Wednesday, December 12, 2018

Organizing The Door Wall

And it just keeps getting better!! Our water heater is leaking. No biggie, you say, just replace it …..

A few years ago I organized the utility room. I used lots of shelfs and bins and even 2 liter Coke bottles. You cut a hand size hole where the bottle gets larger, leaving the top and cap intact. Put an eyehook in the cap and screw it back on. Now you can put same size screws, nails, nuts, bolts, etc. in it and hang the bottle on a pegboard wall. You can easily see what is in it. I find my bottles everywhere. Some times with the cap and eyehook missing, sometimes completely intact. 

I have found them inside and outside. I have found them hanging in a tree, sometimes with a bee. I have found them safe and dry, also wet from the  sky. I have found them full and rusty, or empty and dusty. I am after all married to the master of chaos and confusion. But I digress.

In creating what I thought would be a place that would be easy for HeWho drops tools and leaves them lay when he finishes a project, I made a sort of wall out of an extra door I discovered. Just a plain hollow core door. HeWho fancies himself to have engineering knowledge immediately told me that it would NOT WORK. He begrudgingly attached it to the end of the wall as instructed (I have since purchased my own drill and he has been forbidden to even touch it. This did not keep him from stealing my bits and I now keep them hidden in a safe place). I put a set of sturdy, free standing shelves behind it to support the door/wall and smaller set of shelves in front. I was even able to put hooks on 1X4's and use the top front to hand things on. This was a success that I was known to gloat  be proud of.

The old water heater will need to be removed in order to install the new one. And this is where things get tricky. My door/wall is in the way. HeWho loves to drive far away to get things left this morning to get the new tankless gas water heater. I have reservations about this purchase, but a new one similar to the old one is over $1000, the tankless is $700. I just hope it will be able to keep up with the demand. It will have to services the entire main building. That includes our residence, as well as the public showers and laundry room. I hate cold showers. I mentioned this to HeWho was in think tank mode and he says we can always add another tankless unit if the one is not enough. I didn't even bother to point out to him that we would be spending over $1400 if that were the case.

I started early this morning removing all the stuff hanging on my door/wall. Every screw I put it in came out easily enough and I carefully moved things to new or temporary homes, discovery along the way just how disorganized the stuff had become. I make zones, people! You are supposed to respect my zones!! I had one shelving unit devoted to plumbing supplies. Another was for electrical things. Not to mention all my peg walls that now have peg hooks holding two totally unrelated items.

The real issue with the door/wall was the four screws HeWho torqued in. First of all they had that funky star head on them. What, may I ask is wrong with the regular Philips head screw that I favor? I final located the bit. It was in a container that held various screws, some nails, some reflectors, a stun gun and drill bits. All of the these items should have been put in the coke bottles, Well, not the stun gun. It just needs batteries and I might want to use it upon his return!

So, I changed the bit and got one screw out. The other three were torqued in so tight that he stripped the heads. My drill is light weight and cordless and no matter how many bits I tried, I was unable to budge those screws. Had to call upon my wife, Kevin.

I am still not done moving things, but the biggest part is done and out of the way. Had to take a break. I know that HeWho installs things would have moved everything ……. in his own special way. He would have shoved it all out of his way, breaking down my door/wall. My very clever door/wall. The door/wall that worked and stayed up and useful for years. Not that any of my organization made one iota of difference in the way HeWho operates!

8 comments:

Kathy G said...

I think it's a male trait to not put things away in the proper place after you're finished with it. At least that's been my experience :-)

Val said...

Tools are the ONE THING that Hick keeps organized. It's probably the single trait where he differs from HeWho.

RunNRose said...

Years ago, when we were young and ambitious, Old Man and I built a large "built-in" bookcase for our den. That was in the days
when I was teaching. Books, papers everywhere in the days before everything was "paperless"! Some years later, we
redecorated. Decided we no longer wanted that bookcase with the nice back and upright 1 x 2's in front. The thing is 10 ft. Long and 8 feet high! Turned out to just fit the back of our shed/ workshop! Old Man has everything separated as you describe, and stored in clear plastic
boxes on those shelves. He knows right where to look for what. Sounds like your novel idea of using the bottles would serve the same purpose. If only HeWho would stick to the plan! The tankless water heater sounds like a great idea. I do hope it works out well. Please
do keep us updated on it.

I am thinking. HeWho sure does provide your life with lots of variety, Certainly keeps you from being bored.

Joanne Noragon said...

I hope tankless water heaters have improved in the thirty years since I had one. It certainly cut down on my electric bill. But, we called it flash fried water. The water was as hot as we wanted it, but not in that "been waiting for you here in the hot water tank" way. It didn't make steam or make the bathroom feel like a hot shower in hot water.
And I am so sorry your door wall had to come down. It will never be the same.

River said...

I think you'll be happy with the tankless hot water system. We have them here, they're called "instantaneous" and heat the water as it's required so there's no storing and constantly heating to keep the stored water hot. Far cheaper to run and of course the hot water doesn't run out as the system just keeps heating as long as the hot tap is turned on. If your property is very large you may need two.
In response to Joanne above me here, my bathroom does get steamy and it's quite a large room. The amount of steam depends on how long I have the water running, hair washing takes longer than just a quick soap and rinse body wash.

River said...

P.S. our instantaneous water heaters are gas heaters with electronic ignition systems. I'm not at all clued up on tankless electric heaters.

Linda O'Connell said...

Don't you love it when they SAY WE CAN'T AND WE SHOW THEM WE CAN? YOU SURE HAVE HAD YOUR SHARE OF STUFF.

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