Thursday 20 December 2012

Feminine Genius

Holidailies 2012
When I am good I am smokin'! First thing today I set to and sorted our mystery cupboard. If we lived in an old house it would be the cupboard under the stairs, the one where the vacuum and the cleaning materials are alongside the re-usable shopping bags and the carrier bags. The duplicate cleaning materials and the multitude of washing up sponges yet there are never any when you want them. The singular solid builder's glove has been thrown along with the debris of four years of living here leaving order and virtually a little grocery store of supplies neatly stored. The dustpan and brush were never handy and then I realised I should just shift the hook and bingo, maybe our lives may become tidier simply because the cleaning materials are more accessible.

The real genius began when I turned my attention to our cooker. We live in rented accommodation so the landlords are responsible for such things working. When it broke down again for the umpteenth time a year ago they decided to replace it. The engineer did so but the door never quite fitted. It would creak and not shut properly so when cooking the heat would escape out of the sides of the door wreaking the surrounding fascias of the cupboards. Mr Doris tried fixing it, I tried tweaking it, we told the landlord of the damage but they did nothing. Today I took the door apart. Four tiny little screws were all that held the door together. As well as a good scrub to all sides of the glass panels I studied the mechanism.

Poked.

Looked.

Tweaked.

Considered.

Pondered.

Dabbled.

Experimented.

Wiggled.

And then it became blindingly obvious that this flappy piece of metal was not incidental. That it was there for a reason. Suddenly things began to clunk and click into place. A few minutes later the door assembled and everything reasonably horizontal and opening and shutting like a dream. Looking shiny and clean. And fixed. Oh yes, when I am good and I am very good! Leaving me pondering that when the cooker was installed it was not installed properly.

3 comments:

Anji said...

Way to go Doris!!

I love it when I sort things out like that. I must admit though I'm frightened of breaking anything that belongs to the house (and the landlord)

We had that kind of problem with the loo. After being replaced and repaired 18 months ago. Something came loose the other day when I was cleaning it and my future son-in-law took it apart and put it all together again and now it works even better (nothing left behind after a short flush for the first time since the plumber came).

You'll save on electricity (or gas) too if the heat stays inside the oven.

Doris said...

Could your son-in-law come and fix ours? It is supposed t be dual flush but it does not even flush the barest minimum at full flush. The half flush does not work. The Landlord does not want to know, after all they do not pay the water bill :-(

Doris said...

I once had a go at fixing the loo but maybe I should turn my attention to it again. Hmm.