DI Why?

It's been a busy weekend. Baking for lulu christmas party and going to another christmas party on Friday then off to Keri's for actual lulu christmas party on Saturday. It's normally a nice drive but yesterday was pouring so we did lulu carpooling and Freya did a sterling job of wet weather driving and we made it there and back and ate lots of goodies and laughed a lot as usual in between exclamations of "DECEMBER ALREADY? HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?".

Keri, being not just a NYT bestseller but also handy, had updated her kitchen with new handles. Pretty. And also made me think "hey, I could get rid of ugly plastic handles and do that".

So this morning I drove down the to trusty hardware store to buy new handles. Mission accomplished....or so I thought. But this is DIY and nothing is EVER straightforward in DIY. Got home and realised that the screws that come with the handles have to be cut and I don't have pliers quite up to the job. I figured that surely someone was sensible and produced the same screws in the variety of lengths that you can cut the ones supplied with all the handles to. So I trotted back to the hardware store where the nice hardware man disillusioned me. No-one (at least here in Australia it seems) makes pre-cut screws of this kind. To which you kind of have to say WTF? Anyway, this means I have to buy super pliers that will cut the screws. Done.

Then I return home and realise that despite the fact that all the handles in the stores being sold in standard widths, my old handles are 3mm off standard, so the new ones don't want to screw in using the old holes. I was reluctant to just drill new holes given that kitchen cupboards are flimsy so I returned to the hardware store to seek advice from the hardware man (my third trip if you're keeping track). He told me to just enlarge the bottom holes slightly with the drill. Okay. Do-able. At the same time, because I'd bent one of the screws trying to cut it with my original pliers, I bought a pack of the same type of screws which hardware store helpfully had near all the handles (it would seem that I am not the only one who bends the screws).

I return home and commence replacing handles and discovering that I need more bicep power than I possess and that because of the tight squeeze screws to get the handles to fit, I can't use an electric screwdriver and have to do it all by hand. I didn't do them all because cutting the screws has made my hands a bit sore, so I figure I'll space it out. But because I bent that first screw and another one has been eaten by the screw gremlins, I cut two of the extra screws. Only to find they're slightly too big for the handles....again I say what the frak? Why sell them if they're not going to fit? So I'm going to have to go buy another handle to get the two last screws I need. Le sigh. Looks like another trip to the hardware store coming up. At least there are only six handles to go. So yay me for being kind of handy in a very lame way and boo to screw manufacturers for being dills.

At least the handles do look good: