Duct tape - the bane of my household repairs.

gcvmom

Here we go again!
My 25-year old kitchen drawer sides are made of MDF and have been slowly deteriorating and raining sawdust down on the cabinet contents below for the past, um, 20 years. I've mentioned it to husband on and off for the past 20 years as one of the myriad reasons for wanting to replace the cabinetry in that room. Drawer facings that are splitting apart, peeling finish, sagging hinges, inaccessible spaces are a some of the other reasons.

Yesterday, in a fit of manic nervousness over my pending surgery, he scurried around the house with a to-do list of chores. He was squatting down to get a pot out of the affected cabinet and remarked "Hey, why is all this sawdust in here? It's a mess!" :hammer:

Then I heard the sizzling pop of the lightbulb moment in his head as he dashed off to the garage, coming back with a roll of duct tape in his hand. He removed the drawer, brought it to the table, emptied the contents, flipped the drawer over and proceeded to tape the bottom edges of the offending drawer's sides. And since he was on a manic-duct-tape-roll, he decided to treat ALL the kitchen drawers thus, whether they needed it or not. After exhausting the entire roll of tape, he stood back and proudly declared the kitchen completely fixed and as good as any new kitchen could ever be and certainly for much, much less money than MY frivolous alternate choice for improving the situation.

I'm wondering how long it will take him to notice how HARD it is to open the drawers now (especially since none have handles), or the fact that the tape is already starting to fall off? :rolleyes: I'm afraid if I say anything to him, his next step will be a staple gun to secure the tape in place. :faint:
 

AnnieO

Shooting from the Hip
Staple gun... Gorilla glue... Yeah, I know that feeling only too well.

Hint: Staple the tape on, then tug it back off, make sure there's no adhesive left to stick (sawdust rocks for this). Then throw a strip on something where sawdust normally lands.

"Um, honey? We're going to have to get new cabinets... This just isn't working."

And no staple gun, because you already tried that, Know what I mean??
 

gcvmom

Here we go again!
Yeah, well evidently KLUGE is his middle name. Which would probably be OK if his last name was MacGYVER -- because then it would at least have a chance of working, ya know? But EVERYTHING he attempts to repair is at this level of sophistication. Which is usually why I don't ask him to do anything that is even remotely critical.
 

Marcie Mac

Just Plain Ole Tired
I don't know what it is with some guys and duct tape - x has been gone almost 18 years, and no matter what we start to repair or have redone, we still find duct tape on whatever it is.

SO started repairing some cracks in the walls - our house is lathe & plaster - not drywall. He found on older cracks that had to be redone newspaper stuffed in the cracks (X was told by a not so handy man friend to stuff the walls with newspaper when repairing a crack). I probably have several really old editions of newspaper in our walls - if they ever tear it down it will be a treasure trove of information LOL

Marcie
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
At least yours try to repair something. I have a construction worker who absolutely refuses to repair a darned thing at home! I swear it will all fall down around us before he lifts a finger.
 

gcvmom

Here we go again!
Janet, he's just proving the old proverb about the cobbler's children going barefoot! :bigsmile:

Honestly, I wish he would just admit he doesn't know jack about household repairs and get someone else to do it right -- or barring that, take the time to RTFM (Read The Flippin' Manual) and LEARN how to do it properly.
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
I know. I have recently found a program that helps disabled folks get their homes repaired. I am going to look into that even if I have to throw him out of the house for a period of time to qualify...lol.
 
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