fix-it friday #5

 Just a little fix to share this week. Needing to stay focused on a million balls I have in the air for the month of May. Hoping to share an exciting one with you soon.


You've seen this funky old door in a million photos. It's straight out our back and leads into the garage. I love the patina and know that I should paint it, but it's aging so beautifully. The hook and eye latch was constantly being pulled straight out of the old wood by every strong wind that gusted by. After a large storm last year, the latch blew right off...  and then the door flew off of it's old rusted hinges. It was quite dramatic! I loved the old rusty hinges, but they needed to be upgraded. Instead of putting another hook and eye latch in, we temporarily put up a scrap of wood that turns on a screw. It worked so well, that it's become the permanent solution.

It's not a new idea, we have several antique cabinets that have a wooden "latch". I bet there are a lot of fixes out there that were meant to be temporary, but have held up over the ages. Why fix something that isn't broken... anymore? Any repairs going on in your neck of the woods? We'd all love to hear! Happy Friday!

fix-it friday #4

 Welcome to the fourth editon of celebrating our repairs on Friday! I loved all of your stories from last week. Clothes mending is something so many of us enjoy. Today's project isn't quite a repair, but I was sick for most of the week so I'm cutting myself some slack. We have an old house with very few closets. Storage is always on my mind. At the top of our stairs is a tiny alcove where we used to keep a dresser with linens. The dresser took up more space than it gave, and it eventually moved to my son's bedroom while he awaited his broken drawer to be fixed. Linens lived in limbo in several laundry baskets. You can imagine how neatly folded our towels remained. NOT! The fix: alcoves lend themselves beautifully to built in shelves. F.I.F. (fix-it Friday) gave me the nudge to finally get it done. I took measurements of how deep and long the shelves could be. Then I determined how many would fit nicely: 5. We didn't have enough scrap wood in the garage, so we all went on an expedition to Lowe's. With the help of a very enthusiastic employee, we got our supplies and had them cut to my specifications.The plan was to rest each shelf  on top of  thick wooden shims.

So easy. I'm not a carpenter, but I'm fairly comfortable with a drill. When we got home, the reality of our slanty, tilty old farmhouse taught me that I should have measured each spot, because nothing is even in our house. While I got frustrated with our four out of five boards that were too big, my husband volunteered to cut them to size and finish it up.

Just a little credit for my sweet, silent (and so handsome)partner... he did an amazing job!


I will finish it off with my specialty: stenciled curtains.

A suspension rod also is quite happy in an alcove. Don't worry, I'll straighten it out when I hang them. And yes, that is original wallpaper, with a little peeling that will be hidden by towels and said curtain.

Not sure how old it is, but this part of our house dates to 1850. I can't bare to take it down.

Can't wait to hear what little mends and handy repairs you've been up to!

p.s. there have been quite a few requests for a(n) F.I.F button... you know, to put up in your own sidebar. I 've never done a button before, but gave it a try...let me know if it works and please link back to maya*made, thanks friends! 
 

fix-it friday #3

 This week seemed to have an inordinate amount of BIG fixes. The kinds where you have to bring in the experts... electricians, contractors, etc. I had moments of feeling overwhelmed by the "when it rains, it pours" syndrome.  To keep my wits about me, I turned to my mending basket. Ripped seams, missing buttons, torn pockets?  These are fixes I'm familiar and comfortable with. Finding a sunny spot, I curled up with my neglected basket and felt like I was doing something worthwhile... as small as it might be.

Do you have a mending basket that sits around gathering dust, too? It felt so good to resurrect some favorite clothing items for everyone in my family. A fixed seam on my daughter's favorite pajamas says "I love you" without words. My son's ripped backpack strap that finally got repositioned spoke of caring for him and his books... quietly.  My husband's newly attached buttons were like little kisses on his sleeve. You may think I'm a silly romantic... and you're right. I believe that mending clothing  holds an emotional component that is very different than unclogging drains.

 I gathered some helpful links:
-how to sew by hand video: clear and useful
-10 clothing fixes that everyone should know
-how to mend it.com potentially interesting for all kinds of repairs. Check out the clothing section for basic instructions.

And here are some of my favorite mended items in the world: Boro- patched and repaired textiles of old Japan found at SRI Threads in Brooklyn.

