Things Lara Fixed (or Put Together) Around the House

Fixing things is a new experience for me. I like it. Very satisfying. Here are some of my experiences since moving into a new place 11/97:

• It started out with changing the oil in the car. Where I lived before, working on the car was prohibited, and changing the oil counted, so even though this one is easy, it's also new.
• Then I put together Graham's new trike. It's mostly heavy molded plastic.
• That was successful and it goes, so then I put together the new coat rack, and a few lamps we received for Christmas
• Up next: needed a shelf on which to place one of the aforementioned lamps. Off to Bi-Mart. Purchased the supplies, marked where on the wall to make holes, installed hangers, put up shelf.
• Then we got the dryer. All was well until we went to plug it in. Uh-oh. The prongs on the plug aren't shaped like the holes in the wall. Yes, I know one needs a 220 socket for a 220 plug. So, off to Fred Meyer I go. I think I need an adapter, but such a critter doesn't exist (bad idea; too much juice, I guess). Instead, I wind up REPLACING the dryer's entire cord. To borrow a phrase from Shirien, tsarina of home repair and my department head, "I'm a smart girl, and I can do this." It actually wasn't as scary as I thought it would be, and it works fine and no exposed wires are showing or anything.
• Then I went to USE the washer and dryer, and found that the washer's intake hose was not very attached. I attached it more securely, but this was not very much help. The rubber washer was too old and brittle to hold the water in there. Off to Fred Meyer again. Very painless home repair.
• Last's night's project was weatherstripping the front door. Also painless, although finding the appropriate implement with which to scrape off someone else's old poor job of weatherstripping in a very narrow space was somewhat frustrating. My door no longer has a draft, so I must have done it right. Oh. And then I installed a towel holder in the kitchen.

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