home improvement: door won't shut

You guys are lucky ducks -- you get two read about two home improvement projects in two days. (Yesterday I blogged about replacing tiles in our bathroom.)

Tony and I have been in home improvement mode lately. Last week, I made a to-do list, room by room, of all the things we need to accomplish in the house while we live there. Ohmygosh is that list intimidating. There's so much we have to do. I figure we should get cracking on these projects soon, so we can enjoy them over the next few years.

The to-do list for our bedroom included this gem: Make Tony's closet door shut. Yeah, the door wouldn't latch, so for the past year and a half, Tony's closet door has been an inch or two ajar.

Here is the after photo, and, as you can see, that door is firmly shut. Success!

The strike plate is in the wrong position, so I had to move it slightly to the right, so the latch can catch it.

Before:

After:

It's a subtle difference.

Now, there was one obstacle in this project. Moving the plate required drilling new holes for the screws, and since I didn't have to move the strike plate that far, the new holes would overlap with the existing holes. And if you were to drill one hole overlapping with another hole, you'd just end up with one big hole, and the screw will slide around.

So this is a tip I picked up from my dad, who picked it up from my grandpa, who was a carpenter. Cut off small pieces of toothpicks, cover them in wood glue, and pack them into the existing holes. Let the glue dry, and you can drill your new holes.

File this under: Projects That Shouldn't Have Taken 19 Months To Do.

<3

From the archives:

home improvement: updating door hardware

home improvement: gfci outlets