 I'd love to hear about your fixes: big or little... What have you given a new life to recently?

Have a great weekend and do check out the comments in yesterday's Earth Day give-away. You all provided fantastic ideas for greening up your life!

fix-it friday #2

 

It took me a while, but here I am! Good morning and hello Friday! To understand why an entire day of the week is now dedicated to posting about fixing things read this first post and follow through the FIF archives. Friday has taken on such new meaning for me. I love hearing your responses and what you've been mending and repairing! In fact, I'd really like to feature one of your fixes or highlight a repair skill you'd like to share. Please e-mail me at mayaluna(at) yahoo(dot) com with submissions.

I have two projects to highlight today. I'm finding that I'm fixing stuff all week long with a new awareness and intentionality. You, too? Some of it includes the little mending I've always done, but I'm also discovering that I have a new incentive to not let broken things sit around. My children know about our Friday plan, and I feel accountable in an all new way, as I model my "handiness" to them. In fact, my son is contributing to today's post with his revamping of an old scooter. Our fine weather brought out our spring play equipment. We have two old razor edge scooters from garage sales. One was for my son and the other an extra for a friend, which my daughter decided she was BIG enough for this year. It was rusted shut and I heard my son say "sorry it's broken, " as if that was that. Her response of a trembling lip and a plea for  a NEW one were all it took to run in for the magic oil.

 A little spray of WD40 here and there on every bolt, was all it took. My son was amazed at his own ability to fix it.  Next, he wanted to oil every stuck and/or squeaky thing around. Go to it!

There were no grips on the handlebars, so we made some ourselves with craft foam scraps and gorilla glue. My son secured them with rubber bands while it dried. A little test drive later on that day, proved to be a success and my daughter has one more reason to admire her brother... he has one more reason to feel proud. Simple, but this is the good stuff (in life).

Next FIX: Lazy Drain

 Oh , the woes of our bathtub drain saga. We have a chronic slow drain in our tub due to faulty piping installation by the previous owners. This means that we have to be vigilant about keeping soap scum and hair out of the drain. We are not the vigilant type. This has resulted in trying various drain de-cloggers over the years. Most of the common "drain busters" are highly toxic and dangerous to you, your pipes and the environment. We've tried every kind of earth friendly product and haven't been that successful, sadly. We have had luck with a snake/auger, but it's hassle and messy. I do, however, recommend having one in your repair kit, if you have frequent clogged drains. After reading through various repair forums, I decided to revisit an old trick with a new recipe. A simple vinegar and baking soda solution is recommended for weekly maintenance. Since we hadn't been doing it regularly, I came up with something a little more intense, much to my children's excitement... we basically sent a volcano down our drain... repeatedly! Here's what to do:

Shake in 1/2 a cup of soda. Get a rag ready. Pour 1/2 a cup or a little more of vinegar on top and quickly stuff a rag into the drain. Pouring in the vinegar is the fun part, so invite your children do it, if possible. Let it sit for an hour. Pour a kettle or hot water over it. I tried this once and the drainage improved only slightly. I almost gave up, but repeated it two more times and hoooray!! We ended up pouring volcanoes down every drain in the house! Happy kids! Happy Drains! Happy family!

Simple solutions. Working together. Modeling self-reliance. Feeling Good!  

What have you been fixing lately?

fix-it friday #1

 

Good morning! It's Friday... and you know what that means! Today we officially start our celebration of  the humble act of repair. To understand why an entire day of the week is now dedicated to fixing things read this first post.  Many of you already wield a hammer with confidence, others find that a needle and thread are your repair tools of choice. Wonderful. All skill levels are welcome here. And I'm terribly sorry if you've come thinking that this would be the Maya fix-it show, filled with ME telling YOU how to to transform your home. I'm not that handy... yet! I plan on learning new tricks with and from all of you. Sometimes, I'll share my fix, other times I'll feature one of your fixes. Let's get warmed up with a project I completed over the week. If  you see how I could have done it differently, by all means jump in with a suggestion. Then we'll get to the fun part: your F.I.F's in the comment section!

