A professionally built modular kitchen. Equally good wardrobes, crockery shelf and TV units. Not much can go wrong right ? True. Because, even after 8 years, all the woodworking we had invested in was intact and functioning immaculately. But not that Sunday afternoon.
My Sunday Afternoons
My Sundays are quite the routine that I thoroughly enjoy. Particularly the afternoons. I get to eat my favorite vathakozhambu for lunch, watch a bit of whatever Tamil movie I can lay my hands on and then have a long siesta. Sometimes long enough to even miss the beautiful sunset from my balcony. It is a habit that I relish. Maybe I believed it helped me with the maddening week that lay ahead. Maybe it helped shake the dreadful blues of the Sunday evening (Worse than a Monday morning I say). May be. May be not. But I look forward to that movie and that naaaaaaap. So anything out of the way can really spoil the pleasure for me.
That afternoon Preethi was working on a painting project and she asked me to get her kit from the draw. I opened the draw to claim the palette, oil paints and the linseed oil. I handed over the art gear and shut the draw close. That's when it happened. As I closed it, the handle with the draw face fell down from the draw (Factory made and made by professionals) exposing 4 wicked nails. Since I was getting ready for my nap, I put the fallen piece of wood away to be dealt with later, only to be told, “There are sharp nails jutting out of the draw. You better fix it NOW”.
Related reading: Start your own woodworking hobby with this simple recipe
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| Can you see a smiling face with two wicked eyes ? :) |
Anything can go wrong
Well, this is only one example. We have had the bed room door knobs not working. The balcony door stopper not being effective. Even the pulley type clothes hanger becoming completely unusable. Point is, anything can go wrong any time. Each of these small issues has its own merit in increasing the discomfort levels one way or the other. Based on the degree of inconvenience, they will need anywhere from immediate to gradual / delayed attention. That Sunday afternoon incident needed immediate attention because of the exposed nails that were kid unsafe.
I have spoken about the intrinsic benefits of DIY woodworking many times and it wouldn’t hurt to reiterate it. How many times did you have to endlessly wait for a carpenter to come over and repair a problem? How many times did you have to throw a broken something and get a new replacement for it? Everything has a life and everything will show its true color after due wear and tear. There is nothing really as permanence and even durability wanes with time and use.
Moral of the story
My Sunday afternoon could be yours someday. You will have a pressing need to immediately patch up / refurbish a defective / broken something. And when that someday comes, why wait for that elusive carpenter.Be your own handyman. Learn to fix it yourself. And yeah, you will not repent it. |
| The supposedly permanent fix - I used extra screws |
- P.S.1 : I ended up watching a Danush movie that afternoon.
- P.S.2 : I had the audacity to ignore the "FIX IT NOW!" command and went ahead with my zzzzzing. We managed with an interim solution for couple of days before I provided it with the non-existent permanent fix.
