Frank and Lori do Home Repair

Our confidence bolstered by our recent successful TV equiptment cabling, Frank and I (five college degrees combined) set out today to attack one of the most annoying issues in our house -- the door to the garage. This particular door would bounce open when shut hard, which is annoying when you are carrying things in and out of the garage. We had a repairman come out to fix our doors the other day, and he had suggested we buy a spring-loaded door closer to help resolve the issue.

So today, we bought a spectacular door closer from Lowes', with the intention of assembling it ourselves using a drill and various screwdrivers. We started out confidently this afternoon, carefully reading the poor directions. After a few misses, we did finally install a very nice door closer:


Door Closer

You would think such a spectacular door closer would solve the issue, but suprisingly it did not. We were very upset at that.

Using our great analytical skills, Frank and I went about searching online as well as studying the delicate ins and outs of doorknobs in our house that did work. We started adjusting the strikeplate -- at first moving it forward (didn't work), then we finally moved the strikeplate down about 1/4 inch. It worked!


Strike Plate Adjustment

So, no matter what happens for the rest of the day, I feel like today has been a success. I've never realized how repairing stuff can be so rewarding -- I will probably always close that door with a bit more pride :). Frank and I got to use our rarely-used handyman abilities, and did not completely destroy anything.