 The Bottomless Drawer

 

I tackled the task of fixing a broken drawer under my son's captain bed. Glamorous first project. Nope, but so satisfying because it was on my list for an embarrassingly long time! Background: My grandfather built his own house and all the furniture in it. He built all of my beds growing up... and they all had built in drawers underneath. Such an efficient use of space! I certainly didn't know how to build a bed with drawers for my son, so we bought one when he turned three (didn't sleep in it for years,but that's another story). It was a good bed, but he had the habit of leaving the drawers open. Last year, we discovered that the drawer by his head was jammed shut.After careful examination (and a confession) we found that he had stepped into it one morning and cracked through the bottom board. The only way to open the drawer ever again was to rip out the base.

 

The drawer gathered dust against the wall and a pit of library books filled up in the hole under the bed!  (Yes, over due fines increased.)

Repair:

 

• The original bottom piece was so surprisingly thin and flimsy. I was shocked how long it had lasted. My grandfather would have been appalled by the shoddy use of materials. I took it to Lowe's for a replacement piece. Because of the grooves that it had to slide into, it needed to be very thin and yet still strong. Only one option available: super thin masonite, so I had it cut to size. Do you know that most places will cut your wood to your specifications? So nice to eliminate one step from a project. 
• I slid the piece into the drawer and staple gunned the back rim to keep it in place. The original had been stapled there too, so I just followed suit. This was a first mistake, but I didn't know it yet.

• The next day, the drawer was jammed again... the new piece had fallen out from the weight of my son's clothes.
• The staples had pulled out, I should had used longer ones. The drawer sat empty and bottomless in his room again!
• Undaunted, I decided to use very thin, but long nails and my favorite glue: Gorilla Glue.

• It worked! It feels totally sturdy. My son has his drawer back. Library books can't hide any longer!

 Now, let's go see what you've all been up to! Please share your: thoughts, repairs, favorite tools, or handy fix-it tips in the comment section. If you have a blog, I encourage you to post about it and share your link. Some of you already left your links in comments throughout the week, you may want to add them to today's post to make sure you get the visitor's you deserve! 

 p.s. Don't be shy, we're doing this together.

Resources you may find interesting:

-BeJane- #1 DIY home site for women- projects

When you get past the flashy homepage, there's lots of great stuff here.

 Dare to Repair- A Do it Herself Guide to Fixing (Almost) Anything in the Home  

 Have a great weekend and be sure to stop back for a wonderful give-away!

Fix-It Friday

I'm excited to introduce a new feature to maya*made: Fix-It Friday. Each week I will repair or mend something around my home and will showcase the process here. It may be sewing the ripped section of my old couch's slipcover or something a little more complicated with power tools... a little venture out of my comfort zone is always a good thing. The goal is to bring attention to the lost art of fixing, rather than discarding.  Repair is a creative form in its own right, but has been forgotten by our throw-away society. When I first read Platform 21's Repair Manifesto, I cheered!

Isn't that wonderful!? I was raised with this philosophy, but had never seen it written down.  You can download your own copy right here. I urge you to read it in its entirety, but this sentence moved me the most:
"Every time we repair something, we add to its potential, its history, its soul, and its inherent beauty."


Well, fixing that broken toaster just became a bit of poetry. Darning an old sock turned the mender into an artist! Project 21 ended in August of last year, but their site is filled with wonderful ideas and so worth visiting. I found them last fall through The Improvised Life, one of my favorite blogs.
 
So, let's try out this plan together. I'll tell you about my weekly project: success or not and maybe a little about the process each Friday. I encourage you to join me and share your "fixes" (big or small) in Friday's comment section. If you have a blog, maybe you'd like to post the details about your own repair there. Please link to it so that throughout the weekend we can all visit with one another.  I'm certain we'll learn a thing or two, let alone find inspiration for living a more resourceful and meaningful life. There is a tremendous amount of satisfaction in doing something yourself.  Repairs can be figured out with how-to manuals, Google searches, YouTube videos, or maybe a handy friend. Don't forget to include your children, they are always ready to jump in and be helpers.What a wonderful message we'll be teaching our friends and family.
  
Some items do need a specialist. An entire generation of tradespeople have lost their livelihood because of our disposable society. Please include supporting your local cobbler, tailor, scissor sharpener (you get the idea!) as one of your F.I.F contributions. Let's celebrate the art of fixing together!  Can you feel my excitement?! I'm off to the hardware store with the kids... we're ready to begin!