My Weekend

Over the weekend I decided to tackle some home rigging, er, repair that I’ve been avoiding. The molding that covers the screen edge on my screened-in porch has aged and begun to pop off the nails. I figured I better deal with it before the screen popped off too.

Sounds simple, right? Hahaha, nope. But then what in my life ever is? There’s a layer of lattice on the inside of the screen to protect the kitties from toppling out. Oh, did I forget to mention the porch is on the second floor? Well, it is. And the lattice is securely, as in extremely securely fastened. Which means tapping in new nails is not an option.

On to plan B. Off I went to Lowe’s. Chatted with a very nice man who told me which variety of glue would work best. Outside. Wood over screen to siding-type stuff. Put a bead on each surface. Let set for five minutes. Stick together. Okay. Only problem is the lattice is such that my hands barely fit through the openings. Yep, bruised all the way around my hands and wrists.

There was one spot with the molding off completely. That worked as specified. No real problem other than it took much, much longer to set up than stated. Then I moved on to the area where some of the nails were still holding and only parts of the molding were sagging.

First of all, the tip on the glue was not elongated and nicely pointy. Getting it between the molding and the siding was not easy. In fact, it ended up all over me. And then the screen shifted which required me to need to reach through the almost set up glue in order to yank it back into place. And, since the surfaces really weren’t separate, it was impossible to let them get tacky as instructed. So I ended up standing there, holding everything in place until it stuck. Naturally, this spot was over my head.

Let me tell you, the cats instinctively knew to stay out of range as they lurked about, smirking at me. They found it highly entertaining when three fingers were glued together. Which I didn’t really notice until after I managed to yank them free from the molding. And of course, I had no turpentine or even nail polish remover. Yeah, sometimes I just don’t think ahead.

But the screen is safely in place. The bugs will remain outside, much to the cats chagrin. And I went to a picnic in the evening, outdoors, and by the time I came home I had most of the glue, and a fair amount of the skin on my hands peeled off.