Great Goofs

Mirror, mirror on the wall

Last holiday season, I bought my husband a fog-proof mirror for shaving. Noticing that he wasn’t as closely shaved as he used to be, I asked him how he liked it. He said, “Just fine.” Not really believing him, I went to investigate. I noticed what looked like a crack near the edge of the glass. After running my fingernail across it, I realized it was a protective film. I peeled it off. The next day my husband commented that he liked the new mirror better than the old one! He looked better-groomed as well.

Unplanned improvement

When updating our old kitchen cabinets with new hardware, I had to shift one of the old hole locations for the cabinet pull screws. I used the countertop as a makeshift workbench and began drilling holes in the doors and drawer fronts. I was being careful to let the doors overhang the countertop as I drilled. When I reached the last set of doors, the drilling felt tougher. This door somehow seemed thicker. As I pulled out the drill, I discovered that the bit had gone right through the countertop! Not being able to disguise this nasty blemish, I cut out a section of the countertop and made a cutting board insert. Everyone tells me how clever the new cutting board inlay is, but I just nod my head and keep the rest of the story to myself!

Cutting corners

Not long ago, we remodeled our kitchen, complete with new cabinets. I prepped the room, and when the new cabinets were delivered, I jumped right in and started hanging the upper cabinets first. They went in nicely, so I began carrying in the base cabinets. No matter which way I turned the corner base cabinet, complete with the lazy Susan, I couldn’t get it into the kitchen. The entry doors to the kitchen were 32 in. wide, and there was no way that cabinet was going to fit. Finally I hauled out my reciprocating saw and cut into the back of my $450 cabinet. Fortunately, my carpentry reputation is still intact, because once the countertops and doors were on and the lazy Susan was filled, nobody could see the patchwork behind.

He blew it, all right

Not long ago, our refrigerator was cooling poorly, so I loosened the grille cover on the bottom of the fridge. Sure enough, I’d neglected that cleaning job way too long. The cooling coils were packed with dust. After failed attempts to rig up small tubing to the shop vacuum to clean between the coils, I went to the garage to find a better solution. The leaf blower caught my eye, so I brought it inside, plugged it in and aimed it at the coils and turned it on. Before I could switch to the low speed, a huge cloud of dust had billowed out from behind the fridge and covered the whole kitchen. Luckily, my wife wasn’t home at the time. I got out the vacuum and spent more than an hour frantically cleaning. Later that day, she opened the cupboard above the fridge and asked me why there was a layer of dust and soot covering everything inside. I now use the leaf blower for outside work only.