The Molding Screws

Saturday, 24 November 2012

 I discovered the other day that two of the molding screws for one of the windows in Isla’s room are missing. There are holes where they’re supposed to be; there are even dark spots where the fancy washers have left their marks…but no screws.

I went to the local hardware store to buy some replacements. Alas, they only had replacements in gold and silver, not black like I wanted. So, I bought some gold ones.

Today, I looked around the house to see if the screws were missing from any other windows. There are some missing. One kitchen window is missing one screw, and the adjacent window is misssing two. Meanwhile, the small window in our mudroom is missing all four.

Whenever I see something like this in our house, I try to figure out what was going on in the previous homeowner’s brain. The best I can figure with this is that he removed the molding to paint, stain or sand, and then somehow lost some screws in the interum. Or maybe he was doing some majore rennovations in one room, and lost all the screws for one of the windows, and then took screws from other windows around the house so that no window was missing all the screws. Well, except the mudroom window. But in that case, he never bothered to install any screws in the first place. The modling is just sitting there, and you can take it out with your bare hands. I can’t figure that one out.

Sunday, 25 November 2012

Today I went to the hardware store and bought more gold screw/washer combos. I had this epiphany that I would replace all the screws in the windows in Owen’s room with the new, gold screws. His room already sports some gold, and he claims to like the color. So, he gets the gold screws.

Then, I took the black screws I had salvaged from his room, and installed them in the missing places around the house. Except the mudroom. I still haven’t fixed that one. I’m gonna need the drill for that, so it’s a bigger job.

Here’s a visual to help you know what I’m talking about:

This is a piece of molding in the kitchen. See the hole? Yeah, a screw is supposed to go there. And notice the dark ring where a decorative washer is supposed to lie.

And after…


Okay, so this is a poor-quality picture. But that’s the best I could do with my phone’s camera. I hope you can tell that the screw and washer I absconded from Owen’s room are now in place here in the kitchen.

So now our house is just a tiny bit better than it was a few days ago. Lucky us.

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