouse such as plumbing or painting or minor electricity. I had no clue how to fix it that I had already decided I would have a handy man take care of it.

The task at hand was replacing a window pane in the french doors. These doors separate the area by the front door from the living room. There are 8 panes in each door. The bottom right pane was missing on the left door when I moved in. It was one of those things I had never noticed during the inspection. At first I just covered it with some plastic and thought I would get around to it soon enough.

Only I never did.

Oh I thought of getting some glass and repairing the door. But I had no clue how to do it. Hence the thought of having a handy man take care of it. I even got an estimate on how much it would cost but never acted up on it. A couple of months ago I pointed it out to a friend of mine who was going to fix the ceiling in one of the bedrooms. He looked at it and told me exactly what to do. How the window was actually framed in by the wood at each pane. You could pry apart the wooden frame and easily place the glass back in. When he patched up the ceiling, he took the time to pry out the framing. He even labeled each piece so I knew where they went.

The plastic stayed there until yesterday. I finally got out the measuring tape and got the numbers. 11 x 12 1/2. Odd I thought. So I measured again. Same. I had plans to go to Hooters for beer and wings (tip: stay away from the Cajun wings- still way too salty. Nice spicy kick but salty). I figured I could stop by the hardware store on the way. I got the glass (just over $5) and went home to install, all the while wondering if I was suppose to get the glass a hair under the opening to ensure it would fit. Last thing I wanted was to come back to the store and get another piece of glass just a bit smaller than what I had bought.

I sanded out the edges a bit and popped the glass right in. Perfect fit. I then took the wooden fitting and propped them back in. Not a perfect fit. I couldn't get the bottom piece in. It was a hair too long. Had the wood expanded since being taken out? I sanded down the wood and tried to lightly hammer the last part of the frame back in. I then slipped.

So now you are thinking this knucklehead hammered the glass, aren't you? Well I did. But it didn't break. I just about shit myself when the hammer hit the glass but I was tapping lightly, not pounding. I did get the bottom piece in. It took a bit of wedging but it is in there.

My last task was the nails. Oh yeah, the nails. The frame is nailed back into the door. Tiny little nails. I hoped they would somehow slide right back into the holes they had come from. Uh...no. WTF? Why don't they just go right back in? I didn't want to take any chances. I hit the glass once and wasn't going to tempt fate. I hammered the nails about halfway in when there was resistance. I am not sure why I did so. I wedged the frame in pretty good. I don't think anything is falling out of there anytime soon.

So I have a decision. To try and hammer the nails in or pull them out. I am leaning to the pull out. If I leave it as is, I know I will somehow scrape my leg on them.